Previous Section Index Home Page

29 Oct 2007 : Column 748W—continued


Departments: Disabled

Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions which buildings occupied by his Department (a) are and (b) are not fully accessible to disabled people; and if he will make a statement. [161162]


29 Oct 2007 : Column 749W

Mrs. McGuire: My Department is the major occupier of 1,191 buildings. No central data are held of the number of these buildings which are or are not considered to be fully accessible to disabled people.

Where there are access difficulties for disabled people, my Department makes appropriate reasonable adjustments to its arrangements for the recruitment and employment of staff, and the services and functions it delivers to its users, in accordance with the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

Departments: Location

Mr. Jack: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps his Department is taking to provide a regular public transport service for those staff members whose work is to be relocated to Peel Hill from the Government Offices site at Moreland road, St. Anne’s; and if he will make a statement. [161053]

Mrs. McGuire: A variety of options for the provision of a bus service are currently being evaluated by the Department in order to establish the most cost- effective, practical and efficient solution.

Departments: Manpower

Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how the number of posts in his Department will be affected by the decrease in its budget by 5 per cent. per year on average in real terms. [161204]

Mrs. McGuire: The Department's staffing over the SR 07 period will be determined as part of its business plan for 2008-09 to 2010-11.

Departments: Ministerial Policy Advisers

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the name is of each special adviser in his Department. [153180]

Mrs. McGuire: The annual list of special adviser names will be published shortly.

Departments: Orders and Regulations

Alan Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many statutory instruments were laid before Parliament by his Department between 2 November 2005 and 1 July 2007. [161849]

Mrs. McGuire: The Department for Work and Pensions laid 181 statutory instruments before Parliament between 2 November 2005 and 1 July 2007.

Departments: Public Expenditure

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what dates his Department breached its (a) resource, (b) near-cash, (c) administration and (d) capital budgets; what the value of each breach was; and what the reason was for each breach. [160323]

Mrs. McGuire: The Department for Work and Pensions breached its capital budget in the 2003-04 financial year. The value of the breach was £31 million.
29 Oct 2007 : Column 750W
The reason for the breach was a change in the accounting policy. During the 2003-04 financial year DWP reviewed its accounting policy in respect of capitalisation of expenditure on improvements to leasehold properties. As a result of this review the policy was changed so that expenditure in respect of major capital refurbishment and improvement of properties occupied but not owned was capitalised as leasehold improvements.

The change in accounting policy was not anticipated at the time of the 2003-04 Spring Supplementary Estimate. Consequently, outturn exceeded provision resulting in the breach.

No other breach of the budget totals referred to has occurred in the period.

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in which financial years since 2001 his Department’s outturn for its capital budget at the end of the year was less than planned at the beginning of the year; and what the (a) value and (b) reason for the underspend was in each case. [160342]

Mrs. McGuire: The Department of Work and Pensions outturn for its capital budget was not less than planned at the beginning of the year for the period covered by the question.

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what departmental budget items have been reclassified, under Consolidated Budgeting Guidance, following Comprehensive Spending Review 2007 decisions; and what the (a) former and (b) new (i) classification and (ii) sum budgeted is in each case. [160394]

Mrs. McGuire: The Department has not reclassified any budget items as a result of the Comprehensive Spending Review 2007 (CSR07).

The detail of all classification changes in resource and capital budgets made since publication of the Consolidated Budgeting Guidance 2007 will be published shortly after Budget 2008 in chapter three of Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses 2008.

Departments: Public Participation

Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many citizens’ juries were arranged by his Department since June 2007; which organisations have been commissioned to conduct each citizens’ jury; and what the estimated cost is of each exercise. [159501]

Mrs. McGuire: The Department for Work and Pensions has not arranged any citizens’ juries since June 2007.

Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many citizens’ juries were arranged for (a) his Department and (b) his Department’s agencies in each year since 1997; which organisations were commissioned to conduct each citizens’ jury; and what the cost was of each. [160006]


29 Oct 2007 : Column 751W

Mrs. McGuire: Data from 1997 are not readily available and would require a significant review of all engagement activities and analysis of the techniques used, extracting costs for citizens’ juries at a disproportionate cost.

Departments: Retirement

Andrew Selous: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many employees in (a) his Department and (b) each (i) executive agency and (ii) non-departmental public body funded by his Department applied to continue to work beyond state retirement age in the latest year or part thereof for which figures are available; and how many of those applications were successful. [161295]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: The Department for Work and Pensions abolished its mandatory retirement age in October 2006. Since then staff below the senior civil service can, if they wish to, simply carry on working past the minimum civil service pension age. They do not have to apply to continue working. Consequently no information is available on numbers of applications or numbers of successful applications.

No information is available for agencies and non-departmental bodies.

Departments: Written Questions

Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many and what percentage of questions tabled to his Department for answer on a named day received a substantive reply on the day named in the last 12 months for which figures are available. [161336]

Mrs. McGuire: In the period from 26 October 2006 to 25 October 2007 605 named day parliamentary questions were tabled to the Department for Work and Pensions, of which 180 received a substantive answer by the named day.

Disability Living Allowance: East Midlands

Mr. Skinner: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many (a) men and (b) women in each constituency in the East Midlands receive the care component higher rate of disability living allowance. [161058]

Mrs. McGuire: The available information is in the following table.


29 Oct 2007 : Column 752W
Disability living allowance highest rate care component—cases in payment: East Midlands Government Office region by parliamentary constituency of claimant (February 2007)
Female Male

Amber Valley

590

550

Ashfield

620

650

Bassetlaw

620

600

Blaby

380

360

Bolsover

700

710

Boston and Skegness

610

600

Bosworth

400

380

Broxtowe

490

380

Charnwood

360

310

Chesterfield

640

670

Corby

490

480

Daventry

380

360

Derby North

490

520

Derby South

700

670

Erewash

520

490

Gainsborough

460

440

Gedling

410

450

Grantham and Stamford

430

420

Harborough

390

320

High Peak

480

430

Kettering

410

420

Leicester East

610

540

Leicester South

610

580

Leicester West

540

590

Lincoln

460

560

Loughborough

330

330

Louth and Horncastle

760

770

Mansfield

680

650

Newark

430

450

North East Derbyshire

550

530

North West Leicestershire

440

410

Northampton North

430

450

Northampton South

470

480

Nottingham East

590

630

Nottingham North

770

790

Nottingham South

540

490

Rushcliffe

370

350

Rutland and Melton

260

280

Sherwood

600

610

Sleaford and North Hykeham

510

490

South Derbyshire

560

630

South Holland and The Deepings

480

410

Wellingborough

450

470

West Derbyshire

370

350

Notes:
1. Caseload figures are rounded to the nearest 10.
2. Totals show the number of people in receipt of an allowance, and exclude people with entitlement where the payment has been suspended, for example if they are in hospital.
3. Totals may not sum due to rounding.
4. Some additional disclosure control has also been applied.
Source:
DWP Information Directorate: Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study

Next Section Index Home Page