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29 Jan 2003 : Column 932W—continued

Sickness Absence

Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the rate of staff (a) absenteeism and (b) sickness

29 Jan 2003 : Column 933W

was in his Department and each of its agencies and non-departmental public bodies in each year from 1990–91 to 2002–03; what the target set is for his Department; and if he will make a statement. [93504]

John Healey: Information on absenteeism is not available. Unauthorised absence is recorded as unpaid leave along with authorised unpaid absence (such as maternity leave or career breaks) and cannot be disaggregated.

29 Jan 2003 : Column 934W

Information on sickness absence covering the Treasury, Customs and Excise, the Valuation Office Agency, Inland Revenue, the Department for National Savings, the Government Actuary Department and the Office for National Statistics is published by the Cabinet Office in their annual reports on "Analysis of Sickness Absence in the Civil Service".

Information since 1994 from those reports is as follows:

Average working days absence per staff-year

	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001
Customs and Excise	8.3	9.6	9.1	8.9	9.4	9.6	9.0	8.7
Inland Revenue	9.6	10.8	10.8	11.9	11.0	11.5	10.9	9.5
Valuation Office Agency	—	—	—	9.8	9.0	10.1	9.2	7.0
Office for National Statistics (Central Statistical Office)	9.1	11.5	—	9.1	9.6	8.8	8.0	7.9
Department for National Savings	14.3	16.1	14.3	10.9	9.6	4.7	8.8	2.2
Government Actuary Department	5.8	5.8	10.4	6.2	6.7	6.7	6.6	6.9
HM Treasury	7.0	8.4	5.1	4.9	5.3	5.5	3.9	4.7

Information for the Royal Mint and the Debt Management Office is as follows:

Average working days absence per staff-year

	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001
Royal Mint	7.5	8.2	8.0	5.8	6.3	6.5	5.4	5.9
Debt Management Office	—	—	—	—	0	0.5	0.3	1.1

Information for 2002 will be announced in due course. Sick absence targets for Customs and Excise, Inland Revenue, Valuation Office Agency, ONS and HM Treasury are reported in the relevant departmental or annual reports. These are available on the relevant websites. Targets for DNS, GAD and the Royal Mint are in the following table. The DMO are reviewing their sick management policies.

Sick absence target
DNS	4.3 working days by 2003
GAD	7.5 working days by end of March 2003.
Royal Mint	6.3 days for non-industrial staff for 2003

Tax Regime

Mr. Cousins: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will change the Inland Revenue regime for life insurance and tax exempt savings plans; and when he will next meet the Association of Friendly Societies. [93974]

John Healey: The Sandler review of the market for medium and long-term retail savings, which was published last July, recommended two changes to the regime for taxing life insurance products. These changes are the abolition of qualifying policies and the replacement of the so-called 5 per cent. tax-deferral rule which applies to withdrawals.

As we announced in the Pre-Budget Report, the Government are considering these proposals as part of the Budget process and is discussing their implications with the insurance industry and friendly society movement. I understand that the Association of Friendly Societies (AFS) has been in frequent contact with Treasury and Inland Revenue officials. I am not aware of any recent request from the AFS for a meeting with Treasury Ministers.

Unemployment (Fife)

Mr. MacDougall: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the latest figure is for unemployment in the Fife region for (a) men, (b) women, (c) men over 50 and (d) women over 50. [93558]

John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.

Letter from Len Cook to Mr. MacDougall, dated 29 January 2003:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question about unemployment in Fife. (93558)

The local Labour Force Survey for March 2001 to February 2002 (not yet adjusted for the 2001 Census) shows an estimated 15,000 unemployed people resident in the Fife local authority district. No figures by age and sex are available as the sample sizes are too small to provide reliable estimates.

The Office for National Statistics also compiles claimant count statistics for local areas of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance. The following table shows the figures for Fife in December 2002.

Claimant count in Fife local authority district—not seasonally adjusted (December 2002)

	Men	Women
Total claimants	6,499	1,931
Age 50 and over	1,229	376

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Written Parliamentary Questions

Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what proportion of written parliamentary questions received by his Department in 2001–02 were not answered substantively within (a) two weeks, (b) one month and (c) three months; and if he will make a statement. [93445]

John Healey: Treasury Ministers attach importance to answering parliamentary questions promptly. In the 2001–02 session, 4,618 of the 5,888 written questions to the Treasury (78.4 per cent.) received substantive replies on or before the due date for answering. 111 (1.9 per cent. of the total) had not been answered within two weeks, 57 (1.0 per cent.) within one month and 43 (0.7 per cent.) within three months. In the 2002[en rule]03 session to date, 76.7 per cent. of all written questions have been answered on time.

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WORK AND PENSIONS

Attendance Allowance

Mr. Paul Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will set out for each quarter from September 2000 (a) how many applications for attendance allowance have been received, and of those how many were (i) successful, (ii) unsuccessful, (iii) subject to appeal and (iv) successful at appeal, (b) what the average processing time has been for attendance allowance for (i) first-time claims and (ii) appeals for claims to be reconsidered, (c) how many applications for attendance allowance have (i) been subject to reconsideration and (ii) successful at reconsideration, and what was the average number of days taken to process appeals, and (d) how many (i) claims, (ii) reviews, (iii) reconsiderations and (iv) appeals there were on which a decision had not been reached at the end of each quarter of the last three years. [89826]

Maria Eagle: Such information as can reliably be made available is contained in the table. Information is not available on claims, reviews, reconsiderations and appeals on which a decision had not been reached (part (d) of the question).

Number of applications for Attendance Allowance received, successful and unsuccessful each quarter from September 2000

	Received	Successful	Unsuccessful
September–November 2000	101,715	78,680	25,415
December 2000-February 2001	90,745	66,130	21,380
March-May 2001	103,190	77,405	24,720
June-August 2001	102,050	75,870	23,525
September-November 2001	97,470	76,395	23,110
December 2001-February 2002	87,690	68,290	20,470
March-May 2002	107,395	79,740	22,560
June-August 2002	96,870	74,365	21,595
September-November 2002	99,905	80,745	23,185

The figures for successful and unsuccessful claims relate to the decisions given during that period and will not necessarily equate to the number of claims received during the period.

Further data regarding appeals is not available at this time.

Actual average clearance times AACT (in working days) for normal rules (NR) claims, reconsiderations and appeals (Attendance Allowance) April 2000 to December 2002

		AACT
Total quarter	Date	NR claims	Reconsiderations	Appeals
2000–01
1	April-June 2000	36.1	58.7	68.8
2	July-September 2000	31.8	50.0	69.7
3	October-December 2000	26.4	44.6	55.7
4	January-March 2001	26.7	40.1	47.9
2001–02
1	January-March 2001	26.0	35.0	38.9
2	July-September 2001	27.9	36.8	36.1
3	October-December 2001	28.9	36.9	36.8
4	January-March 2002	25.4	36.5	34.2
2002
1	April-June 2002	24.6	34.1	33.4
2	April-June 2002	26.6	32.8	32.2
3	October-December 2002	24.1	32.2	31.8

Source:

Information supplied by MIS Support (FPMT) Norcross

Data from National Management Information Pack

Number of attendance allowance reconsiderations each quarter from September 2000

	Decisions	Successful
September-November 2000	7,955	3,465
December 2000-February 2001	6,050	2,480
March-May 2001	5,900	2,435
June-August 2001	5,930	2,425
September-November 2001	5,495	2,140
December 2001-February 2002	5,575	2,390
March-May 2002	5,325	2,265
June-August 2002	5,495	2,420
September-November 2002	6,120	2,710

Source:

IAD Information Centre 100 per cent data taken from 100 per cent extract of monthly management information system and rounded to the nearest 5.

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