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Freedom of Information Act

Andrew Selous: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the likely costs to his Department in the first quarter of 2005 of compliance with the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000; and if he will make a statement. [199076]

Mr. Pond: A major function of my Department is to provide information about a wide range of benefits, child support and back to work services to a variety of customers and others who use or are interested in using our services. This means that large amounts of information are regularly provided routinely and without question.

Implementation of the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 will build on the Department's existing mechanisms for responding to written requests for information, although there is no reliable way of forecasting the volume of additional requests we may receive. Accordingly, we have made no assessment of the likely additional costs of implementing the Freedom of Information Act 2000 within the Department for Work and Pensions for the first quarter of 2005.

Government Buildings (Disabled Access)

Tom Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether all Government buildings in his
 
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Department within the Greater London area are fully accessible to disabled people; and if he will make a statement. [199312]

Maria Eagle: The Department for Work and Pensions has, with its estates services provider LandSecurities Trillium, implemented a national programme of building works to its premises, facilities and services to improve access for disabled, people.

Of the 164 DWP buildings within the London Government Region, there are only 45 sites where works are not fully completed but programmes of work have been agreed to provide access to disabled people by the end of January 2005.

Health and Safety at Work

Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps the Government have taken to improve health and safety at work in Newcastle-under-Lyme since 1997. [198547]

Jane Kennedy: Regulatory responsibility for health and safety is shared between the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Local Authorities (LAs). HSE adopts a national approach to improving health and safety at work, focusing its efforts to those work activities presenting the greatest risk to workers and members of the public. To achieve this HSE's inspectors inspect workplaces, investigate incidents and complaints and take enforcement action where necessary. In addition, Health and Safety Awareness Officers provide advice and guidance to small firms during workplace visits, events and initiatives.

HSE has an office in Newcastle-under-Lyme, covering Staffordshire, Shropshire and parts of Cheshire. Work is carried out according to national priorities but guided by local circumstances.

In April 2002 HSE introduced 'topic-based inspections' in response to the Revitalising Health and Safety initiative. Inspectors judge management of health and safety by inspecting a small number of topics and issues that are most likely to cause serious harm.

In February 2004 the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) published their new strategy for workplace health and safety to 2010 and beyond. In September 2004 HSC issued a consultative document to explore which techniques HSE and LAs can use to best influence workplace health and safety standards.

Identity Cards

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the (a) time scale and (b) anticipated publication date is for the feasibility study being undertaken by his Department to establish the full impact, costs and benefits of the introduction of identity cards. [198908]

Mr. Pond: We have conducted and completed an initial feasibility study into the impact Identity Cards will have on DWP business. The results have been forwarded to the Home Office and will help inform the next stage of the Identity Cards programme. For commercial and security reasons the results will not be published separately.
 
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Incapacity/Severe Disablement Benefit

Mr. Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people have had their claims for incapacity benefit terminated because their claims were found to be fraudulent in each year since 1997, broken down by (a) region and (b) age. [191719]

Maria Eagle: The information is not available. Information is not collected on how many people identified as making fraudulent claims to incapacity benefit had their claims terminated as a result.

Mr. Wills: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent estimate he has made of the number of (a) males and (b) females aged (i) 18 to 29, (ii) 30 to 39, (iii) 40 to 49 and (iv) 50 to 59 claiming incapacity benefit; and what estimate he has made of the number of males aged 60 to 65 claiming incapacity benefit. [196031]

Maria Eagle: The information is in the table.
Incapacity benefit (IB) and severe disablement allowance (SDA) claimants by age and gender, at May 2004

	All	Men	Women
All	2,708,700	1,590,200	1,118,600
Under 18	9,800	4,600	5,200
18 to 29	304,300	171,800	132,500
30 to 39	475,900	276,000	199,900
40 to 49	630,700	338,000	292,700
50 to 59	929,600	477,600	452,100
60 to 64	329,000	315,200	13,900
65 and over	29,400	7,100	22,300

Notes:
1. Figures have been rounded to the nearest hundred. Totals may not sum due to rounding.
2. Figures are based on a 5 per cent. sample, and are therefore subject to a degree of sampling variation.
3. SDA has not been available to new claimants since April 2001.
Source:
IAD Information Centre, 5 per cent. sample

Mr. Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people aged (a) under 25, (b) 25 to 40, (c) 40 to 49, (d) 50 to 59 and (e) over 60 years have claimed incapacity benefit or severe disablement allowance in each year since 1997, broken down by region. [191672]

Maria Eagle: The information has been placed in the Library.

Mr. Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many people have made a new claim for incapacity benefit or severe disablement allowance in each year since 1997, broken down by (a) age and (b) region; [191673]

(2) how many applications for incapacity benefit and severe disablement allowance were rejected in each year since 1997; and what percentage this was of all applications for each benefit, broken down by (a) age and (b) region; [191675]
 
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(3) what categories of reasons are given for the rejection of applications for incapacity benefit and severe disablement allowance; and how many applications for incapacity benefit and severe disablement allowance were rejected for each of these reasons in each year since 1997, broken down by (a) age and (b) region. [191676]

Maria Eagle: The information is not available in the format requested.

The available information has been placed in the Library.

Incapacity Benefit

Mr. Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many and what percentage of new claimants of incapacity benefit or severe disablement allowance in each year since 1997 have been in receipt of incapacity benefit at some point (a) during the previous two years; (b) during the previous five years and (c) since the introduction of incapacity benefit broken down by age and region. [191674]

Maria Eagle: The available information has been placed in the Library.

Case-level Incapacity Benefit/Severe Disablement Allowance data are available only from May 1995.

ME

David Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent discussions he has had with officials from the Department of Health on the clinical definition of myalgic encephalomyelitis. [199274]

Maria Eagle: The Department's Chief Medical Adviser keeps up to date with the latest developments in the understanding and treatment of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome. He does this by review of literature, discussion with experts in the field and liaison with the Department of Health. There have been no recent discussions with Department of Health officials specifically on this subject.

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