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3 Mar 2006 : Column 1029W—continued
Child Support Agency
Mr. Philip Hammond:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the total number of staff
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employed by the Child Support Agency was in the UK during each of the last 18 months for which figures are available. [54245]
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.
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 the total number of staff employed ,by the Child Support Agency was in the UK during each of the last 18 months for which figures are available.
The total number of full-time equivalent staff employed by the Child Support Agency in the UK during each of the last 18 months is detailed in the following table.
The figures are based on the new Office of National Statistics (ONS) standard for use in the calculation of all public sector employment statistics.
In line with other public sector organisations, the Department for Work and Pensions has implemented the new ONS definitions from November 2005. Historical data using this definition is now available backdated to February 2004, the baseline for the Department's efficiency challenge. The ONS definition has therefore been used to report the figures in the table below.
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many days training have been provided to staff at the Child Support Agency in each of the last five years; how many are planned to be provided in 2005–06; and if he will make a statement. [30024]
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.
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You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many days training have been provided to staff at the Child Support Agency in each of the last five years; how many are planned to be provided in 2005–06; and if he will make a statement.
The Child Support Agency has provided a range of training during the last five years covering technical, management, generic skills and information technology.
The table below provides the information requested. The figures provided relate to classroom training only and do not include training given at the workstation. The figures for 2005/06 include planned training days in addition to training delivered.
| Training days | Staff trained | |
|---|---|---|
| 2001–02 | 108,515 | (22)— |
| 2002–03 | 133,199 | 13,143 |
| 2003–04 | 78,629 | 11,366 |
| 2004–05 | 67,687 | 11,376 |
| 2005–06 | 66,704 | 5,826 |
(22) Not available.
The decrease in training for 2005/06 has been caused by a number of reasons including awaiting the agreement of the Operational Implementation Plan, which leads to a new training programme for managers and other staff in the Child Support Agency. We have also seen a move towards blended learning and the use of e-learning with less emphasis on classroom training.
Current planning estimates suggest that 387,228 technical training days will be delivered between March 06 and March 09 to support the recently announced Operational Improvement Plan.
More detailed plans are still being finalised but the training will be for both new entrants and to support existing staff who may take on a different role on implementation of the new organisational design.
Disabled Volunteers
Tom Levitt: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will extend (a) Access to Work measures and (b) protection from discrimination to disabled volunteers who are working as part of a work experience or rehabilitation scheme. [47226]
Mrs. McGuire: Access to Work does not provide support to people who are engaged in unpaid voluntary work and there are currently no plans to extent Access to Work in this way.
The first priority of Access to Work is to assist unemployed disabled people into paid employment, thereby helping to remove or reduce their dependence on benefits.
We have asked the Disability Rights Commission to consider producing a voluntary code of practice on volunteering as we do not believe at this stage that it would be appropriate to extend the disability discrimination legislation to cover volunteers. There are likely to be practical difficulties in legislating to cover volunteers because of the diversity in the nature of volunteering and in the relationships between volunteers and the organisations that engage them.
Energy Sector (Industrial Injuries)
Mr. Crabb:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many industrial (a) injuries and
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(b) fatalities occurred in UK (i) nuclear, (ii) coal-fired and (iii) gas-fired power stations in each year since 1990. [49215]
Mrs. McGuire: The Health and Safety Executive's (HSE) systems record the number of workplace injuries reported in Great Britain under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR 95). Across the five-year period 2000–01 to the provisional year 2004–05: 756 industrial injuries in Great Britain were reported to HSE that occurred in Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code 40.11 'Electricity generation'. Of these industrial injuries, six fatal injuries were reported. The table provides yearly breakdowns. Further disaggregation to identify the means of electricity generation (e.g. nuclear, coal/gas-fired) is not possible from centrally held statistics. The information provided covers the planning years 2000–01 to 2004–05 (provisional). Access to older data at the required level of detail is not readily available and would require the restoration of archived databases.
(23) Provisional.
Financial Assistance Scheme
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether in the case of an interim 60 per cent. payment being made under the Financial Assistance Scheme for a terminally ill member the balance will be paid to the spouse when wind-up is completed. [54603]
Mr. Timms: Any balance will be paid to the member's estate.
Incapacity Benefit
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people have had their incapacity benefit stopped in each month during the last three years. [43343]
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Mrs. McGuire: The information is not available in the format requested. Termination information is not available broken down on a monthly basis. The quarterly figures for incapacity benefit and severe disablement allowance claim terminations are in the table.
Notes:
1. Figures are rounded to the nearest hundred.
2. Terminations figures for the latest quarter do not include any late notifications and are subject to major increases in future quarters.
3. Earlier quarters have been updated to include late notified terminations, including terminations for state pension.
4. "Terminations" includes all terminations, whether initiated by the claimant or DWP; it includes cases where the claimant has died.
Source:
DWP Information Directorate 5 per cent. samples.
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