| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
10 Jun 2003 : Column 787W—continued
Agency Workers
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many agency workers have been employed by the Department in each of the last two years; and at what cost to public funds. [115195]
Maria Eagle: The Information is not available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Child Care
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on the operation of the Neighbourhood Nurseries Initiative in (a) the Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency, (b) Teesside and (c) the Government Office North East region, including the (i) level of funding and (ii) number of child care places created. [115533]
Maria Eagle: The Neighbourhood Nurseries Programme is making good progress.
Overall, 5,375 places are planned for the North East Region supported by £11,618,599 capital and £27,796,549 revenue funding. Our monitoring returns show that over 500 Neighbourhood Nursery places have so far been provided in the region. In Middlesbrough
10 Jun 2003 : Column 788W
South, a 50-place Neighbourhood Nursery will be provided in Coulby Newham serving the disadvantaged wards of Henlington, Stainton and Thornton. In East Cleveland, 84 places will be provided in the following wards:
- Skelton—34 places
Loftus—10 places
Guisborough—40 places.
Child Support Agency
Mr. David: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether there is equality of treatment between men and women with regard to the way tax credits are taken into account when CSA assessments are made. [113718]
Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many complaints about the standard of service offered by the agency were handled by the Child Support Agency over the past three years; and what the average length of time taken to deal with each complaint was. [115751]
Malcolm Wicks: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the chief executive, Mr. Doug Smith. He will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Doug Smith to Mr. Elfyn Llwyd, dated 10 June 2003:
- The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in replying to your recent parliamentary question about the Child Support Agency promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.
- You ask how many complaints about the standard of service offered by the Agency were handled by the Child Support Agency over the past three years; and what was the average length of time taken to deal with each complaint.
- I am unable to tell you how many of the complaints we receive relate to the standard of service offered by us. I do however have some relevant information relating to overall numbers of written complaints to the Agency.
- The average live caseload during the 3-year period was around 1,000,000.1 estimate that we received around 71,000 written complaints and within that total, around 15,000 were directed to me as chief executive. The average length of time taken to deal with this latter group of complaints was around 19 working days. The average number of complaints received as a percentage of the live caseload during the period was around 1.6%.
Vernon Coaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when he expects assessments made by the CSA under the old system will be assessed according to the new criteria. [117901]
Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment his Department has made of progress in the implementation of the new child support system; when the full transfer of existing child support cases onto the new system will take place; and if he will make a statement. [117735]
10 Jun 2003 : Column 789W
Malcolm Wicks: I refer my hon. Friends to the written answer I gave the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (John Thurso) on 22 May 2003, Official Report, column 919W.
Correspondence
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many staff have been employed in the Ministerial Correspondence Unit of the Department in each of the last two years. [115886]
Maria Eagle: In the correspondence section, which forms part of the Private Office, 20 staff deal with the registration, tracking and commissioning of replies to letters addressed to Ministers. This figure has not changed since the Department was formed in 2001.
Throughout the Department a large number of staff are involved in drafting letters for Ministers or replying to letters on Ministers behalf as part of their duties. This includes the 44.5 staff in the Ministerial Correspondence Unit who are involved in the drafting of replies to correspondence across a wide range of issues.
Mr. Salmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when he intends to reply to the letter of 5 February 2003 from the Member of the Scottish Parliament for Banff and Buchan regarding the topic of job seekers allowance and offshore workers. [118549]
Malcolm Wicks: A reply was sent on 5 March. I am arranging for a further copy to be sent.
10 Jun 2003 : Column 790W
Court Judgment (Kehoe)
Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on the implications of the judgment in R (on the application of Mary Kehoe) v. the Secretary of State. [118132]
Malcolm Wicks: The implications of the judgment on R (on the application of Mary Kehoe) v. Secretary of State for Work and Pensions are under active consideration by the Department. The Department has been granted leave to appeal.
Disability Living Allowance
Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [pursuant to his answer of 15 May to the hon. Member for Peterborough (Mrs. Clark), Official Report, columns 407–08W, on Disability Living Allowance, how many people are eligible for Disability Living Allowance; how much has been spent on Disability Living Allowance in each year since 1996; and if he will make a statement. [116043]
Maria Eagle: As regards eligibility, I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave him on 22 May, Official Report, Vol 406, Col 49W. At the end of November 2002, the latest date for which such information is available, some 2.44 million people in Great Britain were receiving Disability Living Allowance 1 . The requested information about expenditure is in the table.
- 1 Source:Disability Care and Mobility benefits—November 2002 Quarterly Statistical Enquiry.
| 1996–1997outturn | 1997–1998 outturn | 1998–1999 outturn | 1999–2000 outturn | 2000–2001 outturn | 2001–2002 outturn | 2002–2003 estimated outturn |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4,498 | 4,953 | 5,316 | 5,660 | 6,044 | 6,580 | 7,046 |
Notes:Expenditure for 2002–03 reflects the latest benefit-by-benefit estimate of outturn, and not the amounts voted by Parliament.
Source:Information and Analysis Directorate Benefit Forecasting and Modelling Division Benefit Expenditure tables, in nominal [cash] terms—published on 15 May 2003.
Efficiency Savings
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the target is for efficiency savings in 2003–04 expressed (a) in money terms and (b) as a percentage of the Department's expenditure limit. [114127]
Maria Eagle: There was no specific target for efficiency savings set for the Department for 2003–04. However, there were a number of targets set to improve value for money and increase the efficiency of administration. PSA targets for 2003–04 cover both SR2000 and SR2002.
Following SR2000 a PSA target was set to increase the efficiency of social security administration full details are available in the Department for Work and Pensions Departmental Report 2003.
As part of SR 2002 a new target was set "to improve delivery of the Departments services by setting published annual targets for each major business, addressing accuracy, unit costs and customer service, becoming progressively more demanding over the three-year period." Details of its application to each of DWP's Businesses are published in their individual Business Plans and are available in the Library. Details of the unit costs targets have still to be finalised and will be published separately.
Freedom of Information Act
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will list the electronic document and electronic record management systems which have been procured by the public authorities listed in Parts I to V of Schedule 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for which he is responsible. [116388]
Maria Eagle: The information is in the table.
10 Jun 2003 : Column 791W
| System | Use |
|---|---|
| Comet (including filenet) | A correspondence scanning system |
| Canon Scanfile | A document imaging system used in six locations |
| Tower Iimaging and Document Management | A system used to support processing using the Empower model |
| Stellent | The DWP Intranet Content Management system |
| Northern Ireland Industrial Injuries Branch Document Image Processing | A document Imaging system used for Industrial Injuries claim forms |
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |