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21 Feb 2005 : Column 417W—continued

External Suppliers

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many tenders were let by his Department to external suppliers in the financial year 2003–04; and what the value was. [209102]

Maria Eagle: The majority of tenders received are in response to low value, low risk procurements let locally under devolved budget arrangements. The Department does not collect information centrally about these tenders and to provide a complete answer to the question would incur disproportionate cost. However, information is collected centrally on high value, high risk procurements conducted by specialist procurement teams. In 2003–04 the Department let 440 contracts and framework agreements with values over the EU threshold level (about £100,000). The total value of these over their full durations, which range between two and 18 years, is expected to be about £2,012 million. The actual value will depend upon the volume of business we place and the quality of services delivered over the period.

Five Year Strategy

Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how the employment advisers pledged in the Department's Five Year Strategy will be recruited; and if they will be exempt from the Department's proposed job cuts. [217343]

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.
 
21 Feb 2005 : Column 418W
 

Letter from Mr. David Anderson to Mr. Paul Holmes, dated 21 February 2005:

The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question concerning how the employment advisers pledged in the Department's Five Year Strategy will be recruited: and if they will be exempt from the Department's proposed job cuts. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.

Whilst external recruitment may be required in some locations, many of the Personal Adviser posts, which will help Jobcentre Plus continue to deliver services to jobless customers, are already occupied by our skilled staff. In other cases, as an important element of the Department's approach to seek to avoid compulsory redundancies, vacant Adviser posts will be filled by re-trained, surplus staff from Jobcentre Plus, or from elsewhere within the Department.

It is not possible to say that any individual staff member will be exempt from the staffing reductions which will be implemented. The particular circumstances of, for example, a voluntary early release scheme could lead to a current Personal Adviser deciding to leave Jobcentre Plus to be replaced by a surplus person. However, given Jobcentre Plus will increase the proportion of our staff in active roles which support customers into work, it is likely that this group of staff will be affected less than those providing support roles which do not involve contact with the public.

I hope this is helpful.

Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will place in the Library a list of the wards referred to in paragraph 30, page 29, of his Department's Five Year Strategy, broken down by constituency. [215530]

Jane Kennedy: The requested information has been placed in the Library.

Generators (Accidents)

Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what his estimate is of the number of accidents involving low voltage single phase generators since 1996–97 (a) in total and (b) in fair and amusement park sites; and if he will make a statement. [215703]

Jane Kennedy: Accident data, collected by the Health and Safety Executive is not collected in this level of detail. It is therefore not possible to provide these estimates.

Housing Benefit

Mr. Flight: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what assessment he has made of the impact that implementation of the Verification Framework has had on the processing of housing benefit by local authorities; [215130]

(2) how his Department measures the impact that the Verification Framework has had on the performance of housing benefit delivery. [215131]

Mr. Pond: We monitor processing times for new claims and change of circumstance across all local authorities, but we have not specifically assessed the impact of the Verification Framework (VF) since 2002. The assessment was inconclusive but suggested that there is an initial dip in performance followed by an improvement in some groups of local authorities.
 
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Local authority performance is affected by a multitude of factors, but using the most recent data, the average processing times for new claims for VF and non-VF local authorities are currently 45 days and 52 days respectively. The average processing times for changes of circumstances are 13 days and 15 days respectively. In some other recent quarters, however, these differences have been smaller.

It is our conclusion that this recent data provides no evidence that VF currently has a significant effect on the performance of housing benefit delivery.

Mr. Ronnie Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people were claiming housing benefit in Blyth Valley on the latest date for which figures are available. [217189]

Mr. Pond: As at May 2004 there were 6,200 people in receipt of housing benefit in the Blyth Valley borough council area.

Notes:

1. The figure is rounded to the nearest hundred

2. The data refers to benefit units, which may be a single person or a couple.

3. The figure excludes any Extended Payment cases

Source:

Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit Management Information System Quarterly 100 per cent. caseload stock-count.

 
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Mr. David Marshall: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people claimed housing benefit in Scotland in the latest period for which figures are available. [217380]

Mr. Pond: As at May 2004 there were 446,900 people in receipt of housing benefit in Scotland.

Notes:

1. The figure is rounded to the nearest hundred.

2. The data refers to benefit units, which may be a single person or a couple.

3. Figures for any non-responding authorities have been estimated.

4. The figure excludes any extended payment cases.

Source:

Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit Management Information System Quarterly 100 per cent. caseload stock-count.

Incapacity Benefit

Mr. Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people leaving incapacity benefit in each year since 1995 had received the benefit for (a) less than six months, (b) less than 12 months, (c) less than two years and (d) more than five years. [216044]

Maria Eagle: The available information is in the table.
All incapacity benefit and severe disability allowance terminations in the quarters shown, by duration of claim.

Quarter ending	All	Up to 6 months	Over 6 months up to 1 year	Over 1 up to 2 years	Over 2 up to 5 years	Over 5 years
May 1995	201,500	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
August 1995	245,200	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
November 1995	272,300	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
February 1996	266,300	127,400	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
May 1996	277,400	117,600	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
August 1996	251,500	116,800	31,200	n/a	n/a	n/a
November 1996	235,000	121,400	29,700	n/a	n/a	n/a
February 1997	244,000	118,100	30,600	n/a	n/a	n/a
May 1997	257,100	116,500	33,600	n/a	n/a	n/a
August 1997	241,800	115,700	31,000	22,600	n/a	n/a
November 1997	245,300	115,100	32,700	21,500	n/a	n/a
February 1998	230,400	105,200	32,100	21,900	n/a	n/a
May 1998	238,500	107,000	34,900	22,700	n/a	n/a
August 1998	215,900	94,200	30,800	21,600	n/a	n/a
November 1998	242,400	104,900	31,700	23,300	n/a	n/a
February 1999	193,800	95,000	24,900	17,700	n/a	n/a
May 1999	214,500	95,600	29,300	18,900	n/a	n/a
August 1999	217,400	93,400	28,000	18,600	n/a	n/a
November 1999	214,500	94,300	29,100	18,100	n/a	n/a
February 2000	213,300	93,500	27,600	18,800	n/a	n/a
May 2000	193,400	89,700	25,800	17,300	n/a	n/a
August 2000	174,900	84,600	25,500	16,300	22,500	26,000
November 2000	180,500	85,000	27,400	16,500	23,400	28,200
February 2001	183,500	80,800	27,800	17,800	22,700	34,400
May 2001	187,400	81,700	30,100	17,600	25,500	32,400
August 2001	175,300	77,500	28,600	17,300	22,000	29,800
November 2001	188,400	82,500	30,800	19,100	22,700	33,300
February 2002	176,300	74,700	27,400	17,500	22,700	33,900
May 2002	181,200	76,700	27,600	17,500	25,100	34,400
August 2002	176,600	74,200	27,200	17,300	23,500	34,400
November 2002	186,100	80,700	27,700	17,400	24,400	35,900
February 2003	170,700	72,000	26,500	15,900	21,900	34,300
May 2003	166,300	72,800	29,800	17,300	23,200	23,000
August 2003	183,400	75,200	28,000	17,100	24,600	38,500
November 2003	187,500	76,100	30,200	15,700	24,600	40,900
February 2004	173,900	70,000	28,100	15,500	22,500	37,800
May 2004	178,100	69,000	29,300	17,200	25,700	36,800
August 2004	125,300	51,600	22,000	12,700	20,000	19,100

Notes:
1. Figures are rounded to the nearest hundred. Totals may not sum due to rounding.
2. Information is not available on claims which commenced prior to April 1995.
3. n/a" not available.
4. Figures include all incapacity benefit, severe disability allowance and credits-only cases.
5. These figures have been updated to include late notified terminations, including terminations for retirement pension. Figures for the latest quarter do not include any late notifications and are subject to major changes in future quarters. For illustration purposes, total terminations for August 2003 increased by 34 per cent. in the year following their initial release.
Source:
Information Directorate, 5 per cent. sample.





 
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Angela Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in each ward of Wallasey constituency claim incapacity benefit. [217115]

Maria Eagle: The information is in the table.
Incapacity benefit (IB) and severe disability allowance (SDA) claimants in Wallasey, by ward

Ward name	Number
Moretown	890
Leasowe	1,325
Wallasey	650
New Brighton	1,195
Liscard	1,230
Seacombe	1,610

Notes:
1. All wards based on census wards—those current as at April 2003.
2. Figures include all IB, SDA and IB credits-only cases.
3. IB and SDA figures are taken at August 2004.
4. All benefit counts at ward level are rounded to a multiple of five to protect the confidentiality of individual claimants.
Source:
IAD Information Directorate, Department for Work and Pensions.

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