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10 Nov 2003 : Column 139W—continued
Private Hospitals
Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of private hospitals do not have 24 hour cover from qualified doctors. [133046]
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Mr. Hutton: Establishments registered as independent hospitals, with the National Care Standards Commission under the Care Standards Act 2000, that have overnight beds for in-patients undergoing medical treatment or surgery are required as a national minimum standard to have a resident medical officer available on immediate call at all times to manage urgent care if a consultant under whom a patient has been admitted is absent or unavailable. Information on the proportion of private hospitals that have such beds is not collected centrally.
Public Service Contracts
Brian Cotter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many public service contracts were awarded by his Department (a) in total and (b) to SMEs in each year since 1997; and if he will make a statement. [127800]
Ms Rosie Winterton: This information is currently not held centrally and could not be obtained without disproportionate cost.
Teeth
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of the adult population had no natural teeth in (a) 1983, (b) 1993 and (c) at the latest date for which figures are available. [134609]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The proportion of the adult population with no natural teeth in 1978, 1988 and 1998 is shown in the following table. This data are available from the Adult Dental Health Survey, which is carried out every 10 years and covers adults aged 16 years and over in the United Kingdom.
| Percentage of the adult population with no natural teeth | |
|---|---|
| 1978 | 30 |
| 1988 | 21 |
| 1998 | 13 |
Source:
Adult Dental Health Survey, 1998.
WORK AND PENSIONS
Council Tax Benefit
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what proportion of those eligible for council tax benefit claimed the benefit in (a) Chorley, (b) Lancashire and (c) the North West Region in 2002–03; [135753]
- (2) what proportion of pensioners received council tax benefit in 2002–03; and what proportion of pensioners in Chorley who were eligible claimed the benefit. [135754]
Mr. Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will estimate the percentage of households wholly comprised of those aged over 60 years who were (a) wholly and (b) partially relieved of payments of council tax in 2002–03. [136542]
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Mr. Pond: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for Southwark, North and Bermondsey (Simon Hughes) on 4 November 2003, Official Report, column 610W.
Back-to-work Support (Over-50s)
Mr. Wray: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what back-to-work support is available for people aged over 50; and how many people over 50 have been put back into work through Government initiatives since 1997. [132948]
Mr. Browne: We are providing a wide range of services through Jobcentre Plus to help people aged over 50 looking for work. This includes job-search help and advice, training, and claiming in-work financial support. Well over 120,000 people aged over 50 have been helped back to work through Government programmes, such as New Deal 50 plus, since they began to be introduced in 1998. These programmes have helped to increase the employment rate of older workers by 5.4 per cent. from 64.7 per cent. in the spring of 1997 to 70.1 per cent. in the spring of 2003.
Benefit Claimants (Somerset)
Mr. Liddell-Grainger: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many young people from other counties who are 16 or over are claiming benefits in Somerset. [136549]
Mr. Pond: Details of a person's place of birth or origin are not routinely collected when they make a claim to benefit. Therefore, it is not possible to supply details of how many young people claiming benefits in Somerset come from outside the county.
Benefit Payments
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many of the people who have received a letter about direct payment of benefits have begun to receive benefits by automated credit transfer, broken down into those who have opted to have their benefits paid into (a) a Post Office card account, (b) a basic bank account and (c) a regular current account. [114414]
Mr. Pond: We are unable to supply the information in the format required.
Key figures on the progress of conversion to Direct Payment are available in the Library updated every four weeks.
We do not distinguish between existing or basic bank accounts.
Carers' Allowance
Sir Archy Kirkwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will estimate the cost of abolishing the overlapping benefits rule for the payment of carers' allowance. [134645]
Maria Eagle: The overlapping benefit rules are a fundamental feature of the social security system. They prevent the payment at the same time of two or more benefits intended for the same purpose.
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The estimated gross cost of abolishing these rules for the payment of carers' allowance would be around £330 million a year 1 . After adjusting for offsets in income-related benefits 2 , the estimated net cost would be about £195 million a year. These figures do not take account of the behavioural effect of carers presently not claiming carer's allowance who would be induced to do so by a change in the rules.
- 1 Gross costs are calculated from data taken from a 100 per cent extract of CA claims on the CA computer system for May 2003. They allow for cases where an underlying entitlement exists but records are not currently held on the system.
- 2 Offsets are calculated from a 5 per cent. extract of claims on the Income Support computer system in 2003 and a per cent. extract of the Housing Benefit/Council Tax Benefit claims of May 2001.
Child Maintenance Bonus
John Thurso: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will estimate the value of accrued entitlements to the child maintenance bonus among lone parents in receipt of income support in Scotland; and if he will make it his policy to preserve accrued entitlements to the child maintenance bonus once the new child support rules are applied to all families. [135935]
Mr. Pond: I refer the hon. Member to the written answer I gave the hon. Member for Northavon (Mr. Webb) on 23 October 2003, Official Report, columns 703–04W.
Child Support Agency
Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what guidelines are used by the Child Support Agency in dealing with cases where automatic deductions from pay have been made by an employer, but have not been passed on to the CSA; and what plans he has to review these guidelines. [132281]
Mr. Pond: 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 Mike Isaac to Mr. Huw Irranca-Davies, dated 10 November 2003:
- In replying to your recent Parliamentary question about the Child Support Agency the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive. As he is currently on leave I am replying on his behalf.
- You asked what guidelines the Child Support Agency uses in dealing with cases where automatic deductions from pay have been made by an employer, but have not been passed on to the Agency.
- Where a deduction from earnings is made the employer is required to pay it to the Agency by, at the latest, the 19th of the month following that in which the deduction was made. The Agency will contact the employer soon after the 19th of the month if a payment is not received. While non-receipt of payment from an employer is rare we will also contact the non-resident parent and inform them that payment has not been received from their employer.
Mr. Tynan: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many liability orders were granted in the last 12 months following enforcement action by the Child Support Agency; [135644]
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- (2) whether priority is given by the Child Support Agency to enforcement action in cases (a) where the parent with care is in receipt of income support and other similar benefits and (b) where the parent with care is not; [135645]
(3) what the maximum acceptable timescale is for the Child Support Agency to complete an enforcement action from its commencement; what proportion of cases met these targets in 2002–03; and what procedures are in place to monitor compliance with these targets. [135755]
Mr. Pond: 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 Mike Isaac to Bill Tynan, dated 10 November 2003:
- In replying to your recent Parliamentary questions about the Child Support Agency the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.
- You asked:
- How many liability orders were granted in the last 12 months following enforcement action by the Agency;
- Whether the Agency gives priority to enforcement action in cases where the parent with care is in receipt of income support and other similar benefits;
- What the maximum acceptable timescale is for the Agency to complete enforcement action, what proportion of cases met such targets in 2002–03, and what procedures are in place to monitor compliance with these targets.
- From the 1 October 2002—30 September 2003 the Agency was granted 3,169 Liability Orders by the courts in England, Scotland and Wales.
- Where a non-resident parent refuses to pay the assessed maintenance for their child(ren) we always consider appropriate enforcement action. For employed non-compliant parents the Agency would usually seek to implement deduction from earnings orders from their earnings. For those who are self-employed, or who have other forms of income, we have to take action through the courts. We always seek to give equal priority to those parents with care who are in receipt of benefit and to those who are not.
- Currently, there are no set timescales for the completion of enforcement action. The time taken varies according to the circumstances of the case, the availability of court dates, the non-attendance of the non-resident parent in court, etc. We are looking to include targets for the different processes that comprise our enforcement action next year.
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when he expects that existing cases will be migrated to the new system of operating the Child Support Agency. [136011]
Mr. Pond: I refer my hon. Friend to the written answer I gave the hon. Member for Moray (Angus Robertson) on 16 September 2003, Official Report, columns 696–97W.
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