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1 Sept 2003 : Column 884W—continued
Lost Working Days
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the number of working days lost because of chronic pain in England in each year since 1997. [126352]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
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Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Paul Burstow, dated 21 July 2003:
- As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question concerning how many people died from (a) strokes and (b) stroke-related diseases each year since 1997, broken down by age group. (126506)
- I refer you to the answer given in Hansard on 18th July 2001, column 213 to Linda Perham MP indicating that figures are to be found in the annual reference volumes 'Mortality Statistics: Cause DH2.' The latest publication in this series contains figures for stroke for 2001 and is available on the National Statistics website at: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme health/Dh2 28/DH2No28.pdf
- Causes of death in England and Wales were coded to the Ninth Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-9) from 1979 to 2000. Cerebrovascular diseases, which includes stroke and related conditions, were coded to 430–438. In the Tenth Revision (ICD-10), introduced in 2001, the same conditions are coded to 160–169. However, the way in which the underlying cause of death is selected from the conditions written on the certificate changed in ICD-10. This led to an increase of approximately 13% in the number of deaths attributed to cerebrovascular diseases in men and 9% in women. Time trends should therefore be interpreted with caution. The effects of the change in classification has been described in detail in ONS publications.i,ii
- i Office for National Statistics. Results of the ICD-10 bridge-coding study, England and Wales, 1999. Health Statistics Quarterly 14 (2002), 75–83.
- ii Rooney C, Griffiths C, Cook L. The implementation of ICD-10 for cause of death coding—some preliminary results from the bridge coding study. Health Statistics Quarterly 13 (2002), 31–41.
Chief Economic Adviser
Mr. Flight: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the responsibilities of the Treasury's Chief Economic Adviser. [126507]
John Healey: The Chief Economic Adviser to the Treasury advises on a broad range of the Treasury's macroeconomic and microeconomic policies. In addition he is the Chairman of the International Monetary and Financial Deputies Committee, the UK chair of the G20 Deputies and a member of the Treasury Management Board.
Customs and Excise
Mr. Flight: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will set up a review of the corporate governance guidelines of (a) HM Customs and Excise and (b) the Inland Revenue, with particular reference to the composition of their boards. [126485]
John Healey: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for Weston-super-Mare (Brian Cotter) on 2 July 2003, Official Report, column 270W.
Coinage
Mr. Evans: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many £1 coins are in circulation. [126112]
Mr. Boateng: No reliable estimate of the number of coins in circulation is available.
Consultation Documents
John Barrett: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the consultation documents issued by his Department in each of the last four years; what the cost
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was of producing each of these; how many documents were issued in each consultation; and how many responses were received in each consultation. [124577]
John Healey: The Government recommend that policy development should be done in close consultation with stakeholders. Formal consultation documents are only one part of a process, which includes meetings with stakeholders, consultation seminars, regional events and public meetings.
The specific information requested is not collated on a central basis and could be provided only at a disproportionate cost. However, a list of consultations run by the Treasury is available on the department's website at www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/Consultations and Legislation.
EDS/Accenture Computer Systems
Mr. Cousins: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many (a) system failures, (b) faults and (c) downtime incidents there were on (i) the EDS supplied computer systems and (ii) the Accenture supplied computer systems in his Department and its agencies in each month since 1 April 2002. [125632]
John Healey [holding answer 14 July 2003]: The Inland Revenue and Valuation Office Agency are the only Treasury Departments and agencies that have IT services provided by EDS or Accenture.
The following table shows the extent of systems failures, faults and downtime incidents attributable to EDS against contractual performance measures from 1 April 2002 to 31 March 2003.
| Month | Number of systems failures | Number of faults | Number of downtime incidents |
|---|---|---|---|
| April 2002 | 0 | 6 | 13 |
| May 2002 | 0 | 4 | 1 |
| June 2002 | 0 | 3 | 10 |
| July 2002 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| August 2002 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| September 2002 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| October 2002 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| November 2002 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| December 2002 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| January 2003 | 0 | 6 | 2 |
| February 2003 | 0 | 5 | 4 |
| March 2003 | 0 | 6 | 4 |
Note:
Overall average availability of the EDS systems has been 99.78 per cent. against an agreed average service level target of 98.7 per cent.
For the period from 1 April 2002 to 31 March 2003 the NIRS2 service provided by Accenture was contracted to be available for a total of 5,082 hours. During that period there was a total of 17.7 hours of system unavailability. This equated to three incidents—classified as either service failure or downtime incidents attributable to Accenture—where the weekly service level target was not met. Overall average availability of the NIRS2 system has been 99.6 per cent. against an agreed service level target of 98 per cent. The two smaller systems supported by Accenture, Employers Index and
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Debt Management System, have achieved their respective service level targets for system availability since April 2002.
EU Legislation
Bob Spink: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many regulations originating from the EU have been implemented by the Treasury in each of the last five years. [120754]
John Healey: It would be disproportionately costly to identify which of the EC, ECSC and Euratom Regulations made in the last five years, the Treasury was responsible for, as the Department does not keep a central record of this information.
EU Directives and Regulations are published in the Official Journal of the European Communities, which can be found at: http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/
Euro
Mr. Cash: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the treatment of the membership of the euro under the draft Constitutional Treaty on the Future of Europe. [125714]
Mr. Boateng: The constitutional treaty produced by the European Convention confirms that "those member states which have not adopted the euro, and their central banks, shall retain their powers in monetary matters." (I-29.4). The constitutional treaty does not alter the terms of the UK's EMU protocol. The UK's EMU protocol will be re-adopted on the conclusion of the IGC.
Financial Products (Mis-selling)
Dr. Cable: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many complaints of mis-selling of (a) endowment policies and (b) other financial products by (i) tied agencies and (ii) independent financial advisers have been upheld by the Financial Ombudsman Service in (A) 2001, (B) 2002 and (C) 2003; what the total of fines levied for each category was by year; what average length of time it took to investigate each complaint; and what the longest period was a complaint has remained open. [126076]
Mr. Boateng: The Financial Ombudsman Service has advised the Treasury that the number of complaints upheld either wholly or in part were as follows.
| Substantially upheld | Upheld in part | |
|---|---|---|
| 2002–03 | ||
| IFAs | 359 | 110 |
| Tied Agents | 3,906 | 854 |
| 2001–02 | ||
| IFAs | 385 | 95 |
| Tied Agents | 2,758 | 690 |
| 2000–01(63) |
(63) In 2000–01, the Personal Investment Authority Ombudsman Bureau (PIAOB) dealt with mortgage endowment and other investment product complaints. The PIAOB did not record statistics about case outcome that can be analysed in this way. However, across the range of investment related complaints against both IFAs and tied agents, 46 per cent. of complaints were resolved by conciliation or mediation where both parties agreed voluntarily and of those cases that were resolved by adjudication or a final decision by an ombudsman, 22 per cent. were upheld in favour of the consumer.
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| Substantially upheld | Upheld in part | |
|---|---|---|
| 2002–03 | ||
| IFAs | 411 | 201 |
| Tied Agents | 3,109 | 1,853 |
| 2001–02 | ||
| IFAs | 170 | 68 |
| Tied Agents | 1,142 | 804 |
| 2000–01(65) |
(64) Personal pension plans, whole-of-life/non mortgage linked endowments and other 'packaged' investment products.
(65) In 2000–01, the Personal Investment Authority Ombudsman Bureau (PIAOB) dealt with mortgage endowment and other investment product complaints. The PIAOB did not record statistics about case outcome that can be analysed in this way. However, across the range of investment related complaints against both IFAs and tied agents, 46 per cent. of complaints were resolved by conciliation or mediation where both parties agreed voluntarily and of those cases that were resolved by adjudication or a final decision by an ombudsman, 22 per cent. were upheld in favour of the consumer.
The Financial Ombudsman Service does not punish or fine firms—the regulator, the Financial Services Authority, takes any such action.
In resolving disputes, the ombudsman service may make a 'money award' against a firm of such amount as it considers fair compensation for financial loss and or pain and suffering or damage to reputation or distress or inconvenience. Additionally or alternatively, the ombudsman service can 'direct' a firm to take such steps in relation to the complainant, as the ombudsman considers just and appropriate.
The Financial Ombudsman Service does not record 'money award' data as any such figure would not include cases which have been settled by way of agreeing that an offer of redress that a firm has made is fair compensation nor would it include the equivalent monetary value of any 'direction' that the ombudsman service may give.
Each year, the ombudsman service sets timeliness targets for resolving complaints. In 2000–01, 73 per cent. of cases at the PIAOB were closed within six months; 19 per cent. took between six and 12 months and 8 per cent. took over 12 months.
In 2001–02, the Financial Ombudsman Service closed 73 per cent. of cases within six months and 96 per cent. of cases within 12 months.
In 2001–02, the average time taken to resolve and close a case was just over five months.
In 2002–03, the ombudsman service introduced a new three month target and reported that it resolved 44 per cent. of cases within this time and that it resolved 76 per cent. of cases within six months.
The ombudsman service refined the measure for the average time taken and reported that it took just under four months to resolve a complaint by mediation or conciliation. And, where a detailed investigation was
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required to settle the dispute—involving a full ombudsman review and decision—the average time taken was eight and a half months.
The oldest ombudsman case still open dates back to November 1997, and has remained open for 2,035 days.
It is the ombudsman service's policy to report any case that remains open to its Board so that the Directors can satisfy themselves that there are valid reasons for a case to be more than a year old.
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