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10 May 2006 : Column 338W—continued
Patrick Mercer: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what factors affected the timing of the decision in February 2006 to include security personnel working in alarm control centres in the Security Industry Authority (SIA) licensing scheme; how many SIA licences have been issued to personnel working in alarm control centres; and how many SIA licence applications are yet to be processed. [65808]
Mr. Coaker: The Security Industry Authority (SIA) first provided guidance that individuals who use CCTV to ‘solely identify intruders onto a site' would need a Security Guard licence, as opposed to a CCTV licence, in the “Licensing Security Get Licensed” booklet, published in January 2005, not February 2006. The SIA has consistently made this position clear since then. Incorrect advice was given to one company by the SIA's call
centre in October 2005, which was corrected in February 2006. It is not possible to identify how many licensed security guards undertake activities in alarm centres.
Sex Offenders
Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on how many occasions where electronic type tags were fitted to persons after their release from prison for sex offences in England and Wales between 2000 and 2005, the tags were found to have been illegally removed. [64909]
Mr. Sutcliffe [holding answer 24 April 2006]: A total of 64 prisoners are recorded as serving a sentence for a sexual offence at the time of their release on home detention curfew (HDC). The last such offender recorded as released on HDC was released in January 2004. It is not possible to provide accurate statistics of the number who removed their tag. This is because the data relate to the period before the start of the new electronic monitoring contracts on 1 April 2005 and are incomplete. Also, the data of one former supplier are unavailable.
US Extradition
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many alleged offenders have been extradited from the US to the UK in each of the last five years. [69359]
Joan Ryan: The figures for the last five complete calendar years are as follows:
| Number | |
Work Permit Regulations
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what period of grace he proposes for doctors already in the UK under the new work permit regulations; [65015]
(2) what response he has made to the request of the British Medical Association for a period of grace for international medical graduates already in the UK in relation to the relevant changes in immigration rules. [65055]
Mr. McNulty: The changes to the rules were developed by the Home Office and the Department of Health together, following a request by the Department of Health. Those who had existing leave as a postgraduate doctor or dentist prior to the changes can continue to use this leave as before. We have also put in place transitional arrangements for all those either in a post or offered one before the Department of Health announced
the changes on 7 March. Full details of the transitional arrangements are available in the Immigration Directorates' Instructions on the revised rules on the IND website at www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk The Home Office and the Department of Health met with the British Medical Association to discuss the changes, including the transitional arrangements.
Young Offenders
Dr. Vis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many under 18 year olds were remanded to custody by each youth court in each year since 2000; and what percentage of sentences for under-18s this represented in each case. [67350]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Statistics collected from the magistrates courts and the police on persons remanded to custody by magistrates/youth courts are not sufficiently robust to be shown for under 18-year-olds and by individual court. The readily available information, which relates to persons aged 10 to 17 sentenced for indictable offences in each magistrates/youth court, is published in table S4.1(B) of ‘Criminal statistics, England and Wales, supplementary tables, Volume 4'. These publications can be found on the Home Office website for 2000-04, as follows: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs/crim statvol4.pdfhttp://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs2/cs 2001vol4.xlshttp://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs2/cs 2002vol4pt1.xlshttp://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs 04/cs2003vol4pt1.xls.http://www.home office.gov.uk/rds/pdfs05/cs2004vol4pt1.xls.
Work and Pensions
100th Birthday (One-off Payment)
Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will introduce a one-off payment for UK residents who reach the age of 100 years. [69459]
Mr. Plaskitt: We have no plans to make such a payment.
Benefit Recipients (Doncaster, North)
Edward Miliband: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many residents of Doncaster, North constituency received pension credit in the most recent period for which figures were available, broken down by ward; and what the average payment was. [68304]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information is provided in the following table.
Claim Processing
Gordon Banks: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many days it took to rate a claim for (a) income support, (b) jobseeker's allowance and (c) incapacity benefit in Alloa in the most recent period for which figures are available. [68805]
Mrs. McGuire: The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the chief executive of Jobcentre Plus, Lesley Strathie. She will write to the hon. Member.
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about how many days it took to rate a claim for Jobseeker's Allowance, Income Support and Incapacity Benefit in Alloa in the most recent period for which figures are available. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
Our measure of the time taken to process a claim is the Actual Average Clearance Time. For 2005/06, the Jobcentre Plus Key Management Indicators for processing claims were 12 working
days for Income Support and Jobseeker's Allowance and 19 working days for Incapacity Benefit.
Jobcentre Plus does not record separate information for Alloa. However, it is included with the whole of the Stirling area. The average clearance times for the Stirling area in March 2006 are set out in the table.
| Days | |||
| Income support clearance time | Jobseeker's allowance clearance time | Incapacity benefit clearance times | |
Although the overall Actual Average Clearance Time for Income Support claims during 2005/06 is 11.3 days, the figure for March was 18.3 days. Action is being taken to reverse the recent increase in clearance times in Income Support.
A number of additional staff are currently undergoing intensive training and we anticipate an improvement in clearance times once they come into operation. Our management groups meet regularly to review local arrangements and performance issues, and this enables us to solve immediate problems.
Jobcentre Plus gives a high priority to customer service and we are doing everything we can to ensure that we continue to deliver the high level of service our customers have the right to expect.
I hope this is helpful.
Pension Credit
Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what percentage of pensioners received pension credit in (a) the UK, (b) the South West and (c) Taunton constituency in each year since its introduction. [64312]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information that is available is in the following table.
Mr. David Hamilton: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what the average payment of pension credit was in Midlothian in the latest period for which figures are available; [68891]
(2) how many households in Midlothian are in receipt of pension credit. [69199]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information is provided in the following table.
| The number of pension credit beneficiaries in the parliamentary constituency of Midlothian: February 2006 | ||
| Parliamentary constituency | Household beneficiaries | Weekly average amount (£) |
| Notes: 1. The preferred data source for figures supplied by the Department for Work and Pensions is the Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study (WPLS), for which the latest published data is November 2005. However, as the latest available figures have been requested the figures provided have been taken from the pension credit early estimates. 2. Caseloads are rounded to the nearest 10. 3. These figures are early estimates. Caseload figures are taken from the GMS scan at 17 February 2006. These are adjusted using the historical relationship between WPLS and GMS data to give an estimate of the final WPLS figure. Average amounts are displayed as at the scan reference data of 17 February 2006. 4. Pension credit (PC) replaced minimum income guarantee (MIG) on 6 October 2003. Existing MIG recipients were automatically converted onto pension credit on that date (assuming they still met the eligibility criteria). 5. Household recipients are those people who claim PC either on behalf of themselves only or on behalf of a household. This number is equal to the number of households in receipt of PC. 6. Couples may include partners who are aged less than 60. 7. Parliamentary constituencies are assigned by matching postcodes against the relevant postcode directory. Source: Information Directorate: 100 per cent. data from the Generalised Matching Service (CMS). Pension Credit scan taken as at 17 February 2006. |
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many (a) single and (b) couple pensioner households are receiving pension credit in each local authority area in England; what this represents as a proportion of all pensioner households; and what the average pension credit payment is in each such area. [66538]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information that is available has been placed in the Library.
Post Office Card Accounts
Mr. Dunne: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in which (a) postcode areas and (b) constituencies holders of Post Office card accounts are being contacted to close their Post Office card accounts under the pilot scheme announced by his Department. [65881]
Mr. Plaskitt: We ran a number of small-scale pilots between 13 February and 10 March 2006, with coverage across Great Britain. Now that the pilots have concluded we are evaluating the results.
Scotland
Block Grant
Mr. Wallace: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what discussions he has had with the First Minister on the underspend of the Scottish block grant. [69477]
David Cairns: My right hon. Friend intends to meet the First Minister frequently to discuss a range of issues. Government Departments and the devolved administrations are entitled to carry forward departmental expenditure limit (DEL) monies that have not been spent from one financial year to the next. This end year flexibility is a prudent and proper part of the Government accounting system.
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