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26 Jan 2007 : Column 2108W—continued
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of each age cohort of (a) men and (b) women in the working age population were on incapacity-related benefits in the latest year for which figures are available, broken down by (i) educational background and (ii) other available characteristics. [102232]
Mrs. McGuire: The available information is in the following table. Information is not available broken down by educational background.
| Proportion of working age incapacity benefit and severe disablement allowance claimants by age and gender, in Great Britain | ||
| Percentage | ||
| Female population within age band | Male population within age band | |
| (1) Denotes nil or negligible. Note: Percentages rounded to one decimal place. Source: Information Directorate 100 per cent. WPLS; ONS population estimates. | ||
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of claims for incapacity benefit were unsuccessful in each year since 1976-77; and if he will make a statement. [102237]
Mrs. McGuire: Figures are not available prior to 1999-2000. The available information is in the table.
| Proportion of unsuccessful incapacity benefit and severe disablement allowance claims in each year; Great Britain | |
| Percentage | |
| Source: DWP management information data. | |
Local Housing Allowances
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate his Department has made of the impact of changing the definition for determining the local housing allowance from the mid point of local rents to the median on the (a) percentage of claimants subject to the single room rate/shared room rent restriction who face a shortfall between their eligible and contractual rent and (b) average size of that shortfall. [110649]
Mr. Plaskitt: Any shortfall between the local housing allowance and contractual rent at the time of national roll-out of the local housing allowance will depend on the trends in local rent levels and the accommodation choices made by tenants. The trends in local rent levels up to the point of national roll-out are currently hard to predict and local housing allowance rates will vary across local private rent sector markets. This is true for all claimants, including those single under 25-year-olds without dependants who are subject to the local housing allowance shared room rate.
However, we estimate that overall, the majority of all new claimants at rollout will gain under the proposed national local housing allowance compared to what they would have been entitled to under the current housing benefit rules.
Office for Disability Issues
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many staff the Office for Disability Issues employs. [116529]
Mrs. McGuire [holding answer 19 January 2007]: The Office for Disability Issues (ODI) has recently reached its target headcount of 67 people.
Special Funds
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will list the special funds set up by his Department since 2002; what the expenditure of each fund was in each year since 2002; and what the planned expenditure on each is in each year to 2009. [102248]
Mrs. McGuire: The Department is required to operate under the Government Accounting regime. Within these rules the term Special Funds is not recognised or defined, therefore the Department does not have any special funds, nor has there been any expenditure or planned expenditure in this respect.
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Animal Transportation Rules
Bill Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the expected cost is of the change to the rules for transporting animals. [110765]
Mr. Bradshaw: The cost of complying with Council Regulation (EC) 1/2005 on the protection of animals during transport and related operations is estimated to be £7.7 million. The regulatory impact assessment is available on the DEFRA website.
Bill Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how he defines long journeys as used in section 3.1 to 3.5 of his Department's regulations on the ventilation of vehicles. [110766]
Mr. Bradshaw: Article 2 of Council Regulation (EC) 1/2005 on the protection of animals during transport and related operations defines a ‘long journey’ as that
“which exceeds eight hours, starting from when the first animal of the consignment is moved”.
Point 3 of Chapter VI in Annex I of the Regulation prescribes the ventilation systems and temperature monitoring equipment required on the relevant means of transport used for long journeys.
As permitted by Article 18(4) of the Regulation, we have chosen to derogate from certain provisions in Annex 1, Chapter VI, for road vehicles undertaking journeys up to a maximum of 12 hours within the UK. These derogations include the installation of ventilation and temperature monitoring equipment, as described in point 3.2 of Chapter VI.
Animal Welfare Act
Andrew Stunell: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the answer of 16 January 2007, Official Report, columns 970-71, on the Animal Welfare Act, whether the secondary legislation set out in the table includes legislation to replace the Breeding and Sale of Dogs (Welfare) Act 1999; and if he will make a statement. [110953]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Animal Welfare Act will provide an opportunity to introduce secondary legislation to replace current dog-breeding legislation with new regulations. The Kennel Club has recently launched an accredited breeders scheme, whose progress we will closely monitor. It will take time for the learning from the scheme to be evaluated. It would, therefore, be premature for me to speculate on the possible timing for any new law on dog breeding.
Arable Land
Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many hectares of arable land there are in the UK. [111438]
Barry Gardiner: The total area of arable land in the UK at June 2006 was 5,626,000 hectares.
Note:
Arable land comprises of all crops, bare fallow and grass less than five years old.
Source:
June Agricultural Survey.
Badgers
Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what advice his Department has given to local authorities on the handling and processing of the testing of badgers for tuberculosis. [110999]
Mr. Bradshaw: When undertaking surveys involving the post mortem and testing of badgers for tuberculosis, Defra has enlisted the help of a range of interested parties including local authorities and the Highways Agency to report the location of carcases. Reported carcases have subsequently been collected and processed by Defra staff, working to a risk-based health and safety code. This code is made available to others involved or on request.
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