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6 Mar 2006 : Column 1104W—continued
Media Training
Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much has been spent by his Department on media training in each year since 1997–98. [55224]
John Healey: The cost of media training, being the provision by external suppliers of training to prepare senior officials to be interviewed for television and/or radio, is not recorded in the Treasury's accounting system separately from other forms of training. Therefore figures for spending on media training, if any, over the period referred to could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
North-east Region (Economic Growth)
Mrs. Hodgson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the relationship between the level of skills in the work force and economic growth in the north east region; and if he will make a statement. [55479]
John Healey: Skills are vital to the stability and growth of the economy. Increases in an economy's trend rate of growth are supported by how many people are in employment and how productive they are. Skills are one of the drivers of productivity, which is why the Government have more than doubled overall investment in education and skills since 1997.
The North East Development Agency and its partner organisations, including the Learning and Skills Council, set out the contribution that skills makes to economic growth in the north east in their regional economic strategy and through their regional skills partnership statement of priorities.
The Chancellor has also commissioned the Leitch Review of Skills, an independent review of the UK's skills needs, which published its interim report alongside the pre-Budget report 2005. It sets out the extent of current evidence on the relationship between workforce skills and employment, and their role in reducing inequalities in regional economic growth.
Pensions
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will break down the number of active members of schemes referred to in Table 3.14 of Occupational pension schemes 2004: the twelfth survey by the Government Actuary by (a) normal pension age, (b) sector and (c) benefit type; whether those public sector employees who are not members of public service schemes are treated as being in the public sector category; and whether the data for public and private sector schemes are consistent with previous such surveys by the Government Actuary. [54517]
Mr. Ivan Lewis:
The definitions of public sector and private sector pension schemes are set out in paragraphs 1.13 and 1.14 of the report 'Occupational pension schemes 2004: Twelfth Survey by the Government Actuary'. This follows a classification used by the pension schemes registry. Exactly the same approach was adopted for the previous (2000) survey. Members of schemes are categorised according to the scheme of which they are a member, and not by the sector in which
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they are employed. Those employees in both the public and private sector who are not members of occupational pension schemes are not recorded in the survey.
Pensions Mis-selling
Mr. Spring: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer for what reason people who were mis-sold endowment policies between April and August 1988 are not (a) protected by and (b) entitled to compensation under existing arrangements. [55741]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Financial Ombudsman Service is able to consider complaints about investment business conducted from 29 April 1988. The financial services compensation scheme, which provides compensation to those consumers who have a claim against an authorised firm which has been declared in default, is able to consider claims from 28 August 1988.
Investment firms were authorised for the first time with effect from 29 April 1988 under the Financial Intermediaries, Managers and Brokers Regulatory Association (FIMBRA), which was established under the Financial Services Act 1986. The investors compensation scheme was established under the Financial Services Act with effect from 28 August 1988. A compensation scheme for investors did not exist before that date.
Personal Debt
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will take steps to enable data on personal debt to be collected by county. [55698]
John Healey: Personal debt level statistics are produced by the Bank of England. There are no plans to extend this dataset to include county level data.
Planning Gain Supplement
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will place in the Library copies of each response to the Treasury/Office of the Deputy Prime Minister consultation on Planning-gain Supplement. [56191]
John Healey: The Government's consultation on the proposed Planning-gain Supplement (PCS) closed on 27 February 2006. A summary of responses to the consultation will be published in due course.
Population Statistics
Mr. Evans: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the population of each (a) Lancashire constituency and (b) Ribble Valley ward was according to (i) figures from the 2001 census, (ii) the most recent electoral rolls and (iii) the most recent figures for health service users; and what projections he has made for the next five years. [55882]
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John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Colin Mowl, dated 6 March 2006:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question regarding the population of each (a) Lancashire constituency (b) each Ribble Valley ward according to figures from (i) the 2001 Census, (ii) most recent electoral rolls, and (iii) most recent figures for health service users; and what projections have been made for the next five years. I am replying in her absence. (55882)
The tables attached provide the information you have requested. Data for Lancashire constituencies are shown in Table 1 and Table 2. Data for Ribble Valley wards are shown in Table 3.
Electoral rolls provide counts of the number of people registered to vote. Local/European electorate and Parliamentary electorate counts for Lancashire constituencies can be found in Table 1 The 2005 figures are the latest available data. It should be noted that the number of people eligible to vote is not the same as the resident population aged 18 and over. There are a number of reasons for this. For example not everyone who is usually resident is entitled to vote (foreign citizens from outside of the EU and Commonwealth, prisoners, etc. are not eligible), some people do not register to vote and people who have more than one address may register in more than one place. Further, there is inevitably some double counting of the registered electorate as electoral registration officers vary in how quickly they remove people from the registers after they have moved away from an area or after they have died. These factors have a differential impact from area to area.
The number of people registered with a GP, living in each Lancashire constituency, in July 2004, can also be found in Table 1. It should also be noted that patient register counts differ from estimates of the usually resident population for a number of reasons.
Patient registers include people who are in the country for at least three months, whereas population estimates are based on a usual residence definition requiring a stay of 12 months or more. The patient registers exclude individuals who are ineligible to be registered with a GP. People may be on a patient register after having left the country and not deregistered with their GP; similarly people may have moved to another area and not re-registered. Some patients may have more than one NHS number e.g. they may have been issued a temporary number for a short period. Again, these factors have a differential impact from place to place.
The projections in Table 2 for mid-2006 to mid-2010 are based on the mid-2003 population estimates and are the latest population projections available. They assume that trends in fertility, mortality and migration at the time of the mid-2003 population estimate will continue into the future. Population projections are not available for most of the Lancashire constituencies because projections are not routinely produced for constituencies. Local Authority population projections are however produced, and where constituency projections are shown, this reflects that these constituencies have common boundaries with local authority districts.
Ward data are shown in Table 3; the points set out above also apply to wards. However, there are some further points to note for wards. The local government electorate is definitionally closer to the population estimates; however these data are not available at ward level. Hence, the Parliamentary electorate is shown, the most recent data available are for December 2004.
(8) Local government electors are those people who are entitled to vote in local elections and who meet the residence qualification. These include Peers and European citizens but exclude overseas voters.
(9) Parliamentary electors are those people who are entitled to vote in parliamentary elections at Westminster and who meet the residence qualification. Those include overseas voters but exclude Peers and European citizens.
Source:
Office for National Statistics
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(10) The population projections shown in this table are taken from the 2003-based subnational population projections, the latest set of projections currently available.
Note:
Population projections are not produced specifically for Parliamentary Constituencies. Projections for Burnley, Chorley and Pendle Constituencies are available because they are coterminous with the local authorities for which population projections are available.
Source:
Office for National Statistics
(11) These wards also fall within a neighbouring Constituency. Data for the whole ward are shown
Note:
Parliamentary electors are those people who are entitled to vote in parliamentary elections at Westminster and who meet the residence qualification. Those include overseas voters but exclude Peers and European citizens.
Source:
Office for National Statistics
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