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19 Apr 2004 : Column 297W—continued

National Minimum Wage

Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many workers in Birkenhead have benefited from the national minimum wage. [166512]

Mr. Boateng: I have been asked to reply.

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.

Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Frank Field, dated 19 April 2004:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question about the number of workers in Birkenhead who have benefited from the national minimum wage (NMW). (166512)

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) calculates estimates of the number of jobs paid less than NMW rates for the United Kingdom and Government Office Regions. A guide to measuring low pay and associated articles and data can be found on the National Statistics website at: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=5837&Pos=1&ColRank=1&Rank=272

Estimates for Parliamentary Constituencies are not available.

New Performance and Development System

Adam Price: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions for what reasons the new performance and development system for his Department does not allow staff a grievance hearing and the right to be accompanied by a trades union representative when challenging a decision on their designated performance level; whether the system is comparable to that in other Government departments; and what best practice models were used as the basis for the system. [165847]

Mr. Pond: The Department has set out clear arrangements within the Performance and Development System guidance for allowing staff to raise issues about their appraisal and about their performance mark. This guidance also makes clear that individuals do have the right to be accompanied by a colleague, or Trade Union representative, where a member of staff raises a disagreement. PDS was developed using the best features from previous systems, in line with Cabinet Office recommendations and with the input of managers, staff and Trade Unions. It is similar to that used by some other Government
 
19 Apr 2004 : Column 298W
 
Departments, including Treasury and Cabinet Office and by outside organisations. We were supported in the research by consultants specialising in appraisal systems.

Mr. Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what evidence has been gathered by his Department to show that the new Performance and    Development System will improve staff (a) performance and (b) motivation. [165899]

Mr. Pond: The Performance and Development system was developed with input from staff, managers and Trade Unions, and in line with Cabinet Office recommendations. It was supported by independent consultants who researched and advised on best practice in both public and private sectors. The system provides a fair and objective assessment of performance against that of people at the same level doing similar work, a stronger focus on personal development, and more regular feedback, all of which is intended to improve motivation and performance.

This is only the end of the first year of the system, it is therefore too early to have tangible evidence of the results on motivation and performance. But experience in other organisations shows that the steps outlined above, coupled with planned work in the summer on continuous improvement, provide a sound basis for the future.

Mr. Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the administrative and implementation costs are for the Performance and Development System for his Department, broken down by the costs of (a) compulsory interim reviews, (b) compulsory self reviews, (c) compulsory personal development plans, (d) preparation and (e) training of the new staff. [165900]

Mr. Pond: The Performance and Development System (PDS) replaced seven legacy systems. Most of the features of PDS are not new, and existed in previous legacy arrangements. These have not been costed previously, all good employers have appraisal arrangements in line with Investors in People standards. While there have been additional costs this year, as there would be in any organisation introducing a new policy these have not been excessive, around 2–3 hours for each member of staff. We expect this investment in performance management and training (mostly using e-learning) to result in improved performance.

Norwich Pension Centre

Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many applications are waiting to be processed at the Norwich Pension Centre. [166381]

Malcolm Wicks: As at 2 April, there were 6,228 applications for Pension Credit waiting to be processed at Norwich Pension. Centre, of which 3,142 were awaiting further information or evidence from the customer. This represents a normal head of work.

Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many letters and e-mails from customers were awaiting a response at the Norwich Pension Centre on 1 April. [166382]

 
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Malcolm Wicks: Norwich Pension Centre is the largest Centre in the country, having a Pension Credit case load alone of 184, 000.

The centre currently receives on average 11,490 written customer communications per week, consisting chiefly of notifications of changes of individual circumstances, but including customer complaints. While not all of these communications necessitate a reply to the customer, most will require an intervention to the computer records in order to assess any action that may be required.

Norwich Pension Centre currently has 22,082 of these notifications outstanding, which for this particular Pension Centre, represents a normal two weeks head of work.

Over-70s

Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will estimate the total number of pensioner households with one or more householders over the age of 70 years, within the constituency of Middlesbrough, South and Cleveland, East, who will benefit from the Chancellor's recently announced council tax allowance. [165867]

Malcolm Wicks: The latest available data shows 7,870 households in the parliamentary constituency of Middlesbrough, South and Cleveland, East with at least one resident aged 70 or over. We expect the 2004–05 figures to be similar.

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 a Residential Care Nursing Home.

Source:

IAD Information Centre, winter fuel payments data winter 2002–03 100 per cent. sample.

Over-80s

Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pensioner households with one or more householders over the age of 80 years, within the constituency of Middlesbrough, South and Cleveland, East, have received the £300 winter fuel allowance. [165866]

Malcolm Wicks: The information requested is not yet available. However 3,385 people aged 80 or over in the parliamentary constituency of Middlesbrough, South and Cleveland, East so far have received a winter fuel payment this winter 2003–04.

Notes:

1. Numbers are rounded to the nearest five.

2. Please note that these figures for 2003–04 refer only to the main payment run ie they do not include the late payment run figures. We estimate that there are approximately 100,000 people in Great Britain paid via late payment runs (0.8 per cent. of all payments). However, since late payment runs are mainly in respect of non-system cases whose claims had not been received by the Qualifying Week, they are heavily skewed towards men aged 60.

Source:

IAD Information Centre, 100 per cent. sample.

 
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Pension Credit

Mr. David Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the cost is of the recent "Pick it Up, It's Yours" Pension Credit advertising campaign, broken down by (a) television, (b) radio, (c) newspaper, (d) poster and (e) other forms of advertising. [166475]

Malcolm Wicks: The total cost of publicity for the "Pick It Up, It's Yours" campaign was £15,580,000 for the 2003–2004 financial year. This included the following advertising media costs:

TV	3,570,864
National and regional press	6,086,146
Radio	123,168

The campaign also included other communications media. Commercial poster sites have not been used for this campaign. However, local publicity posters, e.g for display in community premises have been produced. The costs for these cannot be disaggregated.

Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the average cost was for a full page   pension credit advertisement in each publication used during the "Pick it Up, It's Yours", advertising campaign. [166540]

Malcolm Wicks: The advertising media for the "Pick It Up, It's Yours" campaign was procured using the Government's publicity agency COI Communications. This achieves maximum value for money by exploiting economies of scale across Government departments to negotiate the most favourable rates.

The average cost for a full page advertisement is therefore commercially confidential and is not disclosed in line with Part 2, Paragraph 13 of the Code of Practice on access to Government information.

Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions which advertising agency was used for the recent "Pick It Up, It's Yours" pension credit advertising campaign; and how much they received in payment for their services. [166541]

Malcolm Wicks: The advertising agency used for this campaign is Delaney Lund Knox Warren (DLKW). They received an estimated £815,171.06 (ex VAT) for their services. This figure, however, is based upon aggregate spending across all advertising managed by COI Communications, the Government's publicity agency. It will not be finalised until an overall agency reconciliation is completed at the end of May 2004.

Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to his answer of 19 January 2004, Official Report, column 1081W, on pension credit, how much of the estimated expenditure for 2004–05 represents back-dated entitlement for 2003–04; and what assumptions are made about the basis on which the savings credit threshold will be uprated in 2005. [166648]

Malcolm Wicks: It is estimated that in 2004–05, £190 million will be spent on backdated Pension Credit relating to 2003–04 entitlement.
 
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For the purposes of expenditure planning it has been assumed the Savings Credit Threshold will be increased in line with the Retail Prices Index. The actual uprating of Pension Credit will be determined in the annual uprating order.

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