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27 May 2004 : Column 1796W—continued
Compensation Recovery Unit
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many cases (a) were registered with the Compensation Recovery Unit and (b) resulted in repayment of benefits to the CRU in each of the last 10 years; what the total repaid to the CRU was; and if he will make a statement. [173563R]
Mr. Pond [holding answer 17 May 2004]: The available information is in the table.
| 2001–02 | 2002–03 | 2003–04 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total number of claims registered | 688,315 | 706,715 | 770,243 |
| Total number of benefit recovery cases | 35,907 | 40,258 | 39,995 |
| Total benefit recovered | 139,130,000 | 166,590,000 | 171,110,000 |
Note:
It is not possible to provide the requested information prior to the year 2001–02 as records are only kept for the most recent three years.
Payroll Adjustments
Mr. Willetts:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will list the (a) upward and
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(b) downward payroll adjustments an employer may have to make as a result of the policies of his Department. [175180]
Jane Kennedy: There are limited circumstances under which an employer may need to make payroll adjustments as a result of our policies.
Statutory Maternity Pay and Statutory Sick Pay are both paid by employers and may require payroll adjustments. Employers may also need to implement a Deduction from Earnings Order if the Child Support Agency deems this necessary to ensure a non-resident parent fulfils their responsibilities as a parent.
It is also sometimes necessary, where voluntary agreements have failed, for employers to administer an Attachment of Earnings Order in relation to the enforcement of debt recovery through the civil courts.
Departmental Staffing
Mr. Lyons: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many of his Department's employees are working in Strathkelvin and Bearsden; [176469]
(2) how many of his Department's employees are working in Scotland. [176470]
Maria Eagle: As at 31 March 2004, a total of 15,487 Department for Work and Pensions employees were based in Scotland. This figure includes 536 temporary staff. The information is not collected for parliamentary constituencies.
Disabled Workers
Mr. Benton: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on the measures introduced to improve the working conditions of disabled workers in Bootle over the last seven years. [176238]
Maria Eagle: We have a number of measures in place nationally to help improve conditions for disabled people at work, as well as measures to improve their access to services generally. None of these are specific to Bootle, but all are available to disabled people who live and work there.
From 1996, the employment provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act required most employers of 20 or more staff not to discriminate against, and to make reasonable adjustments for, disabled job applicants or employees; in December 1998, we reduced this threshold to 15 employees. From October this year, the small employer exemption will be removed and most currently excluded occupations, such as police officers, firefighters, and partners in business partnerships will be brought within the scope of the Disability Discrimination Act employment provisions.
Jobcentre Plus runs a number of specialist programmes providing help for disabled people, including New Deal for Disabled People, Workstep, Access to Work, the Job Introduction Scheme, and Work Preparation. All these programmes provide practical advice and support to disabled people and their employers to help overcome work related obstacles resulting from disability. Since 1997–98 there have been year on year increases in both numbers helped and programme spend.
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To help people access appropriate help, Jobcentre Plus has established a network of Disability Service Teams. The teams are made up of Disability Employment Advisers, Access to Work Advisers and Occupational Psychologists; their services are accessed through local Jobcentres. Since April 2003, disabled people in work have been receiving financial support through the Working Tax Credit. This is available if a person is working an average of at least 16 hours per week (self-employed or for an employer); and have a disability which puts them at a disadvantage in getting a job. 70,000 families (including over 32,000 adults without children) are benefiting from the disability element within the Working Tax Credit, compared with 38,000 who benefited from the old Disabled Person's Tax Credit.
Disability Living Allowance
Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many and what percentage of people in Great Britain are in receipt of disability living allowance. [175865]
Maria Eagle: The response to the question is set out in the following table.
DLA Recipients by Government Office Region against population as at 30 November 2003.
| All (Thousand) | Percentage of the population | |
|---|---|---|
| All | 2,558.2 | 4.4 |
| North East | 156.5 | 6.2 |
| North West | 405.7 | 6.0 |
| Yorkshire and Number | 249.7 | 5.0 |
| East Midlands | 184.2 | 4.4 |
| West Midlands | 245.6 | 4.6 |
| East | 180.1 | 3.3 |
| London | 249.3 | 3.4 |
| South East | 222.5 | 2.8 |
| South West | 173.1 | 3.5 |
| Wales | 207.9 | 7.1 |
| Scotland | 283.6 | 5.6 |
Notes:
1. Figures taken from a five per cent sample at 30 November 2003.
2. Figures are in thousands and rounded to the nearest hundred.
3. From November 2002, the methodology for producing these figures was changed to allow statistics to be published much sooner. This has resulted in a small increase in the reported caseload. This is because some cases which have actually terminated but have not yet been updated on the computer system are now included.
4. Population figures are from the Office for National Statistics and the General Registrar of Scotland at mid 2002.
Source:
IAD Information Centre.
Early Retirement
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many employees in his Department took early retirement, and at what total cost, in the last financial year. [172183]
Maria Eagle:
53 staff took early retirement from the Department for Work and Pensions in the financial year 2003–04, at a total cost in that year of £1,154,073.
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In addition to costs in the year of early retirement there are subsequent costs until the individual staff reach age 60. Costs in subsequent years for these early retirements are as follows:
| Costs | |
|---|---|
| 2004–05 | 470,215 |
| 2005–06 | 345,592 |
| 2006–07 | 286,207 |
| 2007–08 | 221,997 |
| 2008–09 | 69,477 |
| 2009–10 | 50,682 |
| 2010–11 | 47,166 |
| 2011–12 | 15,766 |
| 2012–13 | 2,359 |
For the same period there were 156 cases of actuarially reduced retirement. Actuarially reduced retirement enables staff aged 50 and over to retire early and receive an immediate payment of an actuarially reduced pension at no extra cost to the Exchequer.
Filestore (Nelson)
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what plans he has for the filestore in Nelson, Lancashire; and if he will make a statement. [163202]
Mr. Pond: Records storage for the Department for Work and Pensions is moving to Capita from 1 July 2004, with migration of services taking place over the following two to three years.
Negotiations regarding the effect of this on individual stores, including that of Nelson, Lancashire, are continuing.
It is not anticipated that the majority of the 44 existing departmental in-house filestores, will continue in operation, however one or two of the larger stores may remain operational although functions may change over time.
Health and Safety Inspectors
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many health and safety inspectors there are, broken down by (a) ethnicity and (b) languages other than English spoken by inspectors; what methods of communications are available to inspectors when dealing with workers who are not fluent in English; and if he will make a statement. [175423]
Jane Kennedy: The following tables show the number of full time equivalent inspectors broken down by their ethnicity (Table 1) and the languages other than English spoken (Table 2) as at 21 May 2004.
(25) The information on individual ethnic origins has been provided from the HSE's personnel system and is based on the recently completed survey. However, it should be noted that if the individual declined to respond on the form then the system would automatically default to other.
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| Language(26) | Number |
|---|---|
| Arabic | 2.0 |
| Bengali | 2.0 |
| Cantonese | 2.0 |
| Chinese | 2.0 |
| Chinese Mandarin | 1.0 |
| Czech | 1.0 |
| Danish | 3.0 |
| Dutch | 2.8 |
| Farsi | 1.0 |
| Flemish | 1.0 |
| French | 329.0 |
| Gaelic | 3.0 |
| German | 89.0 |
| Greek | 2.5 |
| Gujarati | 2.6 |
| Hindi | 7.0 |
| Igbo | 0.7 |
| Italian | 18.9 |
| Japanese | 1.0 |
| Nepali | 1.0 |
| Norwegian | 3.0 |
| Polish | 1.0 |
| Portuguese | 2.8 |
| Punjabi | 15.0 |
| Pushtu | 1.0 |
| Russia | 6.0 |
| Sign | 1.0 |
| Spanish | 40.2 |
| Swahili | 1.0 |
| Swedish | 2.0 |
| Tamil | 2.0 |
| Urdu | 8.0 |
| Welsh | 20.7 |
| Yoruba | 1.0 |
| Total(27) | 577.3 |
(26) Languages other than English.
(27) Some inspectors speak more than one language other than English.
HSE provides two main means of communication for inspectors who are not fluent in the language spoken by workers with whom they are dealing. These are interpreters for verbal communications and translators for provision of written communications.
There is a legal duty on all employers to provide comprehensible and relevant information on the risks to the health and safety of their employees and the measures they have in place to protect them against those risks. This means that those employing workers who are not fluent in English may need to make special arrangements in order to comply with this duty. To help them comply, HSE and its inspectors seeks to provide support to such employers through a range of services including the provision of leaflets containing key health and safety messages translated into a variety of languages and access to a translation service.
27 May 2004 : Column 1801W
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