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14 Dec 2006 : Column 1329W—continued
Ship Weddings
Mr. Todd: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he plans to permit captains to officiate at weddings on British registered ships. [108900]
Ms Harman: I have been asked to reply.
The Government have no plans to amend legislation to allow captains to officiate at weddings on British registered ships.
South Yorkshire Constabulary
Mr. Greg Knight:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the cost of the recent Muslim summit entitled Advancing Community Cohesion organised by South Yorkshire police was;
what proportion of this cost is being borne by South Yorkshire Constabulary; and whether plans exist in the area to hold community cohesion conferences with members of the Christian community. [106963]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 5 December 2006] : These are matters for the chief constable of the South Yorkshire police, which organised the Advancing Community Cohesion event.
Special Branch
Mr. George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many Special Branch officers there are per capita in each police force area in England and Wales. [107658]
Mr. McNulty: Following consultation with the Association of Chief Police Officers, the above mentioned functions were highlighted and deemed likely to prejudice the prevention or detection of crime and therefore have not been disclosed within the public domain.
Tablighi Jamaat
Andrew Selous: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the extent to which Tablighi Jamaat poses a security risk to the UK; and if he will make a statement. [107510]
Mr. McNulty: I refer the hon. member to the reply given by my hon. Friend, the Minister of State, Communities and Local Government on 11 December 2006, Official Report, column 905W.
Temporary Admissions
Mr. Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people granted temporary admission to the UK have not reported back on their due date in each of the last five years. [100956]
Mr. Byrne: The information requested could be obtained only at disproportionate cost as a full search of individual files and records over the last five years would need to be conducted.
Travel Bans
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many UK (a) residents and (b) nationals are listed as subject to EU travel bans directed against terrorist organisations. [107244]
Mr. Byrne: EU Common Position 2002/402/CFSP is directed against terrorist organisations and applies to those individuals listed under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1267(1999). The latest list of individuals (dated 9 November 2006) subject to restrictive travel measures is available at the following website:
http://www.un.Org/Docs/sc/committees/1267/1267ListEng.htm.
Vehicle Immobilisers
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many vehicle immobilisers have been prosecuted for working on private land without a licence from the Security Industry Association since the inception of licensing. [108958]
Mr. Coaker: Prosecutions can be undertaken by Police and Trading Standards as well as the Security Industry Authority. However details are not kept centrally.
Wounding Victims
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many victims there were of (a) unlawful wounding and (b) wounding with intent, broken down by age of the victim in each of the last five years. [108536]
Mr. Coaker: There are no centrally collected data available on the number of victims of unlawful wounding or wounding with intent broken down by age.
Work and Pensions
Administration Costs
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the total cost of the administration of his Department and its agencies was in each year since 1995-96 in (a) cash and (b) real terms; and what the planned costs are in each year to 2008-09 in (i) cash and (ii) real terms. [102216]
Mrs. McGuire: The Department for Work and Pensions was formed in June 2001 from the Department of Social Security and parts of the former Department for Education and Employment including the Employment Service. Therefore data are not available in the format requested for all years from 1995-96.
The Departmental Report for 2006 (Cm 6829) is available in the Library and contains administration costs for the years 2000-01 to 2007-08 for the Department for Work and Pensions in cash terms. The following table shows this information and provides the same data in real terms.
| DWP Total administration costs | |||
| £ million | |||
| Nominal (cash)( 1) | In real terms( 2) | ||
| (1) Source Departmental Report 2006 (Cm 6829) (2) Calculated using HMT GDP deflators using 2005-06 as the reference year. | |||
The Department’s Total Administration expenditure plans for 2008-09 will not be available until the final outcome of the CSR07 spending review is known.
A major programme to modernise the Department’s front line services, supported by one off investment funding, contributed to the increase in administration costs up to 2004-05.
Benefit Claimants
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the claimant on-flow rates to (a) incapacity benefit and (b) severe disablement allowance were in each month since January 2005.[102148]
Mrs. McGuire: The available information is in the following table. Severe disablement allowance has been closed to new claimants since April 2001.
| The on flow-rates for incapacity benefit | |
| Month ending | IB |
| Notes: 1. Figures are rounded to the nearest hundred. Totals may not sum due to rounding. 2. Figures for the last months do not include any late notifications and are subject to major changes in future quarters. For illustration purposes, total terminations for 01 March 2004 to 31 May 2004 increased by 33 per cent. in the year following their initial release. 3. A small number of SDA claimants have their claim deleted and rebuilt on the system each year. Source: DWP Information Directorate 5 per cent. sample and 5 per cent. terminations dataset. | |
Child Poverty
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many and what percentage of children in poverty (a) whose parents were in work and (b) whose resident parent was in work lived in (i) lone parent households and (ii) non-lone parent households in each year for which figures are available. [107538]
Mr. Jim Murphy: The information requested is not available.
Christchurch Jobcentre Plus
Mr. Chope:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on what date the business case for the
closure of the Christchurch Jobcentre Plus was submitted to the Jobcentre Plus Board; and if he will place in the Library a copy of that business case. [105995]
Mr. Jim Murphy [holding answer 28 November 2006]:
The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus, Lesley Strathie. I have asked her to provide the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Lesley Strathie, dated 14 December 2006:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question asking on what date the business case for the closure of the Christchurch Jobcentre Plus was submitted to the Jobcentre Plus Board and if he will place in the library a copy of that business case. This is something, which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
Jobcentre Plus in Dorset and Somerset is still in the process of reviewing and finalising its Service Delivery Plan of the whole of the District. The aim of this review is to ensure that the network of Jobcentre Plus offices provides sufficient capacity for potential customers. Christchurch Jobcentre Plus will be considered as part of this review.
Consequently, the final set of proposals relating to the whole of the District and the possible future of Christchurch Jobcentre Plus has not yet been put to the Jobcentre Plus Board. I am sorry if my Jobcentre Plus Programme Director’s letter of 6 November to you was unclear on this point. If the Jobcentre Plus Board agreed that there is a case for any office closure a submission is then made to the Minister to seek approval to start a consultation period. If after this exercise it is still felt that closure is warranted then a further submission is made to the Minister for his consideration. Therefore, there is a lengthy and detailed consideration of any closure proposal before a final decision is made.
In the case of Dorset and Somerset District it is likely that the revised Service Delivery Plan will be put to the Jobcentre Plus Board within the next month.
Mr. Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many people visited the Christchurch Jobcentre Plus office in October to see advisers; [100805]
(2) what the cost has been of (a) refurbishment and (b) equipment renewal at the Christchurch Jobcentre Plus office in each of the last seven years; [100809]
(3) what the annual running costs have been of the Christchurch Jobcentre Plus office in each of the last three years; [100810]
(4) what the gross area of the Jobcentre Plus office in Christchurch is; what (a) rent and (b) rates are payable; how many employees work (i) full-time and (ii) part-time in the office; and how many years of the lease on the site remain; [100811]
(5) how many people visited the Christchurch Job Centre Plus office in October 2006 to use (a) self-service job points and (b) telephones. [100958]
Mr. Jim Murphy: The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus, Lesley Strathie. I have asked her to provide the hon. Member with the information requested.
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your questions about the Christchurch Jobcentre Plus office. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
Christchurch Jobcentre was refurbished as a Jobcentre Plus office, opening on 26 January 2004. During October 2006, 176 interviews took place with advisers in the Christchurch Jobcentre Plus office.
Jobcentre Plus is not required to collect information on the number of people who visit their offices. However, the manager of the Christchurch office arranged for an exercise to be undertaken in October 2006 to establish how many people visited the office. This showed that there were over 1,200 visits by customers to the Christchurch office to use the jobpoints or the free telephones. We are not able to confirm how many of these visits were unique or repeat visits.
For the national roll out of Jobcentre Plus approximately £320,000 was spent on the refurbishment of the Christchurch office. This is the only cost incurred in the last seven years. We pay an annual charge to Land Services Trillium to manage our estate, which includes the costs of replacing any premises equipment. Our IT equipment costs are charged at a national level through our contract with EDS, this figure is not broken down by site, therefore I am unable to provide site specific information about this.
The running costs for the Christchurch office, excluding staffing, are as follows:
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