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28 Nov 2006 : Column 592W—continued
Departmental Staff
Mr. Heald: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how many full-time equivalent staff work in (a) the Cabinet Office Parliamentary Branch, (b) the Infrastructure Division and (c) the Cabinet Office Communication Group. [102718]
Hilary Armstrong: The numbers of staff employed in individual Cabinet Office units will be set out in the Department's annual reports and accounts.
Mr. Heald: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what training courses are available to staff in the Cabinet Office. [102761]
Mr. McFadden: Cabinet Office staff have the opportunity to develop and improve their skills continuously in accordance with our commitment to Investors in People and in line with Professional Skills for Government.
Mr. Heald: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster whether any of her staff in the Cabinet Office are classed as key workers for the purposes of the low-cost home ownership or shared ownership schemes. [102766]
Mr. McFadden: There are currently no staff in the Cabinet Office who are classed as key workers for the purposes of the low-cost home ownership or shared ownership schemes.
Departmental Statistics
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster which statistics have been put forward by her Department for consideration to become new national statistics in each of the last five years; and how many statistics sets her Department has produced in total in each of the last five years. [101656]
Mr. McFadden: The current list of National Statistics produced by the Cabinet Office can be found on the National Statistics website at:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/about/ns_ons/nsproducts/default.asp
A list of changes to the scope of National Statistics (additions and withdrawals) in each of the last five years can be found in the relevant National Statistics annual report available on the National Statistics website at:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=1051
In addition to National Statistics, the Cabinet Office publishes a wide range of other numerical information in a variety of forms including other data produced from the management and administration of the Department and in research reports. There is no consistent definition of the term "statistics sets" and no centrally held information on the total published in each year on this basis.
Gender Equality
John Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what steps she is taking to ensure that private organisations contracted to work in the Cabinet Office are aware of their duties under gender equality legislation when they are exercising public functions on behalf of public bodies. [101519]
Mr. McFadden: The Cabinet Office's contract conditions require suppliers and their sub-contractors to comply with the provisions of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 (SDA).
Cabinet Office recognises that the Equality Act 2006 will extend the SDA so as to ensure the avoidance of sex discrimination in the exercising of all public functions, and that this duty will also apply to any organisations contracted to exercise public functions on our behalf. We will review the steps currently taken
to ensure compliance with the new legislation as part of the development of our gender equality scheme to be published in April 2007.
Get Safe Online
Patrick Mercer: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how much the Get Safe Online website has cost since 2000; how many hits the website has received in the same period; and who maintains the website. [103515]
Mr. McFadden: The getsafeonline.org website has cost approximately £350,000 since work began on it in 2005. The Government have contributed approximately £80,000 to its development, the remainder coming from the private sector. It has received just over one million visits since it was set up in October 2005. The October 2006 campaign phase achieved 93,285 visitors to the site and further activity is planned for the year's busy online Christmas shopping period.
The website is maintained by NQ Content on behalf of the Get Safe Online initiative.
Ministerial Residences
Mr. Heald: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster who the residents are of the three ministerial residences in Admiralty House. [102759]
Hilary Armstrong: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Meriden (Mrs. Spelman) on 23 October 2006, Official Report, column 1625W.
V
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what proportion of the 2006-07 budget of v has been allocated to charities it was supporting prior to its relaunch; and how much was provided to such charities in the six months (a) before and (b) after the relaunch. [101141]
Edward Miliband: V was launched as an independent charity on Monday 8 May 2006. Prior to that date the Russell Commission Implementation Team at the Home Office supported a capacity building small grants programme which provided Home Office funding to the amount of £620,287 to 45 projects—21 organisations were awarded grants under the best practice strand and 24 under the developing strategies strand.
Of these 45 projects, 14 organisations received funding from both the Home Office sponsored small grants programme in 2005-06 and the first v grants round for programmes in 2006-07. The organisations received a total of £154,681 in the 2005-06 one year grants round.
The same organisations then applied for further funding in the July 2006 v grants round. This grants round, the first provided by v, covers a three-year period and the organisations will receive just under £2 million of funding over the three years, equivalent to 15 per cent. of the total for projects in this grants round.
These grants have provided 11,000 volunteering opportunities for young people in programmes across England. The opportunities allow the young people to volunteer in projects which give them new ways to engage with their local community, develop their confidence and skills and have fun while increasing employability.
Work and Pensions
Benefits Eligibility
John Barrett: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in each parliamentary constituency in Scotland are eligible for (a) council tax benefit, (b) winter fuel payments, (c) disability living allowance, (d) housing benefit and (e) pension credit. [100802]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information is not available.
Departmental Pay Awards
Mr. Fallon: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on what date the annual pay award for departmental staff has been implemented in each of the last five years. [106091]
Mrs. McGuire: The Senior Civil Service (SCS) have a separate pay award to the rest of the DWP staff. The following table shows the month in which each group received their pay award each year. Salary is actually paid on the last working day of the month.
| AA to Grade 6 | SCS | |
| Note: The effective date for DWP pay awards are the 1 April for SCS and 1 July for all other grades. | ||
Identity Cards
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much expenditure has been incurred by his Department in each year since 1996-97 on the development of a national identity card scheme and related provisions; and if he will make a statement. [101286]
Mr. Plaskitt: I refer the hon. Member to the written answer I gave him on 6 November 2006, Official Report, column 924W.
Local Housing Allowance
John Barrett: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the take up of local housing allowance has been in Edinburgh since 9 February 2004; and if he will make a statement. [100801]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information is not available.
Norcross
Mr. Wallace: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether the security guards based at Norcross were given the option of transferring within the Civil Service prior to their transfer to Group 4. [100816]
Mrs. McGuire: Although there were no specific redeployment exercises for these staff, opportunities to seek redeployment within the Department for Work and Pensions were available in the usual way.
Pathfinder Schemes
Mr. Pelling: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much unpaid rent is estimated to be owed to landlords in each Pathfinder scheme. [101229]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information is not available.
Post Office Card Account
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on progress in developing a successor to the Post Office Card Account. [102436]
Mr. Plaskitt [holding answer 23 November 2006]: We are still talking to Post Office Ltd. about the range of accounts that can be accessed at post offices, both now and in the future.
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry will make a statement on the future of the post office network before the end of the year. This will include information on accounts which can be used at post office branches.
Treasury
Child Care
Sarah Teather: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assumptions about take-up were made when formulating the estimated costs to the Exchequer of the employer-supported child care measures outlined in table A1.1 of Budget 2005. [106085]
Dawn Primarolo: The assumptions about take-up made when formulating the estimated costs to the Exchequer of the employer-supported child care measure outlined in table A1.1 of Budget 2005 are documented in the published Regulatory Impact Assessment.
www.hmrc.gov.uk/ria/emp-supp-childcare.pdf
Climate Change
Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether his estimate of the social cost of carbon includes an element for the cost of potential climate-related catastrophes. [102344]
John Healey:
A Government Economic Service working paper “Estimating the Social Cost of Carbon
Emissions” suggests illustrative values for the social damage cost of carbon that can be used to estimate the monetary value of impacts once they have been quantified. This excludes any consideration of the probability of ‘climate catastrophes’. The Government are re-examining this, with the Stern Review on the economics of climate change informing our conclusions.
Departmental Pensions
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the total pension liabilities for employees of his Department and its agencies. [102769]
John Healey: The Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme is an unfunded multi-employer defined benefit scheme and individual Departments’ pension liabilities are not available.
EU Membership
Philip Davies: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will undertake a cost/benefit analysis of EU membership. [102312]
Ed Balls: Membership of the European Union is central to the pursuit of stability, growth and employment in the UK. Membership of the EU provides significant benefits for UK business and employment: Britain’s trade with the European Union has grown from just over 40 per cent. of our total trade in 1973 when we joined to around 55 per cent. today, and the Government estimates 3 million jobs in the UK are linked to the export of goods and services to the EU. The Government’s publication “Growth and Opportunity: Prioritising Economic Reform in Europe” highlighted the costs of remaining barriers to enterprise, competition and trade in the EU and the importance of economic reform to address these.
Innovation Fund
Mr. McGrady: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will provide details of the Innovation Fund to support Research, Development and Innovation in Northern Ireland which he announced on Wednesday 1 November 2006 as part of his economic package for Northern Ireland; what levels of funding will be provided to the Innovation Fund; and for how many financial years it is planned to operate. [102504]
John Healey: The Chancellor announced a funding package for Northern Ireland on 1 November 2006 in support of the St. Andrew’s Agreement. The details were set out in the attached press notice:
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/newsroom and speeches/press/2006/press_82_06.cfm.
In addition to this package, the Chancellor proposed an innovation fund for Northern Ireland to leading members of the Northern Ireland parties and has asked officials to work up outline details of the proposal. No decisions have yet been made on the fund.
Insurance Premiums
Mr. Drew: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will bring forward legislation to end the practice of demanding additional insurance premiums from pensioners for holiday and other leisure purposes. [102376]
Ed Balls: The Government do not prescribe the terms and conditions that insurance companies may set when offering insurance, nor does it intervene in the commercial decisions of insurers. As a rule, insurers use their claims experience and other industry-wide statistics to set the terms on which they offer insurance cover.
The Government’s Discrimination Law Review is currently considering whether there is a case for prohibiting age discrimination in the provision of goods, facilities and services, including insurance. The Government expect to publish a Green Paper around the turn of the year. The Green Paper is intended to lead to a Single Equality Bill, in line with the Government’s manifesto commitment to introduce such a Bill during this Parliament.
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