| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
6 May 2004 : Column 1780W—continued
Child Support Agency (Solihull)
Mr. John Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will cause enquiries to be made into the conduct of the Child Support Agency case of Mary Ahern of Haslucks Croft, Shirley in the Solihull constituency. [170654]
Mr. Pond [holding answer 4 May 2004]: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mr. Doug Smith. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Doug Smith to Mr. John Taylor, dated 6 May 2004:
In reply to your recent Parliamentary question about the Child Support Agency the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will cause enquiries to be made into the conduct of the Child Support Agency case of Mary Ahern of Haslucks Croft, Shirley in the Solihull constituency.
As individual cases, are confidential, I will write to you separately about Mary Ahern when I respond to your letter dated 22 April 2004. This is in line with paragraph 12, part 2 of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information.
Civil Partnerships
John Barrett: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether those registering a civil partnership will be entitled to the same pension rights as married couples; and if he will make a statement. [171111]
Malcolm Wicks: Provisions in the Civil Partnership Bill would extend state pension rights and contracted-out survivor pension rights to same-sex couples who have formed a civil partnership.
Schedule 17 of the Bill amends state pensions legislation. These amendments would extend those state pension benefits that are equally available to husbands and wives to civil partners when the Bill comes into force. Other state pension benefits would be extended to civil partners from 2010, when the conditions of entitlement for all state pension benefits will be the same for husbands and wives.
The Civil Partnership Bill contains a pensions enabling power (Clause 187) which would allow my Department to amend the contracting out rules in relation to survivor pensions. The intention is to use this power to require:
contracted-out defined benefit pension schemes to take account of periods of pensionable service after commencement of the Civil Partnership Bill for the purposes of calculating survivor pensions for civil partners; and
contracted-out defined contribution schemes to provide survivor pension for civil partners from the protected rights accrued after commencement of the Civil Partnership Bill, if the member is in a registered civil partnership at the point of retirement.
Jobcentre Plus
Mrs. Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will list the membership organisations of the Job Centre Plus Provider Liasion Group. [168632]
Jane Kennedy: The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the Chief Executive of the Jobcentre Plus, David Anderson. He will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from David Anderson to Mrs. Annette Brooke, dated 6 May 2004:
As Jobcentre Plus is an Executive Agency, the Secretary of State has asked me to reply direct to your question about the membership organisations of the Jobcentre Plus Provider Liaison Group. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of the Agency.
The Jobcentre Plus Provider Liaison Group's membership includes representatives from several of our largest work-based private sector providers, together with providers in the voluntary and community sector, smaller private providers and Further Education establishments. In addition, membership includes the Association of Learning Providers (ALP), a trade body for the work-based sector who represent approximately 30 per cent. of Jobcentre Plus providers. The Group is supported by a small secretariat from Jobcentre Plus. Full membership of the Group is set out in Annex 1.
The purpose of the Group is to provide a forum in which providers are consulted on changes to policy and operational processes. In practice this gives them the opportunity to comment upon policies from their perspective as organisations that deliver these policies. The Group enables Jobcentre Plus to obtain the views of providers from a wide background and should help ensure that our business can be delivered more effectively and efficiently.
I hope this is helpful.
| Contact | Provider |
|---|---|
| David Bailey | Action for Employment |
| Steve Marsland | Action for Employment |
| Pat Taylor | Personnel Evaluation Consultants |
| George Allon | BTCV |
| Roger Cole | Pelcombe Training |
| Stephanie Baslington | Rathbone |
| Janet Pibworth | Seetec |
| Jim McIntosh | Shaw Trust |
| Teresa Jolly/Colin Kearney | Sheffield city council |
| George Baines | Standguide |
| Jim Gambles | Standguide |
| Martin Dunford | TBG learning |
| Dawn Marsh | The Training Network Group |
| A Townson | Bournemouth and Poole College |
| Gerard Irwin | Reed Co. UK. |
| Sian Woolson | Dash Training Ltd. |
| Diane Prosser | Dash Training Ltd. |
| Sharon Cooke | Bethany Group |
| Sarah Cooke | DHP enterprises |
| David Cameron | Scottish Council for voluntary organisations |
| Sarah Knight | Instant Muscle |
| Paul Warner | ALP |
| Adrienne Nolan | WACG LMD Skills and Int |
| Beth Simpson | DFES |
| Peter Jordan | LSC |
| David Williams | TD management Services |
| Jill Valentine | UFI |
Charles Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what the duties and responsibilities of Jobcentre Plus personal advisors are; [169973]
(2) what the set-up costs of Jobcentre Plus have been; [170023]
(3) how many (a) Jobcentre and (b) Jobcentre Plus centres there are in England. [170025]
Jane Kennedy: The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the Chief Executive of the Jobcentre Plus, David Anderson. He will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from David Anderson to Mr. Charles Hendry, dated 6 May 2004:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your questions concerning the cost of introducing Jobcentre Plus, the numbers of offices delivering our services to the public and what the duties and responsibilities of personal advisors are. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
The total cost recorded for Jobcentre Plus Implementation to the end of March 2004 is £608.9 million. Some financial adjustments still need to be made and the final figure for the year end is expected to show an increase on this amount.
In England our delivery network comprises:
388 Jobcentre Plus offices
454 Jobcentres
237 Social Security offices
We plan to complete the rollout of the new integrated service across Great Britain by 31 March 2006.
Jobcentre Plus is helping a wider range of customers than ever to secure employment with special focus on those customers who have to overcome particular barriers. Jobcentre Plus services are work focused for all customers, with personal advisers addressing individual customer needs.
Personal advisers make a key contribution to realising the Jobcentre Plus vision of a welfare system for people of working age that promotes work as the best form of welfare while providing appropriate help and support for those without jobs. They also deliver the service through which Jobcentre Plus will meet many of its aims, objectives and performance targets.
The key responsibilities for personal advisers are to:
carry out diagnostic, work targeted interviews to help customers understand the benefits of working and agree a realistic course of action to gain or move them closer to employment;
submit customers to appropriate vacancies;
manage a caseload of customers;
develop and maintain partnership working with Jobcentre Plus colleagues and employers/relevant external organisations to improve and extend the range of support for customers; and
help to protect the integrity of the benefit system by making sure people fulfil their responsibilities and remain entitled to benefit.
I hope this is helpful.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |