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19 Oct 2005 : Column 1069W—continued

UK Airspace

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether the UK Government allows the use of UK airspace for the extraordinary rendition of those accused of terrorist activities. [19215]

Dr. Howells: The Government are not aware of the use of their territory or airspace for the purposes of 'extraordinary rendition'. The Government have not received any requests, nor granted any permissions, for the use of UK territory or airspace for such purposes.
 
19 Oct 2005 : Column 1070W
 

Under UK and international law, carriers on technical stopovers are not obliged to provide a passenger list, or even, under the Chicago Convention and the US/UK bilateral Air Services Agreement, to obtain permission from the Government to refuel.

The Government's policy is not to deport or extradite any person to another State where there are substantial grounds to believe that the person will be subject to torture or where there is a real risk that the death penalty will be applied.

Visitor Visa Appeals

Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many visitor visa appeals lodged (a) before and (b) after 4 April are outstanding; and if he will make a statement. [18975]

Bridget Prentice: I have been asked to reply.

The latest provisional figures available from the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal (AIT) indicate that, at the end of June 2005, 17,800 family visitor appeals were considered as outstanding before the AIT.

Outstanding cases are those either listed and awaiting hearing before an immigration judge, or appeals that have been heard and that await determination by the immigration judge.

Statistical data confirming the numbers of family visitor appeals outstanding beyond the end of June 2005 is not yet currently available. It has not been possible to provide further information on the numbers of family visitor appeals lodged both before and after the 4 April 2005 without incurring disproportionate costs.

WORK AND PENSIONS

CSA

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps his Department is taking to monitor (a) the performance of the Child Support Agency database and (b) the accuracy of CSA payments. [14933]

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 requested information.

Letter from Stephen Geraghty to Mr. Jim Cunningham, dated 19 October 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 steps his Department is taking to monitor (a) the performance of the Child Support Agency database and (b) the accuracy of Child Support Agency payments.

The Child Support Agency has put in place a series of measures along with their suppliers to ensure satisfactory performance of the new computer system including, but not limited to its database. These measures include detailed reporting of service performance and regular meetings to review the effectiveness of the current service. Any issues identified are dealt with promptly by expert resource from both the Department and its IT suppliers.

 
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The Secretary of State sets an accuracy target and receives regular reports from the Agency, which are independently maintained by the Monitoring and Guidance Unit. The Monitoring and Guidance Unit's checks are supplemented by local checks to identify the areas on which we focus attention.

I hope you find this response helpful.

Financial Assistance Scheme

Mr. Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much has been paid to date by the Financial Assistance Scheme, broken down by pension scheme. [19486]

Mr. Timms: No payments have yet been made by the Financial Assistance Scheme. We hope to be in a position to make the first payments before the end of the calendar year.

Pathways to Work

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the impact of the incapacity benefit pathways to work pilots as of June on (a) inflows to jobseeker's allowance, (b) levels of economic inactivity and (c) numbers of people in paid employment. [14333]

Margaret Hodge: Information on the impact of the incapacity benefit pathways to work pilots is not yet available.

The 'Destination of Benefit Leavers 2004' report found that nationally 52 per cent. of incapacity benefit leavers returned to, or started, work of 16 hours or more.

A further 18 per cent. moved onto another working age benefit, which in 72 per cent. of cases was jobseeker's allowance. This indicates that 13 per cent. of incapacity benefit leavers flowed onto JSA.

This information (as well as findings for lone parent, sick and disabled and JSA unknown destination leavers) can be found in the DWP Research Report no. 244—'Destination of Benefit Leavers 2004', which is available in The Library.

Pension Credit

Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in each London constituency (a) received state pension, (b) applied for pension credit and (c) received pension credit in each of the last three years; and what the average pension credit payment was in each year. [16942]

Mr. Timms: The latest available information is in the tables. Information on the number of people who have applied for Pension Credit is not available in respect of individual constituencies. Pension Credit was introduced from October 2003.
Number of state pension recipients within the parliamentary constituencies contained within the London Government office region as at 30 September in the years 2002 to 2004

	September
	2002	2003	2004
Barking	11,200	10,600	10,200
Battersea	9,100	8,600	8,800
Beckenham	17,400	16,800	16,900
Bethnal Green and Bow	11,500	11,100	10,800
Bexleyheath and Crayford	15,600	15,500	15,800
Brent East	10,100	9,700	9,900
Brent North	11,300	11,300	11,500
Brent South	9,600	10,100	10,200
Brentford and Isleworth	14,700	14,800	14,800
Bromley and Chislehurst	18,300	18,400	18,500
Camberwell and Peckham	7,600	7,800	7,600
Carshalton and Wallington	14,300	13,800	14,100
Chingford and Woodford Green	15,800	15,900	16,000
Chipping Barnet	15,400	15,700	15,800
Cities of London and Westminster	13,000	12,900	12,900
Croydon Central	16,400	16,600	16,600
Croydon North	13,900	13,900	13,800
Croydon South	17,500	17,500	17,600
Dagenham	13,700	13,800	13,800
Dulwich and West Norwood	11,800	12,000	11,600
Ealing North	15,200	15,000	14,800
Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush	12,600	12,900	12,900
Ealing, Southall	13,900	13,600	13,500
East Ham	10,500	10,400	10,100
Edmonton	14,700	14,300	13,700
Eltham	13,400	13,300	13,100
Enfield North	13,500	13,400	13,400
Enfield, Southgate	16,200	16,400	16,700
Erith and Thamesmead	11,300	10,900	11,100
Feltham and Heston	13,000	13,100	13,400
Finchley and Golders Green	17,200	17,200	16,600
Greenwich and Woolwich	11,400	10,800	10,700
Hackney North and Stoke Newington	9,300	8,900	8,400
Hackney South and Shoreditch	9,200	8,800	8,900
Hammersmith and Fulham	12,600	12,300	12,200
Hampstead and Highgate	11,900	11,700	11,500
Harrow East	17,200	17,700	17,800
Harrow West	14,700	14,700	15,400
Hayes and Harlington	10,600	10,300	10,200
Hendon	14,800	14,600	15,000
Holborn and St. Pancras	9,700	9,300	9,100
Hornchurch	14,800	15,000	15,200
Hornsey and Wood Green	12,000	12,100	12,400
Ilford North	16,200	16,300	16,100
Ilford South	12,200	11,900	12,100
Islington North	9,500	9,100	9,600
Islington South and Finsbury	9,900	9,500	9,800
Kensington and Chelsea	13,200	13,100	13,000
Kingston and Surbiton	16,200	16,000	15,800
Lewisham East	11,700	12,100	12,100
Lewisham West	11,500	11,400	10,900
Lewisham, Deptford	7,600	7,400	7,500
Leyton and Wanstead	10,800	10,700	11,000
Mitcham and Morden	13,100	12,700	12,600
North Southwark and Bermondsey	10,800	10,300	10,100
Old Bexley and Sidcup	17,800	17,600	18,000
Orpington	21,000	21,300	21,500
Poplar and Canning Town	10,400	10,300	10,100
Putney	10,800	10,600	10,400
Regent's Park and Kensington North	14,400	14,400	14,500
Richmond Park	15,700	15,600	15,700
Romford	14,100	14,600	14,300
Ruislip-Northwood	14,200	14,600	14,700
Streatham	11,000	10,700	10,500
Sutton and Cheam	15,800	15,300	15,300
Tooting	10,300	9,900	9,900
Tottenham	10,400	10,800	10,800
Twickenham	15,400	15,700	15,600
Upminster	16,900	16,800	16,400
Uxbridge	12,000	12,200	11,800
Vauxhall	9,900	9,600	9,700
Walthamstow	10,700	10,700	10,700
West Ham	9,300	9,100	9,200
Wimbledon	13,000	13,000	13,100
Total	963,300	956,900	956,300

 
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The number of pension credit recipients and average award within the parliamentary constituencies contained within the London Government office region as at February 2004 and 2005

	February 2004		February 2005
	Number	Amount (£)	Number	Amount (£)
Barking	3,500	53.48	4,300	50.05
Battersea	2,800	56.19	3,100	51.92
Beckenham	2,200	48.71	2,600	44.84
Bethnal Green and Bow	6,500	71.78	7,200	70.93
Bexleyheath and Crayford	2,600	37.60	2,900	37.31
Brent East	3,600	69.70	4,300	64.46
Brent North	2,800	75.20	3,200	68.30
Brent South	4,000	73.70	4,500	71.88
Brentford and Isleworth	3,300	62.32	3,900	60.11
Bromley and Chislehurst	2,800	45.08	3,200	43.22
Camberwell and Peckham	3,800	55.30	3,900	53.89
Carshalton and Wallington	2,500	44.20	3,100	46.23
Chingford and Woodford Green	3,100	49.34	3,600	48.47
Chipping Barnet	2,400	49.84	2,800	52.92
Cities of London and Westminster	2,900	61.72	3,500	63.16
Croydon Central	3,500	49.49	3,800	50.94
Croydon North	4,300	58.31	4,700	57.91
Croydon South	2,300	45.94	2,500	48.99
Dagenham	4,000	49.49	4,800	49.08
Dulwich and West Norwood	3,000	50.91	3,600	55.80
Ealing North	3,300	71.12	4,100	67.40
Ealing Southall	4,600	71.45	5,100	69.92
Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush	4,300	62.72	4,900	61.86
East Ham	4,400	71.01	5,100	74.24
Edmonton	4,300	55.34	4,600	53.68
Eltham	2,900	48.59	3,500	47.58
Enfield North	3,200	57.02	3,900	54.20
Enfield, Southgate	2,700	61.66	3,400	58.06
Erith and Thamesmead	2,900	51.39	3,700	50.44
Feltham and Heston	3,900	60.97	4,400	59.12
Finchley and Golders Green	3,800	60.70	4,000	60.69
Greenwich and Woolwich	3,500	50.54	4,100	49.89
Hackney North and Stoke Newington	4,800	69.04	5,100	70.78
Hackney South and Shoreditch	4,600	73.51	5,000	68.68
Hammersmith and Fulham	3,500	62.86	3,900	66.14
Hampstead and Highgate	3,300	62.18	3,900	59.81
Harrow East	4.200J	69.63	4,800	68.22
Harrow West	2,800	72.49	3,300	67.13
Hayes and Harlington	2,400	60.03	2,900	56.88
Hendon	3,300	61.96	3,900	63.25
Holborn and St Pancras	4,300	63.06	4,800	64.04
Hornchurch	2,200	39.50	2,600	37.47
Hornsey and Wood Green	3,700	62.71	4,300	62.67
Ilford North	3,000	55.75	3,500	59.94
Ilford South	3,200	69.05	3,800	64.37
Islington North	4,500	63.87	5,000	61.31
Islington South and Finsbury	3,900	57.46	4,400	54.93
Kensington and Chelsea	2,900	53.41	3,200	51.69
Kingston and Surbiton	2,800	53.66	3,300	52.04
Lewisham East	3,200	53.16	3,500	52.16
Lewisham West	2,900	44.99	3,400	41.35
Lewisham, Deptford	3,300	62.00	3,700	60.33
Leyton and Wanstead	3,200	55.46	3,800	53.48
Mitcham and Morden	3,000	55.02	3,500	50.61
North Southwark and Bermondsey	4,200	59.16	5,200	57.43
Old Bexley and Sidcup	2,200	43.62	2,900	40.07
Orpington	2,500	41.93	3,100	41.07
Poplar and Canning Town	5,400	70.12	5,900	66.45
Putney	2,300	52.85	2,800	51.22
Regent's Park and Kensington North	5,600	72.12	6,500	71.63
Richmond Park	2,500	51.51	2,800	49.09
Romford	2,300	45.61	2,700	41.60
Ruislip—Northwood	1,900	45.50	2,200	41.44
Streatham	3,700	66.28	4,400	63.12
Sutton and Cheam	2,300	44.12	2,800	38.37
Tooting	2,900	57.55	3,400	57.99
Tottenham	4,800	70.19	5,300	68.04
Twickenham	2,000	45.39	2,500	39.93
Upminster	2,800	40.16	3,300	38.62
Uxbridge	2,300	53.04	2,800	49.35
Vauxhall	4,100	61.74	4,900	58.95
Walthamstow	3,900	59.67	4,200	58.41
West Ham	4,300	65.36	4,800	65.39
Wimbledon	1,800	52.85	2,300	51.21
Total recipients/average award	248,600	59.23	286,800	57.61

Notes:
1. Figures are taken from five per cent samples and are therefore subject to sampling variation.
2. Caseloads are rounded to the nearest 100.
3. Parliamentary Constituencies and Government Office Regions are assigned by matching postcodes against the relevant Office for National Statistics postcode directory.
4. The state pension data are taken as at 30 September for the relevant years.
5. The pension credit data are taken as at 29 February 2004 and 28 February 2005.
6. Pension credit replaced the minimum income guarantee on 6 October 2003.
Source:
Information Directorate, 5 per cent. samples





 
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