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27 Nov 2006 : Column 345W—continued


27 Nov 2006 : Column 346W

A higher rate, of 26.5 per cent. of pensionable pay, is payable by the Prison Service for prison officers employed before September 1987 and who are entitled to enhanced benefits.

Most civil servants joining the Civil Service on or after 1 October 2002 can, as an alternative to joining the PCSPS, opt for a partnership pension account which is a stakeholder arrangement with an age-related employer contribution varying between 3 per cent. and 12.5 per cent. of pensionable pay. In addition, the employer will match individual contributions up to a maximum of 3 per cent. of pay.

Departmental Costs

Mr. Heald: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what the combined cost of marketing and advertising was for the Cabinet Office in each year since 2004-05. [102708]

Hilary Armstrong: The combined cost of marketing and advertising in the Cabinet Office in 2004-05 and 2005-06 was £4,989,000 and £1,800,000 respectively.

Costs incurred on marketing and advertising in 2006-07 will be available only when the Department’s resource accounts are fully audited and laid before Parliament. This is expected to be before the 2007 summer recess.

Departmental Staff

Mr. Heald: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how many full-time equivalent staff from the Cabinet Office provide assistance to the Deputy Prime Minister's Office. [102762]

Hilary Armstrong: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for Meriden (Mrs. Spelman) on 23 October 2006, Official Report, column 1624W.

Housing Conference

Andrew Selous: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster whether she will be attending the Regeneration and Housing Conference at the University of Bedfordshire at Putteridge Bury on 11 December in a ministerial capacity. [103131]

Hilary Armstrong: I will not be attending the Regeneration and Housing Conference on 11 December 2006.

Knowledge Network

Mr. Heald: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster who the 20 customers are of the new version of the Knowledge Network. [102713]

Mr. McFadden: The application names and customers are shown in the table.


27 Nov 2006 : Column 347W
Application Name Customer

Briefing engine for sub-national statistics

Regional Co-ordination Unit (reports to Department for Communities and Local Government)

Cabinet committee papers

Cabinet Office

CCS cross-Government exercise database

Cabinet Office

Consumer direct online knowledge base

Office of Fair Trading

DCA communications and briefing system

Department for Constitutional Affairs

DfES briefing system

Department for Education and Skills

DWP briefing system

Department for Work and Pensions

Electronic library for Government

Department of Health

Forward look

Cabinet Office

Housing benefit data service

Department for Work and Pensions

Legal information online network 2

Treasury Solicitors

Overseas market introduction service

United Kingdom Trade and Investment

Statisticians' community of practice

Office for National Statistics

World search

Department for Work and Pensions

Economic policy network

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

European Union policy

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Science and technology network

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Sustainable development network

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

e-PQ's—Home Office

Home Office

Circulars—Home Office

Home Office


Ministerial Residences

Mr. Heald: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how many full-time equivalent staff from the Cabinet Office are provided to assist the Lord Chancellor in holding functions at his official residence in Admiralty House. [102714]

Hilary Armstrong: None.

Mr. Heald: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if she will place in the Library a copy of the revised guidance recently provided by the Cabinet Secretary on council tax and official ministerial residences. [102720]

Hilary Armstrong: Guidance is provided on a case-by-case basis taking account of individual Ministers' circumstances. It would therefore not be appropriate to disclose such guidance.

Special Advisers/Consultants

Mr. Heald: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what the cost of provision of mobile phones to special advisers in (a) Downing street and (b) the Cabinet Office has been in the last 12 months. [102706]

Hilary Armstrong: The information requested could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.


27 Nov 2006 : Column 348W

Mr. Heald: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how many special advisers are employed by the (a) Cabinet Office and (b) Prime Minister's Office. [102739]

Hilary Armstrong: I refer the hon. Member to the written ministerial statement made by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister on 24 July 2006, Official Report, column 86WS.

Volunteering

Mr. Heald: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what role Rod Aldridge played in the GoldStar programme on volunteering. [102834]

Edward Miliband: Rod Aldridge is the chair of v, an independent charity launched in May 2006, which aims to inspire and engage one million new youth volunteers. He is not involved in the GoldStar volunteering and mentoring programme.

Work and Pensions

Disabled People (Benefit Services)

15. Sarah McCarthy-Fry: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what plans he has to improve the provision of benefit services by his Department for people with disabilities. [102910]

Mrs. McGuire: The Department constantly strives to improve its service to all its customers, including disabled people. For instance an independent customer survey told us that 83 per cent. of the Disability and Carers Service customers are satisfied with the service they receive. However, to build on that excellent reputation, DCS commissioned a research programme to expand our understanding of our customers and their needs. By developing a programme of mystery shopping, we will identify services that can be improved.

Child Poverty

18. Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on progress towards the Government’s target to halve relative child poverty by 2010. [102913]

Mr. Jim Murphy: A decade ago the UK had the highest child poverty rates in the industrialised world. It has now fallen faster than anywhere in the EU.

But we can go further and that is why we warmly welcome Lisa Harker’s report on eradicating child poverty.

Carer's Allowance

19. Tony Baldry: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the effect of a higher minimum wage on recipients of carer’s allowance. [102914]


27 Nov 2006 : Column 349W

Mrs. McGuire: The effect of the increase in the national minimum wage on recipients of carer’s allowance will depend upon whether they are working and, if they are, their hours of work per week and whether they receive the national minimum wage.

State Pension

20. Ms Keeble: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will take steps to ensure that more women are entitled to the full state pension. [102915]

James Purnell: The Queen’s Speech announced we would bring forward a Bill to provide for the long-term reform of pensions.

It will set out the way we intend to implement the White Paper proposals which will ensure more women are entitled to better state pension outcomes.

In particular, reducing the number of qualifying years needed for a full basic State Pension to 30 will increase the proportion of women reaching State Pension age in 2010 entitled to full basic State Pension to over 70 per cent., compared with around 30 per cent. today. Additionally it will include measures to allow more women to accrue better State Second Pension entitlement.

Child Support Agency

Mr. Evennett: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when he expects the successor to the Child Support Agency to be operational. [102908]

Mr. Plaskitt: Delivery of maintenance for children requires a fresh start. That is why we will create a new organisation to deliver this.

We are in the process of undertaking detailed analysis to look at the shape and structure of the new organisation, and will publish details in a White Paper very shortly.

Operational commencement requires us to be sure we have the design right and that all the necessary legislative changes are enacted.

Cold Weather Payments

Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions at what level cold weather payments were in each year from 2002-03 to 2006-07; and how many people received cold weather payments in each of these years. [103275]

Mr. Plaskitt: The level of a cold weather payment in each year from 2002-03 to 2006-07 was £8.50 for each period of seven consecutive days when the average temperature was recorded as, or forecast to be, 0°C or below at the weather station linked to an eligible customer’s postcode.


27 Nov 2006 : Column 350W

The available information is given in the table.

Estimated number of people who received cold weather payments

2002-03

1,350,000

2003-04

280,000

2004-05

170,000

2005-06

610,000

2006-07

0 so far

Notes:
1. Some people received more than one cold weather payment in a financial year. Therefore the number of cold weather payments made each year was greater than the number of people who received them.
2. The first two sources allow estimates for each year of the number of people who received cold weather payments and the number of payments made. The comparison between the estimated and actual numbers of payments made has been used to refine the estimate of the number of people who received payments.
3. Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10,000.
Sources:
1. Scans of the benefit systems taken at the end of October in each financial year giving the estimated numbers of qualifiers by weather station. (This excludes people on income support and income-based jobseeker’s allowance who qualified because they had a disabled child aged five or over and who received support for that child via child tax credit.)
2. Lists of weather stations for which cold weather payments were actually made.
3. Monthly reports of the actual numbers of cold weather payments made.

Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from which weather stations measurements are taken for the purpose of assessing entitlement to cold weather payments. [103277]

Mr. Plaskitt: The weather stations used to collect information in order to assess entitlement to cold weather payments are:


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