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Tax Discs

Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many tax discs were issued for vehicles in Northern Ireland in each of the last 10 years. [165730]

Angela Smith: The information is as follows.

	Number
1993–94	833,142
1994–95	838,952
1995–96	864,706
1996–97	900,397
1997–98	993,066
1998–99	984,502
1999–2000	1,007,788
2000–01	950,598
2001–02	1,051,654
2002–03	1,045,538
2003–04	(104)1,176,000

⁽¹⁰⁴⁾ Provisional outturn

TK-ECC Plant

Mr. Trimble: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what plans he has to bid to retain the vacant TK-ECC factory premises at Dundonald to encourage reinvestment into the area. [165910]

Mr. Gardiner: TK-ECC purchased the factory, freehold, from IDB in 1995 as part of a major disposal programme of fully developed estates. Invest NI has no plans to buy the factory back should it come onto the market.

The land is zoned as "existing employment/industry" and Invest NI will oppose any attempt to change that zoning and will seek to work with the private sector to obtain new tenants and encourage reinvestment in the area.

Travellers

Mr. McNamara: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will take steps to ensure Travellers have equal access to training as education and youth workers. [165856]

Mr. Gardiner: Access to courses of training for education or youth workers is open to all students who meet the requirements for entry to the respective courses. The arrangements for remission of tuition fees apply equally to students from the Traveller community as they do to students from other low income families. Students in higher education who satisfy residency requirements and whose family incomes are less than £20,970 do not pay anything towards their tuition fees. Likewise, Traveller students have the same access to student loans as other students. Where family income is under £20,000, they are eligible to receive non-refundable bursaries of up to £2,000 thereby reducing the amount of student loan they need to borrow. Supplementary grants such as Disabled Students' Allowance and childcare grants are also available.

Windfarm (Tunes Plateau)

Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what assessment he has made of
 
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the responses to the application for the establishment of a windfarm at the Tunes Plateau off the coast of Northern Ireland. [165736]

Mr. Gardiner: Pending completion of various technical and feasibility studies the development consortium has not yet made an application for the establishment of a wind farm at the Tunes Plateau.

WORK AND PENSIONS

Council Tax Benefit

Brian Cotter: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people are (a) eligible to receive and (b) receiving council tax benefit in (i) the constituency of Weston-super-Mare and (ii) the north Somerset unitary authority. [165681]

Mr. Pond: Information about the number of people who are eligible to receive Council Tax Benefit is not available below national level. At August 2003, there were 9,000 Council Tax Benefit recipients in north Somerset.

Notes:

1. The data refers to benefit units, which may be a single person, couple or family.

2. The figure is rounded to the nearest hundred and expressed in thousands.

3. Council Tax Benefit totals exclude any Second Adult Rebate cases.

4. Information about the number of people receiving Council Tax Benefit is not

available at constituency level.

Source: Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit Management Information System

Quarterly 100 per cent. caseload stock-count.

Mr. Peter Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many individuals in (a) Scotland and (b) Dumfries and Galloway are in receipt of council tax benefits. [165979]

Mr. Pond: The information is in the following table.
Council Tax Benefit recipients in Scotland and Dumfries and Galloway:

	Thousand
Scotland	523.9
Dumfries and Galloway	12.2

Notes:
1. The data refers to benefit units, which may be a single person, couple or family.
2. The figures are rounded to the nearest hundred and expressed in thousands.
3. Council Tax Benefit totals exclude any Second Adult Rebate cases.
Source:
Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit Management Information System Quarterly 100 per cent. caseload stock-count taken in August 2003.

Departmental Industrial Action

Adam Price: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the cost was of the two days' industrial action taken in February by staff in his Department; and what the cost was of moving priority work to other locations. [165825]

 
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Mr. Pond: It is not possible to estimate the financial cost without incurring disproportionate costs. Any costs incurred for example in extra overtime payments to staff, would be offset by the savings made on staff salaries. The Department's businesses routinely move work around locations in order to optimise their services. Our information technology enables this to be done without incurring extra costs. There was no significant movement of work during the strike action. Our contingency arrangements allowed us to minimise the disruption to services to the most vulnerable members of society for whom the Department's services exist.

Departmental Policies (Sustainable Development)

Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what target is set by his Department for the (a) completion and (b) publication of Health and Safety Executive reports into leaks at the UK chemical plants; and if he will make a statement. [165666]

Jane Kennedy: DWP does not set targets for the completion and publication of HSE reports into incidents at chemical plants. The length of time for publication of reports is dependent on the nature and complexity of the incident and the action that was taken.

Employment (Birkenhead)

Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on the levels of long-term (a) adult and (b) youth employment in Birkenhead over the last seven years. [166510]

Jane Kennedy: The UK has one of the strongest labour markets in the world. We have the highest employment and the lowest unemployment of the major industrialised countries. Employment is high across the UK: every region and country has an employment rate above the EU average. Claimant long term (one year plus) unemployment has been virtually eradicated for young people and has fallen by three-quarters for adults.

Specific information for Birkenhead is in the following table.

Birkenhead	February 1997	February 2004	Change
Total claimant unemployment	5,227	2,540	-51%
Unemployment as a proportion of       the working age population	11.4%	5.6%	-5.8 points
Aged 18–24 unemployed for more       than 1 year(105)	392	18	-95%
Aged 25 and over unemployed for       more than 1 year	1,682	371	-78%

Free TV Licences

Mr. Peter Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many people resident in Dumfries and Galloway are in receipt of a free television licence; [165980]

(2) how many residents of Dumfries and Galloway he estimates are over 75 years old. [165981]

Malcolm Wicks: The information is not available in the format requested.
 
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The number of households with at least one resident aged 75 or over in the Dumfries and Galloway local authority is 9,665. These households would therefore be eligible to receive a free TV licence.

We cannot accurately estimate how many residents of Dumfries and Galloway are over 75 year old. However, since the number of people in Dumfries and Galloway local authority aged 75 or over who received a winter fuel payment for winter 2002- 2003 was 12,175, this is an indication of the number of such people.

Notes:

1. Numbers are rounded to the nearest 5.

2. Any residence found to have 4 or more occupants is not included in these figures as it is assumed to be Residential Care Nursing Home.

Source:

IAD Information Centre, Winter Fuel Payment data Winter 2002–2003, 100 per cent. sample.

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