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2 May 2007 : Column 1690W—continued
Mr. Martlew: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the new deal self-employment programme at returning people to work compared with other employment programmes. [129256]
Dr. Blackman-Woods: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the new deal self-employment programme; and if he will make a statement. [130400]
Mr. Jim Murphy: I refer the hon. Members to the written answer I gave on 23 March 2007, Official Report, columns 1184-86W.
Personal Capability Assessments
Mrs. Dean: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 7 February 2007, Official Report, column 1056W, on personal capability assessments, who owns the LiMA software. [134249]
Mr. Jim Murphy: The Logic integrated Medical Assessment (LiMA) computer program is used by Atos Origin Medical Services and supports doctors carrying out disability assessments on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions. The DWP hold copyright and intellectual property rights over the program and license a third party—Atos Origin Medical Services—to use, customise, distribute, incorporate, market, maintain, support, sell and sub-license LiMA in return for payment of a royalty to the DWP.
Social Security Benefits
Mr. Mark Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what support his Department plans to provide to (a) A2 and (b) A8 nationals in 2007-08; and what the estimated cost is of providing this support. [134317]
Mr. Jim Murphy: For details of the support available to A2 and A8 nationals, I refer the hon. Gentleman to the written answer given on 13 March 2007, Official Report, column 274W.
The information on cost is not available.
Social Security Benefits: Correspondence
Frank Cook: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many mail items were sent by those bodies that award (a) pension credit, (b) housing benefit, (c) income support, (d) jobseeker’s allowance, (e) incapacity benefit, (f) council tax benefit and (g) state pension for each of the last five years; how many of these were sent to deceased individuals; what arrangements are in place to ensure that the databases of these organisations are updated with details of individuals who have moved house; and if he will make a statement. [132016]
Mr. Plaskitt: Information requested is listed in the following table. Housing and council tax benefit are awarded by the claimant’s local authority and therefore, are not included in the table. The information is extracted from management information held by the Department’s two Regional Delivery Centres and does not include numbers of mail items sent from the Department’s local offices about these benefits as this information is not held centrally and could be obtained only by disproportionate cost.
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The information about how many mail items were sent to deceased individuals is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. The Department has processes in place to collect death notifications from the Office for National Statistics (for England and Wales), the General Registrar (Scotland) and the General Registrar (Northern Ireland) on a weekly basis in order to update records. However, many notifications are received from the next of kin in advance of the notification from the Registrars. As part of the Office for National Statistics Modernisation Programme, dates of death will be notified to the Department on a daily basis from March 2008 which should ensure the level of notifications sent to deceased individuals by the Department is minimised.
The Department received over 18.5 million notifications of change of address in 2006, relating to the actual number of individuals who have moved. For example if a family consisting of man, wife and two children changed address, we would expect to receive four changes to personal details, if the children were the subjects of a child benefit claim. Every effort is made to ensure databases are updated with change of address details as soon as they are received.
Temporary Accommodation
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 23 March 2007, Official Report, column 1180W, on housing benefit: homelessness, if his Department will require local authorities to increase their General Fund contribution to the costs of placing homeless households in temporary accommodation. [133734]
Mr. Plaskitt: There is no requirement for local authorities to increase the contribution from the General Fund when placing homeless households in temporary accommodation.
Temporary Accommodation: Greater London
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 23 March 2007, Official Report, column 1180W, on housing benefit: homelessness, whether his Department has assessed Westminster city council’s ability to procure short-term leased temporary accommodation for homeless households within its area following the introduction of his proposed changes to housing benefit subsidy arrangements in 2007-08. [133733]
Mr. Plaskitt: No assessment was done of the procurement of short term leased accommodation in Westminster city council’s area. The changes introduced in April 2007 to the subsidy scheme for temporary accommodation were a modest reduction in the available subsidy and should not have an impact on an authority’s ability to secure temporary accommodation.
Northern Ireland
Arts: Grants
Stephen Hesford: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what steps he is taking through the spending review to improve provisions for the arts in Northern Ireland following the reduction in Lottery funding from 2009. [134813]
Maria Eagle: Negotiations on the comprehensive spending review are at an early stage. The outcome will be known later this year.
Departments: Public Expenditure
Mark Durkan: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what in-year financial monitoring returns and adjustments for the Northern Ireland departments were made in 2006-07; and what (a) slippages, (b) easements and (c) pressures identified and re-allocations have been made. [132491]
Mr. Hanson: The information requested has been placed in the Library of the House.
Health Professions: Training
Miss Kirkbride: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many applicants in Northern Ireland are in the process of applying for posts via modernising medical careers; how many posts are available in Northern Ireland; and how many such posts in the 2007 round are for (a) specialist training and (b) fixed-term specialist training appointments. [135535]
Paul Goggins: Current figures show that there have been 2,559 applications for posts in Northern Ireland. Many applicants have applied for more than one post A detailed breakdown of applications per applicant is not currently available.
(a) 406 Specialist training posts; and
(b) 211 Fixed term specialist training posts.
Hospitals: Hygiene
David Simpson:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland pursuant to the answer of 23 April 2007, Official Report, columns 891-92W, on hospitals:
hygiene, how much of the £400,000 funding provided in 2006-07 each hospital trust in Northern Ireland accessed to run hand hygiene/clean care campaigns; what the nature was of each campaign; and what assessment has been made of their effectiveness. [134892]
Paul Goggins: I have placed a detailed report on the matter raised by the hon. Gentleman in the Library.
Housing: Low Incomes
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what steps he is taking to provide affordable housing in Northern Ireland. [135036]
Mr. Hanson: Government are dealing with the issue of affordable housing principally through the social housing development programme, the co-ownership shared equity scheme, the house sales scheme for social tenants and the housing benefit system.
The social housing development programme last year provided an additional 1,625 new homes, funded by Government grant of some £132 million supplemented by housing association private borrowing.
The co-ownership shared equity scheme has assisted almost 19,000 households into home ownership since 1978; with more than half a billion pounds of public and private funds invested. Recent changes, such as increasing the property value limits and reducing the rental charge on the shared equity portion of the property, have made the scheme more accessible for those on low incomes.
The right to buy scheme, offering social houses for sale to tenants at a discount, has facilitated some 120,000 tenants into home ownership.
Last year, over £386 million was paid to those in receipt of housing benefit. Over 70,000 of recipients were in social housing and almost 62,000 were in private housing.
In April 2007, I received Sir John Semple's review into affordable housing. This report made a series of practical suggestions across a range of policy areas. These proposals are now being considered.
Junior Doctors: Unemployment
Mr. Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what estimate he has made of the number of junior doctors working in the NHS in Northern Ireland who will be unemployed in August. [134957]
Paul Goggins: It is not possible to determine at this stage how many doctors working in Northern Ireland will not obtain post in NI.
Junior Doctors: Working Hours
Mr. Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what funding was available before August 2006 for the provision of additional doctors to ensure that junior doctors’ working rotas would be compliant with the European Working Time Directive. [134961]
Paul Goggins:
In 2006-07 the Department allocated funding to the Junior Doctors Implementation Support Group (ISG). ISG assigned £5.5 million of
this budget to assist Boards and HPSS Trusts in achieving European Working Time Directive (EWTD) compliance. This included provision for the recruitment of additional doctors.
Mr. Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what steps have been taken to ensure that sufficient junior doctors are employed in Northern Ireland to enable all their working rotas to be compliant with the European Working Time Directive in August 2007. [134966]
Paul Goggins: The revised recruitment arrangements agreed in April are aimed at ensuring foil recruitment to all junior doctors’ posts for August 2007 thus ensuring the maintenance of codes of compliance with the European Working Time Directive (EWTD).
Mr. Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what assessment he has made of the likely impact of the career structure for junior doctors in Northern Ireland from August 2007 on (a) waiting lists for outpatients appointments and (b) waiting lists for elective surgery. [134967]
Paul Goggins: An assessment on the impact of the career structure for junior doctors and its impact on outpatient and elective surgery waiting lists has not been made.
Mr. Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what steps were taken to ensure that sufficient medical staff would be available to maintain a high standard of patient care during the first round of Medical Training Application Service interviews in Northern Ireland. [134978]
Paul Goggins: Trust chief executive, medical and clinical directors and HR directors were notified of the timeline for recruiting doctors to speciality training, in order to ensure that arrangements could be made for the release of panel members and candidates to attend interviews.
Maze Project
Kate Hoey: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what his estimate is of what further expenditure on the Maze project will be before the end of 2007; and how much will be spent on (a) consultancy fees, (b) staff costs and (c) facilitating the work of the Maze Panel. [134072]
Mr. Hanson: Estimated expenditure in 2007-08 on the full Maze/Long Kesh programme (including stadium costs) is some £7.6 million.
Of this, £4.1 million is estimated for consultancy fees and £0.4 million for staff costs. The costs of the Maze/Long Kesh Monitoring Group are limited to travel and attendance fees, which last year cost around £2,000.
All expenditure post 8 May will be a matter for the local Executive.
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