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2 May 2007 : Column 1684W—continued


2 May 2007 : Column 1685W

Tasker Inquiry

Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on how many occasions the terms of reference of the Tasker inquiry have been (a) amended and (b) altered; how many interim reports have been produced during the lifetime of the inquiry; when the most recent interim report was produced; what the reason is for the most recent delay to the completion of the inquiry; how many extensions to the inquiry have been authorised; and if he will make a statement. [134695]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The commissioning authority has formally amended the terms of reference once, at the request of one of the complainants.

No interim reports have been published. A partial report has been submitted to the commissioning authority. The delay in completion of the investigation has been caused by the breadth of the terms of reference, and the scale and complexity of the ensuing investigation.

No formal extensions have been granted. The commissioning authority has been kept informed of the progress of the investigation throughout, and has accepted the revised timeframe.

Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the (a) target completion date was when first commissioned and (b) actual completion date is expected to be of the Tasker inquiry; and if he will make a statement. [134719]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The initial target date for completion was March 2006. This proved to be unrealistic given the scale of the investigation, and the investigation is now due to be completed in the near future.

Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which member of HM Prison Service Board will have responsibility for (a) considering the content, (b) overseeing appropriate disciplinary action and (c) addressing the issues that may arise from the report by Mr Ron Tasker into the conduct of the previous Governor at HM Prison Wandsworth; and if he will make a statement. [134840]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The Prison Service area manager for London is the commissioning authority and as such will have responsibility for considering the content of the report, overseeing any disciplinary action that may be deemed necessary, and addressing any other issues that may arise. The area manager for London may seek to discuss these matters with his line manager who is the Deputy Director General of the Prison Service.

Terrorism: Birmingham

Adam Price: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether an individual in his Department was responsible for briefing journalists that two soldiers had offered to entrap the suspects at the centre of the Birmingham counter-terrorism operation of 31 January. [135399]

John Reid: I have no knowledge of who provided this information. It was not released by me, nor my special advisers nor anyone close to me, nor anyone else with either my knowledge or acquiescence.


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Work and Pensions

Council Tax Benefits: Greater London

Robert Neill: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much council tax benefit was unclaimed in each London borough in each of the last five years. [135008]

Mr. Plaskitt: Estimates of take-up are not available below the level of Great Britain. The latest estimates of the take-up of the main income-related benefits: income support, pension credit, housing benefit, council tax benefit and jobseeker’s allowance (income-based) in Great Britain can be found in the DWP report entitled “Income Related Benefits Estimates of Take-Up in 2004/2005”. Copies of the publication are available in the Library.

Departments: Handbooks

Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 20 February 2007, Official Report, column 630W, on departments: handbooks, if he will place in the Library a CD-Rom containing the details of the terms and conditions of service for staff of his Department. [133922]

Mrs. McGuire: Development of Conditions of Service policies in DWP is a continuous evolutionary process. A number of the corporate policies also take the form of policy frameworks, stating broad principles within which individual DWP businesses are permitted to develop their own Conditions of Service policies according to the services they deliver.

The effect of this is that a CD-Rom of the Conditions of Service material would only be accurate, relevant and up-to-date on the day it was created, and would not have the functionality to link to other sources of information referred to within the policy material or to business specific policy material.

Therefore while there are no plans to place a CD-ROM in the Library Members who want access to specific Conditions of Service policies should contact:

Kevin White, DWP's Human Resources Director General about corporate policies or the relevant business Chief Executive in constituent specific cases, and request a CD-ROM of the specific policy material.

Departments: India

Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions which Ministers in his Department have visited India in the last 12 months; on how many occasions each Minister visited India; and what the length was of each visit. [135545]

Mrs. McGuire: There were no visits made by any of the Department’s Ministers to India in the last 12 months.

Departments: Intimidation

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many complaints of bullying have been investigated in his Department in the last 12 months; and how many complaints have been upheld. [134818]


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Mrs. McGuire: The information currently held centrally by the Department is the number of complaints of bullying investigated by the Departments central team of investigators.

During the last 12 months (for the period April 2006 to March 2007) the Department for Work and Pensions central team of investigators has received 102 complaints of bullying of which 32 were upheld.

Departments: Renewable Energy

Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much energy in kilowatt hours was purchased by his Department from renewable sources in the most recent year for which figures are available. [135005]

Mrs. McGuire: On 12 June 2006 the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs announced a set of sustainable operations targets for the Government Estate. These targets included mandating Government Departments to source at least 10 per cent. of electricity from renewable sources, such as wind, wave, tidal, solar, thermal and photovoltaics (PVs), by March 2008.

During 2005-06 DWP sourced 206,087,269 kilowatt hours of electricity from renewable sources. This equates to 62.9 per cent. of the total DWP consumption of 327,460,763 kilowatt hours of electricity during the year.

Departments: Sexual Harassment

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many complaints of sexual harassment have been investigated in his Department in the last 12 months; and how many complaints have been upheld. [135384]

Mrs. McGuire: The information currently held centrally by the Department is the number of complaints of sexual harassment investigated by the Department's central team of investigators.

During the last 12 months (for the period April 2006 to March 2007) the Department for Work and Pensions central team of investigators has received 20 complaints of sexual harassment of which 13 were upheld.

Departments: Statistics

Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much the quarterly statistical summary costs to produce in each of the last four quarters. [133902]

Mrs. McGuire: Information on the cost of producing the quarterly statistical summary is not available.

Estimates for the annual costs of national statistics are contained in the relevant national statistics annual report and accounts, which are available on the national statistics website at:

The last year these were produced was 2004-05.


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Departments: Surveys

Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will place in the Library the results of each staff survey in his Department in each of the last five years. [133900]

Mrs. McGuire: Over the last five years, DWP has routinely published its staff survey results within the public domain. Survey results have been supplied to main Libraries in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as well as those in Oxford and Cambridge. Last year, following a request from Nicola Beckford, BBC Political Programmes, Cabinet Office arranged for direct access to all main Government Departments’ survey results through the civil service website. DWP Survey 2004 and 2005 results can already be accessed there. Results for DWP Survey 2006 will also appear there shortly. In addition, DWP is making separate arrangements to place its staff survey results, since 2002, on the DWP website.

Grandparents: Parental Responsibility

Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 20 April 2007, Official Report, column 866W, on grandparents: parental responsibility, for what reasons the information is not available; and if he will take steps to make it available. [135112]

Mr. Plaskitt: Information about the family relationship between a claimant and any dependant children is not needed for the assessment of income-related benefit claims, so it is not recorded. We have no plans to change this.

Housing Benefit: Homelessness

Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 26 March 2007, Official Report, column 1180W, on housing benefit, what amendments were made to his proposed changes to the housing benefit subsidy arrangements for homeless households following his Department’s meetings with the local authority associations in August, November and December 2006 and January 2007. [133735]

Mr. Plaskitt: The changes were a short-term measure to address the very large increase in expenditure on temporary accommodation and longer term proposals to change the funding scheme for temporary accommodation in the future. No amendments were made to the changes after meeting with Local Authority Associations.

Housing Benefit: Temporary Accommodation

Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 26 March 2007, Official Report, column 1238W, on housing benefit, what the average cost was of non-housing revenue account expenditure on each homeless household in temporary accommodation in each year since 1997-98 (a) in cash terms and (b) at 2006-07 prices. [133736]

Mr. Plaskitt: The information is not available.


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IT Projects

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Twickenham of 26 March 2007, Official Report, column 1239W, on IT projects, what the purpose was of the benefits processing replacement programme (BPRP); how it was related to the customer accounting and payment strategy; and through what new programme he expects some of the spend on the BPRP to be of future value. [134149]

Mrs. McGuire: 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. Gentleman with the information requested.

Letter from Lesley Strathie, dated 2 May 2007

Members: Correspondence

Sir Michael Spicer: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when he expects to reply to the letter of 13 March from the hon. Member for West Worcestershire on the Disability Discrimination Act. [134724]

Mrs. McGuire [holding answer 30 April 2007]: I replied to the hon. Gentleman’s letter on 26 April 2007.

New Deal Schemes: Self-employed

Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what projection he has made of the number of people likely to go through the new deal self-employment programme in the next 12 months; and how many went through it in each of the last three years; [125884]

(2) what the cost is to the public purse of an unemployed person returning to work under (a) the new deal self-employment programme and (b) other employment programmes. [125893]

Anne Snelgrove: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people completed the new deal self-employment programme in the last three years for which figures are available. [126061]


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Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many people are expected to participate in the new deal self-employment programme in 2007-08; and how many people participated in the programme in each of the last three years; [126537]

(2) what assessment he has made of the cost to the public purse for an unemployed person to return to work under the new deal self-employment programme compared with other employment programmes; [126538]

(3) whether his Department has assessed the relative rates at which participants return to work under the new deal self-employment programme compared with other employment programmes. [126618]

Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many people are expected to pass through the new deal self-employment programme in 2007; and what the figure was in each of the last three years; [124686]

(2) what assessment his Department has made of the relative merits of returning to work under the new deal self-employment programme compared with other employment programmes. [124687]

Dr. Starkey: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what assessment he has made of the relative benefits to (a) Government and (b) unemployed people of returning to work under the new deal self-employment programme and other employment programmes; [125769]

(2) how many people he expects to go through the new deal self-employment programme in 2007-08; and how many went through in each of the previous three years; [125772]

(3) how much it costs the public purse on average for an unemployed person to return to work under (a) the new deal self-employment programme and (b) other employment programmes. [125779]

Sarah McCarthy-Fry: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what estimate 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 employment programmes; [126843]

(2) what estimate he has made of the number of people likely to go through the new deal self-employment programme in 2007; and how many went through the programme in each of the last three years; [126844]

(3) whether his Department has assessed the relative effectiveness of returning to work under the new deal self-employment programme and other employment programmes. [126874]

Mr. Walker: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) whether he has estimated the cost to the public purse of assisting an unemployed person to return to work under the (a) new deal self-employment programme and (b) other employment programmes; [127435]

(2) what estimate he has made of the number of people likely to participate in the new deal self-employment programme in the next 12 months; and how many people participated in each of the previous three years. [127436]


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