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Incapacity Benefit
Mr. Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to his answer of 25 January 2002, Official Report, column 1140W, on incapacity benefit, what data his Department hold on (a) the number of incapacity benefit claimants who have been required to attend repeat Benefits Agency medical assessment, (b) the number of incapacity benefit claimants who have lost their entitlement as a result of a repeat Benefits Agency medical assessment and (c) the number of incapacity benefit claimants transferred to a different benefit as a result of a repeat Benefits Agency medical assessment. [66592]
Malcolm Wicks: Data collected on the number of people referred for a Personal Capability Assessment does not distinguish between initial and subsequent referrals.
Industrial Injuries Advisory Council
Mr. Pike: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council's review of the schedule of occupational diseases for which benefits are paid will be published. [65046]
Mr. Nicholas Brown: In February 1997 the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council announced that it would review the schedule of occupational diseases in respect of which benefit can be paid.
This review is a major task. The Council has therefore decided to publish reports on discrete parts of the list of diseases as the review progresses rather than producing a single report. The findings of the review that have been published so far are; Diseases induced by Ionising and Non-Ionising Radiation (Cm 4280) published in March 1999 and Conditions due to Chemical Agents (Cm 5395) published in February 2002.
The Council will continue to review all the evidence it receives and reports of its further findings will be published in due course.
Change Programme
Mr. Lilley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on the savings achieved under the change programme. [57139]
Mr. Nicholas Brown: The Department is in the early years of a major change programme with considerable savings planned for the later years. The savings achieved by the former DSS change programme in 2001–02 are £3.1 million administrative expenditure and £73.3 million programme expenditure.
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Consultants
Mr. Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many contracts the Department of Work and Pensions has with consultants; what level of professional indemnity insurance is standard in contracts with small consultants; whether he can make exceptions to the level of professional indemnity insurance; and what recent discussions he has had with other Government Departments about the level of professional indemnity insurance. [50834]
Mr. Nicholas Brown: The Department currently has 177 consultancy contracts in place let via framework agreements, including the Office of Government Commerce's Service Categories IT and Business Services Catalogue. Each agreement has its own standard set of Terms and Conditions—including levels of professional indemnity insurance.
Standard terms set Limitation of Liability for damage to property at a maximum of £1,000,000 and other defaults at a maximum of £50,000 or 150 per cent. of the value of the contract. Professional indemnity insurance is generally set at a level appropriate to the size of the contract and the level of risk involved.
In addition to framework standard Terms and Conditions, special terms specific to the requirement in hand can be agreed to adjust the limitation of liability.
On discussions with other Government Departments I refer the hon. Member to the written answer given by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister on 6 February 2002, Official Report, column 689W.
Housing Benefit
Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people have been in receipt of housing benefit in (a) Angus and (b) Scotland in each of the last five years. [67327]
Malcolm Wicks: The available information is in the table.
| Angus | Government office region of Scotland | |
|---|---|---|
| 1998 | 8,300 | 530,000 |
| 1999 | 8,000 | 518,000 |
| 2000 | 7,600 | 487,000 |
| 2001 | 7,600 | 467,000 |
| 2002 | 7,300 | 453,000 |
Notes:
1. Data for Angus relate to the Angus council area.
2. The data refer to households claiming housing benefit which may be a single person, a couple or a family. More than one benefit household can live in one property, for example two or more adults in a flat or house share arrangement.
3. Figures for Angus council are rounded to the nearest 100; figures for Scotland are rounded to the nearest 1,000.
4. Figures for any non-responding authorities have been estimated.
Source:
Housing Benefit Management Information System quarterly 100 per cent. counts taken in February of each year.
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Retirement Age
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what changes he has made to his policy on the age of retirement since 1998. [68076]
Mr. McCartney: We have made no change in the policy on state pension age since 1998. Legislation was introduced in 1995 to equalise state pension age for men and women. Women's state pension age will be increased gradually from 60 to 65 between the years 2010 and 2020.
But we are looking at the factors that help determine the age at which people actually retire. Too many people experience a cliff edge between work and retirement. We need to be able to provide real opportunities and incentives to enable people to stay in the work place for longer—where they want to. We also need to tackle the perverse incentives to retire even when it might suit people to carry on working, perhaps part-time, for longer. We are looking at options for providing people with greater flexibility about when they retire.
Correspondence
Mr. Salmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when he will respond to the letter of 13 May from the hon. Member for Banff and Buchan (Mr. Salmond) regarding a constituent, Mrs. P. Baker, New Dear, Aberdeenshire. [67650]
Maria Eagle: A reply to the letter of 13 May from the hon. Member for Banff and Buchan was sent on 8 July.
Self-employed Disabled People
Mrs. Fitzsimons: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what plans he has to allow greater flexibility in the calculation of the annual permitted work rules in respect of average rather than actual weekly earnings for self-employed disabled people. [59756]
Maria Eagle: The new permitted work rules, introduced on 8 April, give all people receiving incapacity benefits the chance to start moving back into full-time work. When attributing income from irregular work undertaken by self-employed disabled people, decision makers must treat each case on its merits. Guidance advises decision makers to look at income and hours worked over a period of time so that income can be attributed in a fair and equitable way.
We keep all our policies under review. However, we believe that there is sufficient flexibility within the present rules and have no plans to change them.
Public Service Agreement Targets
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what has been the (a) cost and (b) saving from the pursuit of the Department's public service agreement targets in each year since they were introduced. [60889]
Mr. McCartney: The Department's public service agreement sets out the key outcomes it is committed to deliver with the resources provided, and its service delivery agreement sets out the key steps towards delivery of those targets. Each year the Department publishes
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performance against its targets—including on value for money—and the resources it has used in its departmental report.
Performance Targets
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the (a) cost and (b) saving has been from the Department's pursuit of service delivery agreement targets in each year since they were introduced. [61632]
Mr. McCartney: The Department's public service agreement sets out the key outcomes it is committed to deliver with the resources provided, and its service delivery agreement sets out the key steps towards delivery of those targets. Each year the Department publishes performance against its targets—including on value for money—and the resources it has used in its departmental report.
Benefit Statistics
Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how much benefit was paid, by category, in (a) the UK and (b) rural areas in each of the last 10 years; [63646]
- (2) how many benefit claimants, by category, there were in (a) the UK and (b) rural areas for each of the last 10 years. [63645]
Mr. Nicholas Brown [holding answer 24 June 2002]: The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available has been placed in the Library.
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