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Poverty

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what measure of poverty his Department uses; and how many people his Department defined as poor in (a) the UK and (b) Stroud constituency in each year since 1997. [39184]

Margaret Hodge: Poverty is about more than low income. It is also about health, housing, education and the quality of the environment. The seventh annual Opportunity for all" report (Cm 6673), published in October 2005, sets out the Government's strategy for tackling poverty and social exclusion and presents information on the indicators used to measure progress against this strategy.

Specific information regarding individuals living in low income households is published in Households Below Average Income 1994/95–2003/04", available in the Library. The report includes estimates of relative low income, absolute low income, and persistent low income. A household is defined as experiencing relative low income if it has an income below a relative low income threshold, such as the commonly used relative threshold of 60 per cent. of contemporary median. A household is defined as experiencing absolute low income if it has an income below an absolute low income threshold, such as the commonly used absolute threshold of 60 per cent. of median from an historic year that has been adjusted for inflation. The Households Below Average Income report currently uses the 1996–07 median for absolute low income estimates. A household is defined as experiencing persistent low income if it has experienced relative low income for three or four years out of four consecutive years.

The number and percentage of individuals living in households with incomes below 60 per cent. of median income—known as relative" low income—from 1996–07 to 2003–04 are presented in the following table. Figures are presented for Great Britain as results for the United Kingdom are only available from 2002–03 onwards and are not available below regional level.
Number and percentage of individuals with incomes less than 60 per cent. of contemporary median, Great Britain

	Before housing costs		After housing costs
	Number	Percentage	Number	Percentage
1996–97	10.2	18	13.8	25
1997–98	10.2	18	13.3	24
1998–99	10.2	18	13.2	24
1999–2000	10.0	18	13.2	24
2000–01	9.6	17	12.7	23
2001–02	9.6	17	12.3	22
2002–03	9.7	17	12.2	22
2003–04	9.6	17	12.0	21

Note:
The table shows percentages rounded to the nearest percentage point, and numbers in millions rounded to the nearest 100,000.




 
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Staff Allocations

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many staff were employed to work on (a) crisis loans, (b) jobseeker's allowance and (c) incapacity benefit in each of the past 24 months. [41821]

Mr. Plaskitt: The information requested is not available.

Jobcentre Plus, in line with other parts of the Department for Work and Pensions, collect staffing information by grade/location and not job role.

Staff Discipline

David T.C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many employees have been dismissed by his Department in each of the last five years for which figures are available. [29138]

Mrs. McGuire: The Department informs staff what is expected of them and the consequences of non-compliance through the Department's Standards of Behaviour policy. The Department has procedures in place in accordance with the Dispute Resolution Regulations 2004 to deal with issues of misconduct, unsatisfactory performance or attendance and where it is deemed appropriate this could lead to dismissal. All of the policies and procedures are available to staff through the Department's internal HR website.

Information on the numbers of dismissals from the Department for each of the financial years from March 2002 to March 2005 is in the following table.

Financial year	Number of dismissals
2001–02	524
2002–03	367
2003–04	416
2004–05	497

Note:
Numbers of dismissals are permanent staff expressed as headcount

CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS

Administrative Costs

Angus Robertson: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs which functions of her core Department are carried out in (a) England and (b) London; and what administration costs were associated with these functions for each area in the last year. [39827]

Bridget Prentice: The total administration costs outturn of the core Department, which includes the Court Service and Public Guardianship Office, in 2004–05 was £915 million. It is not possible for the Department to provide full detailed information of the administration costs of the functions carried out by thecore Department in (a) England and (b) London in the last year without incurring disproportionate costs.

The administration budgets regime overseen by the Treasury relates to Whitehall Departments only. The Department does not monitor national, regional or
 
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London administration costs separately and it is a matter for the devolved Administrations how they control their own administration costs.

Mr. Weir: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs which functions of her core Department are carried out in (a) Northern Ireland and (b) Wales; and what administration costs were associated with these functions for each area in the last year. [39950]

Bridget Prentice: The total administration costs outturn of the core Department, which includes the Court Service and Public Guardianship Office, in 2004–05 was £915 million. It is not possible for the Department to provide full detailed information of the administration costs of the functions carried out by thecore Department in (a) Northern Ireland and (b) Wales in the last year without incurring disproportionate costs.

The administration budgets regime overseen by the Treasury relates to Whitehall Departments only. The Department does not monitor national or regional administration costs separately and it is a matter for the devolved Administrations how they control their own administration costs.

Departmental Expenditure

Pete Wishart: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what has been the annual expenditure on vehicles for (a) her Department and (b) each (i) non-departmental public body, (ii) executive agency and (iii) other public body for which she is responsible in (A) Scotland, (B) Wales, (C) each of the English regions and (D) Northern Ireland in each of the last three financial years; and what the planned expenditure is for 2005–06. [40003]

Ms Harman: Since its inception in June 2003, my Department's annual expenditure on vehicles was as follows:

	2003–04	2004–05	2005–06
(a) DCA and Court Service/HMCS(53)	1,722,281	1,629,818	2,350,236
(b) (i) Legal Services Commission	0	0	0
Information Commissioner	0	0	0
ii) Public Guardianship Office	0	0	0
(iii) Information on annual expenditure by other public bodies for which the Department is responsible is not held centrally and could be obtained now only at disproportionate cost.	—	—	—

⁽⁵³⁾Expenditure for CS/HMCS cannot be separated without incurring disproportionate cost.

For details of expenditure on ministerial vehicles provided to the Department by the Government Car and Despatch Agency I refer the hon. Member to the letter of 20 December 2005 from the Chief Executive of the Government Car and Despatch Agency to the hon. Member for Lewes (Norman Baker). Copies of this letter are available in the Library.

Mr. Weir: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what the annual expenditure on (a) fixtures and fittings, (b) general office expenses and (c) office equipment was of her (i) Department and
 
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(ii) each (A) non-departmental public body, (B) executive agency and (C) other public body for which her Department is responsible in (1) Scotland, (2) Wales, (3)each English region and (4) Northern Ireland in each of the last three financial years; and what the planned expenditure is for 2005–06 in each case. [40093]

Bridget Prentice: It is not possible for the Department to provide full detailed information as requested in the question without incurring disproportionate costs.

The administration budgets regime overseen by the Treasury relates to Whitehall Departments only. The Department does not monitor national, regional or London administration costs separately and it is a matter for the devolved Administrations how they control their own administration costs.

Mr. Weir: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what expenditure on (a) buildings and (b) insurance of buildings and staff was of (i) her Department and (ii) each (A) non-departmental public body, (B) executive agency and (C)other public body for which her Department is responsible in (1) Scotland, (2) Wales, (3) each English region and (4) Northern Ireland in each of the last three financial years; and what the planned expenditure is for 2005–06 in each case. [40094]

Bridget Prentice: It is not possible for the Department to provide full detailed information as requested in the question without incurring disproportionate costs. However, the Department does not incur any costs to insure any of its buildings as the Crown carries the risk.

The administration budgets regime overseen by the Treasury relates to Whitehall Departments only. The Department does not monitor national or regional London administration costs separately and it is a matter for the devolved Administrations how they control their own administration costs.

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