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5 Oct 2005 : Column 2818W—continued
Judges (Sexual Offences Training)
Vera Baird: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs, what steps are taken to ensure that in any rape appeal there will be at least one judge who has been on the serious sexual offences seminar. [15640]
Ms Harman: Judicial training is the responsibility of the Lord Chief Justice and is exercised through the Judicial Studies Board (JSB).
Judges of every rank who sit in crime, including the Court of Appeal, have received training on the provisions of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 as part of a programme of training on the Criminal Justice Reforms that ran between January and March 2005. This was supplemented with written material provided at the time the Act came into force.
The serious sexual offences seminar is specifically designed for judges who hear rape trials. For details of the serious sexual offences seminar I refer my hon. and learned Friend to the answer I gave on 30 June 2005, Official Report, column 1745W.
Parliamentary Questions
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs pursuant to the answer of 11 July 2005, Official Report, column 826W, what estimate she has made of the cost of answering the question. [12671]
Bridget Prentice: The costs of answering the question would have been over the disproportionate costs threshold of £600.
Telephone Inquiries
Mr. MacNeil: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what facilities her Department has to deal with telephone inquiries in (a) Welsh, (b) Scots Gaelic and (c) Irish Gaelic. [14704]
Bridget Prentice: It is not practicable to offer a Welsh language telephone service. Under the Department's draft Welsh Language Scheme those who call and wish to speak in Welsh will be given the option of writing in Welsh and receiving an answer in the same language or continuing the conversation in English.
In recognition of its operational role and its delivery of services direct to the public in Wales, Her Majesty's Court Service, an executive agency of the Department
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for Constitutional Affairs, also has a Welsh Language Scheme. A public consultation on the Scheme finished at the end of June and it has now been approved by the Welsh Language Board and came into effect on 19 July 2005. The Scheme can be found at: http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/cms/3437.htm Under the terms of the Scheme, Her Majesty's Court Service will provide a Welsh telephone service to its users. This can be accessed direct by phoning any of the Service's offices in Wales or if phoning one of its offices in England the call may be transferred to the Service's Welsh Language Unit.
Neither the Department nor Her Majesty's Court Service has any facilities for dealing with telephone inquiries in Scots Gaelic or Irish Gaelic.
Wales (Government)
Peter Law: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how she intends to implement Paragraph 3.12 of the White Paper, "Better governance for Wales" (Cm 6582), in respect of any Bill she introduces in the current session of Parliament. [14942]
Ms Harman: I intend to implement the Government's policy as stated in paragraph 3.12 of the White Paper "Better governance for Wales" Cm 6582. My Department is in discussion with the Assembly Government on the issues concerned.
WORK AND PENSIONS
Benefit Fraud
Jim Sheridan: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in (a) the UK and (b) Scotland had legal action taken against them for benefit fraud in 2004. [14145]
Mr. Plaskitt: The available information is in the table.
| UK | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|
| 2003–04 | 37,550 | 1,682 |
| 2004–05 | 42,465 | 2,309 |
Notes:
1. 'Legal action' is interpreted to include cautions and administrative penalties as well as prosecutions.
2. Cautions could only be issued by DWP in Scotland from January 2004.
3. For DWP, figures refer to total prosecutions undertaken specifically by the Counter Fraud Investigation Service.
4. Due to cross-border operations National Investigation Services (NIS) prosecutions cannot be broken down into the geographical area requested. Therefore the UK figures include NIS figures and the Scotland figures do not.
Sources:
1. Fraud Information by Sector.
2. Northern Ireland Social Security Agency.
3. Local authority subsidy returns.
Child Support Agency
Mr. Laws:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what definition the Child Support Agency uses of the term sensitive case; how many cases the Sensitive Case Team has dealt with in each year since its
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establishment; how many times unauthorised access to sensitive cases has been detected; and how many checks have been made on sensitive cases. [2013]
Mr. Plaskitt: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive, Mr. Stephen Geraghty. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Stephen Geraghty to Mr. David Laws, dated 14 July 2005:
In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what definition the Child Support Agency uses of the term sensitive case; how many cases the Sensitive Case Team has dealt with in each year since its establishment; how many times unauthorised access to sensitive cases has been detected; and how many checks have been made on sensitive cases.
Within the Child Support Agency all Nationally Sensitive cases are dealt with by a team located in Falkirk. Sensitive cases are those cases that require special handling in order to restrict access to information and to protect the account from unauthorised amendments. Sensitive cases cover a wide range of circumstances including partners at risk of violence, people on witness protection, transsexuals and VIPs.
A yearly breakdown of the number of Nationally Sensitive cases is unavailable. However, there are currently 410 live cases, of which 238 are on the old scheme and 172 on the new scheme.
Since the inception of the Nationally Sensitive Case team within the Child Support Agency there have been no instances of unauthorised access to these cases detected. Information is not available as to how many checks have been carried out on Nationally Sensitive cases. However, they are all subject to 100 per cent. checking which means that every time the case is actioned it is checked to ensure the Nationally Sensitive marking is still relevant.
Correspondence
Mr. MacNeil: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what his Department's policy is for dealing with and responding to correspondence received in (a) Welsh, (b) Scots Gaelic and (c) Irish Gaelic; [14738]
(2) what facilities his Department has to deal with telephone inquiries in (a) Welsh, (b) Scots Gaelic and (c) Irish Gaelic. [14739]
Mr. Plaskitt: For customers in Wales, DWP has a Welsh Language Scheme, which includes a full service for communicating in Welsh. Correspondence will be in Welsh if the customer prefers, and staff will speak to customers in Welsh if they prefer. Corporate publicity material in Wales is provided in both English and Welsh. This service is provided in compliance with the Welsh Language Act.
For Scots Gaelic speakers, if the person cannot converse in English, we would use the departmental telephone interpreting service, provided by Language Line, who can provide interpreters. Written Gaelic queries are extremely rare, but we could obtain translation from, and into, Gaelic, if the need arose. The same principle would apply to any contacts from Irish Gaelic speakers, but as responsibility for most social security, child support and pensions matters rests
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with the Northern Ireland Department for Social Development, this would be most unlikely to happen in practice.
Departmental Expenditure
Stewart Hosie: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the total spending by his Department on (a) staff, (b) accommodation and (c) procurement in (i) Dundee East constituency, (ii) Tayside and (iii) the City of Dundee was for the most recent year for which figures are available. [14864]
Mr. Salmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the total spending by his Department on (a) staff, (b) accommodation and (c) procurement in (i) Banff and Buchan and (ii) the North East of Scotland was for the most recent year for which figures are available. [14885]
Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the total spending by his Department on (a) staff, (b) accommodation and (c) procurement in the (i) Moray constituency and (ii) Highland Region was for the most recent year for which figures are available. [14847]
Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the total spending by his Department on (a) staff, (b) accommodation and (c) procurement in Perth and North Perthshire was for the most recent year for which figures are available. [14919]
Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the total spending by his Department on (a) staff, (b) accommodation and (c) procurement has been in (i) Angus constituency and (ii) Tayside for the most recent year for which figures are available. [14906]
Mrs. McGuire: Information is not held in the format requested and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Information on regional distribution of staff at 1 April 2004 is available in the Library of both Houses, and also at, http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/management_ information/statistical_information/statistics/contents_ for_civil_service_statistics_2004_ report/index.asp
Table D shows the numbers of staff by regional distribution.
Figures relating to 2005 will be published next year.
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