| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
17 Sep 2007 : Column 2242W—continued
Valuation Office: ICT
Alistair Burt: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment has been made of the value for money of the Aspire contract in relation to services provided to the Valuation Office Agency. [151326]
Jane Kennedy: The Aspire contract is output based and the value for money of this type of contract was assessed under the original competition. To ensure value for money is maintained there is a rolling benchmark programme to measure Aspire charges against the market.
VAT: Home Information Packs
Alistair Burt: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Brentwood and Ongar (Mr. Pickles) of 25 June 2007, Official Report, column 400W, on VAT: home information packs, if he will list each (a) authorised and (b) required item of a home information pack that is liable for VAT if included. [151198]
Jane Kennedy: The normal VAT liability rules will apply when the constituent parts of a Home Information Pack (HIP) are purchased from a VAT registered business. VAT will usually be chargeable, although local authority and Land Registry search fees are normally VAT free.
VAT will also be due on any fee charged by a VAT registered agent in connection with the compilation of a HIP.
Welfare Tax Credits
Mike Wood: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the proportion of the cost of administering the (a) working and (b) child tax credit systems that relates directly to the updating of claims. [152732]
Jane Kennedy: Information on administrative costs for tax credits can be seen in the Comptroller and Auditor General's Standard Report on HM Revenue and Customs 2006-07 accounts available at
Justice
Citizens’ Juries
Nick Herbert: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how participants in citizens' juries will be chosen; and who is responsible for the (a) process and (b) decisions. [155547]
Mr. Straw: The choice of participants is dependent on the objectives for the jury and the subject matter. This might require a representative sample of the population, a random sample or perhaps particular groups as in the DCSFs recent citizens' juries which involved young people, parents, teachers and local community stakeholders.
(a) The Department or organisation running the citizens' jury or other engagement process will retain responsibility for the process, even when a third party may have been engaged to deliver such a process.
(b) Each citizens' jury or other engagement process should make clear to the participants where the final decision will be taken.
Nick Herbert: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether the operation of citizens' juries will comply with the Code of Practice on Consultation. [155548]
Mr. Straw:
Where the Government are consulting with the public it will comply with the Code of
Practice. However, where citizens' juries are used to explore ideas and initial policy thinking rather than gain feedback on specific proposals the question of compliance or otherwise with the code may not arise. Any engagement has to be serious and help to strengthen the relationship between government and the public. This will mean adherence to good engagement principles.
Nick Herbert: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what plans he has to publish (a) transcripts and (b) reports of citizens’ juries. [155554]
Mr. Straw: The Government expect that the conclusions of citizens' juries will be made available. However decisions on whether this should be in the form of transcripts and reports is a matter for the individual Department with policy lead.
Nick Herbert: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will list the dates and subject matters of citizens' juries to be held by the Government. [155555]
Mr. Straw: To date, the following citizens' juries have been or are planned to be held:
DCSF, 6 September, considered issues affecting children.
Home Office, 12 September, considered crime and community.
Department of Health, 18 September, on the NHS supporting the work of the Darzi review.
Other engagement activities are being organised as part of the Governance of Britain constitutional reform programme.
Community Service Orders
John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the average waiting time for offenders joining unpaid work groups has been since January, broken down by probation area. [155366]
Mr. Hanson: Probation service national standards require that the first work session is undertaken within 10 days of sentence. Data are collected nationally about the first appointment only where it is designated as a pre-placement work session, that is, an induction and briefing session. For those probation areas where it is available, the average number of days in the period January to June, between this session and joining the unpaid work groups is set out in the following table.
| Area | Waiting time |
John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many unpaid work appointments have been cancelled since January, broken down by probation area. [155367]
[Official Report, 18 November 2007, Vol. 468, c. 3MC.]Mr. Hanson: Across all probation areas a total of 29,852 work appointments were cancelled between 1 January 2007 and 30 June 2007. This compares with 644,697 appointments which were kept, which is a cancellation rate of 4.6 per cent. The number of unpaid work appointments cancelled in each probation area is set out in the following table.
| Area | Appointment cancelled |
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |