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Official Visits
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on how many occasions he has visited each region in an official capacity in the last 12 months. [83907]
Mrs. McGuire: In the last 12 months the Secretary of State has made the following number of official visits to each region:
| Number | |
All visits were conducted in accordance with the ministerial code. The official visits figures do not include speeches in London or departmental visits without an external dimension.
Outsourcing
Mr. Gauke: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what administrative functions for which his Department is responsible are outsourced overseas; and what assessment he has made of the merits of outsourcing further such functions overseas. [81550]
Mrs. McGuire: None of the administrative functions for which the Department for Work and Pensions is responsible are outsourced overseas.
Currently the Department has no intention to locate administration functions overseas therefore no assessment has been made of the merits.
Pension Credit
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what his estimate is of the (a) number and (b) proportion of pensioners receiving pension credit in (i) 2020, (ii) 2030, (iii) 2040 and (iv) 2050 on the basis of the proposals made by the Pensions Commission; and if he will make a statement. [70294]
James Purnell: The Pensions Commission made no projections of receipt of pension credit in its second report “A New Pension Settlement for the Twenty-First Century”, giving figures for eligibility instead. These are shown in figure 6.42 on page 294.
Public Appointments
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many public appointments are within his patronage; what (a) salary and (b) other emoluments are attached to each; and what the comparable figures were in (i) 1976, (ii) 1986 and (iii) 1996. [83167]
Mrs. McGuire: Details of the public appointments to public bodies sponsored by The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) can be found in Public Bodies, copies of which are in the Library. Public Bodies has been published annually since 1980 and the most recent edition provides figures for 2005. Each edition of Public Bodies contains details on the number of public appointments and remuneration details for that particular year. DWP was established in June 2001 and stewardship of those of its public bodies in existence before this time sat within its predecessor Departments. Comparable information for 1976, 1986 and 1996 in respect of DWP public bodies could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Details of the latest remuneration for each of the 130 public appointments to the bodies sponsored by DWP are set out in the following table:
Redundancies
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much (a) his Department and (b) the agencies for which he has responsibility spent on redundancy payments in each of the last four years. [82564]
Mrs. McGuire: The amount spent by the Department on all staff early release schemes in each of the last four years is in the following table.
| £ million | |||||
| Business Area | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | Total |
| n/a
= Denotes that the Agency did not exist in the Department in the year
in
question. Notes: 1. A proportion of the ongoing annual pension payments for early retirement cases are held centrally and included in the Departmental Corporate Units' line from 2004-05 and 2005-06. 2. The figures do not include the provisions made in the accounts for costs associated with staff approved for early release in 2006-07. | |||||
Remploy
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when he will answer Question 77480, on the review of Remploy, tabled by the hon. Member for Mid Dorset and North Poole on 9 June. [80325]
Mrs. McGuire [holding answer 26 June 2006]: I refer the hon. Member to the written answer I gave on 26 June 2006, Official Report, column 64W.
Sulphuric Acid
Mr. Horam: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether the Scientific Committee on Occupational Exposure Levels has made progress in determining whether sulphuric acid should be classified as a carcinogen; and if he will make a statement on current occupational exposure limits to sulphuric acid mist. [84510]
Mrs. McGuire: The European Commission’s Scientific Committee for Occupational Exposure Limits (SCOEL) does not make formal recommendations concerning the classification of chemicals. The responsibility for this falls to the Classification and Labelling Working Group established by the European Chemicals Bureau and this Group has not considered the classification of sulphuric acid as a carcinogen.
However, in its deliberations leading to recommendations on occupational exposure limits, SCOEL undertakes an assessment of the evidence on all aspects of the substances under consideration, including whether or not a substance may have particular properties, including the potential to cause cancer in humans.
In relation to sulphuric acid mist, for which a Recommendation for an occupational exposure limit was published in October 2004, SCOEL felt that the balance of evidence from studies in worker populations was sufficient to indicate that sulphuric acid mist has the potential to cause laryngeal cancer in humans. However, there were insufficient data to reliably inform on the airborne exposure conditions that were associated with the increased incidence of laryngeal cancer in these studies. In relation to the mechanism whereby sulphuric acid mist causes laryngeal cancer, SCOEL concluded that it is based on long-term chronic irritation of the laryngeal epithelium, and that airborne exposures that are below the threshold for the induction of such irritant effects would not lead to any increased risk of cancer.
SCOEL recommended that an 8-hour time-weighted average occupational exposure limit, set at 0.05 mg.m-3, would not lead to any adverse health effects in workers, and would not be associated with any increased risk of cancer.
In November 2001 the Health and Safety Executive published a Chemical Hazard Alert Notice for sulphuric acid mist, which recommended that employers should control mist exposure to below 0.3 mg.m-3, in line with advice from the National Sulphuric Acid Association. The 8-hour time-weighted average occupational exposure standard (OES) for sulphuric acid, formerly set at 1 mg.m-3, was withdrawn by the Health and Safety Commission in May 2003. There is currently no British occupational exposure limit.
Tax Credits
Mr.
Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work
and Pensions if he will place in the Library all documents regarding
discussions held between his Department and HM Revenue and Customs on
the use of National Insurance numbers in determining
eligibility for tax credits of an individual who has failed verification
rule 12 of the Tax Credits Manual on Residency Criteria Not Met.
[85792]
Mr. Plaskitt: Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide range of organisations both within Government and outside as part of the process of policy development and delivery. As was the case with previous administrations, it is not the practice to provide details of all such meetings.
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