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9 Jan 2007 : Column 501W—continued
Royal Visits
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs which places the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh will visit during the year of their diamond wedding anniversary in 2007. [113683]
Margaret Beckett: As announced in Her Majesty the Queen’s Speech on 15 November 2006, Official Report, column 4, Her Majesty, accompanied by His Royal Highness (HRH) the Duke of Edinburgh will pay a state visit to the United States of America in May 2007, to celebrate the 400th( )anniversary of the Jamestown settlement. Her Majesty and HRH will also visit Uganda in November 2007 where the Queen will open the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Kampala. Buckingham Palace announced on 19 December 2006 that Her Majesty would visit the Netherlands in February 2007 to mark the 400th anniversary of the English Reformed Church in Amsterdam.
Travel Bans
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations her Department has received from those subject to travel bans, broken down by country; and what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of such bans. [101102]
Mr. Byrne: I have been asked to reply.
The Government do not maintain a consolidated list of all representations from those subject to travel bans.
Travel bans can serve important purposes, eg to demonstrate the international community’s condemnation of a Government’s policies with respect to human rights, good governance, or democracy. They are also an important tool in the international
community’s efforts to restrict the ability of terrorists to operate. The Government therefore believe they can be an effective tool.
Union Flag
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether the Union flag will be flown above all Government buildings in all Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies on HM the Queen’s Official Birthday on 17 June 2007 from 8 am until sunset. [113684]
Mr. Hoon: Her Majesty the Queen’s Official Birthday is on 16 June this year. The Overseas Territories (OTs) and Crown Dependencies are constitutionally not part of the United Kingdom and all of them, except Ascension, have their own flag. Anguilla, Ascension, the British Virgin Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, St. Helena and Crown Dependencies (Guernsey, Isle of Man and Jersey) have indicated that they intend to fly the Union flag above all or some government buildings on the Official Birthday. The remaining OTs will fly their own flag. Pitcairn Islands has no government buildings.
Trade and Industry
British Household Panel Survey
Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many and what proportion of (a) working age adults and (b) pensioners were recorded by the British Household Panel Survey as (i) unemployed, (ii) living in a workless household, (iii) having no educational qualifications , (iv) living in social housing, (v) living in overcrowded conditions, (vi) suffering poor mental health, (vii) suffering poor health, (viii) living alone, (ix) lacking consumer durables and (x) enduring financial stress in each year since 1991. [112814]
Malcolm Wicks: The information is as follows:
Figures from the British Household Panel Survey indicate that the proportion of working age adults in unemployment fell continuously between 1991 and 2001 (see following table), from 7.19 per cent. to 2.98 per cent. It increased to 3.78 per cent. in 2003. Grossing these proportions up to population estimates suggests that the numbers of unemployed among the working age population have fallen from 2.48 million in 1991 to 1.05 million in 2001, which has since increased to 1.35 million in 2003. (Note that the concept of unemployment is relatively meaningless for pensioners, and therefore we have not shown this.)
| Working age population | ||
| Proportion | Population estimate (million) | |
(ii) Living in a workless household
The proportion of the working age population who live in a workless household increased from 12.55 per cent. in 1991 to 13.69 per cent. in 1993 (see following table). Since then however, it has fallen continuously, to 9.68 per cent. in 2003. Grossing these to population estimates suggests that the number of working age adults in Britain who live in a workless household has fallen by approximately 1.3 million, from 4.74 million in 1993 to 3.47 million in 2003. Almost all pensioners live in a workless household (by definition), and so we have excluded this from the pensioner analysis.)
| Working age population | ||
| Proportion | Population estimate (million) | |
The British Household Panel Survey suggests that the proportion of working age adults with no qualifications has fallen from 24.37 per cent. in 1991 to 11.39 per cent. in 2003.
However, part of this fall is a cohort effect, caused by ever-increasing numbers of younger individuals attaining higher qualification levels, while older workers (a large proportion of which have no qualifications) retire. These figures suggest that 4.1 million working-age adults in Britain have no qualifications in 2003, compared with 8.4 million in 1991.
There has also been a continuous fall in the proportion of pensioners with no qualifications, from 64.38 per cent. in 1991 to 49.18 per cent. in 2003. Again, some of this is a cohort effect, with older pensioners with no qualifications being replaced by younger pensioners with higher qualification attainment. In terms of numbers, this suggests that about 1.5 million fewer pensioners had no qualifications in 2003 than in 1991 (5.26 million compared with 6.70 million).
| Working age population | Pensioners | |||
| Proportion | Population estimate (million) | Proportion | Population estimate (million) | |
The proportion of working age adults living in social housing has fallen continuously over the period, from 17.53 per cent. in 1991 to 14.01 per cent. in 2003. In terms of population estimates, this suggests that one million fewer working-age individuals lived in social housing in 2003 than in 1991 (5.02 million in 2003 compared with 6.05 million in 1991).
Among pensioners, the proportion has also fallen from 35.03 per cent. in 1991 to 22.36 per cent. in 2003. This suggests that about 1.2 million fewer pensioners lived in social housing in 2003 than in 1991 (2.4 million in 2003 compared with 3.64 million in 1991).
| Working age population | Pensioners | |||
| Proportion | Population estimate (million) | Proportion | Population estimate (million) | |
(v) Living in overcrowded conditions
Living conditions (in terms of overcrowding) have improved among working-age adults. In 1991, 8.5 per cent. of the working-age population lived in overcrowded conditions (defined as living in accommodation in which there are more people than rooms). By 2003, this had fallen to 5.91 per cent. In terms of numbers, these estimates suggest that 2.12 million working-age individuals lived in overcrowded conditions in 2003, compared with 2.93 million in 1991.
Very few pensioners (less than 1 per cent.) lived in overcrowded conditions, translating into fewer than 100,000 individuals.
| Working age population | Pensioners | |||
| Proportion | Population estimate (million) | Proportion | Population estimate (million) | |
(vi) Suffering poor mental health
The proportion of working-age individuals suffering from poor mental health (defined as having a General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) score of 14 or more on the 36-point Likert scale) has increased over the period, from 20.8 per cent. in 1991 to 23 per cent. in 2003. This translates into an increase of approximately one million individuals, from 7.2 million in 1991 to 8.2 million in 2003.
There has also been an increase in the proportion of pensioners suffering from poor mental health from 20.8 per cent. in 1991 to 23.1 per cent. in 2003. This
corresponds to an increase of about 0.4 million pension-age individuals in poor mental health.
| Working-age population | Pensioners | |||
| Proportion | Population estimate (million) | Proportion | Population estimate (million) | |
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