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7 Dec 2005 : Column 1372W—continued
Learning Providers
Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent discussions (a) his Department and (b) Jobcentre Plus have held with representatives of learning providers concerning (i) prime contractor status and (ii) other means of improving the cost-effectiveness of education and training in job placement. [31939]
Margaret Hodge: The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus, Lesley Strathie. She will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Lesley Strathie, dated 7 December 2005:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question asking what recent discussions (a) his Department and (b) Jobcentre Plus have held with representatives of learning providers concerning (i) prime contractor status and (ii) other means of improving the cost effectiveness of education and training in job placement. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
Jobcentre Plus holds regular formal discussions and meetings with representatives of the Employment Related Services Association (ERSA), the Association of Learning Providers (ALP) and the Provider Liaison Group.
All these bodies represent the interests of all actual and potential providers of employment related services under contract to Jobcentre Plus. The role of prime contractors and cost effectiveness of employment—related services have both been discussed at these meetings. There are of course other more informal meetings and discussions held with individual learning providers where these issues may be raised.
Pensioners (Beverley and Holderness)
Mr. Graham Stuart: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many people in Beverley and Holderness he estimates will be entitled to pension credit in 2025; [33454]
(2) how many pensioners he estimates will be entitled to pension credit in 2025. [33460]
Mr. Timms: The numbers entitled to pension credit will depend on a wide range of factors including how Government choose to uprate benefits in the future. If the current uprating approaches are continued in the future, projections suggest 5.2 million households or 6.9 million individuals in Great Britain will be entitled to pension credit in 2025. Projections are not available at constituency level.
4. Estimates of the number of households and individuals eligible for pension credit are available for Great Britain. These are based
- on a long term version of the Department's Policy Simulation Model, which uses Family Resources Survey data for 2003–04 projected forward into the future to estimate the extent of eligibility for pension credit for each pensioner household on the survey.
Pensions
Jim Cousins:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the total value was of rebates for
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contracting out of the state second pension in each year since 2002–03; and if he will estimate the distribution of the value of the rebates for each income (a) decile and (b) quartile of the population. [34402]
Mr. Timms: The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is in the table:
Notes:
1. Figures are based on GAD estimates for the December 2005 pre-Budget report.
2. Figures are rounded to the nearest £100 million.
3. Figures cover Great Britain only.
4. Figures are accruals basis and are in cash terms.
Source:
Government Actuary's Department (GAD).
Sir Malcolm Rifkind: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many occupational pension schemes have started the process of winding up since 1997; [22188]
(2) how many occupational pension schemes have started winding up since 1997. [27978]
Mr. Timms: In April 2005 the Pensions Regulator took over the register of occupational pension schemes from the Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority (Opra).
Information in the following table was provided by the Pensions Regulator and shows the number of schemes that have entered winding up each year since 1997 and which had not yet completed winding up. The table does not contain schemes that started winding up in the time period given and have since completed wind up. The Pensions Regulator only holds the present status of a scheme so only those winding up at the moment are captured.
Notes:
1. A winding up scheme is one which has notified the Pensions Regulator that it has commenced winding up procedures.
2. Schemes are required to notify the Pensions Regulator of changes in scheme status as soon as is reasonably practical. This means that the data for the year ended 31 March 2005 is provisional.
3. The figures are based on information held on the register as at 14 October 2005. The effective date for the commencement of wind up is based on the last scheme status change date.
4. Total membership includes active, deferred and pensioner members. It is not possible to provide a breakdown of these numbers.
5. During 2005–06 the Pensions Regulator will continue with its plans to issue all occupational pension schemes that are registered in the UK a scheme return form. This will provide the Pension Regulator with access to enhanced data on schemes that are in the process of winding up in future years.
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the take-up of stakeholder pensions; and what the average employee contribution to stakeholder pension schemes has been. [25236]
Mr. Timms: Stakeholder pensions are now an established pension product. Figures from the Association of British Insurers (ABI) show that at 30 June 2005 over two-and-a-half million stakeholder pensions had been sold since their introduction in April 2001.
Official figures for the 2003–04 tax year confirm that 99 per cent. of sales have been to people in work and that the majority of stakeholder pensions are being bought by those on modest incomes; over three-quarters (1,080,000) of stakeholder pension plans with contributions in them in that year were for workers earning under £30,000 a year and around two-thirds (790,000) were for those workers earning under £20,000 a year.
Stakeholder pensions form an integral part of the range of Stakeholder Savings Products introduced in April 2005 and will benefit from the Government's Consumer Awareness Campaign launched in September. The main objective of the campaign is to raise people's awareness of the Stakeholder Range of Products; what they are and how they can help people save and accumulate assets.
Information on employee contributions alone is not available. The average contribution to stakeholder pension schemes held by employees in the 2003–04 tax year was £1,290 pa. This includes employee, employer and minimum contributions. (The national insurance rebate).
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Swimming
Mr. Brazier: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many deaths of children under the age of 18 years resulted from (a) swimming accidents and (b) swimming accidents in swimming pools in each of the last 20 years. [35043]
Mrs. McGuire: The information is not available in the form requested.
Tables 1 and 2 set out figures obtained from the Health and Safety Executive and the Office of National Statistics respectively. The two sets of data are not directly comparable as they are based on different reporting arrangements. The HSE data in Table 1 are based on a reporting year from April to March and only include accidents arising from activities within the control of an employer. The ONS statistics at Table 2 are collected over the calendar year and include all deaths from drowning as recorded on death certificates.
(22) Provisional
Notes:
Swimming activities are identified from HSE's accident coding framework using the following process classifications: for the period 1996–97—2000–01, 4520' Education—Swimming activities (indoor) (including pools, diving)', 5470 'Entertainment-Swimming activities (indoor) (including swimming pools, diving)1, 5480 'Water sports activities (not elsewhere classified) including beach; for 2001–02 onwards, 0815 'Swimming pool activities', 0818 'Water Sports, boating, motor, boat, mooring at marinas'.
Access to older data is not readily available and would require restoration of archived databases.
Notes:
Data selected using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth revision (ICD-9) between 1984 and 2000 for the codes listed as follows:
Swimming accidents:
E910.2—Accidental drowning and submersion while engaged in either sport or other recreational activity without diving equipment.
E910.3—Accidental drowning and submersion while swimming or diving for purposes other than recreation or sport.
E910.8—Accidental drowning and submersion, other specified.
Swimming accidents in swimming pools—It is not possible to identify accidents in swimming pools from the records for 1984 to 2000.
Data selected using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth revision (ICD- 10) from 2001 onwards for the codes is listed as follows:
Swimming accidents:
W67—Accidental drowning and submersion while in swimming pool.
W69—Accidental drowning and submersion while in natural water
W73—Other accidental drowning and submersion.
Swimming accidents in swimming pools:
W67—Accidental drowning and submersion while in swimming pool
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