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23 Jan 2007 : Column 1718Wcontinued
Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will require the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland to take steps on recruitment of staff from under-represented minorities in the work force employed by local councils in Northern Ireland. [110509]
Mr. Hanson: Under the Fair Employment and Treatment (NI) Order 1998 all registered employers have a duty to monitor the community composition of their work force and to conduct reviews of their employment practices and compositions.
The Equality Commission works with all local councils with regard to these statutory provisions. Where under-representation on community composition is identified appropriate affirmative action measures are considered and implemented by councils.
The Commission also works with employers in relation to other equality grounds where there is no equivalent statutory duty, in order to promote good practice equality monitoring to identify any under-representation so that appropriate positive action measures may be taken.
Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the composition was of the monitored full-time workforce of companies employing 11 or more people in (a) 1995 and (b) 2005, broken down by religious designation. [117490]
Mr. Hanson:
The Equality Commission for Northern
Ireland has provided the following information in relation to the composition of the monitored Northern Ireland full-time work force:
(a) Composition of the monitored private sector work force (employing 11 or more people) in 1995.
Table 1: Composition of Monitored Private Sector Full-time Employees by Sex | |||||||||||||
Protestant | Roman Catholic | Non-determined | Total | ||||||||||
Number | Percentage | Number | Percentage | Number | Percentage | Number | Percentage | ||||||
Source: Monitoring Report No. 6, Fair Employment Commission, April 1996. |
(b) Composition of the monitored private sector work force (employing 11 or more people) in 2005.
Table 1: Composition of Monitored Private Sector Full-time Employees by Sex | ||||||||
Protestant | Roman Catholic | Non-determined | Total | |||||
Number | Percentage | Number | Percentage | Number | Percentage | Number | Percentage | |
Source: Monitoring Report No. 16, Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, December 2006. |
The information in the tables is already in the public domain, contained in the relevant Fair Employment Monitoring Reports. The Monitoring Report has been published on an annual basis since 1991.
Mrs. James: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what estimate he has made of the number of people who receive the minimum wage in (a) Wales and (b) Swansea, East. [117066]
Mr. Hain: Official estimates indicate that 70,000 workers in Wales stood to benefit from the October 2006 uprating of the national minimum wage.
The data for constituency level are unavailable.
Mrs. James: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what recent discussions he has had with train operating companies about the number of services west of Cardiff, Central on weekday evenings. [117067]
Mr. Hain: My hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for Wales has had discussions with the Under-Secretary of State for Transport, my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow, South (Mr. Harris), and the Assembly Government Minister for Enterprise, Innovation and Networks, and First Great Western direct to discuss rail services west of Cardiff.
We will continue to press First Great Western for a review of their decision to curtail the 3:15 London Paddington to Swansea service and for improvement in their performance generally to more acceptable standards.
Mrs. James: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what recent representations has he made to First Great Western about overcrowding on train services between Cardiff and West Wales. [117068]
Mr. Hain: My hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for Wales and I have made representations to First Great Western on their decision to curtail the 3:15 London Paddington to Swansea service. We will continue to press these concerns with them.
My hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State will also be raising the monitoring of First Great Western more generally with Department of Transport ministerial colleagues.
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what work he has commissioned to assess the disincentive to work effect of any proposed increase in the child maintenance disregard for people claiming benefits. [113538]
Mr. Plaskitt: We have commissioned Frontier Economics to carry out a short economic literature review. They are looking into existing UK and international literature on the impacts of an increase in child maintenance disregards on a parent with care's decisions about work and employment rates. We expect this to be published in spring 2007.
Further analysis may be necessary in due course as we seek to learn more about the potential effects of a higher disregard on incentives to pay child maintenance, child poverty, work incentives and administrative burdens.
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the level of benefit disregard to be applied to child maintenance cases from 2010-11 as proposed in the White Paper, A new system of child maintenance. [113543]
Mr. Plaskitt: Ministers and officials from the Department for Work and Pensions meet regularly with their counterparts from Her Majesty's Treasury to discuss a wide range of issues of common interestincluding child support reform.
Such meetings will continue as we assess how best to balance the potential impacts of significantly increasing the benefit disregard for maintenance income on incentives to pay child maintenance, child poverty and work incentives.
Mr. Meacher: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what percentage of children lived in households with less than 60 per cent. of the median income in (a) 1997 and (b) at the latest date for which figures are available; [114899]
(2) what percentage of children lived in households with less than 60 per cent. of the median income in each EU15 state (a) in 1997 and (b) at the latest date for which figures are available. [115943]
Mr. Jim Murphy [holding answer 15 January 2007]: In 1996-97, in Great Britain, the proportion of children living in households with less than 60 per cent. of median income was 25 per cent. before housing costs and 33 per cent. after housing costs.
The latest data available are for the year 2004-05. In this year, in Great Britain, the proportion of children living in households with less than 60 per cent. of median income was 19 per cent. before housing costs and 27 per cent. after housing costs.
It should be noted that children here are defined as those aged under 16, or aged 16 to 18, unmarried and on a course up to and including A level standard.
There is a remarkable variety of incomes across the EU and therefore, in absolute monetary terms, relative poverty is measured using different thresholds. Purchasing power parities are currency conversion rates that equalise the purchasing power of different currencies by eliminating the differences in price levels between their countries. Using this method demonstrates that the relative poverty threshold in the UK in 2004-05, in PPPS, for households with two adults and two dependent children was 21,385. This is similar to the figure for Austria (21,382) and Germany (20,935). Looking at just the figures for the EU15, the highest threshold was in Luxembourg (34,316) and lowest in Greece (11,130).
The following table shows the proportion of children (aged under 16) in households with less than 60 per cent. of the median national income in each EU15 state in 1997 and 2004. These figures are all before housing costs.
It should be noted that the figures for the UK are not the same as those published in the households below average income (HBAI) series. This is because the 1997 figures utilise a different data source, the European Community household panel. The 2004 figures differ because, although they use HBAI data, these has been harmonised ex-post for maximum consistency with the comparative EU dataset.
A trend between 1997 and 2004 cannot be derived as different data sources are used in the two years. However, the data demonstrate that whereas, in 1997, the UK had the worst child poverty rate in the EU15, now it is close to the EU average.
Proportion of children in household with less than 60 per cent. of median national income | ||
1997 | 2004 | |
(1)Eurostat estimate (2 )National source harmonised ex-post for maximum consistency with comparative EU data source (3 )2003 data |
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