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Benefits (Wales)

Mr. Alan Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what estimate he has made of expenditure in Wales on each benefit administered by his Department. [92376]

Mr. Timms: The information is in the table.

Estimated Social Security expenditure in Wales in 1998-99£ million

Benefit	Expenditure
Retirement pension	1,910
Christmas bonus (contribution-based)	10
Widows benefit	50
Jobseeker's allowance (contribution-based)	30
Statutory sick pay	*
Incapacity benefit	710
Maternity allowance	*
Statutory maternity pay	30
Guardians allowance (including child's special allowance)	*
Non-contributory retirement pension	*
Christmas bonus (not contribution-based)	*
War pension	70
Attendance allowance	210
Invalid care allowance	70
Severe disablement allowance	70
Disability living allowance	450
Disability working allowance	*
Industrial injuries disablement benefit	60
Industrial death benefit	*
Other industrial injuries benefits	*
Income support (under 60s)	470
Income support (over 60s)	210
Jobseeker's allowance (income-based)	170
Child benefit (including lone parent addition)	370
Family credit	140
Earnings top up payments	*
Vaccine damage payments and Blesma(5)	*
Independent living fund	10
Motability	*
Social fund	10
Winter fuel payments	10
Housing benefit	510
Council tax benefit	100
Total	5,660

Notes:

(2) Figures have been rounded to nearest £10 million

(3) Cash amounts below £10 million are indicated by '*'

(4) Figures may not appear to sum due to rounding

(5) BLESMA: British Limbless Ex-Servicemen's Association payments

Source:

The figures are consistent with those published in the Departmental Report 1999.

22 Jul 1999 : Column: 580

Benefits

Mr. Alan Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is his most recent estimate of the number of people receiving each of the benefits administered by his Department. [92375]

Mr. Timms: The numbers of recipients of each of the benefits administered by the Department are shown in the table.

22 Jul 1999 : Column: 579

Benefit	Number of recipients (Thousand)	Date	Sample size (per cent.)
Attendance allowance	1,232	February 1999	5
Child benefit	7,060	June 1999	4
Council tax benefit	5,281	August 1998	1
Death benefit	16	December 1998	100
Disability living allowance	2,042	February 1999	5
Disability working allowance	16	January 1999	100
Family credit	788	February 1999	5
Housing benefit	4,425	August 1998	1
Incapacity benefit	2,300	November 1998	5
Income support	3,815	February 1999	5
Industrial injuries benefit(6)	276	April 1998	10
Invalid care allowance	374	June 1999	100
Jobseeker's allowance(7)	1,326	February 1999	5
Maternity allowance	13	August 1998	5
Reduced earnings allowance(6)	157	April 1998	10
Severe disablement allowance	372	November 1998	5
State retirement pension(8)	10,867	March 1999	5
War pensions (9)(1) (11)	302	June 1999	100
Widows benefit	268	March 1999	5

(6) Provisional figures

(7) Jobseeker's allowance represents all those claiming unemployment-related benefits. This includes Jobseeker's allowance (contributory), Jobseeker's allowance (income based) and those with National Insurance credits only.

(8) Figures are for all pensioners resident in GB and also overseas.

(9) Figures relate to payments made to war pensioners in the United Kingdom and overseas.

(10) Figures are based on management information supplied by the War Pensions Agency.

(11) Figures include war disablement pensions, war widows pensions and child allowances.

Note:

Earnings top-up figures are excluded, as it is a pilot benefit.

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22 Jul 1999 : Column: 581

ENVIRONMENT, TRANSPORT AND THE REGIONS

Regional Chambers

Mrs. Anne Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions when he will designate the remaining regional chambers. [92872]

Mr. Caborn: I am pleased to announce that we have today issued:

a direction to the South East of England Regional Development Agency designating the South East of England Regional Assembly as its regional chamber;

a direction to the East of England Development Agency designating the East of England Regional Assembly as its regional chamber; and

a direction to the South West of England Regional Development Agency designating the South West Regional Chamber as its regional chamber.

Section 8 of the Regional Development Agencies Act 1998 provides that if the Secretary of State is of the opinion that there is a body which is representative of those in the RDAs area with an interest in its work, and that body is suitable to be given the role of regional chamber for the RDA, he may designate it.

RDAs must take full account of regional interests. Regional chambers will provide a mechanism through which RDAs can take account of regional views and account for their activities. Ministers expect that each RDA will have regard to the chamber's view in preparing its strategy, consult the chamber on its corporate plan and give an account of its performance to the chamber.

I am currently considering an application for designation from the remaining region and hope to make an announcement shortly.

Secondary Materials (Waste Strategy)

Mr. Pound: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions when the results of the work commissioned by the Government into policy instruments to correct market failures in the demand for secondary materials, referred to in the draft Waste Strategy for England and Wales, will be published. [92880]

Mr. Meale: The report of the research commissioned by my Department from independent work commissioned by my Department from independent consultants

22 Jul 1999 : Column: 582

ECOTEC Research and Consulting into "Policy Instruments to Correct Market Failure in the Demand for Secondary Materials" was published this week.

The Government will consider this work further and we would welcome views on the report as part of the draft waste strategy consultation by 17 September 1999. The results of this consultation exercise will help to inform the development of the final waste strategy.

Copies of the report have been placed in the Library.

Energy Efficiency

Dr. Iddon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what progress has been made by Government Departments towards the target of improving energy efficiency by 20 per cent. in the nine years to 31 March 2000. [92881]

Mr. Meale: By 31 March 1998, energy efficiency in Government Departments had improved by just over 18 per cent. since 1990-91, as measured by the Total Cost Indicator.

Full details are given in the tables which have been placed in the Library; the overall estate improvement is shown in Table 4. The tables give a summary.

The tables include revisions to figures for earlier years revealing better performance than previously reported. In particular, the 1996-97 figure for the Army has been revised to take account of a large estate increase which had been inadvertently omitted, and this restores not only the Army's own steady progress but that of the whole government estate, to 17.5 per cent. instead of to 15.1 per cent. as previously reported in that year.

Energy management in individual Departments is a matter for those Departments and their Green Minister. However, the Government aim to be at the forefront of good practice to improve energy efficiency, and progress is reviewed regularly by Green Ministers under the Chairmanship of my right hon. Friend the Minister for the Environment. We have developed and are now piloting new performance indicators which will, for the first time, enable comparisons with independent standards of good practice across the economy. These are likely to form the basis of the new campaign starting in April 2000.

The results for the former Department of the Environment and the Department of Transport have now been consolidated for all earlier years to allow a

22 Jul 1999 : Column: 583

continuous series for the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions. DETR's overall performance in 1997-98 has slipped relative to 1996-97 as a result of the continuing relocation and rationalisation of its accommodation in London and elsewhere, in particular,

22 Jul 1999 : Column: 584

the need to run a number of old and new buildings in parallel while changes took place. However, the Department's two new headquarters buildings at Eland House and Ashdown House were fully occupied by the end of March 1998 so future results should reflect this.

22 Jul 1999 : Column: 583

Summary table: Government estate: energy efficiency performance (12)(27)

	Performance against energy and cost indicators, relative to 1990-91 (positive figures represent percentage progress)
	Adjusted for estate and weather changes										Adjusted for weather changes only
	Fossil fuel		Electricity		Total kWh		Total cost		CO2		Total CO2
Civil departments, including agencies	1996-97	1997-98	1996-97	1997-98	1996-97	1997-98	1996-97	1997-98	1996-97	1997-98	1996-97	1997-98
MAFF--Main Estate(15)	48	48	-12	-11	35	35	14	14	19	20	5	24
MAFF--Laboratories(15)	16	25	1	8	12	20	6	14	17	24	22	-36
Cabinet Office	29	32	-47	-31	10	17	-17	-6	-4	10	-65	-52
Culture, Media and Sport(21)	2	-33	-20	-4	-8	-19	-16	-10	-15	-11	-15	-11
Customs and Excise	43	29	3	6	25	19	11	11	16	15	-17	-15
Education and Employment	28	28	-27	-22	2	4	-17	-13	-13	-9	-2	7
Employment Service	18	23	-15	-16	9	12	-3	-2	0	1	-8	-5
Environment, Transport and Regions(16)	41	31	8	3	30	22	18	12	23	17	38	37
DETR--HSE(17)	15	39	22	11	18	29	20	19	24	25	26	29
DETR--QEII CC(13)(1)	-8	-7	-1	9	-3	3	-1	7	1	9	1	9
FCO	16	8	-33	-17	-4	-2	-22	-11	-14	-5	-24	-35
Health(18)	41	35	-75	-83	-3	-10	-46	-53	-32	-39	-14	-21
Home Office(28)	5	17	-1	3	3	13	1	7	3	11	5	9
Home Office--Prisons(13)	15	10	-20	-19	11	6	1	-2	13	9	-2	-7
Inland Revenue	12	-3	17	19	14	3	16	13	17	14	28	31
International Development(20)	29	32	38	36	32	33	35	35	35	35	68	68
Lord Chancellor's Department	30	37	6	11	23	29	14	20	17	23	0	-6
National Savings	4	16	28	32	17	24	24	29	24	30	28	37
Northern Ireland	16	18	7	12	13	16	10	14	12	16	-1	-1
Scottish Office(19)	19	33	-38	-26	4	17	-17	-4	-4	8	10	25
Scottish Court Service(19)	39	35	36	30	38	34	37	32	38	34	14	-2
Scottish Prison Service	11	0	-12	-12	9	12	3	5	5	9	0	-2
Social Security(22)	18	17	-18	0	9	12	-5	6	-1	9	-21	-12
Trade and Industry	71	74	27	40	56	62	40	49	43	52	65	69
Treasury	17	7	-14	-8	8	3	-4	-3	0	-1	-13	-14
Welsh Office	32	49	-4	-18	16	19	3	-4	7	1	24	21
Total	20.8	18.3	-1.6	3.2	15.3	14.6	7.2	9.1	12.5	14.0	6.1	5.6

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Summary table: Government estate: energy efficiency performance (23)(25)

	Percentage reduction relative to 1990-91 (positive figures represent percent improvement)
	Adjusted for estate changes and weather correction										Adjusted for weather changes only
	Fossil fuel		Electricity		Total kWh		Total cost		CO2		Total CO2
Ministry of Defence	1996-97	1997-98	1996-97	1997-98	1996-97	1997-98	1996-97	1997-98	1996-97	1997-98	1996-97	1997-98
Civil	35	59	5	-2	25	38	14	15	19	24	0	4
Navy	37	37	41	40	38	38	40	39	43	42	30	30
Army	11	17	27	26	14	19	20	22	21	24	18	20
RAF	26	26	14	14	23	23	19	19	20	20	29	30
Procurement Executive(25)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
DERA	-17	-27	-15	8	-16	-11	-15	1	-15	0	-15	-17
MOD Total	20.3	23.5	23.6	21.4	21.1	23.0	22.2	22.3	24.1	24.8	22.8	23.4
Grand Total	20.5	21.9	15.4	15.5	19.3	20.4	17.5	18.1	20.5	17.6	17.6	17.9

(12) Progress is expressed as a percentage relative to the 1990-91 base year value of the performance indicator in question. Positive figures represent improvement. The standard indicator, against which the target to improve energy efficiency by 20 per cent. by 31 March 2000 is measured, is obtained by weather-correcting energy consumption and converting to costs using 'standard prices' for fuel (6p/kWh for electricity and 1.25p/kWh for all fossil fuels) then dividing by floor area. Conversation to money both reflects the relative costs of electricity and fossil fuel and their environmental impact, and the use of fixed prices eliminates the effects of tariff changes which distort the comparison of fuel bills.

(13) Although figures have been prepared on a consistent basis, caution should be exercised in comparing the energy use of different Departments and Agencies because of differences in their estate and the nature of their work. For example, the operational needs of prisons and the QEII Conference Centre mean that they have a pattern of energy use which is different from that of a Department which has predominantly office accommodation. Expenditure on energy and investment figures are included for information only. Investment figures relate to clearly identifiable energy efficiency measures undertaken by Departments. Energy efficiency is an integral part of all major construction projects, including building refurbishment and plant replacement and the figure '0' for some Departments does not necessarily mean there has been no investment, just that the investment was not clearly identifiable.

(14) The average performance figure for the civil estate cannot be derived by simply adding together the individual Departmental progress and dividing by the number of Departments because this does not allow for the large variations in consumption. The correct figure is obtained by calculating the value of the performance indicator for the year in question and the base year, for the civil estate as a whole, and calculating the reduction relative to the base year.

(15) The energy performance for MAFF's 'Main estate' and its 'Laboratories' continues to improve through ongoing investment in energy schemes, monitoring of energy at local level and taking appropriate action as well as central initiatives including continued staff awareness programmes.

(16) The DETR's figures have been compiled from the former Environment and Transport Departments. The Department now has a greater proportion of air-conditioned buildings than in the base year, because of estate rationalisation, relocation to new HQ buildings and inclusion of some Government Offices for the Regions. Performance in 1997-98 was adversely affected by parallel operation of both old and new buildings while staff moved from one to the other.

(17) HSE was removed from the DfEE estate on the formation of that Department. QEII Conference Centre is reported separately because of its business led demands. The initial sharp rise in consumption following the 1990-91 base year was directly attributable to increased revenue earning activity, which has continued throughout the reporting period, and the more recent decline in consumption reflects the effect of energy conservation measures undertaken at the site.

(18) Rationalisation of the estate since the base year has led to staff moving from several naturally ventilated buildings to more densely occupied air-conditioned buildings, all equipped with information technology equipment.

(19) Base year is 1991-92.

(20) Base year in 1991-92. Data for Natural Resources Institute no longer included following its transfer to the University of Greenwich.

(21) Base year is 1994-95 by which time energy efficient lighting and other improvements already installed in buildings which are already fully air-conditioned with intensive IT usage.

(22) Workload is increasing, affecting occupancy and requiring offices to be occupied for longer, increasing the use of energy. Greater use of information technology, expansion of the use of air conditioning and the upgrading of lighting levels has increased electricity consumption.

(23) The Ministry of Defence (MOD) estate is different from the rest of the Government estate, and has been undergoing more radical changes. It is therefore treated in a slightly different way. In common with the civil estate, it has greatly increased its use of information technology.

(24) In civil departments, the effect of estate changes is allowed for by dividing consumption by floor area. In MOD, floor area is sometimes not meaningful (e.g. in relation to security or runway lighting) and also not often available, so estate changes are allowed for by being explicitly excluded from the calculations, i.e. the energy consumption of new facilities is removed, and for facilities no longer part of the estate, the consumption for the last full year of operation is added back. In most cases, such changes are small compared to the total and can often approximately cancel each other out.

(25) It is almost impossible to produce any meaningful results to date for MOD's Procurement Executive (PE) since it has suffered major estate gains and losses over the past 10 years and now consists largely of one recently built large office. The standard MOD methodology produces a meaningless 'no change' result (since the present estate is almost entirely different from the original).

(26) This shows the combined results for the whole of the Government estate based on the data in tables 1, 2 and 3. It is not a simple average of the data, but reflects the proportion of total consumption represented by each part of the estate (see also note 3). Some Departments have a different base year, and the individually agreed base year has been used for the purposes of this table, where appropriate.

(27) In some instances the base year is not 1990-91, but for the purposes of tables 2 and 5 the agreed base year has been used in the calculation.

(28) The figures quoted here for the Home Office have been weather-corrected in the same way as for all departments. Figures quoted elsewhere were provisional, not yet weather-corrected and therefore showed higher apparent progress.

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