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Public Appointments

Mr. Collins: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many appointments he has made to public bodies since 7 June; and how many are in his gift. [15479]

Mr. McCartney: Information about numbers of ministerial appointments to public bodies is included in the Cabinet Office's annual report, "Public Bodies". Copies of this are placed in the Library of the House and the report is published on the Cabinet Office's internet website. The next edition of "Public Bodies", which will include number of appointments at March 2001, will be published around the end of the year.

DWP—Public Bodies—Appointments 7 June to 31 October 2001

	Total	In gift of Secretary of State	Since 7 June 2001
Advisory Committee for Disabled People in Employment and Training (ACDET)	13	0	(31)13
Disability Living Allowance Advisory Board (DLAAB)	20	20	2
Disability rights Commission (DRC)	15	15	0
Industrial Injuries Advisory Council (IIAC)	14	14	10
Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority (OPRA)	10	10	0
Pensions compensation Board (PCB)	3	3	1
Pensions Ombudsman (PO)	1	1	1
Race Education and Employment Forum (REEF)	18	0	0
Remploy Ltd.	14	0	5
Social Security Advisory Committee (SSAC)	14	14	3

⁽³¹⁾ Following Ministerial agreement on 28 August 2001 to extend the term of ACDET until March 2002 all appointments for the Committee were extended until 31 March 2002.

Notes:

1. Information based on DWP public bodies as in the Cabinet Office publication "Public Bodies".

2. The Appeals Service information is not included as the Lord Chancellors Department makes the appointments.

Income-related Benefits

Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people living in the Middlesbrough, South and Cleveland, East constituency were in receipt of income-related benefits in each of the last four years. [16437]

Malcolm Wicks [holding answer 20 November 2001]: The available information is in the tables.

Income-related benefit recipients in the Middlesbrough, South and Cleveland, East constituency

	May 1998	May 1999	May 2000	May 2001
Income Support	6,400	6,200	6,900	7,400
Jobseeker's Allowance(32)	2,400	2,200	1,800	1,600
Family Credit/Working Families' Tax Credit(33)	1,800	1,600	2,000	2,400
Disability Working Allowance/Disabled Person's Tax Credit(33)	32	30	45	54
Total	10,600	10,000	10,700	11,400

⁽³²⁾ Income based

⁽³³⁾ Family Credit and Disability Working Allowance were replaced by Working Families' Tax Credit and Disabled Person's Tax Credit in October 1999 and are tax credits rather than Social Security benefits.

Notes:

1. Figures (other than Disability Working Allowance/Disabled Person's Tax Credit which is a 100 per cent. count of all cases) are based on a 5 per cent. sample and are therefore subject to a degree of sampling error.

2. Income Support, Jobseeker's Allowance (Income Based), Family Credit/Working Families' Tax Credit and "Total" figures have been rounded to the nearest hundred.

3. Income Support/Jobseeker's Allowance claimants in receipt of Family Credit/Working Families' Tax Credit or Disability Working Allowance/Disabled Person's Tax Credit are not shown in Income Support/Jobseeker's Allowance totals.

4. Disabled Working Allowance/Disabled Person's Tax Credit figures are for April each year.

5. Totals may not sum owing to rounding.

Source:

Income Support Quarterly Statistical Enquiries May 1998-May 2001

Jobseeker's Allowance Quarterly Statistical Enquiries May 1998-May 2001

Family Credit/Working Families' Tax Credit Quarterly Statistical Enquiries May 1998-May 2001

Disability Working Allowance/Disabled Person's Tax Credit Quarterly Statistical Enquiries April 1998-April 2001

26 Nov 2001 : Column: 713W

Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit figures are not available for the Middlesbrough, South and Cleveland, East constituency but are available for Middlesbrough and Redcar and Cleveland local authorities.

Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit caseload for Middlesbrough local authority

Date	Housing Benefit	Council Tax Benefit
May 1998	17,680	20,330
May 1999	17,560	20,510
May 2000	17,230	20,130
May 2001	16,670	19,560

Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit caseload for Redcar and Cleveland local authority

Date	Housing Benefit	Council Tax Benefit
May 1998	12,830	16,620
May 1999	12,940	16,830
May 2000	12,590	16,580
May 2001	12,550	16,740

Notes:

1. Middlesbrough, South and Cleveland, East parliamentary constituency is covered in part by the Middlesbrough and Redcar and Cleveland local authority areas. Figures are not therefore representative of the constituency area.

2. The data refer to households, which may be a single person or a couple.

3. The figures have been rounded to the nearest 10 cases.

Source:

Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit Management Information System quarterly 100 per cent. caseload stock-count taken each May from 1998 to 2001

Social Exclusion (Wycombe)

Mr. Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many (a) men, (b) women and (c) children of each ethnic group in the Wycombe constituency are classified as socially excluded. [14872]

Malcolm Wicks: Poverty and social exclusion are complex multi-dimensional issues, affecting many aspects of people's lives—including income, health, housing, the quality of their environment and opportunities to learn. There is therefore no single measure that can be used to classify people as socially excluded.

Miners' Compensation

Rachel Squire: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much benefit was paid by the Department of Trade and Industry to the Department of Social Security and the Department of Work and Pensions in respect of miners' occupational lung disease claims under the Social Security Act 1997 (Recoupment of Benefit Provisions); how many cases were involved; and how much benefit in those cases was set off and deducted from the compensation by the Department of Trade and Industry. [17111]

Maria Eagle: The amount recovered is in respect of payments to miners as a consequence of their illness and is recovered direct from the Department of Trade and Industry, not the miners themselves.

The available information is in the table.

26 Nov 2001 : Column: 714W

Miners occupational lung diseases	Number of cases	Amount paid (£)
Chronic bronchitis and emphysema	2,020	7,673,339.86
Asthma	7	115,304.50
Mesothelioma	7	55,437.89
Chest/lung condition	1	8,399.40
Pneumoconiosis	1	3,309.88
Total	2,036	7,855,791.53

Information about the amount of deductions made by the Department of Trade and Industry in lieu of benefit paid is not currently available. My hon. Friend the Minister for Energy and Industry will write to my hon. Friend with the information when it becomes available.

Parliamentary Questions

Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will answer question no. 11496, tabled on 26 October, relating to disability claimants; and for what reason it was not answered on the due date of 30 October. [17328]

Mr. Nicholas Brown: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to him today at columns 708-09W.

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when he will reply to WPQ numbers (a) 13442 and (b) 11001. [17826]

Maria Eagle: The questions were answered on 23 November and 19 November respectively.

Occupational Pensions

Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much has been paid to the private sector in refunded contributions on account of opted-out occupational pensions schemes in each of the last five years. [18025]

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

National Insurance contribution rebates for occupational pension schemes

Year	£ billion
1996–97	5.25
1997–98	5.24
1998–99	5.77
1999–2000	5.79
2000–01	6.21

Notes:

1. All figures rounded to nearest £10 million.

2. The table shows the total amount of National Insurance contribution rebates made in respect of membership of both private sector and public sector contracted-out occupational pension schemes.

Source:

Government Actuary's Department

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