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Clinical Academics
Ms Rachel Squire: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will provide the necessary funding to ensure that clinical academics maintain a pay parity with NHS doctors of equivalent grade. [5292]
Mr. Forth: It is for universities and colleges to set pay levels for academics and other staff.
Women
Ms Janet Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what steps she is taking to measure and evaluate the effect of her Department's policies on women. [5491]
Mrs. Gillan: In July of this year, the model guidance on policy appraisal for equal treatment was revised and circulated at Cabinet level for Departments to adapt to their own circumstances. A copy was placed in the Library. This guidance requires officials to identify policy issues which might impact differently on women and men, and other groups, to assess whether this is justified in
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policy terms, and to adjust the policy if it is not. Advice based on that model has been issued to all senior officials in the Department accompanied by a supportive personal message from the permanent secretary.
The recent Government report, "One Year On" outlines action taken by Government to benefit women since the world conference on women, and also includes baseline statistics against which future progress can be measured.
SOCIAL SECURITY
Child Support Agency
Mr. Geoffrey Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) how many appeals there have been to the CSA in (a) the west midlands and (b) England in the last year; and of these how many led to a change in the maintenance demanded from parents in (i) the west midlands and (ii) England; [4372]
- (2) how long is the average delay between a successful appeal to the CSA and the correction in the maintenance payments in (a) the west midlands and (b) England; [4373]
(3) how many cases the CSA dealt with over the last year in (a) the west midlands and (b) England. [4371]
Mr. Andrew Mitchell: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the chief executive, Miss Ann Chant. She will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Ann Chant to Mr. Geoffrey Robinson, dated 20 November 1996:
I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security about the Child Support Agency's handling of appeals, and the associated question regarding the Agency's caseload.
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(18) ITS = Independent Tribunal Service.
(19) CSO = Child Support Officer.
n/a = not available.
Mr. Mitchell:
There is no business need to maintain data in this format. The information requested is not available.
Mr. Worthington:
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) how many staff are currently employed by the Benefits Agency on a casual basis; [4517]
Mr. Roger Evans:
This is an operational matter for Peter Mathison, the chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Peter Mathison to Mr. Tony Worthington, dated 20 November 1996:
Figures are provisional and subject to change.
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Ms Lynne:
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is the total amount currently spent by his Department on advertising and publicity in promoting greater awareness of the availability of benefits; and what proportion of the budget is specifically targeted at (a) pensioners and (b) eligible pensioners who are not currently claiming the full amount of benefits. [4735]
Mr. Burt:
The allocation for the current financial year for publicity and advertising is:
The Benefits Agency figure covers the cost of the BA leaflet programme, posters audio cassettes, etcetera, giving information on all the social security benefits administered by the BA.
The War Pensions Agency looks for opportunities to increase awareness by the free display of its leaflets and posters in places such as doctors' surgeries, war museums, post offices, hospital waiting rooms, etcetera. This targets not only potential new claimants but those who may be eligible to claim increased pension and allowances.
The Department ensures that people are in a position to make informed choices on whether to claim benefit. It provides information which is comprehensive, accurate, accessible and easily understood which enables people to establish their eligibility. The Benefits Agency, for example, makes available all information on the social security benefits it administers through outlets including all BA offices, post offices and intermediaries such as the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux and Age Concern. Ultimately, individuals may decide for various reasons not to claim.
It is not possible to identify separately promotional expenditure specifically for pensioners.
Mr. Tim Smith:
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what progress his Department is making with the introduction of resource accounting and budgeting; and in respect of which financial year he expects to publish the first set of resource accounts. [4992]
Mr. Burt:
The Department's programme to introduce resource accounting and budgeting is both complex and massive. Its agencies are upgrading some financial systems and developing new ones to account for programme expenditure and income, and their associated administrative costs; the corporate centre is developing a system to consolidate these and the accounting outputs of its other business units with performance output data to produce departmental resource accounts. Steady progress is being sustained and the Department aims to achieve the milestones set out in Cm 2929, commencing with the preparation of internal resource accounts for 1998-99,
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publication of resource accounts for 1999-2000 and culminating in the introduction of full resource planning, budgeting and accounting by 2001-02.
The latest period for which full-time information is available is financial year 1995/96. The details requested are not available as specified, ie West Midlands and England. The figures set out in the table attached are for the Agency as a whole, and for Dudley Child Support Agency Centre (CSAC), which has responsibility for cases in the West Midlands (and other areas).
Included are the numbers of appeals received and cleared in 1995/96. Clearances are made up of cases withdrawn, cases outside the jurisdiction of the Independent Tribunal Service (ITS), and those submitted to ITS; they also include cases from the previous year which were not cleared until 1995/96. You should note that appeals can be lodged for a number of reasons, and a successful appeal will not always result in a change in the maintenance assessment.
ITS provide information on decisions only on an Agency basis, and it is therefore not possible to give a breakdown of those cases upheld or overturned for Dudley.
With regard to the question on the average delay between successful appeal to the CSA and the correction in the maintenance payments, we do not routinely collect the information in the form requested.
However, we have recently taken a business decision to re-assess cases returned by ITS in a Central Appeals Unit (CAU), rather than in the CSACs, and this has been in operation since September. This ensures closer, central control of the process. A recent sample of cases processed under this arrangement showed that once the decision of the ITS reaches the CAU, it currently takes an average of 14 working days for them to gather relevant information and to carry out a re-assessment. The case is then passed to the relevant CSAC for implementation of the revised assessment.
I hope this is helpful.
Ms Lynne:
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many cases set out in his answer of 7 November 1995, Official Report, column 435, are represented by the headings (a) resulting from pre-CSA assessment paid direct to parent with care, (b) resulting from pre-CSA assessment paid through the agency collection service, (c) resulting from CSA assessments paid direct to parent with care and (d) resulting from CSA assessments paid through agency collection service for each month in the financial year April 1994 to March 1995. [4778]
Total for agency Total for Dudley
1995-96 1995-96 Number of appeals received 7,121 1,190
Number of appeals cleared 8,117 1,270
Number of appeals submitted to ITS(18) 6,948 1,075
Number of appeals where CSO's(19) decision upheld 1,236 n/a
Number of appeals where CSO's(19) decision overturned 4,399 n/a
Number of cases taken on by CSA 386,052 63,268
(2) how many staff were asked to leave the Benefits Agency's employment who had been employed for less than two years in the last year. [4518]
The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary questions asking how many staff are currently employed by the Benefits Agency (BA) on a casual basis; and how many staff were asked to leave the BA employment who had been employed for less than two years in the last year.
As at the 31 October 1996 the Benefits Agency employed 4,596 casual staff out of a total staff in post figure of 84,241, this includes part time staff.
The following staff with less than 2 years service have left the Benefits Agency within the last 12 months. Details of the reasons for members of staff leaving is not available.
Number Permanent 730
Fixed term appointment 712
Casual 4,809
I hope you find this reply helpful.
Headquarters: £3,855,000
The headquarters allocation is for the promotion of awareness of in-work benefits such as family credit and disability working allowance.
Benefits agency: £5,009,000
War pensions agency: £20,000
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