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Incapacity Benefit

Mr. Chidgey: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many married women since June 1997 have had claims for incapacity benefit disallowed on the grounds that they did not, in respect of one of the last three years before making a claim, pay before the relevant time contributions of a relevant class from which the earnings factor is not less than 25 times the lower earnings limit for that year. [78209]

Mr. Nicholas Brown [holding answer 30 October 2002]: The information is not available.

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Information is not collected about the marital status of those making claims to Incapacity Benefit, as it is not relevant to their claim; therefore claims made by married women cannot be disaggregated from those made by unmarried women.

Employment Initiatives

Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will list the employment initiatives that are in place, who is eligible for each initiative, what help is offered in each case, and which schemes will be affected by the Minister for Social Exclusion's statement of 16th October. [78328]

Mr. Nicholas Brown: Details of our employment programmes are set out in Appendix 3 of the Departmental Report 2002 (Cm 5424), a copy of which is available in the Library.

Our policies have created a strong economy geared to delivering stability, low inflation and sound public finances. Alongside this, our labour market policies promote attachment to the job market. As a result of our policies we have around the lowest number of unemployed people in a quarter century, and more people in work than ever before, with an increase in overall employment of almost 200,000 in the last year.

We are actively considering what more can be done to streamline our welfare to work programmes, achieve even greater coherence between the New Deals, and transfer lessons learnt into mainstream provision. But as my hon. Friend the Minister for Social Exclusion has made clear we have no plans to stop running Action Teams for Jobs, Employment Zones or the ethnic minority outreach service.

Schemes and Initiatives

Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will list the schemes and initiatives sponsored by his Department and its agencies which are not the subject of national roll out, showing (a) the authorities or areas covered by the scheme and (b) the budget of the scheme in the last year for which information is available. [75678]

Mr. Nicholas Brown: The table provides information on the Department's current initiatives (at 21 October 2002) which are not part of a national roll out.

Initiative	Budget 2002–03	Areas covered
	(#m)
Action Teams for Jobs	52.8	Selected wards in:
		Barnsley and Rotherham, Birmingham North, Birmingham South, Blackburn with Darwen, Blaenau Gwent, Brent, Brighton and Hove, Caerphilly, Chester-le-Street, Cornwall, Doncaster, Dundee, Easington, East Ayrshire, Glasgow Central and East, Glasgow North, Glasgow South, Glasgow West, Greenwich, Hackney, Halton, Haringey, Hartlepool, Highlands and Islands, Islington, Kingston upon Hull, Knowsley, Lambeth, Lewisham, Liverpool Central, Liverpool North, Liverpool South, Manchester Central, Manchester North, Manchester South, Merthyr Tydfil, Middlesbrough, Neath and Port Talbot, Newcastle upon Tyne, Newham, North Lanarkshire, North West Wales, Nottingham, Pembrokeshire, Plymouth, Redcar and Cleveland, Rhondda Cynon Taff, Salford, Sefton, Sheffield, South Tyneside, Southwark, St. Helens, Stockton-on-Tees, Sunderland, Thanet, Tower Hamlets, Wales Objective One, Waltham Forest, Wansbeck, West Dumbartonshire, Wirral, Wolverhampton
Ambition Construction(1)		Coventry, Knowsley, Leeds/Bradford, Manchester, Nottingham, Paddington
Ambition IT	7.6	Manchester
Ambition Retail(1)		Bristol, Cardiff, Gateshead, Glasgow, Redditch
Attendance Allowance—trial of new claims procedures	0.25	Bristol and South West
Basic Skills pilots(1)		Jobcentre Plus Districts:
		Greater Nottingham, Wearside
Employment Zones	78.77	Birmingham, Brent, Brighton and Hove, Doncaster, Glasgow, Haringey, Heads of the Valley and Caerphilly, Liverpool Sefton, Middlesbrough, Newham, North West Wales, Nottingham, Plymouth, Southwark, Tower Hamlets.
Innovation Fund projects	5.7	Former Employment Service Units of Delivery:
		Aberdeen, Birmingham, Bradford, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hackney, Huddersfield, Keighley, Lewisham, Liverpool, Newham, Northumberland, Southend-on-Sea, Suffolk
Mentoring pilots	2.0	Former Employment Service Units of Delivery:
		Barnsley and Rotherham, Black Country, Borders, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff and the Vale, Greater Nottingham, Hereford and Worcester, Knowsley, Lanarkshire, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, North West Wales, Teesside, Thames Gateway
Minority Ethnic outreach projects	6.5	Selected areas in Jobcentre Plus Districts:
		Birmingham and Solihull, Bolton and Bury, Bradford, Calderdale and Kirklees, City and East London, Coventry and Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Lewisham, London Central North East, London Central South, London North, London South East, Manchester North and South, Oldham and Rochdale, Sandwell and Dudley, Wolverhampton and Walsall
Step UP pilots	12.0	Selected wards in:
		Burnley, Cardiff, East Ayrshire, Great Yarmouth, Greenwich, Knowsley, Lambeth, Leeds, Manchester, Oldham, Rotherham, Sandwell, Sheffield, Sunderland [Further pilots will start in Bradford, Bristol, Coventry, Dundee, Hackney, Wrexham in November 2002]
Tailored pathway pilots	2.0	Former Employment Service Units of Delivery:
		Bath and North East Somerset, Brighton, Coventry, Dorset, Dumfries and Galloway, Ealing and Hillingdon, Glasgow, Greater Nottinghamshire, Knowsley, Mid Wales Powys and Ceredigion, Newport Torfaen and Monmouth, North East Wales, Southampton, Torbay and South Devon, Wakefield, Waveney, Wearside

Note:

⁽¹⁾ These initiatives are being funded through the New Deal and Innovation Fund, therefore separate budget figures are not available.

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Health and Safety

Mr. Kirkwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what help he gives businesses in the Scottish Borders to improve health and safety in the workplace. [75853]

Mr. Nicholas Brown: The Department of Work and Pensions is the sponsor department for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the government body set up to help protect people at work.

Health and safety law is enforced in the Scottish Borders, as it is throughout Great Britain, either by HSE inspectors or inspectors from the relevant local authority, depending on the nature of the work activity. Businesses receive advice during inspection visits or they can contact their local enforcing authority. In addition, HSE works in partnership with other organisations such as Scottish Enterprise and trade associations to provide advice to businesses in Scottish Borders.

HSE provides information and advice on improving health and safety in businesses in a variety of other ways. HSE Infoline, a telephone public inquiry service, answers general inquiries, gives information about free and priced publications and directs callers to other sources of advice in HSE. Over 600 free publications are available from HSE's website (www.hse.gov.uk).

HSE is also assisting Scottish Executive and other stakeholders in Scotland in setting up an occupational health and safety support service for small and medium

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sized enterprises and their employees across Scotland. The service will provide telephone advice and guidance with the possibility of a workplace visit carried out by an occupational health nurse or equivalent health and safety specialist.

Mr. Kirkwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what plans he has to reform employer liability law. [75852]

Mr. Nicholas Brown: The Department is currently engaging with other interested Government Departments, the Health and Safety Executive and non-governmental organisations including the Confederation of British Industry, the Trades Union Congress and the Association of British Insurers to discuss their assessment of the long-term issues affecting employers' liability compulsory insurance.

Income Support

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of pensioners received part of their income from means-tested social assistance, benefits and income support in each of the last five years; and what his estimate is for this figure for the next five years. [78474]

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Mr. McCartney: The information is not available in the format requested. However around one third of pensioner benefit units have been in receipt of income-related benefits over the past five years. This proportion is expected to remain broadly constant over the next five years.

Notes:

1. We have defined pensioners by the Income Support definition i.e. where either partner is aged 60 or over.

2. Income related benefits have been defined as Housing Benefit, Council Tax Benefit and Income Support/Minimum Income Guarantee/Pension Credit. Each benefit unit is only counted once, for example a benefit unit in receipt of both Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit won't be counted in each group.

3. All estimates provided are consistent with those supplied for the 2002 Spending Review, and include the estimated effects of Pension Credit and New Tax Credits where appropriate.

4. Estimates provided include people in residential care and nursing homes as well as private households.

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