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Child Maintenance

Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on the percentage difference in maintenance between the new child maintenance formula and the formula currently operated on standardised assumptions excluding departures and variations for the convenient steps of net income up to £104,000 per annum. [44263]

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Malcolm Wicks [holding answer 20 March 2002]: The information is in the table.

Percentage change in average maintenance assessment under new scheme, by net income

Net income (£)	Change in average maintenance assessment (percentage)
Under 10,000(17)	16.6
10,000 to 20,000	-23.0
20,000 to 30,000	-18.2
30,000 to 40,000	-7.6
Above 40,000	5.6
All	-11.2

⁽¹⁷⁾ Includes non-resident parents on benefit who pay nothing in the current scheme.

Source:

5 per cent. scan of the Child Support Computer System, August 1998 so may not reflect current average assessments.

Correspondence

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the target time will be in 2002–03 for (a) Ministers to reply to letters from hon. Members and (b) officials in his Department to reply to letters received directly from members of the public. [44954]

Maria Eagle: Our aim is to reply as soon as possible to hon. Members who write to Ministers and members of the public who write to Ministers or the senior official with responsibility for operational issues within a maximum of 20 working days. We aim to reply as soon as possible to other letters received directly from members of the public within a maximum of 10 working days or 15 working days in the case of the Appeals Service.

John Barrett: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when he will reply to the letters dated 28 February and 3 April from the hon. Member for Edinburgh, West. [53770]

Maria Eagle: I replied to the hon. Member on 29 April.

Digital Television

Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will list the number of subscriptions to (a) digital terrestrial, (b) digital satellite and (c) digital cable television held by his Department for services in any departmental building from which Ministers work, stating for each subscription its (i) cost and (ii) purpose. [48355]

Mr. McCartney [holding answer 10 April 2002]: The Department for Work and Pensions' access to television services in Richmond House is maintained by the Department of Health, as the major occupier for this building. I therefore refer you to the answer given by my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health [Ms Hazel Blears], on 23 April 2002, Official Report, column 272W.

Ministerial Travel

Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many times Ministers in his Department have travelled abroad at taxpayers' expense since March 2001; what countries they visited; and what the total cost of each visit was. [47101]

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Mr. McCartney [holding answer 9 April 2002]: I refer the hon. Member to the reply given by my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister on 11 April 2002, Official Report, column 552W.

Efficiency Savings

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the target has been in each of the last five years for efficiency savings as a percentage of total running costs for each of the non-departmental public bodies for which he is responsible; and if the target was met. [49633]

Maria Eagle: The Department sponsors four executive non-departmental public bodies: the Disability Rights Commission; Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority; Pensions Compensation Board; and Remploy. Value for money is a key principle and overarching theme when the Department is agreeing targets on the efficiency and effectiveness of individual bodies' operations. Each body listed above produces an Annual Report which provides details of the organisation's operational and financial performance. Copies of these reports are available in the Library.

Jobcentres

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of time is spent by personal advisers (a) on advising on benefits claims and (b) advising job seekers. [50691]

Mr. Nicholas Brown: The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the Chief Executive, Leigh Lewis. I have asked him to reply to the hon. Member.

Letter from Leigh Lewis to Miss Anne McIntosh dated April 2002:

As Jobcentre Plus is an Executive Agency, the Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question concerning the proportion of time spent by personal advisers on a) advising on benefits claims and b) advising job seekers. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of the Agency.

The main purpose of personal advisers is to help people move into or closer to work. Advisers therefore spend the majority of their time at interviews discussing jobs, training and other opportunities that are available to help people into work. As part of this, they will often provide information about Tax Credits and those benefits that people may receive when in work. More generally, depending on the circumstances of the person they are interviewing, personal advisers will seek to ensure that any questions or issues relating to benefits are satisfactorily resolved either by providing information or help themselves or by ensuring that it is provided by colleagues with the appropriate knowledge.

I hope this is helpful.

Rent Service

Ms Oona King: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, (1) pursuant to his answer of 16 April 2002, Official Report, column 888W, if he will place in the Library the information received from the Rent Service in support of its estimate of the likely increase in the number of localities following the Court of Appeal judgment on local reference rents in Stockport; [53014]

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(2) pursuant to his answer of 16 April 2002, Official Report, column 888W, what organisations he consulted on the impact on the number of localities of the Court of Appeal judgment on local reference rents in Stockport; and if he will publish details of that advice. [53015]

Malcolm Wicks: We did not request a formal report from the Rent Service and none was provided. The likely increase in the number of localities was an informal estimate for England provided by the Rent Service at that time in the light of the Court of Appeal judgment.

We did not consult any organisations about the impact on the number of localities following the Court of Appeal judgment. There was no need for such consultation because it was clear that had we not put new legislation in place, the increase in the number of localities following the Court of Appeal judgment would have proved unworkable for the Rent Service. Such an increase would have run counter to our policy that local reference rents should reflect the generality of the market and thus be based on broad geographical areas.

Ms Oona King: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many localities the Rent Service has used to determine local reference rents in each year since their introduction. [53016]

Malcolm Wicks: I refer my hon. Friend to the reply given to the hon. Member for Roxburgh and Berwickshire on 24 April 2002, Official Report, column 340W.

Access to Work Scheme

Brian Cotter: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many applications have been made to the Access to Work scheme in the last five years; and whether the scheme will be open to those small employers who will be required to make adjustments prior to the extension of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 in 2004. [53032]

Maria Eagle [holding answer 29 April 2002]: Between April 1996 and March 2001 37,236 disabled people have applied for and received Access to Work help ¹ .

Access to Work is available to disabled people in paid employment, whatever size of employer they work for, where they have additional employment needs resulting from disability. Focusing eligibility on the individual, rather than the employer, allows Access to Work to tailor help to meet the needs of the disabled person and to help an increasing number of disabled people to enter or remain in paid work each year.

¹ Source: DWP Access to Work Management Information.

Disability Discrimination Act

Brian Cotter: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what adjustments have been made to her Department's premises following the introduction of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995; and what the cost of these adjustments was as a proportion of the Department's budget. [53028]

Maria Eagle [holding answer 29 April 2002]: Since the introduction of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 adjustments carried out to premises occupied by this department include installation of door bells, installation of induction loops, installation of some signage, marking

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of disabled parking bays, adjustments to counters, reconfiguration of public waiting areas to accommodate wheelchair access, improvements to external lighting and installation of access ramps.

These works have been carried out as part of a planned programme to ensure that all buildings occupied under the PRIME contract comply with the requirements of DDA in advance of 2004. Under the terms of the PRIME PFI agreement, the costs of these adjustments are the responsibility of our private sector partner, Land Securities Trillium.

For those buildings in the DWP estate not covered by the PRIME contract it has been recommended that work to ensure DDA compliance should be incorporated into existing and future refurbishment plans. Also, the department will require that all new property acquisitions are fully compliant with the Act.

The costs of adjustments carried out solely in relation to the introduction of DDA are not recorded separately. The information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

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