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UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what contribution his Department has made to the United Nations Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and what use he expects to make of the Assessment once it is published; and if he will make a statement. [218905]
Hilary Benn: The Department for International Development (DFID) welcomes the forthcoming publication of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), the first public release of which will be at the end of March. We will look for opportunities to publicise the launch of this report internally to DFID staff.
The MA focuses on ecosystem services and how changes in ecosystem services affect human well-being. Building on this, the MA will identify policy, institutional, or technological changes that could not only improve the management of ecosystems, but also contribute to development and to long-term sustainability.
DFID has been involved in consultations with a number of MA working groups, providing comments and suggestions on the draft stages of the report. DFID also funded two co-ordinating lead authors through the provision of financial support to the International
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Institute for Environment and Development. One of the main financial contributors to the MA process has been the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to which the UK is currently contributing £103 million over four years from 2002. The UK is the fourth largest donor to the GEF.
DFID uses the results and recommendations of reports such as the MA to inform thinking on issues of poverty-environment linkages and the continual development and improvement of tools to support work to integrate environmental considerations into development co-operation. DFID is particularly interested in the findings of the MA that seek to highlight effective policies and interventions that respond to environmental challenges while bringing financial and livelihood benefits to the poor. Examples of these options include payment for ecosystem services such as catchment management and forest certification schemes.
DFID will also be encouraging those agencies involved in commissioning the report, including the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the Secretariats of the Conventions (in particular the Convention on Biodiversity and the Framework Convention on Climate Change), to use the analyses and results of this major study to inform their future policy and implementation work.
WORK AND PENSIONS
Alzheimer's Disease
Mr. McGrady: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will provide those who suffer from Alzheimer's Disease with entitlement to disability living allowance from the date of their diagnosis. [219425]
Maria Eagle: No. Entitlement to disability living allowance is not linked to particular disabling conditions. It depends on either the extent to which a severely disabled person has long-term personal care needs and/or walking difficulties as a result of their disabilities, or on whether a person has a progressive disease from which their death in consequence of that disease can reasonably be expected within six months. In either case, there is no entitlement to the allowance for periods before the date on which a claim for it is made.
Benefit Payments (Angus)
Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people are in receipt of each state benefit in total in the (a) Kirriemuir West, (b) Kirriemuir East, (c) Brechin West, (d) Brechin North Esk, (e) Westfield and Dean, (f) Forfar West, (g) Forfar Central, (h) Forfar East, (i) Brechin South Esk, (j) Montrose Ferrydean, (k) Montrose Central, (l) Montrose West, (m) Montrose Hillside, (n) Forfar South, (o) Letham and Friockheim, (p) Arbirlot and Hospitalfield, (q) Keptie, (r) Arbroath North, (s) Brothock, (t) Hayshead and Lunan, (u) Harbour and (v) Cliffburn wards of Angus council. [218155]
Mr. Pond:
The information is in the table.
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(5) Pension credit caseload relates to December 2004.
Notes:
1. All wards based on census wards—those boundaries current as at April 2003.
2. All benefit case loads at ward level are rounded to a multiple of five to protect the confidentiality of individual claimants.
3. Pension credit replaced MIG in October 2003.
4. Minimum income guarantee is defined as income support claimants and/or partners aged 60 or over.
5. Income support claimants are defined as claimants aged under 60 who do not have a partner aged 60 or over.
6. Incapacity benefit case load includes severe disablement allowance claimants.
7. Housing benefit and council tax benefit data are not available at local authority ward level.
Source:
DWP Information Directorate, 100 per cent. data August 2003
Child Support Agency
Mr. Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many applicants there were for the post of Chief Executive of the Child Support Agency; where and when the post was advertised; and what the cost of advertising the post was. [218910]
Mr. Pond [holding answer 2 March 2005]: There were 56 applicants. The post of Chief Executive, Child Support Agency was advertised in The Sunday Times on 12 and 19 December 2004 and 9 January 2005 at a total cost of £19,500 plus VAT.
Disability Living Allowance
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many claimants of disability living allowance receive carers allowance to look after another person. [219395]
Maria Eagle: As at August 2004, there were 23,700 disability living allowance recipients who were also receiving carer's allowance.
1. Figure taken from a 5 per cent. sample and therefore subject to sampling error. 2. Number has been rounded to the nearest hundred. 3. Only DLA cases in payment have been included.
DWP Information Centre, 5 per cent. samples
EU Committees
Angus Robertson:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many times during the
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(a) Italian, (b) Irish and (c) Dutch presidency of the EU the Technical Committee on Information Processing met; when and where these meetings took place; what UK Government expert was present; and if he will make a statement. [217888]
Mr. Pond: The EU Technical Commission met in Brussels on 23–24 September 2003 and 2–3 December 2003 (during the Italian presidency), 3–4 March 2004 and 24–25 May 2004 during the Irish presidency) and on 29–30 September 2004 and 24 November 2004 (during the Dutch presidency).
Officials from DWP attended all meetings accompanied by an Information Technology (IT) Consultant from Electronic Data Services (EDS), which is the Department's IT service provider.
The DWP officials were from International Pension Centre (part of the Pension Service) which is responsible for UK administration of the EU Social Security Co-ordination Regulations (Regulations 1408/71 and 574/72). The principal area of interest of the TC is to modernise the implementation of these regulations, particularly through the use of IT. The UK supports this objective, designed to produce efficiency savings and improve service to customers. An official from the Department of Health attended the meetings on 24–25 May 2004, 24–30 September 2004 and 24 November 2004.
A series of Command Papers on prospects for the EU—Cm 6174 laid in April 2004, Cm 6310 laid in September 2004 and Cm 6450 laid in February 2005, cover the periods of the above presidencies and are available in the Library and on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) website at www.fco.gov.uk/commandpapers.
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