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21 Jun 2007 : Column 2220W—continued


21 Jun 2007 : Column 2221W

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what performance targets he has set for Vertex to respond to cases referred to the Child Support Agency Bolton office by or on behalf of hon. Members; and if he will make a statement; [141304]

(2) if he will list the (a) performance indicators and (b) performance targets which he has set for Vertex for its management of the Bolton office of the Child Support Agency. [142317]

Mr. Plaskitt [holding answer 12 June 2007]: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.

Letter from Stephen Geraghty, dated 21 June 2007:

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimates he has made of the number of children who would be lifted out of relative poverty if all non-resident parents were fully compliant with the payment of child support. [143587]

Mr. Plaskitt: No estimate has been made of the number of children who would be lifted out of relative
21 Jun 2007 : Column 2222W
poverty if all non-resident parents were fully compliant with the payment of child support. To produce a robust estimate we would require information on the position in the income distribution of parents with care where the non-resident parent in the case is not fully compliant. This information is not available for all the relevant parents with care.

Community Care Grants: Lancashire

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the average Social Fund Community Care Grant award was in West Lancashire constituency in (a) 2005-06 and (b) 2006-07. [143517]

Mr. Plaskitt: The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is in the following table.

Lancashire West social fund operating unit
Community care grant initial awards
Average award size (£)

2005-06

359

2006-07

371

Notes:
1. Data are not available by parliamentary constituency but only by social fund operating unit.
2. West Lancashire parliamentary constituency is part of the social fund operating unit of Lancashire West. (This covered the same area as the Jobcentre Plus district of Lancashire West until 31 March 2006.)
3. Figures do not include awards made after review.
4. Figures have been rounded to the nearest £1.
Source:
DWP Social Fund Policy, Budget and Management Information System

Departments: Advertising

Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much was spent on advertising by (a) the Department and (b) its non-departmental agencies in each of the last five years. [139524]

Mrs. McGuire: The Department runs a number of promotional campaigns aimed at increasing awareness of rights and responsibilities. The table details spend on advertising campaigns run by the Department in each of the last five complete financial years.

Government policies and programmes affect the lives of millions of people and in order for them to work they must be communicated effectively. But that also has to be done with cost efficiency in mind and there are strict rules to ensure value for money on Government advertising.


21 Jun 2007 : Column 2223W

21 Jun 2007 : Column 2224W
£000

Departmental advertising costs 2006-07( 1)

Age Partnership Group

9

Age Positive

40

Targeting benefit fraud|

5,418

Reducing customer error

45

The Pension Service core benefit take up

881

Winter fuel payments

343

Child maintenance enforcement

107

Jobcentre Plus promotion to Black and Minority Ethnic audience

687

Job Done

765

Jobseeker’s Allowance 50+ Pilot

83

Lone parent

171

Departmental advertising costs 2005-06( 1)

State pension deferral

300

Images of disability

2

Targeting benefit fraud

4,553

Pension credit

362

Winter fuel payments

918

State second pension

675

Age Partnership group

19

National sector campaign

23

Departmental advertising costs 2004-05( 1)

Age Positive

29

State pension deferral

115

Disability Discrimination Act

1,992

Targeting benefit fraud

6,017

Direct payment

8,379

Council tax benefit

674

Pension credit

4,388

Winter fuel payments

515

Lone parent leaflet promotion marketing

216

National vacancy campaign

390

IB reforms pilots

106

Departmental advertising costs 2003-04( 1)

Age positive

70

Second state pension

216

Pension service awareness

906

New Deal

5,678

Disability Discrimination Act

40

Targeting benefit fraud

8,383

Direct payment

11,095

Council tax benefit

556

Pension credit

9,907

Winter fuel payments

625

Jobseekers direct

1,632

IB reforms pilot

113

Jobcentre Plus customer marketing

1,401

National employer campaign

1,158

Departmental advertising costs 2002-03( 1)

Age positive

706

Future pensioners/informed choice

2,878

Second state pension

489

New Deal for Musicians

33

Disability Discrimination Act

50

Targeting benefit fraud

35

Direct payment

858

Winter fuel payments

627

Inherited serps

646

(1) The table does not include the following as the information is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate cost:
spend by non-departmental bodies for which the Department is responsible;
details of highly localised publicity activity by the Department's customer-facing businesses;
recruitment or procurement advertising;
Jobcentre Plus publicity during 2002 to 2003 as at that time allocations sat with individual policy teams and within regional budgets.

The information in the table relates to media buying expenditure only, which forms the bulk of departmental publicity expenditure, but excludes direct mail, public relations, production and other costs. All figures are exclusive of VAT.

Departments: Correspondence

Mr. Brazier: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what targets have been set for replies to letters from his Department’s offices; what targets have been set in Kent; and which of these targets have been met in each of the last 24 months. [141421]

Mr. Plaskitt: Each of the agencies within the Department records correspondence from customers in a different way, therefore I have listed the performance information for each agency separately.

Child Support Agency

The information requested is in the following table. The target for replying to correspondence from members of the public and their representatives is to reply to 100 per cent. of letters in 15 working days. It is not possible to provide figures for Kent separately, but I can give you the figures for the South East area which includes Kent.


21 Jun 2007 : Column 2225W
Percentage cleared in target
National South East

April 2005

86.5

78.4

May 2005

88.2

84.4

June 2005

89.0

89.0

July 2005

88.5

88.0

August 2005

88.4

86.6

September 2005

88.4

86.0

October 2005

88.3

85.8

November 2005

88.2

85.3

December 2005

88.1

84.9

January 2006

88.3

83.7

February 2006

88.25

81.6

March 2006

88.6

76.9

April 2006

87.6

78.8

May 2006

89.3

79.2

June 2006

89.7

81.1

July 2006

90.1

82.2

August 2006

90.7

81.9

September 2006

90.4

81.0

October 2006

90.7

82.0

November 2006

90.9

82.9

December 2006

90.7

80.7

January 2007

89.9

78.2

February 2007

89.0

77.6

March 2007

88.2

76.9


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