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Sex Abuse Investigations
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Solicitor-General how many (a) complaints and (b) items of correspondence have been received by (a) the Attorney General, (b) the Solicitor-General and (c) the Crown Prosecution Service in relation to historical sex abuse investigations in the United Kingdom in (i) 1999, (ii) 2000 and (iii) 2001. [49830]
The Solicitor-General: Correspondence and complaints sent to the Law Officers are recorded primarily by the name of the sender. They are not categorised by recipient nor by subject in the manner set out in the question. The CPS has no central records of complaints or correspondence. The information requested could only be obtained by examining all correspondence received since 1998. This would incur disproportionate costs.
Departmental Report
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Solicitor-General when the 2002 Departmental report will be published. [49594]
The Solicitor-General [holding reply 17 April 2002]: The 2002 Departmental Reports will be published by 31 May 2002.
Mobile Phones
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Solicitor-General, pursuant to her answer of 11 February, Official Report, column 1112W, on mobile phones, how many staff of the Crown Prosecution Service were provided with mobile telephones and other associated equipment in (a) 1998–99, (b) 1999–2000, (c) 2000–01 and (d) 2001–02. [50552]
The Solicitor-General [holding answer 18 April 2002]: The Crown Prosecution Service provided the following numbers of mobile phones with associated equipment in 1998–9, and subsequent financial years.
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| Phones In Circulation Throughout Year | |
|---|---|
| 1998–1999 | 131 |
| 1999–2000 | 336 |
| 2000–2001 | 404 |
| 2001–2002 | 507 |
Special Advisers
Mr. Burns: To ask the Solicitor-General how many special advisers there were in her Department; and what their salaries were in each of the last five years. [46956]
The Solicitor-General: [holding answer 9 April 2002]: None of the departments for which the Attorney General is responsible employ special advisers or have done so in the last five years.
TREASURY
Taxation
Norman Baker: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many (a) audits and (b) investigations have been conducted by the Inland Revenue of taxpayers with a gross annual income of (a) £15,000 or less, (b) £15,001 to £25,000, (c) £25,001 to £50,000, (d) £50,001 to £100,000, (e) £100,001 to £200,000, (f) £200,001 to £500,000, (g) £500,001 to £1,000,000 and (h) more than £1,000,000, for the most recent available accounting period. [49297]
Dawn Primarolo: [holding answer 15 April 2002]: The Inland Revenue does not have figures analysed in this way. The Board of Inland Revenue publishes the results of its work tackling non-compliance in its annual report, which is available in the Library. The latest figures are in Appendix 2 and cover the year to 31 March 2001.
Norman Baker: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the estimated annual total cost of non-compliance with Inland Revenue laws and rules in each of the last five years. [49294]
Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 15 April 2002]: There is no reliable measure of the total income tax and national insurance contributions lost to evasion. In his report, published in March 2000, Lord Grabiner QC commented on the scale of the hidden economy and said:
"By its nature, the size of the informal economy is hard to measure. Most estimates are based on analysing high-level economic aggregates, such as labour market statistics or income and expenditure surveys, and calculate the result as a percentage of GDP. However there is research which suggests that these estimates tend to be exaggerated."
"It would be impractical to arrive at a precise and meaningful figure as to the scale of the problem without a considerable investment of time and resources."
19 Apr 2002 : Column 1211W
LORD CHANCELLOR'S DEPARTMENT
Royal Family
Norman Baker: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what his duties are in relation to Royal issues. [49938]
Mr. Wills: None of the Parliamentary Secretaries in the Lord Chancellor's Department has delegated responsibility for Royal matters.
Energy Costs
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if he will make a statement on energy costs incurred by his Department in each of the last 10 years. [42434]
Mr. Wills: I apologise for the delay in answering this question. I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my right hon. Friend the Minister of State for Rural Affairs on 19 March 2002, Official Report, column 268W.
PFI/PPPs
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department (1) what the difference was between the price offered in reaching preferred bidder stage and the final contract price for the five largest PFI contracts let by his Department in each of the last four years; and if he will make a statement; [45598]
- (2) what the difference was between the price offered in reaching preferred bidder stage and the final contract price for PPP contracts let by his Department in each of the last four years; and if he will make a statement. [45613]
Mr. Wills: The only private finance initiative (PFI) or public private partnership contract signed by this Department in the last four years to have gone through a preferred bidder stage was the PFI contract for the Probate Records Centre. There was no change in contract value between the preferred bidder stage and contract signature in July 1999. PFI contracts for magistrates' courts have not been included in this reply because they are let by local authorities.
Public Service Agreements
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if he will list the public service agreement targets which have been revised and those which have been introduced since the publication of the 2001 departmental report. [43260]
Mr. Wills: The 2001 departmental report provides details of progress against Public Service Agreement targets developed under the Comprehensive Spending Review 1998 and lists the published Public Service Agreement targets for Spending Review 2000. From 1 April 2001 the Spending Review 2000 Public Service Agreement, which covers the work of the Lord Chancellor's Department until March 2004, replaced the Comprehensive Spending Review targets.
19 Apr 2002 : Column 1212W
Since the publication of the 2001 departmental report, no further Public Service Agreement targets have been introduced. In the first year of Spending Review 2000, one Public Service Agreement target has been updated (WA 349, 8 May 2001).
WORK AND PENSIONS
Child Support Agency
Mr. Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what plans he has to seek compensation from the Affinity Consortium for the delay to the Child Support Reforms New Rules Implementation IT project. [46316]
Malcolm Wicks [holding answer 26 March 2002]: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mr. Doug Smith. He will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Doug Smith to Mr. Steve Webb, dated 18 April 2002:
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in replying to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency promised a substantive reply by me.
You ask what plans the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has to seek compensation from the Affinity Consortium for the delay to the Child Support Reforms New Rules Implementation IT project.
We will take stock of the position when testing is complete and we are able to recommend to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions a revised commencement date for the next phase of Child Support Reforms.
Malcolm Wicks: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mr. Doug Smith. He will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Doug Smith to Mr. Michael Weir, dated 18 April 2002:
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in replying to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency promised a substantive reply by me.
You have asked how many CSA cases have been referred to the Parliamentary Ombudsman in each year since the creation of the Agency from (a) the Angus Constituency, (b) Scotland and (c) the UK.
The Table on the attached annex provides this information.
The Parliamentary Ombudsman started recording CSA details late 1995. As details are validated on completion of the cases, due to the backlogs at that time, the first year the Office was confident of accurate figures was 1997 when Agency details were first published in its Annual Report. Therefore figures listed prior to 1997 should be viewed as incomplete records of those years.
I hope this is helpful.
Source:
Parliamentary Ombudsman's Office and the Child Support Agency's
Parliamentary Ombudsman Office Focal Point.
19 Apr 2002 : Column 1213W
Malcolm Wicks: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mr. Doug Smith. He will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Doug Smith to Mr. Nigel Evans, dated 18 April 2002:
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in replying to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child support Agency promised a substantive reply by me.
You ask how many people are registered with the Child support agency; how many people registered in (a) January and (b) February; and how many are forecast to register in April.
The live and assessed caseload for the Agency up to February 2002 was 1,077,800 cases. The number of parents with care who made an application for a maintenance assessment to the Agency in January and February 2002 was 34,086 and 29,681 respectively.
We forecast that a further 30,000 parents with care will make an application to the Agency in April 2002.
I hope this is helpful.
Malcolm Wicks: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mr. Doug Smith. He will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Doug Smith to Mr. Mark Todd, dated 18 April 2002:
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in replying to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency promised a substantive reply by me.
You ask whether the new CSA computer system was subject to OGC Gateway reviews.
The development of the CSA computer system is part of a broader programme to implement the Child Support Reform programme. Two OGC Gateway reviews of that programme have taken place. The first was from the 23 to 27 April 2001 and the second was from the 22 to 25 January 2002.
I hope this is helpful.
Malcolm Wicks: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mr. Doug Smith. He will write to the hon. Member.
19 Apr 2002 : Column 1214W
Letter from Doug Smith to Mr. Andrew Turner, dated 18 April 2002:
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in replying to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency promised a substantive reply by me.
You ask, how many departures from Child Support Agency assessments have been (a) applied for and (b) approved in each year since the scheme's inception.
The table set out below shows the number of Departure applications and awards from the inception of the Departures scheme in December 1996.
Figures are for year ending March unless otherwise specified.
| Year ending | December 1996 to March 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | April 2001 to February 2002 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Departure Applied for | 3,648 | 21,918 | 14,889 | 14,853 | 17,100 | 11,840 | 84,248 |
| Departure Awarded | 114 | 2,360 | 3,162 | 6,393 | 7,049 | 6,116 | 25,194 |
Source:
CSA Performance Management Team
Since April 2000 the Agency has been recording figures of departure applications through the computer system. Figures prior to April 2000 were recorded manually and may be less accurate.
I hope this is helpful.
Malcolm Wicks: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mr. Doug Smith. He will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Doug Smith to Mr. Andrew Turner, dated 18 April 2002:
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in replying to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency promised a substantive reply by me.
You ask, how many parents without care have failed to pay the necessary maintenance to parents with care for (a) six to 12 weeks (b) 12 to 26 weeks and (c) more than 26 weeks in each year since the creation of the Child Support Agency; and what proportion they represent of all parents against whom maintenance orders are kept.
I am sorry but information is not available in the format you have requested.
The table set out below shows the numbers of full, partial and non compliant non-resident parents for each year end (March). I am unable to supply the same information for earlier years as we did not gather information in that way.
| 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full Compliance | 165,820 (49.3%) | 185,900 (52.9%) | 211,000 (60.9%) |
| Partial Compliance | 56,340 (16.7%) | 52,060 (14.8%) | 30,600 (8.8%) |
| Nil Compliance | 114,500 (34%) | 113,720 (32.3%) | 104,800 (30.3%) |
Source:
CSA Performance Management Team
I hope this is helpful.
19 Apr 2002 : Column 1215W
Malcolm Wicks [holding reply 26 March 2002]: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mr. Doug Smith. He will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Doug Smith to Mr. Steve Webb, dated 18 April 2002:
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in replying to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency promised a substantive reply by me.
You ask what the (a) planned cost was and (b) current estimated cost is of the Child Support Reforms New Rules Implementation IT project and
The planned total cost of the project to implement Child Support Reform over the 10 year period of the business case was £651 million.
I am sorry that I cannot provide the planned and current estimated cost of the IT component as it is commercially confidential. As this is a PFI contract and subject to performance criteria the amount of payment will be affected by the level of performance achieved.
I am sorry I cannot be more helpful.
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