10. SELECT COMMITTEES
33. Social Security
The Committee was nominated on 14 July 1997.
It had 11 Members and held 39 meetings. This included 7 meetings
held concurrently with the Education and Employment Committee
(abbreviated to 'CM' in the attendance table below).
|
Members | Meetings
|
| attended
|
|
Kirkwood, Mr Archy (Chairman) | 36 (including 6 CM)
|
Buck, Ms Karen | 33 (including 5 CM)
|
Coaker, Mr Vernon (discharged, 1.2.99) |
2 |
Dismore, Mr Andrew | 36 (including 7 CM)
|
Flight, Mr Howard (discharged, 26.7.99) |
11 (including 1CM) |
Foster, Mr Michael Jabez (Hastings and Rye) (discharged, 25.1.99)
| 0 |
Humble, Mrs Joan | 28 (including 3 CM)
|
Kirkbride, Miss Julie | 18 (including 1 CM)
|
Leigh, Mr Edward | 28 (including 2 CM)
|
Mountford, Kali | 16 (including 3 CM
|
Naysmith, Dr Doug (added, 25.1.99) | 32 (including 7 CM)
|
Pond, Mr Chris | 36 (including 6 CM)
|
Shipley, Ms Debra (added, 1.2.99) | 20 (including 4 CM)
|
Swayne, Mr Desmond (added, 26.7.99) | 5
|
|
Overall attendance: | 70.2%
|
Number of Members added: | 3
|
Number of Members discharged: | 3
|
Turnover of membership during the Session: |
27.3 % |
|
Staff
Committee Clerk: Mr Liam Laurence Smyth, Deputy Principal
Clerk (Senior Structure Band 2)
Second Clerk: Mr Peter Shelley, Assistant Clerk (Band A3).
Committee Specialist: Ms Janet Allbeson (Band B1).
Committee Assistant: Mrs Diane Nelson, Higher Executive Officer
(Band B2).
Secretary: Miss Mandy Sullivan, Secretary (Band D1).
Specialist Advisers during the Session
Professor Jonathan Bradshaw, Ms Marilyn Howard, Mr Michael
O'Higgins, and Mr David Webster.
Witnesses | |
Oral evidence was given during the Session by the following categories of witnesses:
| |
Number of appearances by:
| |
Cabinet Ministers
| 1 |
Other Ministers, of which 2 were by a Member of the House of Lords
| 5 |
Number of appearances by officials from, or representatives of:
| |
Department of Social Security
| 9 |
other departments
| 4 |
comprising: Treasury
| 1 |
Inland Revenue
| 1 |
Department for Education and Employment
| 2 |
executive agencies
| 9 |
comprising: Benefits Agency
| 1 |
War Pensions Agency
| 2 |
Information Technology Services Agency
| 3 |
Child Support Agency
| 2 |
Employment Service (an agency of the Department for Education and Employment)
| 1 |
public bodies and non-Ministerial departments
| 6 |
comprising: Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration
| 1 |
Independent Case Examiner for the Child Support Agency
| 2 |
Government Actuary's Department
| 3 |
Members of Parliament
| 2 |
Appearances by other witnesses
| 78 |
Overseas Visits
Date | Destination
| Members
| Staff |
Purpose | Cost
|
9-11.12.98
| Netherlands | 6
| 3 |
Inquiries into the modernisation of the Welfare State
| £5,929.84
|
24-29.10.99
| Norway/Finland | 5
| 3 |
Inquiry into the future of The Contributory Principle
| £12,356.25(estimated outturn)
|
Visits to European Institutions
None
UK Visits
Date |
Destination
| Members
| Staff |
Purpose |
Cost |
10.3.99
| Glasgow | 6
| 3 |
Visit toWISE project and Glasgow Benefits Centre
| £2,639.06
|
13.4.99
| Blackpool | 1*
| 2 |
Visit to the War Pensions Agency and Information Technology Services Agency
| £428.50
|
28.4.99
| Loughborough | 4
| 2 |
Visit to the Centre for Research in Social Policy
| £566.40
|
12.5.99
| Lewisham | 7
| 3 |
Inquiries into the modernisation of the Welfare State
| £58.92
|
19.5.99
| Camden | 5
| 3 |
Inquiries into the modernisation of the Welfare State
| £6.80
|
24-25.5.99 | Yorkshire
| 2* |
3A
| Gathering information on Single Work-focussed Gateway Pilots
| £1,161.09
|
*Travel in a representative capacity
A Includes 1 specialist adviser
Reports and Minutes of Evidence
Title |
HC No.
(1998-99)
| Date of
publication
| No. of
pages
| Sale price
| Government
reply
|
First Report: Tax and Benefits: Implementation of Tax Credits
| 29 |
2.12.98 |
175 | £18.00
| Received 22.1.99 published as Second Special Report, Session 1998-99
|
Second Report: Family Credit Fraud
| 217 |
4.2.99 |
30 | £7.00
| Not required
|
Third Report: Disability Living Allowance
| 63 |
10.2.99 |
38 | £8.00
| Cm 4307, 30.3.99
|
Fourth Report: Child Benefit
| 114 |
4.3.99 |
135 | £15.00
| Not required
|
Fifth Report: Pension Sharing on Divorce: Parts III and IV of the Welfare Reform and Pensions Bill
| 304 |
15.3.99 |
56 | £9.70
| Not required
|
Sixth Report: War Pensions Agency Business Plan 1999-2000
| 377 |
23.6.99 |
74 | £11.50
| Received 26.7.99published as FourthSpecial Report, Session 1998-99
|
Seventh Report: The ONE Service Pilots
| 412 |
27.7.99 |
11 | £3.40
| Received 5.10.99 published as Fifth Special Report, Session 1998-99
|
Eighth Report: The Modernisation of Social Security Appeals
| 581 |
2.11.99 |
82 | £11.50
| Reply awaited
|
Ninth Report: Social Security Implications of Parental Leave
| 543 |
2.11.99 |
197 | 19.50
| Reply awaited
|
Tenth Report: The 1999 Child Support White Paper
| 798 |
10.11.99 |
291 | £20.50
| Cm 4536, 30.11.99
|
First Special Report: Government Response to Fifth Report from the Committee, Session 1997-98, Pensions on Divorce
| 146 |
14.11.98 |
10 | £3.40
| Not applicable
|
Second Special Report: Government Response to First Report from the Committee, Tax and Benefits: Implementation of Tax Credits
| 176 |
26.1.99 |
6 | £2.25
| Not applicable
|
Third Special Report: Unauthorised Receipt of Draft Report
| 482 |
26.5.99 |
18 | £4.75
| Not applicable
|
Fourth Special Report: Government Response to Sixth Report from the Committee, War Pensions Agency Business Plan 1999/2000
| 793 |
28.7.99 |
13 | £2.25
| Not applicable
|
Fifth Special Report: Government Response to Sixth Report from the Education and Employment Committee and Seventh Report from the Social Security Committee, The ONE Service Pilots
| 855 |
28.10.99 |
19 | £4.75
| Not applicable
|
Minutes of Evidence: Information Technology Services Agency
| 397-i |
19.5.99 |
30 | £7.00
| Not applicable
|
Minutes of Evidence: The Contributory Principle
| 485-i |
6.7.99 |
32 | £8.00
| Not applicable
|
Minutes of Evidence: The Contributory Principle
| 485-ii
| 28.7.99
| 41 |
£8.80 |
Not applicable
|
Minutes of Evidence: The Contributory Principle
| 485-iii
| 28.7.99
| 46 |
£8.00 |
Not applicable
|
Minutes of Evidence: The Contributory Principle
| 485-iv
| 9.8.99
| 16 |
£4.75 |
Not applicable
|
Minutes of Evidence: The Contributory Principle
| 485-v |
1.12.99 |
21 | £5.50
| Not applicable
|
Minutes of Evidence: The Contributory Principle
| 485-vi
| 9.12.99
| 22 |
£4.75 |
Not applicable
|
Part of Minutes of Evidence from Session 1997-98: DSS Departmental Report 1998
| 614 |
14.7.99 |
7 | £3.40
| Not applicable
|
DSS Departmental Annual Report 1999
| 749-i |
2.9.99 |
16 | £4.75
| Not applicable
|
Minutes of Proceedings
The Minutes of Proceedings of the Committee for Session 1997-98
were published on 7.12.98 as HC 1177, Session 1997-98. The Minutes
of Proceedings of the Committee for Session 1998-99 will be published
as HC 916, Session 1998-99.
Divisions
Date | Subject
|
25.11.98 | Six, amendments proposed to Chairman's draft Report on Tax and Benefits: Implementation of Tax Credits.
|
25.11.98 | One, on Question, That the Report be the First Report of the Committee to the House.
|
3.3.99 | Seven, on amendments proposed to Chairman's draft Report on Child Benefit.
|
26.5.99 | Two, on amendments proposed to Chairman's draft Report on Unauthorised Receipt of Draft Report.
|
20.10.99 | Three, on amendments proposed to Chairman's draft Report on the 1999 Child Support White Paper.
|
3.11.99 | Five, on amendments proposed to Chairman's draft Report on the 1999 Child Support White Paper.
|
Debates
The following Reports were referred to
on the Order Paper as being relevant to debates in the House:
First Report, 1998-99, Tax and Benefits: Implementation
of Tax Credits, on the Second Reading of the Tax Credits Bill,
26.1.99.
Fifth Report, 1997-98, Pensions on Divorce, on the
Second Reading of the Welfare Reform and Pensions Bill, 23.2.99.
Sixth Report, 1998-99, War Pensions Agency Business
Plan 1999/2000, on a Government Motion for the Adjournment of
the House (Armed Forces Personnel), 1.7.99.
Ninth Report, 1998-99, Social Security Implications
of Parental Leave, on a Government Motion for the Adjournment
of the House (Family Friendly Employment Policies), 5.11.99.
Evidence
Oral evidence was taken at 23 of the Committee's
39 meetings. On none of these occasions was evidence taken partly
or wholly in private.
Inquiry
| No. of oral evidence sessions
| No. of memoranda received
| No. of memoranda received from
| No. of memoranda published
| No. of memoranda made available in the Record Office for public use and placed in the Library
|
|
| | Govt. Departments
| executive agencies |
public bodies |
| |
Disability Living Allowance
| 1 |
3 | 2
| 0 |
0 | 2
| 1 |
Child Benefit | 2
| 20 |
2 | 0
| 0 |
19 | 0
|
War Pensions Agency Business Plan 1999-2000
| 1 |
14 | 1
| 3 | 0
| 13 |
1 |
Information Technology Services Agency
| 1 |
2 | 0
| 2 |
0 | 2
| 0 |
The Contributory Principle
| 6* |
34 | 2
| 0 |
0 | 9
| 0 |
The ONE Service Pilots |
5** |
| |
|
| |
|
Social Security Implications of Parental Leave
| 2 |
38 | 2
| 0 |
0 | 34
| 2 |
The Modernisation of Social Security Appeals
| 1 |
11 | 2
| 0 |
0 | 11
| 0 |
Pensions on Divorce: Parts III and IV of the Welfare Reform and Pensions Bill
| 0 |
21 | 0
| 0 |
0 | 20
| 1 |
Child Support | 4
| 41*** |
4 | 1
| 0 |
30 | 4
|
Miscellaneous | 0
| 19 |
8 | 0
| 0 |
2 | 5
|
Total | 23
| 203 |
23 | 6
| 0 |
142 | 14
|
Includes non-Ministerial Departments
*The Committee did not complete its inquiry on this subject in
Session 1998-99; these figures are therefore incomplete
**Joint inquiry conducted with Employment Sub-committee of the
Education and Employment Committee. See under that committee for
details of memoranda submitted.
***The Committee also received copies of 19 papers submitted to
the Department of Social Security in response to the Green Paper
" Children First: a new approach to child support" (Cm4349).
|