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Meat Hygiene Service

Mr. Livsey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health for what reason the Meat Hygiene Service inspector, Mr. Yogarathnum, was suspended from his duties at the Mead Webber Abattoir at Eardisley and replaced on 10 April 2000 by Mr. Turner of the St. David's Veterinary Practice at Exeter. [121215]

Ms Stuart: On 10 April 2000 St. David's Farm and Equine Veterinary Practice, Exeter commenced provision of contract official veterinary surgeons (OVSs) to the Mead Webber abattoir at Eardisley on behalf of the Meat Hygiene Service (MHS). Prior to this Mr. Yogarathnum, a Meat Hygiene Service employee, had undertaken both the OVS and principal official veterinary surgeon (POVS) duties at the premises.

Mr. Yogarathnum was relieved of his OVS duties at the Mead Webber abattoir, in order to allow him to spend more time on his POVS duties in a number of plants in the area. This included remaining as POVS at the Mead Webber abattoir.

Mr. Turner is a partner of the St. David Farm's and Equine Veterinary Practice. While providing locum cover for the new OVS that he had appointed to the Mead Webber abattoir, he identified a number of deficiencies in the operations and structure of the premises to which he drew management's attention. As a result of these

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findings, the MHS Regional Director responsible for the Mead Webber abattoir visited the premises. He also discussed his concerns with plant management, Mr. Yogarathnum and the MHS meat inspection team. Mr. Yogarathnum was subsequently suspended, pending an investigation into his performance as POVS to the premises.

Mr. Livsey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what costs were incurred by the Meat Hygiene Service through the employment of Mr. Turner to inspect the Eardisley meat plant. [121216]

Ms Stuart: Mr. Turner is a partner of the St. David's Farm and Equine Veterinary Practice at Exeter. The practice was successful in its tender to supply Contract Official Veterinary Surgeons on behalf of the Meat Hygiene Service (MHS) to Mead Webber abattoir at Eardisley. The rate per hour quoted in their tender for the provision of Contract official veterinary surgeons (OVSs) to the plant was £24.98. On the basis that the OVS will be present at the plant for 21 hours (in line with previous OVS attendance), the total costs of providing contract OVSs to the plant is therefore £524.

Mr. Livsey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many Meat Hygiene Service veterinary meat inspectors were employed from 1995 to 10 April 2000 in the Mead Webber plant at Eardisley. [121217]

Ms Stuart: Between January 1997 and April 2000, fourteen official veterinary surgeons (OVSs) have carried out OVS duties on behalf of the Meat Hygiene Service at the Mead Webber plant at Eardisley. The vast majority of these provided locum cover for employed OVSs at the premises and as a consequence would only have spent a relatively short period of time in the plant.

In the time available it has not been possible to collate all of the information relating to the number of OVSs who worked at the plant between 1995 and December 1996, or the total number of meat inspection staff who have worked there between 1995 and April 2000. I will place a copy of this information in the Library when it is available.

Mr. Livsey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will take steps to ensure a new licence is issued to the Eardisley Abattoir. [121220]

Ms Stuart: No action to revoke the slaughterhouse licence No. 4103, issued on 4 March 1993 to The Abattoir, Eardisley, Hereford, has been taken. Revocation has not been recommended by the Licensing Authority (the Food Standards Agency) or its executive agency the Meat Hygiene Service, nor has it been requested by the abattoir operators (Mead Webber Ltd).

SOCIAL SECURITY

Social Fund

Mr. Dobbin: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many people have applied for money from the Social Fund and how much money was issued in loans through the Social Fund, in each of the last three years in (a) Scotland, (b) Wales, (c) England and (d) North-West England. [120099]

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Angela Eagle: The administration of the Social Fund is a matter for Alexis Cleveland, the Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency. She will write to my hon. Friend.

Letter from Alexis Cleveland to Mr. Jim Dobbin, dated 9 May 2000:

The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking how many people have applied for money from the Social Fund and how much money was issued in loans through the Social Fund, in each of the last three years in (a) Scotland, (b) Wales, (c) England and (d) North-West England.
The figures are included in the attached table.
I hope this is helpful.

Social Fund loan applications received and amount paid in each of the last three years in (a) Scotland, (b) Wales, (c) England and (d) North-West England

	Loan applications received	Amount awarded (£)
Scotland
1997-98	416,440	45,723,467
1998-99	451,166	52,116,199
1999-2000	540,568	62,531,213
Wales
1997-98	141,528	21,383,254
1998-99	145,645	24,235,488
1999-2000	179,046	28,263,893
England
1997-98	1,829,400	297,931,497
1998-99	1,865,090	326,829,719
1999-2000	2,254,049	366,347,142
North-West England
1997-98	369,604	53,248,210
1998-99	385,715	60,206,891
1999-2000	478,177	75,569,806

Notes:

1. Figures show the total number of all applications for budgeting loans and crisis loans. Individual customers may have made more than one application.

2. North-West England is defined as the area covered by the Benefits Agency Area Directorates 8 (North-West Coast) and 9 (Greater Manchester).

3. Some loans paid clerically, and adjustments between awards of loans and grants on review, are not recorded on the computer system. The figures do not therefore add up to total loans awarded for each year as published in the Social Fund Accounts.

4. 1999-2000 expenditure is provisional pending publication of the Social Fund Account.

Winter Fuel Payments

Mr. Coaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what progress is being made in clearing the backlog of payments of winter fuel allowance to those who lost their original cheque. [120126]

Angela Eagle: The administration of winter fuel payments is a matter for Alexis Cleveland, Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency. She will write to my hon. Friend.

Letter from Alexis Cleveland to Mr. Vernon Coaker, dated 8 May 2000:

The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking what progress is being made in clearing the backlog of payments of winter fuel allowance to those who lost their original cheque.

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The Benefits Agency's (BA) winter fuel team have made enquiries of their Mercia Area Directorate (AD5) which covers your constituency area. They advise that the question of replacing 13 girocheques is still outstanding pending further investigation.
Any winter fuel payments reported lost, missing or not received are treated in the same manner as other lost or missing payments and replaced accordingly. If a customer reports a lost, missing or not received girocheque to the local BA Office a form is completed by the customer stating the circumstances of the loss or non-receipt. This can be either completed at the office or posted to the customer. If posted the process of replacement takes a little longer allowing for postage times. When the form is returned an officer acting on behalf of the Secretary of State examines the information to consider a replacement.
I hope this is helpful.

Lone Parents

Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what was the total number of lone parents on income support, broken down into those with children (a) below and (b) above school age, for each month since April 1992. [121036]

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

As many lone parents have more than one child whose ages can be either above or below five years, figures have been provided for all three categories, i.e., lone parents with under fives only, lone parents with over fives only, and those parents with children in both categories.

Income support lone parents by age of dependant childrenGreat Britain 1992 to 1999 Thousand

Quarter	All children under 5	All children over 5	Children under and over 5
August 1999	309	410	221
May 1999	308	407	221
February 1999	311	408	221
November 1998	310	405	224
August 1998	315	412	228
May 1998	321	412	228
February 1998	328	414	230
November 1997	333	418	232
August 1997	343	432	237
May 1997	347	429	237
February 1997	352	430	238
November 1996	355	429	238
August 1996	367	450	244
May 1996	370	445	244
February 1996	373	443	244
November 1995	379	439	243
August 1995	385	437	244
May 1995	383	433	240
February 1995	385	426	238
November 1994	387	420	235
August 1994	392	423	233
May 1994	395	415	229
February 1994	400	408	227
November 1993	403	402	226
August 1993	410	402	228
May 1993	404	389	220
February 1993	403	382	215
November 1992	402	371	211

Notes:

1. Figures are based on a 5 per cent. sample, and as such they are subject to a degree of sampling error.

2. Figures exclude unemployed who transferred to Jobseeker's Allowance with effect from October 1996.

3. Lone Parents are single claimants with dependants who are not receiving the disability or pensioner premium.

4. Figures have been rounded to the nearest thousand.

5. Information on the numbers of lone parents claiming Income Support by age of child dependants is collected on a quarterly basis. It is therefore not possible to supply monthly figures.

Source:

Income Support Statistics Inquiries, November 1992 to August 1999.

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