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Vibration White Finger

Jeff Ennis: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many compensation claims for vibration white finger have been denied and are awaiting reconsideration; and how long it will take for all of these to be reconsidered. [122098]

Mr. Timms: There are approximately 26,500 vibration white finger claims that have been denied on the basis of occupation. Of these 13,500 have contended their denial and submitted evidence and 13,000 had not contended the denial by the cut off date of 31 October 2002.

IRISC are currently carrying out a review of these latter claims to identify Group One and Two cases and disputed Group Three cases. This review will take approximately six months to complete. Once complete we will know the number of claims that are solely disputed Group Three claims. We will then have a clearer understanding of how long it will take to carry out an investigation and conclude these claims.

Wind Energy

Lembit Öpik: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of wind turbines on private and unlicensed aerodromes which operate under the unofficial air safety measures promoted in DoE Circular 2/92; and if she will make a statement. [122035]

Mr. Timms: The Department is responsible for considering electricity generating station consent applications under the Electricity Act for wind farms over 50 megawatts onshore and 1 megawatt offshore in England and Wales. For individual applications developers are expected to consult all the relevant stakeholders including aviation interests in preparing and environment impact statement for any development. Developers are also required to advertise applications both national and locally and this provides a route for interested parties to raise concerns or make representations to the my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. As a matter of course the Department consults the Civil Aviation Authority on individual applications, so that the impact an aviation can be considered.

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WORK AND PENSIONS

Ad Hoc Posts

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will list the people appointed to ad hoc posts within his Department bearing the titles of advocate, tsar, adviser, champion and comparable titles since May 1997; what their job title is or was; what their role is or was; whether they were or are being paid; what the total cost of each such person was in each financial year, including expenses and benefits; what the expected cost of each such person is in 2003–04; to whom they are accountable; and if he will make a statement. [112457]

Malcolm Wicks: Ministers in the former Department of Social Security appointed the following special Advisers:

Special advisers	Duration of appointment
Liz Kendall	4 May 1997 to 27 July 1998
John McTernan	4 May 1997 to 27 July 1998
Andrew Maugham	28 July 1998 to 6 May 2001
Elsbeth Johnson	10 May 1999 to 21 May 2001

Ministers in the Department for Work and Pensions, formed on 7 June 2001, have appointed the following special advisers:

Special adviser	Duration of appointment
Andrew Maugham	17 June 2001 to 29 May 2002
Kieran Simpson	24 July 2001 to 30 August 2002
Tom Restrick	14 January 2002 to 30 May 2002
Tom Clark	16 September 2002 to present
Chris Norton	23 September 2002 to present
James Kelly	11 November 2002 to 14 June 2003
Julian McCrae	6 January 2003 to 14 June 2003

All of the appointees are paid appointments and are accountable to Ministers for their decisions and actions.

Under exemption 12 of the code of Practice on Access to Government Information, details of individual salaries are not disclosed, in order to protect the privacy of the individuals concerned.

No other appointees bear any of the other titles described.

Child Poverty

Andy King: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions who the members are of the technical committee advising the Department on the next steps following the publication of 'Preliminary conclusions-measuring child poverty'. [121213]

Maria Eagle: 'Measuring Child Poverty Consultation: preliminary conclusions' was published in May 2003. This outlines recommendations and next steps based on a thorough analysis of the responses to the consultation. It is available in the Library.

The report states that further technical work is necessary before finalising any new measure of child poverty and that we intend to publish final conclusions by the end of 2003. As this technical work is of a highly

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methodological nature, we have asked a small group of academics to assist in this work. These academics are experts in issues pertaining to poverty measurement.

They are: Sir Tony Atkinson (University of Oxford); Jonathan Bradshaw (University of York and Family Budget Unit); Alissa Goodman (Institute of Fiscal Studies); John Hills (London School of Economics); Stephen McKay (University of Bristol); and Chris Whelan (Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin).

Child Support Agency

Shona McIsaac: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many cases were dealt with by the CSA in each of the last five years in Cleethorpes constituency. [121535]

Maria Eagle: 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 Ms Shona McIsaac dated 27 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 cases were dealt with by the Child Support Agency in each of the last five years in Cleethorpes constituency.

In each of the last five years we received the following applications from parents with care where address is in Cleethorpes:

Year to 31 March	Applications
1998	300
1999	300
2000	200
2001	100
2002	100

Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will estimate how long it takes on average to (a) complete and (b) process the application form for financial assistance from the Child Support Agency; and whether his Department has a target for the number of applications to be processed. [121578]

Maria Eagle: 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. Matthew Taylor, dated 30 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 long it takes on average to (a) complete and (b) process the application form for financial assistance from the Child Support Agency; and whether his Department has a target for the number of applications to be processed.

I will be providing the Secretary of State with a full set of information after the first quarter of the Agency's business year. The Secretary of State intends to report this information to the House.

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Disability Living Allowance

Andy King: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many unemployed single adults received disability living allowance owing to mental illness in each year from 1992 to 2002. [121214]

Maria Eagle: Not all of the information requested is available. Such information as is available is in the table.

Numbers of people aged between 16 and 64 for men and 16 and 60 for women receiving disability living allowance (DLA) and other key benefits for sick and disabled people ¹ , whose family status is single ² , not employed for 16 or more hours a week in remunerative work ³ , and whose main disabling condition is psychosis ⁴ , psychoneurosis, personality disorder, or alcohol abuse, in each of the years from 1995 ⁵ to 2002.

¹ The figures are for recipients of certain key benefits, in addition to DLA, which are used for client group analysis. These are Income Support with disability premiums, Incapacity Benefit, Severe Disablement Allowance and Jobseeker's Allowance with disability premiums. It is not possible to quote figures for DLA alone.

² There are a number of DLA recipients whose family status is unknown and who are not included in the figures

³ A person doing 16 or more hours of remunerative work would be treated as in full-time employment and hence ineligible for any of the four key benefits, but the figures do include a small number of DLA only recipients who may also be in full-time employment.

⁴ Medical advice is that, of the range of disabling mental conditions recorded for the purposes of DLA, these four are clearly forms of "illness", as opposed to developmental abnormality.

⁵ The use of medical codes in recording data on DLA records started from 1995.

	Thousand
1995	35.0
1996	46.4
1997	59.5
1998	70.3
1999	79.2
2000	87.6
2001	99.7
2002	113.4

Notes:

1. Figures given are for an average of quarters available in that year.

2. Figures are based on a 5 per cent. sample.

3. Figures are rounded to the nearest hundred.

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