---

10 Jan 2008 : Column 709W—continued

The Agency will make a maintenance calculation provided the parent with care, non-resident parent and the qualifying child are all habitually resident in the United Kingdom. The nationality of the parents does not affect this policy.

A person is habitually resident if he/she is ordinarily resident and has been for an appreciable period. While each case is different, the Agency has to take account of the person's circumstances and intentions as follows:

the person's normal centre of interest or connections to a particular place;

the length, continuity and purpose of residence in the United Kingdom;

the length and purpose of any absence from the United Kingdom; and

the nature of the person's work.

I hope you find this answer helpful.

Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answers of 27 November 2007, Official Report, columns 328-29W, on children: maintenance, how many individuals received a consolatory payment from the Child Support Agency in each year since 1997; what the average value of payment was in each year; and how much was paid in total in consolatory payments in each year. [172827]

Mr. Plaskitt: 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 10 January 2008:

In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.

You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answers of 27^(th) November 2007, Official Report columns 328-9W on children: maintenance how many individuals have received a consolatory payment from the Child Support Agency in each year since 1997; what the average value of payment was in each year; and how much was paid in total in consolatory payments in each year. [172827]

10 Jan 2008 : Column 710W

Information on the number of individuals who receive consolatory payments is not available. However, the total number of consolatory awards, the average value of each payment the total amount paid is provided in the table below. Information prior to December 2001 is not available.

	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07
Total number of consolatory awards made	8,335	8,435	5,891	9,001	9,208	9,194
Consolatory payments (£ million)	0.696	0.661	0.406	0.582	0.608	0.666
Average (£)	83.50	78.36	68.92	64.69	66.03	72.44

I hope you find this answer helpful.

Christmas

Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) whether it is his Department’s policy to use (a) incandescent light bulbs and (b) LED lights for festive decorations on departmental premises; [173491]

(2) what his Department’s policy is on the selection of (a) real and (b) artificial Christmas trees for his Department’s festive decorations; and how real trees are disposed of. [173514]

Mrs. McGuire: It is not the policy of this Department to provide Christmas trees, incandescent light bulbs or LED lights for festive decorations on departmental premises.

The vast majority of the Department’s estate has been sold (freehold, feuhold and long leasehold interests) or transferred (short leasehold interests) to Land Securities Trillium via a PFI—private finance initiative—contract known as PRIME. DWP pays a unitary charge in return for fully serviced accommodation.

Community Care Grants: Elderly

Andrew Selous: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what percentage of community care grants were awarded to pensioners in the most recent period for which figures are available. [174670]

Mr. Plaskitt: In October 2007 in Great Britain the percentage of community care grant initial awards made to pensioners was 10.6 per cent.

Note: Initial awards do not include awards made after review.

Source:

DWP Social Fund Policy, Budget and Management Information System.

Departmental Aviation

Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much has been spent by his Department on international flights in each year since 1997. [174355]

Mrs. McGuire: DWP was formed in 2001 and therefore has details of spend on international flights only from February 2002. The information is provided in the following table.

10 Jan 2008 : Column 711W

	£
	Total
February 2002 to January 2003	600,572
February 2003 to January 2004	639,783
February 2004 to January 2005	703,189
February 2005 to January 2006	878,605
February 2006 to January 2007	652,620
February 2007 to October 2007	454,849

Departmental Buildings

Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what progress his Department is making in its programme to rationalise its head office outside central London and maximise the flexible use of space in line with the Working Without Walls report. [174891]

Mrs. McGuire: The Head Office Estate programme originally included 27 buildings (outside those buildings in central London) and plans to retain 11 buildings, with the remainder being vacated and disposed of by 2009. DWP has so far completed the vacation and disposal of nine of the smaller offices outside London, with staff being re-housed in those larger DWP buildings designated for retention.

DWP is taking the opportunity with each programme change to introduce flexible working, where it does not already operate. DWP is also finalising preparations for its first ‘Pathfinder’ in flexible working which is planned to commence in Leeds in February 2008. The start date is linked to the rollout dates for the DWP Telephony programme which will deliver improved phone systems that provide staff with the ability to use their designated extension number from wherever they are sitting.

Departmental Correspondence

Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many letters his Department received from hon. Members and Peers in each session of Parliament since 1997. [174945]

Mr. Plaskitt: The Cabinet Office, on an annual basis, publishes a report to Parliament on the performance of departments in replying to Members/Peers correspondence. Information relating to 2007 will be published as soon as it has been collated. The report for 2006 was published on 28 March 2007, Official
10 Jan 2008 : Column 712W
Report, columns 101-04WS. Reports for earlier years are available in the Library of the House.

Departmental Data Protection

Alistair Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will place in the Library a copy of the recently published letter from his Department to council revenue and benefit offices suspending data exchanges on security grounds; and if he will make a statement. [171239]

Mrs. McGuire [holding answer 4 December 2007]: A copy of Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit Bulletin number U3/2007 which was issued on 21 November has been placed in the Library.

Departmental Location

Mr. Jack: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many of his Department's staff will be moving to the Peel Park site in the next six months; how many are working there; and how many will be located there by 1st April 2008. [165759]

Mrs. McGuire: There are currently 160 DWP staff at Peel Park.

Under current plans and assumptions, there will be 759 moving in between now and 31 March 2008. This would therefore bring the total to 919 DWP staff by 1 April 2008.

Departmental Public Expenditure

Mr. Letwin: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the Winter Supplementary Estimates (HC 29), if he will break down his Department’s (a) main estimate and (b) winter supplementary estimate provision by subhead in (i) near cash and (ii) non-cash terms. [174987]

Mr. Plaskitt: Near-cash and non-cash are essentially used as departmental expenditure limit (DEL) budgetary control concepts and are not specifically identified with voted resources in estimates. However, we have been able to break down net total resources for each section in the Part II: Subhead detail table of our main [and winter supplementary] estimates in the following table.

10 Jan 2008 : Column 713W

10 Jan 2008 : Column 714W

10 Jan 2008 : Column 715W

10 Jan 2008 : Column 716W

£000
		Main estimate 2007-08			Winter supplementary estimate 2007-08
Subhead Line		Near-cash	Non-cash	Total	Near-cash	Non-cash	Total
RfR1	DEL
A	Administration	402,019	4,732	406,751	404,041	4,732	408,773
	Total for RfR1	402,019	4,732	406,751	404,041	4,732	408,773
RfR2	DEL
A	Administration	2,595,662	121,937	2,717,599	2,600,177	121,937	2,722,114
B	Employment Programmes	771,555	622	772,177	771,761	622	772,383
C	Health and Safety Executive	219,382	8,000	227,382	219,382	8,000	227,382
D	Health and Safety Laboratory	(2,274)	2,274	0	(2,274)	2,274	0
E	Capital Grants	5,927	2,549	8,476	5,927	2,549	8,476
F	The Rent Service Executive agency	30,600	4,902	35,502	30,600	4,902	35,502
G	European Social Fund and European Globalisation Fund	0	0	0	0	0	0
H	European Social Fund payments in advance of receipts	0	32,700	32,700	0	32,700	32,700
I	Employment programmes	37,047	0	37,047	37,047	0	37,047
J	Housing benefit and council tax benefit administration grants	680,200	0	680,200	680,200	0	680,200
K	Capital grants to local authorities	2,895	0	2,895	2,895	0	2,895
L	European Social Fund	0	0	0	0	0	0
M	European Social Fund payments in advance of receipts	0	0	0	0	0	0
	AME
N	Severe disablement allowance	886,053	614	886,667	895,959	614	896,573
0	Industrial injury benefits	792,527	582	793,109	806,563	582	807,145
P	Income support (under 60 years of age)	8,675,813	102,490	8,778,303	8,682,510	102,490	8,785,000
Q	Jobseekers allowance (income based)	2,041,366	9,929	2,051,295	2,041,366	9,929	2,051,295
R	Jobseekers allowance (contribution based)	0	0	0	0	0	0
S	Job grant	45,064	0	45,064	47,936	0	47,936
T	Employment allowances	84,297	0	84,297	84,297	0	84,297
U	Housing and council tax benefit capital charge	0	3,277	3,277	0	3,277	3,277
V	Housing benefit and council tax benefit subsidies	13,916,309	0	13,916,309	14,143,852	0	14,143,852
W	Rent rebates	5,234,667	0	5,234,667	5,259,560	0	5,259,560
X	Discretionary housing payments	20,000	0	20,000	20,000	0	20,000
	Non-budget
Y	Statutory benefits (SSP and SMP)	1,712,065	0	1,712,065	1,712,065	0	1,712,065
Z	Working Age (Grant in Aid)	3,687	0	3,687	3,687	0	3,687
	Total for RfR2	37,752,842	289,876	38,042,718	38,043,510	289,876	38,333,386
RfR3	DEL
A	Administration	184,464	14,202	198,666	192,065	14,202	206,267
	AME
B	Pension benefits	60,486	13	60,499	66,023	13	66,036
C	Income support for the elderly and pension credit	7,303,663	23,391	7,327,054	7,303,663	23,391	7,327,054
D	TV licences for the over 75s	503,078	0	503,078	503,078	0	503,078
	Non-budget
E	Payments to the Social Fund	2,475,283	0	2,475,283	2,496,283	0	2,496,283
F	Pensions Grants in Aid	35,785	0	35,785	35,785	0	35,785
	Total for RfR3	10,562,759	37,606	10,600,365	10,596,897	37,606	10,634,503
RfR4	DEL
A	Administration	246,855	1,488	248,343	245,333	1,488	246,821
B	Motability administration	2,800	0	2,800	2,800	0	2,800
	AME
C	Attendance allowance	4,376,854	14,627	4,391,481	4,428,373	14,627	4,443,000
D	Disability living allowance	9,736,572	11,582	9,748,154	9,947,418	11,582	9,959,000
E	Carer’s allowance	1,268,937	2,850	1,271,787	1,268,937	2,850	1,271,787
F	Vaccine damage payments	500	0	500	500	0	500
G	Grants to independent bodies	300,468	0	300,468	300,468	0	300,468
	Non- b udget
H	Disability Rights Commission (Grant in Aid)	20,000	0	20,000	20,000	0	20,000
	Total for RfR4	15,952,986	30,547	15,983,533	16,213,829	30,547	16,244,376
RfR5	DEL
A	Administration	1,021,416	17,964	1,039,380	1,060,846	17,964	1,078,810
	Total for RfR5	1,021,416	17,964	1,039,380	1,060,846	17,964	1,078,810
	Total subhead as per estimates	65,692,022	380,725	66,072,747	66,319,123	380,725	66,699,848

---