Previous Section Index Home Page


14 Apr 2003 : Column 640W—continued

Benefit Payments

Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions claimants of which benefits are entitled to help from the adviser discretion fund; and how the eligibility criteria have changed since the scheme first began. [107415]

Malcolm Wicks: When the adviser discretion fund (ADF) was introduced in July 2001, it was available to people participating in New Deal for Young People, New Deal 25 plus, New Deal for Partners and New Deal for Disabled People (during the gateway interview only). It was also open to those New Deal for Lone

14 Apr 2003 : Column 641W

Parents participants who had not been in full-time work (i.e. more than 16 hours per week) or full-time education in the last six months.

In December 2001, the ADF was also made available to New Deal 50 plus participants.

From 7 April this year, the fund was extended to include other Jobcentre Plus customers in continuous receipt of one, or a combination of, the following benefits for 26 weeks or more:


Benefit Sanctions

Mr. Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will estimate the number of children in households subject to benefit sanctions, broken down by each category of sanction. [103389]

Malcolm Wicks: The information requested is not available.

Call Centres (Sheffield)

Adam Price: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions which call centre in Sheffield was recently awarded the contract previously held by Vetex in Pembroke Dock. [96268]

Maria Eagle: The Department for Work and Pensions issued an Invitation to Negotiate to a number of companies in September 2002 for additional telephone contact services, as part of The Pension Service. This will support the introduction of Pension Credit. Ventura were successful in this exercise and the Department has signed a contract with them. Ventura will run their centre in Wath on Deame. The other three sites will be DWP sites.

This is a newly contracted service, awarded under open competition. Its award did not result in any loss of a DWP contract by Vetex in Pembroke Dock.

The Pension Service already has more than 1,000 people working in Wales. These staff are based in local services, the National Winter Fuel Payments, The Pension Service Centres in Swansea, Wrexham, Cwmbran and Cardiff which is one of the Pension Credit telephone application centres.

On 31 March the Secretary of State announced that 250 jobs would be created in Pembroke Dock via the establishment of a DWP Jobcentre Plus contact centre.

Child Maintenance Regulations

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the estimated cost to public funds is in each of the next three years of the Social Security (Child Maintenance Premium and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations. [107792]

14 Apr 2003 : Column 642W

Malcolm Wicks: The cost of the child maintenance premium is estimated at £65 million in a full year, net of savings arising from the abolition of the child maintenance bonus.

Departmental Annual Report

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when the annual report of the Department will be published. [107869]

Maria Eagle: The spring 2003 departmental reports are to be published between 28 April and 16 May 2003. We will publish our departmental report within this window, and are aiming for publication on 15 May.

Departmental Events

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will list the (a) conferences, (b) seminars, (c) workshops, (d) exhibitions and (e) press conferences which have been sponsored by his Department and which took place on non-departmental premises in the last 12 months, broken down by title, purpose, date and cost. [104274]

Maria Eagle: The information is not available in the format requested and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

Departmental Expenditure

Mr. Prisk: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what his Department's total spending was on advertising and promotional campaigns between April 2002 and March 2003; and what the cost of each campaign was, broken down by costs relating to (a) television, (b) radio and (c) print media. [106445]

Maria Eagle: Between April 2002 and March 2003 the Department spent around £8 million alerting people to their rights, responsibilities and entitlements through advertising using either televisions, radio or press media. To break this figure down by individual media would be at disproportionate cost.

Disability Discrimination Act

Andrew Selous: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much access audits will cost village and community halls and other voluntary, charitable or community service providers under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. [109335]

Maria Eagle: Access audits are not a formal legal requirement under the Disability Discrimination Act. Therefore we have no information on how much they might cost for any specific sector.

Andrew Selous: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what action he will take against village and community halls and other voluntary service providers who do not have the funds to make reasonable adjustments required by the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. [109336]

Maria Eagle: None. The Disability Discrimination Act requires these organisations, like any other service provider, only to do what is reasonable to make their services accessible for disabled people. The cost of any

14 Apr 2003 : Column 643W

adjustments and the financial resources available to the sen/ice provider are taken into account in determining what is reasonable in each individual case.

Employers Liability Insurance

Annabelle Ewing: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when his Department's review of Employers Liability Compulsory Insurance will be concluded. [109347]

Mr. Nicholas Brown: We are in the process of assessing the responses to the consultation, undertaken as part of the review of Employers' Liability Compulsory Insurance. I refer the hon. Member to the written ministerial statement I gave on 12 December 2002, Official Report, columns 23–24W, which said that the review will report to Ministers in the spring.

European Working Groups

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on progress with achieving transparency in respect of the European working groups for which his Department is responsible. [105744]

Malcolm Wicks: The Government have long been committed to greater openness in the EU Institutions. This was a key theme of the UK Presidencies in 1992 and 1998. Making it easier to gain access to non-sensitive documents is crucial to this. The Government welcome Regulation 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents. As a result, more documents are released to the public, while genuinely sensitive documents are given the protection they need.

Much of the Council's work takes place in preparatory bodies, including working groups. The interests of the Department for Work and Pensions are represented in the Social Questions Working Party of the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council.

Accountability and transparency of Council business to Parliament are ensured by the scrutiny process, to which the Government are also firmly committed.

We strongly supported the measures agreed at the Seville European Council to make the Council more open when in legislating mode. We remain committed to increasing transparency. The Future of Europe Convention is also looking at ways to make the EU more open.

Fraud

Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to his answer of 20 March 2003, Official Report, column 931W, on the targeting fraud campaign, if he will provide comparable information on the cost of the targeting fraud campaign in each year since 1997 prior to September 2001; and what costs have accrued since March 2002. [107519]

Malcolm Wicks: There was no expenditure on the targeting fraud campaign prior to 1999. Between 1997 and 1999 the Department undertook press and radio advertising to promote the National Benefit Fraud Hotline.

14 Apr 2003 : Column 644W

The only costs accrued from April 1999 to March 2000 were for research in preparation for the targeting fraud campaign which began in May 2000. This came to a total of £234,020. Costs accrued from April 2000 to March 2001

£
TV advertising3,208,520
Press advertising841,020
Radio advertising588,701
Poster advertising226,890
Production186,482
Research (evaluation)170,190
Total5,221,803

Costs accrued from April 2001 to March 2002

£
TV advertising5,061,680
Press advertising1,119,651
Radio advertising852,516
Poster advertising1,006,781
Production517,379
Research (evaluation)257,150
Total8,833,157

Costs accrued from April 2002 to March 2003

The majority of the costs in this period are preparatory and production work for the next phase of the targeting benefit fraud campaign which is due to start in the summer of 2003.

£
TV advertising0
Press advertising0
Radio advertising34,315.42
Poster advertising0
Production594,249.19
Research (Evaluation)140,436.25
Total769,000.86


Next Section Index Home Page