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15 Nov 2005 : Column 1151W—continued
Violence Against Passengers
Anne Milton: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many passengers travelling by (a) rail, (b) bus and (c) taxi have been the victims of offences of violence in (i) Surrey and (ii) England in each of the last 10 years. [25694]
Derek Twigg: The number of victims of violence recorded by the British Transport Police over the last seven financial years in Surrey and England is shown in the table.
| Surrey | England | |
|---|---|---|
| 1998–99 | 154 | 7,847 |
| 1999–2000 | 140 | 8,649 |
| 2000–01 | 179 | 8,933 |
| 2001–02 | 264 | 9,603 |
| 2002–03 | 272 | 9,838 |
| 2003–04 | 324 | 11,177 |
| 2004–05 | 344 | 11,642 |
Comparable figures are not available for years before 1998–99, due to a change in Home Office counting rules.
The Department does not collect statistics on the number of passengers who have been victims of violent offences while travelling on buses or in taxis.
WORK AND PENSIONS
Benefit Claimants
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of incapacity benefit and severe disability allowance claimants with recorded job entries in the UK, excluding Pathways to Work pilot areas, (a) returned to incapacity benefits and (b) claimed jobseeker's allowance within (i) one month (ii) two months (iii) six months and (iv) 12 months in the latest period for which data are available. [28988]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information is not available.
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what measure of sustainability for recorded job entries his Department uses for assessing job entries for people on incapacity benefits and severe disability allowance in (a) Pathways to Work pilot areas and (b) the UK excluding Pathways areas. [28990]
Mrs. McGuire: The definition of sustained employment used in the new deal for disabled people, where referral has been made through a Job Broker, is employment for 13 out of 39 weeks.
Information on incapacity benefits recipients returning to sustained employment is not currently available. However, this will be examined as part of the evaluation of the Pathways to Work pilots and we will publish this information once it becomes available.
David Mundell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in Scotland do not receive a social security benefit. [28452]
Mr. Plaskitt:
The information is not available.
15 Nov 2005 : Column 1152W
Child Support Agency
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many compensation payments have been made by the Child Support Agency for maladministration since 1 January 1998; how many of these exceeded (a) £1,000, (b) £10,000, (c) £50,000 and (d) £90,000; and if he will make a statement. [28478]
Mr. Plaskitt: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the chief executive. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Stephen Geraghty to Mr. David Laws, dated 15 November 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 how many compensation payments had been made by the Child Support Agency for maladministration since 1st January 1998; how many of these had exceeded (a) £1,000 (b) £10,000 (c) £50,000 and (d) £90,000 and if he would make a statement.
The CSA does not hold sufficiently robust information for dates before 1 December 2001 for me to give you the data over the entire period requested. I apologise for this but can give you information on payments, in accordance with the Departmental Guide to Financial Redress for Maladministration, made since 1 December 2001 up until 10 November 2005.
| Total number of payments | £ |
|---|---|
| Made since 1 December 2001 | 35,558 |
| Under £1,000 | 33,227 |
| Between £1,000 and £9,999 | 2,289 |
| Between £10,000 and £49,999 | 42 |
| Over £50,000 | 0 |
Please note that whilst the minimum that we pay on consolatory payment is £25, there may also be awards for less than that amount to reimburse costs such as telephone charges that a client may have incurred in contacting the Agency. The figure of 33,227 contains these amounts.
Criminal Offences
Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will list the criminal offences created in legislation sponsored by his Office from May 1997 broken down by act. [28986]
Mrs. McGuire: The information requested is as follows.
(i) section 60 substitutes a new section 113 of the Social Security Administration Act 1992 which confers power for regulations under defined social security legislation to provide that any person who contravenes or fails to comply with any provision contained in the regulations shall be guilty of an offence;
(ii) section 61 substitutes a new section 114 of the Social Security Administration Act 1992 which makes it an offence for a person to be knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of contributions which he or another person is liable to pay;
(b) Welfare Reform and Pensions Act 1999
(i) section 9 inserts a new section 111A into the Pension Schemes Act 1993 (monitoring of employers payments to personal pension schemes), subsection (12) of which makes it an offence
- for a person to be knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of the direct payment arrangements under that section so far as they affect deductions on behalf of the employee;
(ii) section 10(1) substitutes for section 49(8) of the Pension Schemes Act 1993 new subsections (8) to (13), subsection (11 ) of which makes it an offence for a person to be knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of the obligation imposed by subsection (8).
(c) Child Support, Pensions and Social Security Act 2000
(i) section 13 inserts a new section 14 A into the Child Support Act 1991 which makes it an offence for a person required to comply with regulations under section 4 (4) and 7(5) of that Act, or persons specified in regulations under section 14(1)(a) of that Act, to make a representation which he knows to be false or to provide or knowingly cause or allow to be provided a document or other information which he knows to be false;
(ii) section 16(5) also amends section 27(3) of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 to make it an offence for a person to fail to produce his driving licence and its counterpart to a court as required by section 40 B of the Child Support Act 1991;
(d) Social Security Fraud Act 2001
(i) section 2(3)(a) inserts a new paragraph (ab) into subsection (1) of section 111 of the Social Security Administration Act 1992 to make it an offence for a person to refuse or neglect to comply with any requirements under section 109BA or 110A (power of the Secretary of State or local authority to require electronic access to information) or with any requirement of any arrangement entered under that section to allow authorised officers access;
(ii) section 16 amends section 111A of the Social Security Administration Act 1992 (dishonest representations for obtaining benefit etc.) to extend the circumstances in which a person is to be guilty of an offence if there has been a change of circumstances which he knows will affect entitlement to benefit (either his or another person's) , the change is not one which is excluded by regulations from the changes which are required to be notified, and he dishonestly fails, or dishonestly causes or allows another person to fail, to give a prompt notification of the change;
(iii) section 16 also amends section 112 of that Act (false representations for obtaining benefit etc) to extend the circumstances in which a person is to be guilty of an offence if he fails or causes another to fail to give a prompt notification of any change which he knows affect entitlement to any benefit;
(i) section 77(1) makes it an offence for a person, without reasonable excuse, to refuse to provide information or produce a document when required to do so under section 72 by the Regulator;
(ii) section 77(2) makes it an offence for a person to intentionally delay or obstruct an inspector exercising powers under sections 73 to 75 or to refuse to produce or secure the production of any document or to answer a question or provide information when required;
(iii) section 77(5) makes it an offence for a person intentionally or without reasonable excuse to alter, suppress or destroy any document which he is required to produce under section 72 or 75;
(iv) section 80 makes it an offence for a person to knowingly or recklessly provide the Regulator with information which is false or misleading in a material particular in certain specified circumstances;
(v) section 82 makes it an offence for a person to disclose restricted information in contravention of that section;
(vi) section 193 makes it an offence for a person to fail to provide information to the Board of the Pension Protection Fund or to obstruct a person appointed by the Board or to refuse to produce a document in circumstances similar to those described under (i) to (iii);
(vii) section 195 and 197 respectively make similar provision as in (iv) and (v) for providing information which is false or misleading to the Board or disclosing restricted information;
(viii) section 256 makes it an offence for a trustee or manager to be reimbursed out of the assets of a pension schemes for fines or penalties in contravention of that section;
(ix) Schedule 4, paragraph 11 makes it an offence for a person ,without reasonable excuse, to refuse or fail to attend or to give evidence to the Pensions Regulator Tribunal or to alter, suppress or destroy any document which he is liable to produce to the Tribunal or to refuse to produce a document;
(f) Disability Discrimination Act 2005
(i) section 10(3) inserts a new subsection (2B) into section 16B of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 which makes it an offence for a person to knowingly or recklessly make a statement to the effect that publication of a particular advert would not be unlawful by reason of the operation of subsection(2);
(ii) section 7(2) (b) prospectively adds to the definition of relevant document in section 49 (1) of the 1995 Act a rail vehicle accessibility compliance certificate so as to make it an offence for such a document to be forged, altered etc or for a false statement to be made for the purpose of obtaining such a certificate;
(iii) section 8(2) prospectively inserts a new subsection (5) into section 49 of the 1995 Act to make it an offence to falsely pretend to be a person authorised to inspect rail vehicles;
(iv) section 9 inserts a new section 21A into the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 in relation to badges issued outside Great Britain, subsections (4) and (8) of which respectively make it an offence to display a badge purporting to be a recognised badge unless it is a recognised badge and is displayed in accordance with regulations and to fail, without reasonable excuse, to produce a badge when required to do so by a constable or enforcement officer.
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