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Executive Agency Staff

Mr. Redmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will list the number of staff employed by his Department's (a) Benefits Agency, (b) Contributions Agency, (c) Information Technology Service Agency, (d) Child Support Agency, (e) War Pensions Agency and (f) other agencies in (i) Doncaster and (ii) Mexborough areas for each of the last five years. [40891]

Mr. Burt: The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is in the table:

	Doncaster	Mexborough
Benefits agency	349	29
Contributions agency	29	0
Information technology services agency	0	0
Child support agency	20	0
War pensions agency	0	0
Total	398	29

Notes:

1. The figures are represented as staff in post figures and include permanent and fixed term appointment staff as at 31 March 1996. Casual staff are excluded.

2. Figures for previous years are not available.

3. The sites covered by the reply are Doncaster Crossgates House and Mexborough Crown Buildings.

16 Oct 1996 : Column: 1030

National Insurance Records

Mr. Redmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security on how many occasions in the last 10 years national insurance records have been mislaid; what back-up system was available in each case; and how secure is the current computer system. [40842]

Mr. Burt: There have been no instances of loss of registered national insurance records within the last 10 years. The back-up system consists of holding two copies of records within the computer installation and one copy remotely for added security. The computer system is regarded as very secure in protecting records and has a sophisticated series of computer program checks to detect corruption and loss of personal data.

New Buildings and Premises

Mrs. Bridget Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what was the total expenditure on new buildings and premises by his Department and its agencies; and if he will indicate the square footage of new office space purchased or newly rented in each of the last five years. [41138]

Mr. Burt: The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is in the table.

£ million

Year	Maintenance	Accommodation capital	Total
1995-96	36.6	89.3	125.9
1994-95	32.1	89.1	121.1
1993-94	28.3	97.1	125.3
1992-93	39.4	113.3	152.8
1991-92	32.9	127.6	160.5

Information required regarding the square footage of new office space purchased or newly rented in each of the last five years could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

Benefits

Mr. Hain: To ask the Secretary of state for Social Security what has been the total value of in-work benefits paid for each year since 1990-91; and if he will break down these figures for each year by family credit, housing benefit, income support, council tax benefit and disability working allowance. [40901]

Mr. Roger Evans: I will write to the hon. Member shortly.

Ms Harman: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what was the benefit bill for (a) income support, (b) family credit, (c) housing benefit, (d) council tax benefit, (e) one-parent benefit and (f) lone-parent premium for lone parents (i) in the last year for which figures are available and (ii) in each of the last five years. [41026]

16 Oct 1996 : Column: 1031

Mr. Andrew Mitchell: Information for (a) to (e) is shown in the table 1. Expenditure on the lone-parent premium (f) is not available in the format requested. Components of a benefit award cannot be separately identified. Lone-parent premium is payable with income support, housing benefit and council tax benefit. The lone-parent premium has varied since in April 1990. The rate of premium would give implied expenditure in Great Britain as shown in the table 2. However, some recipients will receive an overall amount of benefit which is less than the value of the premium.

Table 1: Benefit expenditure on lone parents£ million

	1990-91	1991-92	1992-93	1993-94	1994-95	1995-96
Income support (a)	2,286	2,860	3,448	3,735	4,051	4,201
Family credit (b)	183	220	379	558	657	776
Housing benefit (c)	906	1,253	1,656	2,002	2,208	2,418
Council tax benefit (d)	275	178	223	306	349	381
One parent benefit (e)	229	249	275	282	289	312

Source:

Total expenditure figures are consistent with the 1996 Departmental Report. Figures are rounded to the nearest £ million.

Table 2: Lone parent premium£ million

	1990-91	1991-92	1992-93	1993-94	1994-95	1995-96
Income support (a)	169	202	236	258	276	285
Housing benefit (c)	30	37	44	54	63	75
CCB/council tax benefit (d)	46	45	45	47	57	68

Notes:

1. The above estimates are based on sample data and are not entirely consistent with Departmental Report figures.

2. Council tax benefit replaced community charge benefit in April 1993.

Social Fund

Mr. Battle: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many applicants were refused a social fund loan on the grounds of inability to pay in 1995-96. [41291]

Mr. Roger Evans: I will write to the hon. Member shortly.

Combined Heat and Power

Mr. Battle: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what capacity of electricity used in his Department's buildings is generated in a combined heat and power plant; and what plans he has to increase that capacity. [41314]

Mr. Burt: I will write to the hon. Member shortly.

Sick Pay

Mr. Dunn: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what plans he has to go ahead with that proposal

16 Oct 1996 : Column: 1032

to free employers from operating statutory sick pay rules where they pay more generous wages or occupational sick pay. [41276]

Mr. Lilley: I will be laying regulations later in the year which will free employers from the obligation to make SSP calculations where they pay contractual remuneration as good as or better than SSP for a period of incapacity for work. Around 900 copies of the consultation paper "Exempting Employers from Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)" were sent to employers, their organisations, employees' organisations and other interested parties and I am grateful to all those who responded. I am placing a copy of the responses in the Library. The majority view was that the new arrangements would be a useful easement. The change, which will take effect from April 1997, will allow greater flexibility to employers and cut back on administration. Employees' underlying entitlement to SSP will not be affected.

Disabled People (Water)

Mr. Soley: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what financial assistance is available to the severely disabled and their carers who use water meters, and because of their disability or medical condition, have to use large quantities of water. [41281]

Mr. Burt: I will write to the hon. Member shortly.

Fraud Hotline

Mr. Denham: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what was the cost, by (a) county and (b) parliamentary constituency of publicising the fraud hotline; and what was the number of responses (a) by county and (b) by parliamentary constituency. [41327]

Mr. Heald: I will write to the hon. Member shortly.

Parliamentary Questions

Mr. Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many answers to (a) written and (b) oral parliamentary questions have required correction by his Department in each of the past two years. [40641]

Mr. Burt: The information is in the table.

Session	Total number of questions	Corrections to written questions	Corrections to oral questions
1994-95	2,750	20	0
1995-96	2,808	12	2

Note:

Figures as at 15 October 1996.

Source:

Departmental Archive.

16 Oct 1996 : Column: 1033

Child Benefit

Mr. Byers: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security in respect of how many (a) 16-year-olds and (b) 17-year-olds child benefit was paid in the first week of January for each year since 1985. [40760]

Mr. Burt: The information is set out in the table.

	Children
Year	16-year-olds	17-year-olds
1984	531	292
1985	517	291
1986	513	287
1987	521	289
1988	520	317
1989	493	324
1990	490	329
1991	505	358
1992	517	373
1993	514	387
1994	535	386
1995	576	400

1. Figures represent the number of children for whom child benefit was paid as at 31 December in each year.

2. The figures for 1984 to 1993 are based on a 4 per cent. sample. 1994 and 1995 are based on a 1 per cent. sample. Figures include late notifications received up to and including 31 March of the following year.

3. Figures including children in Great Britain and overseas.

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