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16 Apr 2007 : Column 244W—continued
| Income support (IS) claimants in Great Britain by age: as at August 1997 and August 2006 | ||
| IS claimants 60 years of age and over | IS claimants under 60 years of age | |
| (1)( )Income support for those aged 60 and over was replaced by minimum income guarantee (MIG) in April 1999. MIG was, in turn, replaced by pension credit in October 2003. No comparable data is available for 2006. Notes: 1. 1997 figures are rounded to the nearest 100, 2006 figures to the nearest 10. 2. 1997 figures have been uprated using 5 per cent. proportions against 100 per cent. WPLS totals. Source: 100 per cent. Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study Information Directorate, 5 per cent. samples. | ||
Jobcentre Plus
Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many branches of Jobcentre Plus there are in England and Wales. [129178]
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.
Letter from Lesley Strathie, dated 12 April 2007:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question asking how many branches of Jobcentre Plus there are in England and Wales. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
The current Jobcentre Plus network in England and Wales consists of 717 Jobcentres providing face to face access for customers. In addition we have 28 Contact Centres, which allow customers to access our services using telephones. There are currently 68 Benefit Delivery Centres in England and Wales which process benefit, and a further two Benefit Delivery Centres, one in Scotland and one in Northern Ireland which also process benefit for customers in London. Within our network we have a number of other feeder sites, some of which have a dual role as front facing offices, still processing benefit. These sites will reduce month on month as they migrate work into the main Benefit Delivery Centres by March 2008.
Customers are now using our Jobcentres differently. More of our face-to-face customer contact is on an appointment basis and information on job vacancies is readily available by telephone and the internet. This enables staff in our offices to focus on those customers in greatest need of support to return to work.
I hope this information is helpful.
Jobcentres: Norfolk
Mr. Fraser: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) which stakeholders his Department has invited to comment on the proposals to close Jobcentre Plus branches in Norfolk; [126251]
(2) what recent representations he has received from trade unions on proposals to close Jobcentre Plus branches in Norfolk; [126254]
(3) what steps his Department has taken to ensure that the public is aware of the consultation exercise on the future of Jobcentre Plus branches in Norfolk; [126258]
(4) why Cabinet Office guidelines for the length of a consultation period have not been applied to the consultation on the future of Norfolk’s Jobcentre Plus branches; [126259]
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.
Letter from Lesley Strathie, dated 12 April 2007:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your questions about the consultation process regarding the closures of Jobcentres in Norfolk. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
The stakeholders invited to comment on the proposals to close Jobcentre Plus offices were the Members of Parliament for the constituencies affected, Chief Executives and Welfare Benefits Advisers of the Local Authorities concerned, Citizens Advice representatives, Primary Care Trusts, Trade Union representatives, providers of Jobcentre Plus programmes, the Learning and Skills Council, the Government Office for the East of England and the East of England Development Agency.
There have been informal discussions at a local level between the District Manager and local Union officials. We have not yet received a formal response to the consultation from the trade unions.
Apart from consultation with stakeholders we have put a prominently displayed statement in each of our Jobcentres advising customers of our plans and giving the contact details of the District Manager for Jobcentre Plus in Norfolk, should they wish to comment on the proposals. To date the District Manager has received four responses from customers who use Hunstanton Jobcentre and none from any of the other Jobcentres.
The Cabinet Office guidance on consultation issues relates to proposed new policy initiatives, or changes to existing policy. Jobcentre closures are operational issues. For Jobcentre Plus we are using a six week consultation period. This period has recently been extended from three weeks at the request of Ministers. We think that this allows ample time for the views of stakeholders to be considered.
National Insurance Numbers
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many national insurance numbers were (a) issued, (b) deleted and (c) current in each year since 1997. [116607]
Mr. Plaskitt: The available information is in the following tables.
| Total approximate number of national insurance numbers in issue at 31 December in each year between 1997 and 2006 | |
| Number (million) | |
The discrepancy between the number of NINOs allocated and the increase in the overall numbers of cases in issue is due to the differences in Child Reference Numbers allocated and those changing to NINOs at aged 16 years, which is closely linked to birth rates over a 16-year period.
NINOs are not normally deleted from the Departmental Central Index (DCI) or Customer Information System (CIS). For example, they are retained after a person dies or moves abroad. This is because individuals who move abroad may at some point have a call upon contributions paid whilst in the UK. In the case of deceased individuals, a partner may make a claim for a contributory benefit, which is dependent on the contribution record of the deceased individual. This means that the number of accounts held on the system accrues as NINOs are allocated each year.
A joint data cleansing exercise was carried out in 2000-01 with Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, who jointly own the NINO. This exercise identified NINOs for which there had been no activity for a considerable period of time and which were not known to the National Insurance Recording System (NIRs). This exercise removed 200,000 NINOs from DCI.
New Deal Schemes
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer given to the right hon. Member for Birkenhead on 19 March 2007, Official Report, column 643W, how he determines whether a person leaving the new deal rolls has found a job. [130218]
Mr. Jim Murphy: The data provided on 19 March 2007, Official Report, column 643W, on whether a person has left new deal for lone parents to a job is obtained from the Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study, which draws together data from Department for Work and Pensions computer systems and from employment records supplied by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.
Dr. Blackman-Woods: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the cost to the public purse of an unemployed person returning to work under (a) the new deal self-employment programme and (b) other new deal programmes. [130399]
Mr. Jim Murphy: I refer the hon. Member to the written answer I gave to her on 23 March 2007, Official Report, columns 1184-86.
New Deal Schemes: Kidderminster
Dr. Richard Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the extent to which Pertemps People Development Group Ltd. are meeting the terms of the contract by which they operate the New Deal provision for the Jobcentre Plus in Kidderminster. [128736]
Mr. Jim Murphy: All new deal contractors are required to meet the quality and delivery standards set out in their contract specification. They are subject to contract management and monitoring by professional and trained Jobcentre Plus procurement staff, in addition to any required Adult Learning Inspectorate inspection and audit.
New Deal Schemes: Sanctions
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many benefit claimants under the (a) New Deal for Lone Parents, (b) New Deal for Young People, (c) New Deal 25 Plus, (d) New Deal for Disabled People and (e) StepUP have been subject to sanctions (i) once, (ii) twice and (iii) three times or more in each year since the introduction of the scheme, broken down by reason for sanction; and how many claimants sanctioned subsequently had their benefit reinstated. [124076]
Mr. Jim Murphy: New deal for lone parents and new deal for disabled people are voluntary programmes and benefit sanctions are not applied to these programmes.
Between April and December 2002, twenty StepUP pilots were launched in selected wards across Great Britain. The last client left StepUp in January 2006. Information on StepUP sanctions is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate costs.
Information on benefit re-instatement is not available.
The available information has been placed in the Library.
Pathways to Work: Standards
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what discussions his Department has had on the Freud Report proposal of the introduction of a star system by Jobcentre Plus to measure provider performance in Pathways to Work; and if he will make a statement. [128710]
Mr. Jim Murphy:
David Freud’s report “Reducing dependency, increasing opportunity: options for the future of welfare to work” does not propose the introduction of a star system to measure provider
performance in Pathways to Work. The report proposes, as part of a new contracting system, that
“the Department will need to develop monitoring capability similar to the successful Star Rating system developed in Australia.”
The Department has been developing such a capability and will be introducing a prototype for new deal and employment zone contracts in April 2007, in order to test the concept.
Pesticides: Export Controls
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what his policy is on the export to developing countries of pesticides banned for use in the UK. [131075]
Mrs. McGuire: Export of pesticides to developing countries, in line with most requirements on chemicals, is subject to European law. EC Regulation 304/2003/EC concerning the export and import of certain dangerous chemicals includes provisions that provide importing countries with information on chemicals that are banned in Europe, and enable them to make informed decisions on whether they want to accept or refuse the export, or to allow it under conditions. The regulation also bans the export of certain pesticides. The regulation incorporates the provisions of the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade.
Smith Institute: Finance
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much money from the public purse (a) his Department and (b) its agencies gave to (i) the Smith Institute and (ii) its subsidiary SI Events Limited in each year since 1997; and for what purpose each payment was made. [123100]
Mrs. McGuire: Expenditure recorded in the Department for Work and Pensions Financial systems for the Smith Institute is as follows:
| Payment date | £ | AC |
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