| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
29 Oct 2007 : Column 772W—continued
We estimate that between 6,500 and 7,500 members have passed the age of 65 since their scheme entered wind up and are now eligible for FAS assistance.
The youngest scheme members will not be eligible for financial assistance for a number of decades. A member who was 20 years of age when their scheme started to wind-up in 2005 would not qualify for payment of assistance until 2050. Therefore it could take at least 40 years before full assistance starts being paid to all members eligible for FAS.
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many members of the Earlys of Witney Pension Scheme had been approached by the Financial Assistance Scheme to offer them compensation before 20 July 2007. [154663]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: Following the intervention of the right hon. Member for Witney the trustees of the Earlys of Witney Pension Scheme were contacted by the Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) Operational Unit. Subsequently a DWP official contacted an individual member of the scheme to provide information about the FAS, and issued the standard form to return to the Financial Assistance Scheme Operational Unit. The individual subsequently decided not to pursue a claim for assistance, and I am told this was because he was awaiting an appeal judgment in court.
The FAS OU has since been contacted by two other members of the scheme.
The trustees of the Earlys of Witney Pension Scheme have successfully applied for FAS initial payments, and the unit is working with the trustees to encourage them to provide the necessary member data to allow these payments to be made.
Pensions: Telephone Services
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many calls made to the Pension Service in the East of England (a) met an engaged tone, (b) were received and (c) were handled by an adviser in each year since 1997, broken down by call centre; and what area within the East of England is served by each call centre. [159208]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: Prior to 2002 the Benefits Agency was responsible for the delivery of benefits and services for pensioners. From April 2002, this became the sole responsibility of the Pension Service.
The Pension Service started reporting telephony management information from August 2003.
The information has been placed in the Library.
In 2003-04 the Pension Service customer base was split into regions, the then East of England region was served exclusively by Derby, Leicester, Nottingham, Norwich Baltic and Norwich Kingfisher pension centres.
Since 2003-04 the Pension Service has reduced the number of pension centres and work is no longer managed in regions. Telephone calls from the East of England region are now handled by Burnley Pension Centre which also takes customers in the North West. It is not, therefore, possible to report East of England calls separately within the data held by the Pension Service.
Post Office Card Account: Overpayments
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much of the money paid into the wrong Post Office card accounts by his Department has been recovered over the last three years. [156919]
Mr. Plaskitt: Since the Department’s Resource Accounts were published in July, my officials have reviewed the basis on which these numbers were calculated.
I can now provide updated figures covering the period up to 2006-07. These show that the amount incorrectly paid into Post Office card accounts was £7.3 million and the amount recovered was £2.4 million.
(The figures in the Resource Accounts therefore overstated the amount that had been incorrectly paid and understated the amount that had been recovered.)
To put this into context, the level of incorrect payments represents around 0.01 per cent. of the payments made into Post Office card accounts during the same period.
During this four-year period the level of incorrect payments has reduced significantly, while the proportion of payments recovered has shown a significant increase. This is partly due to improvements by Post Office Ltd. in its own systems and procedures, which enable us to better identify and recover incorrect payments.
Remembrance Day
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what guidance the Health and Safety Executive has given to local authorities on Remembrance Day events and parades. [158183]
Mrs. McGuire: The Chair of the Health and Safety Commission (HSE’s parent body) recently wrote to the Chief Executives of all British local authorities and a number of other organisations, urging them to avoid needless ‘health and safety’ requirements for planned Remembrance Day events. The letter recognised that the vast majority of authorities are very sensible and sensitive in dealing with such events, but urged that all ensure a consistent approach. I will place a copy of the letter in the House Library.
Remploy: Closures
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the Government's policy is on Remploy factory closures; and if he will make a statement. [157939]
Mrs. McGuire [holding answer 15 October 2007]: Following the review of Remploy last year by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, we asked the Remploy board to bring forward a five-year restructuring plan both to modernise the business and to support substantially larger numbers of disabled people into work, ensuring that there would be no compulsory redundancies of disabled employees, and that their full terms and conditions—including rights to final salary pensions—would be protected.
Remploy announced their initial proposals on 22 May. On 19 August, the Secretary of State appointed Roger Poole to chair the negotiations over the proposals between Remploy and the trade unions. Although substantial progress was made, these talks concluded with a formal failure to agree.
The Secretary of State has now requested a final report from the Remploy board on the modernisation of the company, no later than 12 November 2007. We recognise that despite substantial progress, significant issues remain unresolved. Nonetheless, these remaining differences can and should be bridged. We continue to believe that a negotiated settlement represents the best outcome for Remploy.
A decision on the future of Remploy will be made by the Secretary of State once a final report from the board is received. Until then, no Government decision will be made concerning Remploy's factories.
Remploy: Factories
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many factories Remploy (a) owns and (b) leases; and what the ownership status is of each factory. [160036]
Mrs. McGuire: Remploy owns 55 factories and leases 26 factories. The company pays a commercial rent for the 26 leased factories. The remaining factories are owned by Remploy on a freehold basis or ground lease. The Department for Work and Pensions holds a debenture on all Remploy owned property and must agree to the sale of any company property, before the debenture on that property can be released.
The ownership status of each Remploy factory is in the following table.
| Factory | Ownership status |
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |