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16 Jan 2007 : Column 1071W—continued
Henshaw Review
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will place in the Library the datasets, statistics, calculations and assumptions underlying Sir David Henshaw's review of the system of child support. [107091]
Mr. Plaskitt: The assumptions underlying Sir David Henshaw’s review of the system of child support are set out in his report “Henshaw D, 2006, Recovering child support: routes to responsibility, CM 6894”.
The further internal analysis referred to in his report was based on publicly available statistics and datasets
Wikely N et al, 2001, National Survey of Child Support Agency Clients, Department for Work and Pensions Research Report No 152
Child Support Agency Quarterly Summary of Statistics March 2006
2004-05 Family Resources Survey
2003 Families and Children Study
2004 Families and Children Study
These statistics were used to calculate two key components of the Henshaw report: the impact of an increasing emphasis on private maintenance arrangements on the caseload of the administrative system; and the impact of the reforms on child poverty.
As a result of the reforms which Sir David Henshaw put forward he estimated that the number of children receiving maintenance would increase from 1.1 million to 1.75 million, with an increasing proportion of parents making private arrangements. In steady state Sir David Henshaw estimated the long run administrative savings to be in the region of £200 million, based on a caseload of between 0.8 million and 1.1 million in the new organisation. In making these estimates Sir David identified in his report the need to do further research to support the transition of cases and that there is an element of unpredictability about such transitional flows.
The assumptions about increased numbers of children receiving maintenance were used in conjunction with the Family Resources Survey to estimate the potential impact of the redesigned system on child poverty. This suggested that a full disregard of maintenance in benefit calculations could reduce child poverty by 80,000 to 90,000 children. A further 30,000 children could be lifted out of poverty as a result of expected increases in compliance and the number of cases with a positive maintenance liability.
Jobseeker's Allowance
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many payments for jobseeker’s allowance were terminated (a) as a result of employment and (b) for other reasons, broken down by reason in (i) each London borough and (ii) the UK in each of the last five years. [101752]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information has been placed in the Library.
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what changes there have been to the criteria applied by his officials to test whether an applicant for Jobseeker’s Allowance has satisfied the requirement to seek work since 1997; and if he will make a statement. [110323]
Mr. Jim Murphy: Building on existing criteria, from 19 April 2004, the number of steps a jobseeker is expected to take to look for work increased from two to three per week. Also, after 13 weeks of entitlement to jobseeker’s allowance the amount of travelling time a jobseeker would be expected to undertake between their home and the proposed place of employment in order to find work increases from one hour to one hour and thirty minutes. Additionally, jobseekers who are still unemployed after 13 weeks are required to undertake a weekly, rather than fortnightly, job review for a period of 6 weeks.
Pensions
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will list the research by outside consultants commissioned by his Department in connection with pension reform since January 2004. [102226]
James Purnell: Details of all commissioned research contributing to the evidence base for pension reform since January 2004 are contained in Annex F of the Government’s White Paper on pension reform (Security in retirement: towards a new pensions system, May 2006).
The following lists all research by outside consultancy firms (rather than research organisations or academics) connected to pension reform that have been commissioned since January 2004. This list includes projects involving the use of specialist academic or expert economic advice as well as research projects involving primary data collection or analysis.
Investment options in personal accounts—CRA Intl (UK)
Competition in personal accounts—CRA Intl (UK)
Research study to develop a counterfactual for private pensions—CRA Intl (UK)
Impact assessment of the NPSS on annuities market—CRA Intl (UK)
Branded choice in personal accounts—CRA Intl (UK)
Review of research relevant to assessing the impact of the proposed National Pensions Savings Scheme on household saving—PWC
Costs of capital and financing the personal accounts scheme—PWC
Research into early policy development for personal accounts—Deloittes
This list has been compiled on the basis that
(a) projects undertaken by GAD, ONS or any other Government department should not be included as they were delivered by civil servants
(b) projects commissioned by the Pensions Commission have not been included as the Commission was an independent body.
Health
Accident and Emergency Departments
Mr. Lansley:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many attendances there were at major (type 1) accident and emergency departments in each of the
former 28 strategic health authority areas in each quarter since the quarter ended June 1997. [113020]
Andy Burnham: Full information is not available in the format requested. The available information is in the following tables.
| Attendances at accident and emergency departments in England, 1997-98 to Q2 2006-07 | |||
| Quarter | Type 1 attendances | Attendances at all A&E types | |
| Notes: 1. Prior to Q1 (April to June) 2001-02, attendance data was collected annually and only as a total for all A&E types. At this time, this did not include walk-in centres. 2. A&E attendances split down into A&E type were first collected in Q1 (April to June) 2002-03. 3. From Q1 (April to June) 2003-04, attendances at walk-in centres were included in attendance information for all types of A&E department. Walk-in centres are considered to be a type 3 A&E service. Source: Department of Health datasets KH09 and QMAE | |||
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