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Penalty Clauses
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if he will list the contracts entered into with private sector companies for the provision of goods or services since May 1997 where penalty clauses were triggered for non-performance; and if he will make a statement. [122020]
Mr. Lock: Of the contracts entered into by the Lord Chancellor's Department since May 1997, only that with CSL Group Ltd. has triggered penalty payments.
Family Law
Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department when the whole of the Family Law Act 1996 will be operational; and what additional costs the Government will incur as a result. [121721]
Jane Kennedy: Parts I, III and IV of the Family Law Act 1996, with the exception of section 60, are already in force. In relation to Part II of the Act, I refer the hon. Member to the written parliamentary answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Dartford (Dr. Stoate) on 17 June 1999, Official Report, column 213W. The position remains the same.
Section 60 of the Act permits the making of Rules of Court to allow third parties to apply for orders under Part IV on behalf of victims of domestic violence. The Government are currently considering whether it is appropriate to implement the provisions of section 60. The cost implications of implementation will be considered as part of this process.
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Judgments
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department on how many occasions since May 1997 he has had cause (a) to reprimand or (b) take other action about the length of time taken by a judge to deliver judgment following the end of the trial. [121716]
Jane Kennedy: The Lord Chancellor, as Head of the Judiciary, deals with allegations of judicial misconduct. There have been two occasions where retrials have been necessary because of judicial delay. The Lord Chancellor decided in both to make ex gratia awards of compensation in respect of costs incurred. On both occasions the Judge had resigned or retired.
On a third occasion the Lord Chancellor agreed with the Lord Chief Justice that a Judge should be released from sitting to enable him to complete a number of outstanding judgments. On a fourth occasion the Vice Chancellor issued a rebuke and warning following a delay which was severely criticised by the Court of Appeal. The Lord Chancellor wrote to the Judge, supporting the Vice Chancellor's action.
The Lord Chancellor and the senior judiciary are working to put systems in place to ensure that if there is any possibility of undue delay in the delivery of a judgment, that it is identified early and remedial action taken.
Michael Abatan
Mr. Peter Bottomley: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if he will call for a report on the recent trial in Hove relating to the
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assault on Michael Abatan in Brighton in January 1999, in particular the evidence directed to be withheld from the jury. [122479]
Jane Kennedy: The conduct of trials rests entirely in the hands of the judiciary, and the directions they give are based on representations made by the prosecution and defence counsel. It would be inappropriate to call for a report as the judiciary are independent of the Government and administration.
SOCIAL SECURITY
Pensioner Savings
Mr. Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will estimate the percentage of pensioner households with savings of (a) up to £1,000, (b) between £1,000 and £3,000, (c) between £3,000 and £6,000, (d) between £6,000 and £12,000 and (e) over £12,000. [122235]
Mr. Rooker: The information is in the table.
| Savings | Percentage of pensioner benefit units |
|---|---|
| Up to £1,000 | 38 |
| Between £1,000 and £3,000 | 11 |
| Between £3,000 and £6,000 | 10 |
| Between £6,000 and £12,000 | 11 |
| Over £12,000 | 29 |
Notes:
1. Components may not sum to 100 per cent. owing to rounding.
2. Pensioner benefit units are defined as those benefit units where either the head or spouse is aged 60 or over.
3. Questions on assets are a sensitive part of the FRS questionnaire and have relatively low levels of response, hence higher levels of imputation, compared to other parts of the survey. Responses are imputed in around one in 10 cases. Evidence also suggests some under-reporting of capital by respondents.
Source:
Family Resources Survey 1998-99.
Retirement Pension
Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many (a) men and (b) women were in receipt of a state retirement pension and were over 100 years old on 1 May. [122076]
Mr. Rooker: The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is in the table.
| Number | |
|---|---|
| Male | 1,000 |
| Female | 7,000 |
Notes:
1. Figures are rounded to the nearest thousand.
2. National Population Projections supplied by the Government Actuary's Department for mid-year 2000.
Expatriates (Pensioners)
Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is the estimated number of British citizens
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who have emigrated overseas and are in receipt of a State Retirement Pension which has been frozen because they are living in countries without a reciprocal pension upgrading agreement with the UK; and if he will make a statement. [121981]
Mr. Rooker: Some 470,000 people overseas are in receipt of a UK State Retirement Pension which has been frozen. The Department's records are unable to differentiate between a British citizen and a pensioner from another country who, through having worked and paid National Insurance in this country, is entitled to a UK State Retirement Pension. Therefore the Department can provide only the total figure.
The total annual cost of uprating all frozen UK pensions paid overseas to the rate paid to pensioners resident in the UK would be some £300 million a year.
Our priority is to concentrate any resources that may become available on pensioners resident in the UK. We have done much already for them but, as my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced in the Budget, we plan to do more. That is why we have no plans to unfreeze.
Winter Fuel Payment
Mr. Davidson: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if pensioners qualify for winter heating allowance if living abroad for all or part of the year; and if he will make a statement. [121808]
Angela Eagle: The Winter Fuel Payment scheme relates only to people aged 60 and over who are ordinarily resident in Great Britain. Eligible people living in Northern Ireland get similar payments through mirroring legislation.
If someone lives only part of the year abroad and their normal home is in Great Britain they are eligible for a payment; but someone whose normal place of residence is outside Great Britain is not eligible.
The payments are aimed at mitigating harmful climatological effects that are particular to the British winter. Great Britain has a variable winter climate, which means that there are short spells of very cold weather rather than long ones. Weather conditions can also change rapidly over a few days, and winter mortality rates are higher in Great Britain than in most other European countries. The payments are therefore aimed at older households in Great Britain to ensure they are able to turn up their heating when it is cold.
National Insurance Numbers
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many newly-issued national insurance numbers have gone missing and how many missing national insurance numbers have been traced to (a) asylum seekers and (b) other persons subject to immigration control in each of the last three years for which figures are available; what estimate he has made of the extent to which national insurance numbers are misappropriated (i) generally, (ii) by asylum seekers and (iii) by other persons subject to immigration control; what action he is taking to investigate this; and if he will make a statement. [121829]
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Mr. Rooker: There are no missing National Insurance numbers; all numbers issued are recorded on the Departmental Central Index (DCI). There are some numbers, however, that will have been created, typically when someone invents a fictitious identity. We know of 716 such cases.
I announced on 27 March plans to ensure that our defences against identity fraud are strengthened. We have found from a pilot in Balham, South London, that a combination of dedicated resources, better training, specialist equipment and effective liaison between Government Departments, particularly with the Immigration and Nationality Department, leads to improved performance in this area. Staff in Balham, using these techniques, have detected 225 cases where fraudulent identity documents were used, all of which resulted in an arrest.
While data are collected on the number of false identities detected, they are not available in the required format to supply details specific to asylum seekers and those subject to immigration control. The Home Office and my Department work closely to monitor cases involving immigration offenders, 9,256 such cases have been referred. These are checked against DCI, any found to be claiming benefit are referred for investigation by both the Benefits Agency and the Home Office. Data are not available on the outcome of those investigations.
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