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21 Dec 2004 : Column 1730W—continued

Minimum Income Guarantee

Tom Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the percentage take-up of the minimum income guarantee has been by people living in the Greater London area. [206188]

Malcolm Wicks: The information is not available in the form requested. At 3 October 2003 there were 214,155 households in the London Government Office Region (GOR), comprising 252,615 individuals, receiving the Minimum Income Guarantee. Information on the number of pension credit recipients in the London GOR at 31 October 2004 is given in the following table. Estimates of pension credit eligibility, based on 2002–03 Family Resources Survey data projected forward to 2004–05, are currently being revised consistent with Pre-Budget Report assumptions. The revised estimates will be available in January 2005.
Pension credit recipients in the London GOR, 31 October 2004

	London GOR
Households	279,060
Households in receipt of both guarantee and savings elements	97,935
Households in receipt of guarantee element only	141,825
Households in receipt of savings element only	39,295
Individual recipients	331,825

Notes:
1. Figures are rounded to the nearest five.
2. Figures are available for 31 October 2004 as the final output of processes that were put in place to deliver special monthly reporting during the first year of the roll-out of pension credit. As Parliament was told in the statement accompanying the last such report, data will in future be available on a quarterly basis, in line with standard departmental practice. The next report, covering data as at 31 December 2004, should be laid in the House in January 2005.
3. Individual recipients include a small number of partners under age 60.
4. Pension credit replaced Minimum Income Guarantee from 6 October 2003

New Deal

Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what action he plans to take in response to the recent ECOTEC Report to his Department on Mentoring and Post-Employment Support of persons on New Deal. [204651]

Jane Kennedy: In October 2001 and February 2002, 16 mentoring and post-employment support pilots were introduced under the New Deal Next Phase. The
 
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Mentoring Pilots were developed to meet those customers' needs that were not being met by mainstream mentoring, and to provide alternative methods of resolving barriers to employment.

ECOTEC Research and Consulting were commissioned by this Department to evaluate the effectiveness of the pilot mentoring approaches, and the evaluative study was carried out in two phases during summer 2002 and spring 2004. An important aspect of the evaluation was to draw out lessons that were useful for mainstream mentoring providers.

The Mentoring Pilots ended in April 2004 and the full ECOTEC Evaluation report was published on 22 November 2004. Following on from the report, a mentoring good practice guide will be produced to disseminate the information contained in the Evaluation Report. District and Regional Contracting Teams will also be given the opportunity to contract for any of the different types of mentoring used during the pilot.
 
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Mr. Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people have started each of the New Deal for employment programmes in each (a) metropolitan authority and (b) county area in the North East region; how many of them have entered employment; how many have entered the New Deal schemes (i) once, (ii) twice, (iii) three times and (iv) three or more times; and how many entering the scheme entered employment in each case. [204428]

Mr. Pond: The New Deal has been successful in helping well over a million people into work.

Information on New Deal for Disabled People and New Deal for Partners is not available broken down by these geographical districts. Information for New Deal 50 plus, broken down by these geographical districts, is only available up to March 2003 and is for starts to the New Deal 50 plus employment credit, which can only be received once.

The available information is in the tables.
New Deal for Young People—starts, number of times on the programme and people gaining a job

	Tyne and Wear	Cleveland	County Durham	Northumberland
All people
People starting	29,720	17,640	13,120	5,930
People gaining a job	18,380	10,880	8,810	3,960
Once
People starting	20,880	12,620	9,480	4,300
People gaining a job	11,830	7,130	5,960	2,670
Twice
People starting	6,390	3,660	2,660	1,160
People gaining a job	4,640	2,770	2,060	910
Three times
People starting	1,930	1,150	790	370
People gaining a job	1,510	890	630	300
Three times or more
People starting	2,440	1,370	980	470
People gaining a job	1,910	1,050	790	380

New Deal 25 plus—starts, number of times on the programme and people gaining a job

	Tyne and Wear	Cleveland	County Durham	Northumberland
All people
People starting	19,150	7,390	7,390	3,570
People gaining a job	7,070	2,440	3,270	1,430
Once
People starting	12,270	5,840	4,830	2,330
People gaining a job	4,890	2,030	2,300	1,000
Twice
People starting	4,170	1,330	1,570	770
People gaining a job	1,400	340	670	300
Three times
People starting	1,930	180	680	320
People gaining a job	580	50	220	100
Three times or more
People starting	2,710	220	990	460
People gaining a job	780	60	300	130

 
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New Deal for Lone Parents—starts, number of times on the programme and people gaining a job

	Tyne and Wear	Cleveland	County Durham	Northumberland
All people
People starting	13,970	8,170	7,210	2,910
People gaining a job	8,240	4,790	4,490	1,640
Once
People starting	7,080	3,820	3,180	1,400
People gaining a job	4,310	2,330	2,070	810
Twice
People starting	3,950	2,480	1,980	790
People gaining a job	2,190	1,330	1,100	430
Three times
People starting	1,880	1,190	1,190	470
People gaining a job	1,010	650	670	220
Three times or more
People starting	2,940	1,870	2,050	730
People gaining a job	1,740	1,120	1,320	400

Starts to ND50 plus employment credit

Tyne and Wear	2,680
Cleveland	1,360
County Durham	1,410
Northumberland	650

Notes:
1. Data for New Deal for Young People is from January 1998 to September 2004.
2. Data for New Deal 25 plus is from July 1998 to September 2004.
3. Data for New Deal for Lone Parents is from October 1998 to September 2004.
4. Data for New Deal 50 plus are from April 2002 to March 2003. Data broken down by these geographical districts is not available after March 2003 for New Deal 50 plus.
5. Information for Tyne and Wear consists of the following parliamentary constituencies: Blaydon; Gateshead East and Washington West; Houghton and Washington East; Jarrow; Newcastle upon Tyne Central; Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend; Newcastle upon Tyne North; North Tyneside; South Shields; Sunderland North; Sunderland South; Tyne Bridge; Tynemouth.
6. Information for Cleveland consists of the following parliamentary constituencies: Hartlepool; Middlesbrough; Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland; Redcar; Stockton North; Stockton South.
7. Information for County Durham, including the Darlington unitary authority consists of the following parliamentary constituencies: Bishop Auckland; City of Durham; Darlington; Easington; North Durham; North West Durham; Sedgefield.
8. Information for Northumberland consists of the following parliamentary constituencies: Berwick-upon-Tweed; Blyth Valley; Hexham; Wansbeck
9. Geographical areas provided are as defined on the Parliament UK website.
10. All figures are rounded to the nearest 10.
Source:
DWP Information and Analysis Directorate

Officials (Working Hours)

Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many officials working in ministerial private offices in the Department have worked more than a 48-hour week at any time in the last 12 months for which figures are available; how many of those had signed a waiver under working time regulations; and what percentage these figures represented of the total in each case. [204135]

Maria Eagle: The working time regulations provide workers with the protection of a limit of an average of 48 hours a week working time. This is not an absolute cap of 48 hours in any one week. This average is normally calculated over a 17-week reference period, although this can be longer in certain situations (26 weeks) and can be extended by agreement (up to 52 weeks). Workers may choose to work more than 48 hours per week over this reference period by signing
 
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an opt-out agreement, but employers cannot force a worker to sign an opt-out, and workers cannot be subjected to detriment for refusing to sign an opt-out.

We have no record of any current private office staff who has recorded such an opt-out.

The Department for Work and Pensions discourages staff from working excess hours as a matter of principle, as it runs contrary to the values which the Department holds on respecting people, and reflects its concerns as a reasonable employer for employees' work/life balance. All timesheets are locally checked on a monthly basis with responsibility devolved to individual line managers to monitor the situation.

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