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Pension Credit
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate the Department has made of the amount that will be spent on pension credit for the 125,000 people who lost occupational pension rights from schemes that started to wind up before 6 April 2005; and if he will make a statement. [78412]
James Purnell: It is not possible to estimate the amount that will be spent on pension credit for the 125,000 people who lost occupational pension rights from schemes that started to wind up before April 2005. Information on the individual circumstances of these people is not available.
Pensions
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many former Allied Steel and Wire workers are forecast to receive (a) 80 per cent., (b) 65 per cent., (c) 50 per cent. and (d) none of their expected occupational pension under the recently announced changes to the financial assistance scheme; and if he will make a statement. [78290]
James Purnell: We do not hold information on the ages or pension entitlements of members of the ASW pension scheme and therefore we are unable to estimate the number of individuals eligible.
Post Office Card Accounts (Northamptonshire)
Mr. Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on the take up of the Post Office card account in Northamptonshire. [79563]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information is not available in the format requested.
Information showing the number of DWP benefit and pension payment accounts paid by direct payment into a Post Office card account for each parliamentary constituency has been placed in the Library.
Sure Start
Joan Ruddock: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many women have received a Sure Start maternity grant in (a) England, (b) Lewisham, Deptford constituency and (c) Lewisham borough in each of the last two years. [79147]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is in the table.
| Number of sure start maternity grant awards | ||
| England | South east London Jobcentre Plus district | |
| Notes:
1. Data are not available by parliamentary constituency or local
authority but only by Jobcentre Plus District. 2. In 2004-05
and 2005-06, both Lewisham Deptford parliamentary constituency and
Lewisham borough were part of south east London Jobcentre Plus
district. 3. Figures are for all awards, irrespective of
whether the award was made to the mother or her partner. 4.
Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10.
Source: DWP Social Fund Policy, Budget and Management
Information
System. | ||
Unemployed Disabled People, Southend
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many disabled people are registered as unemployed in the Southend, West constituency; what encouragement his Department is giving to find them jobs; and if he will make a statement. [80182]
Mr. Jim Murphy: Since 1997 the overall employment rate in the Southend West constituency has increased by 6.9 percentage points to 81.9 per cent., higher than the national average.
Specific information on the number of disabled people registered as unemployed in the constituency is not available. However the number of disabled ILO unemployed in East of England aged 16 or over is 30,646.
A ‘Pathways to Work’ pilot has been operating in Essex since April 2004 providing encouragement, advice and support to disabled people to prepare them for their return to work. So far this has produced 2,710 job entries.
Communities and Local Government
Affordable Housing
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what steps her Department is taking to encourage the provision of affordable housing for key public sector workers in Coventry, South. [79822]
Yvette Cooper: The Key Worker Living programme does not currently operate in the West Midlands. In the West Midlands £148.3 million has been allocated by the Housing Corporation for housing schemes to start in 2006-08. They will provide 3,917 new affordable homes, of which 255 will be in Coventry.
Of the 255 homes being provided in Coventry, 132 will be for social rent, eligibility for which will be decided by the local authority through their nomination procedures. The remaining 123 will be for low cost home ownership. Key public sector workers will be eligible for these units alongside social tenants, those on the housing register and first time buyers prioritised for assistance by regional housing boards.
Brownfield Development
Greg Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the Answer of 22 May 2006, Official Report, columns 1387-8W, on brownfield development, what the figures are for 2005 as derived from the Land Use Change Statistics 21. [80712]
Yvette Cooper: The latest LUCS show that in 2005, on a provisional estimate, 73 per cent. of new dwellings, including conversions, were built on previously developed land.
Of the dwellings built on previously developed land in 2005, 21 per cent. were on land that was previously used for residential purposes (which includes buildings and the land associated with those buildings). This is 14 per cent. of all new dwellings built, a slight reduction from 15 per cent. in 2004.
Further to the answer on 22 May 2006, the tables set out LUCS data from 1986. From 1986-88 the data was collected on small sample sizes and is therefore not comparable to the later data. From 1989 the figures have been collected on a comparable basis.
Building Regulations
Mr. Rogerson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many builders have been prosecuted since 1997 for non-compliance with environmental building regulations. [79385]
Angela E. Smith: As building control is a fully devolved service under the Building Act 1984, no central records are kept of prosecutions arising from non-compliance with building regulations.
City Regions Programme
Bill Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what funding will be allocated to the city regions programme. [79438]
Mr.
Woolas: Following the round of “Your City, Your
Future” summits held last autumn, the eight core cities were
invited to prepare business cases setting out what changes they wish to
see to enable improved
economic performance across their city-region. Discussions with the core
cities are ongoing and we are giving careful consideration to their
business case proposals. The evidence and findings to emerge from our
work with the core cities will feed into the Treasury led cross cutting
review of sub-national economic development and regeneration ahead of
the 2007 Comprehensive Spending
Review.
Civil Servants (Expenses)
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the expenditure has been on temporary overnight accommodation in London for civil servants in her Department and its predecessors in each year since 1997. [78360]
Angela E. Smith: Since 2002 my Department has spent the following on temporary overnight accommodation in London for civil servants.
| Total expense (£) | |
The information is not readily available for the period 1997 to 2002 because the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister was not created until that year.
Coalfield Regeneration Trust
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when she expects to reply to question 64451, on the Coalfield Regeneration Trust, tabled on 12 April by the hon. Member for Bassetlaw. [80867]
Yvette Cooper: I answered my hon. Friend’s question on 26 June 2006, Official Report, column 125W.
Councillors
Bill Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when elected councillors are informed by the Standards Board that a complaint has been made against them. [79378]
Mr. Woolas: A local authority member is informed by the Standards Board that an allegation has been made against him following the Board's decision on whether or not to refer the case for investigation. The average time taken by the Board from the receipt of the allegation to making a decision on whether or not to investigate it is currently nine working days, which exceeds the Board's performance target for this of 10 working days.
Departmental Staff
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many full-time equivalent staff her Department will employ; and how many the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister employed in each year that it existed. [70584]
Angela E. Smith: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister was formed on 29 May 2002. The number of full-time equivalent staff in post at the 31 March in each subsequent year is shown in the table.
| Permanent staff in ODPM | |
| 31 March | Full-time equivalents |
Projected staffing levels for the Department of Communities and Local Government by 31 March 2007 are 2,190 full-time equivalents. However, these estimates are expected to change following the transfer of some work and staff from the Department of Trade and Industry and the Home Office to the Department as part of the machinery of government changes announced in May.
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many civil servants from her Department work in 26 Whitehall; and which divisions are based there. [78653]
Angela E. Smith: There are currently 37 staff from the Department for Communities and Local Government in 26 Whitehall as shown in the following table:
| Unit | Number of staff |
All these staff will be moving to Eland House in the next few months.
Equal Pay
Ms Katy Clark: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many (a) women and (b) men are employed in the Department; what the average pay was for (i) women and (ii) men in the Department in (1) 1997 and (2) 2006; what women's average pay is as a percentage of men's average pay; and how many (A) women and (B) men the Department employed in each of the last five years, broken down by grade. [67793]
Angela E. Smith: I have been asked to reply.
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister was formed on 29 May 2002. Figures for years before the creation of ODPM are not available. The following table shows the number of men and women employed in ODPM on the 31 March between 2003 and 2005 by grade.
| Table 1: Permanent staff by grade and gender 2003-05 | |||||||||||
| Headcount | |||||||||||
| Full-time staff | Part-time staff | Full-time equivalent | |||||||||
| Responsibility level | Male | Female | Total | Male | Female | Total | Male | Female | Total | ||
The Cabinet Office collects and publishes annually statistical information on the civil service by Department. These include data on the employment of men and women.
Information on the numbers of women and men employed in the civil service broken down at 31 December 2005 is available in the Library and on the civil service website at:
www.civilservice.gov.uk/management/statistics/employment/index.asp
The following table shows median salaries for men and women and women's median pay as a percentage of men's median pay in March 2003 and March 2006.
| Table 2: Changes in median salaries 2003-06 | |||
| Median pay | |||
| March | Women | Men | Women's pay as a percentage of men’s pay |
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