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Airline Industry Redundancies
Mr. Chaytor: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what plans he has to assist individuals made redundant as a result of the downturn in the airline industry; and if he will make a statement. [27548]
Mr. Nicholas Brown [holding answer 23 January 2002]: The Rapid Response Service supports communities affected by redundancy and helps people make the transition into sustainable new jobs. This service will receive an additional £6 million over the next two years.
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This extra investment will boost the support offered and enable us to work even more effectively with employers to match people to new jobs.
As well as the support of the Rapid Response Service, people made redundant can benefit from the wide range of help and advice on offer through jobcentres to enable them to move into work. We already have well established on-site jobcentres at Gatwick, Stansted and Manchester airports. Most people who lose their job are able to find another one quickly from among over 10,000 new vacancies that are notified to the Employment Service every working day.
Benefit Fraud (Yorkshire)
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many prosecutions were made for benefit fraud in the York and North Yorkshire area in (a) 1997, (b) 1999, (c) 2000 and (d) 2001. [28196]
Malcolm Wicks: Information on the number of prosecutions for fraud in benefits other than housing benefit in the York and North Yorkshire area is not available. Information on prosecutions for housing benefit fraud in the City of York and North Yorkshire is in the tables.
| Cases referred for prosecution | Successful prosecutions | |
|---|---|---|
| City of York | ||
| 1996–97 | 1 | 0 |
| 1998–99 | 2 | 2 |
| 1999–2000 | 6 | 2 |
| 2000–01 | (24)— | (24)— |
| North Yorkshire | ||
| 1996–97 | (25)28 | (25)19 |
| 1998–99 | 52 | 24 |
| 1999–2000 | 51 | 28 |
| 2000–01 | (25)36 | (25)23 |
(24) Signifies the data are not available.
(25) Data are not available for all the North Yorkshire local authorities. For 1996–97 the figures exclude Ryedale local authority, and for 2000–01, the figures exclude Richmondshire local authority and the City of York.
Notes:
1. The data refer to households, which may be a single person, a couple or a family.
2. Figures are taken from local authority management information returns. It is possible that there could be some double counting with Benefits Agency data if there were cases which involved a joint prosecution.
Housing Benefit Fraud
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what plans he has for the reform of measures against housing benefit fraud. [29758]
Malcolm Wicks: We are introducing a comprehensive new anti-fraud scheme that provides financial incentives to local authorities to prevent, detect, sanction and prosecute benefit fraud. 63 authorities took on the new scheme in April 2001 and the remaining authorities will join in April 2002.
In addition we are improving funding of the verification framework and breaking it into modules, making it easier for local authorities to introduce it incrementally. In April 2001 we began continuously measuring the levels of fraud
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and error in housing benefit. We have also developed a new set of standards for assessing local authorities' performance in several areas, including the prevention of housing benefit fraud. We intend to launch the standards in April.
We are also working more closely with local authorities on fraud matters through joint regional boards to improve performance and spread good practice.
Removal Loans
Mr. Keetch: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people have received loans from the Department of Social Security towards paying for removal costs when moving house in the past five years; how much these loans have totalled; how much of this has been repaid; and if he will make a statement. [32139]
Malcolm Wicks [holding answer 1 February 2002]: The information is not available.
Minimum Income Guarantee (Wales)
Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pensioners he estimates are (a) eligible for and (b) claiming the minimum income guarantee in each parliamentary constituency in Wales. [32230]
Mr. McCartney: Estimates of the number of people who may be eligible for the minimum income guarantee (MIG) are not available below national level.
The number of pensioners claiming the MIG in each parliamentary constituency in Wales is in the table:
Source:
Income Support Statistics Quarterly Enquiry August 2001
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Workless households
Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many and what percentage of children (a) live in workless households and (b) lived in workless households in each of the last five years. [32274]
Malcolm Wicks: The information requested is in the table.
| Children living in workless households: | ||
|---|---|---|
| As at spring | Number | Percentage |
| 1996 | 2,256,000 | 19.3 |
| 1997 | 2,078,000 | 17.9 |
| 1998 | 2,076,000 | 17.8 |
| 1999 | 2,015,000 | 17.3 |
| 2000 | 1,831,000 | 15.7 |
| 2001 | 1,779,000 | 15.3 |
Notes:
1. 'Children' refers to all children aged under 16.
2. A workless household is a household that includes at least one person of working age where no-one is in employment.
3. The spring data are used annually in the set of Opportunity for All indicators.
Source:
Labour Force Survey, Spring Quarters (covering March to May) GB figures. The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is a quarterly sample survey of over 60,000 households in the United Kingdom.
Departmental Accounts
Mr. Bacon: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in which years since 1972 his Department and its predecessors have had accounts qualified by the Comptroller and Auditor-General due to irregular expenditure; and if he will specify the irregular expenditure involved in each case. [26152]
Mr. Nicholas Brown [holding answer 15 January 2002]: Pursuant to my written answer on 31 January 2002, Official report, column 758W, details of the accounts for the Department for Work and Pensions and its predecessors which have been qualified by the Comptroller and Auditor General on the basis of irregular expenditure since 1971–72 are shown in the table which has been placed in the Library.
The Departmental Resource Account for 1999–2000 was also qualified, on the same basis as the Class X11 Vote 1 and the National Insurance Fund Accounts.
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TREASURY
Secondments
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many staff in his Department have been seconded to jobs in the (a) private and (b) public sector in each of the last four years. [31770]
Ruth Kelly: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by the Deputy Prime Minister on 7 February 2002, Official Report, columns 1129–30W. HM Treasury provided this information to the Interchange Unit, Cabinet Office to complete the annual interchange statistical exercise.
Income Tax
Denzil Davies: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his estimate is of the percentage of the total revenue from income tax which, in the last year for which figures are available, accrued from the emoluments of public sector employees. [32837]
Dawn Primarolo: Readily available information is in terms of "Pay-As-You-Earn" tax deductions from pay and is given in Inland Revenue Statistics table 2.10, a copy of which is available in the Library of the House. The latest version can be accessed on the Inland Revenue website http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/stats/ income_tax/it_t10_1.htm). The categories "Education" and "Health and social work" in the table include a small proportion of private sector employees.
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