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17 Jan 2008 : Column 1426W—continued
Syria: Lebanon
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what reports the Government have received of the (a) scale and (b) circumstances of the smuggling of weapons from Syria into Southern Lebanon. [179109]
Dr. Howells: In his most recent report on the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1701 in October 2007, the UN Secretary-General reported that arms smuggling across the Syria/Lebanon border was continuing. In particular, the Secretary-General highlighted claims by the Government of Israel that the smuggling of weapons continues from both Iran and from Syria. Israel now claims that Hezbollah has been able to rearm itself to higher levels than before the 2006 conflict and that it now possesses longer-range rockets and new air defence units. Statements by Hezbollah since the conflict appear to confirm Israel's claims that Hezbollah has significantly rearmed. The UK remains seriously concerned by these reports and calls on all countries in the region, including Syria and Iran, to abide by their obligations under UNSCR 1701.
The UK is also taking practical steps to assist the Government of Lebanon to improve border security. The UK is also providing £800,000 worth of training and equipment to a German-led initiative to improve Lebanese border security capacity.
Treasury
Child Benefit: Personal Records
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the total cost of searches conducted at HM Revenue and Customs premises to trace the lost compact discs containing child benefit data. [173352]
Jane Kennedy: The location of the missing data discs is the subject of an ongoing police investigation and no estimate of the total costs has yet been made.
Child Benefit: Poland
Lynne Jones: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what discussions he has had with his counterpart in Poland on the adequacy of the number of staff in place in Poland to check the validity of applications for child benefit made in the UK by Polish migrant workers. [179186]
Jane Kennedy: HMRC works closely with all its European partners, including Poland, to ensure that the well established processes required under the EC social security co-ordination rules, for exchanging information and verification of circumstances, work well.
Departmental Data Protection
Mr. Wallace: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer which Minister in his Department reviewed the formal document submitted by his Departmental Security/IT Officer following the last risk assessment and risk management process for the information security in his Department. [179114]
Angela Eagle: The risk assessment and risk management processes for information security are kept under constant review by the Treasury, reporting to the permanent secretary.
Disabled: Children
Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what steps he is taking to help ensure the affordability of childcare for families with disabled children through the tax credits system in parallel with the childcare accessibility pilots announced in ‘Aiming high for disabled children: better support for families’. [178442]
Jane Kennedy:
‘Aiming high for disabled children: better support for families’ committed Government to a £35 million childcare accessibility project over the
2007 comprehensive spending review period, to help test the best ways of meeting provision for families with disabled children.
HMRC’s published statistics for provisional awards show that, as at December 2007, there were 118,000 families with disabled children benefiting from the disabled element of child tax credits, and of these, 49,700 families also benefited from the severely disabled element. This means that a family on maximum award with a disabled child would be entitled to an extra £2,440 per year (plus an additional £980 per year if entitled to the severely disabled child addition).
In addition to this, families eligible for the childcare element of working tax credits can receive up to 80 per cent. of the costs of childcare to a limit of £175 per week for one child or £300 per week for two or more children. This is available to families with disabled or non-disabled children.
Foreign Workers: EU Nationals
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer of 19 November 2007, Official Report, columns 583-4W, on foreign workers: EU nationals, what was (a) the number of people of working age in employment, (b) the working age population and (c) the working age population employment rate of (i) the UK, (ii) UK citizens, (iii) UK born citizens, (iv) non-UK citizens and (v) EU A8 citizens was in each year since 2001. [169408]
Angela Eagle [holding answer 29 November 2007]: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 16 January 2008:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question about (a) the number of people of working age in employment, (b) the working age population and (c) the working age population employment rate of (i) the UK, (ii) UK citizens, (iii) UK born citizens, (iv) non-UK citizens and (v) EU A8 citizens in each year since 2001, (169408)
The attached table gives the working age population, employment level and rate, for the categories requested for the three month period ending June each year, from 2001 to 2007.
The data for analysing migrant workers comes from the Labour Force Survey. The National Statistics method for estimating the number of migrant workers employed in the UK is routinely based on the number of people at a given time who were born abroad, are of working age (16 - 64 for men, 16-59 for women), and in employment. However, you have requested data analysed by nationality and this is the basis on which this PQ has been answered.
When interpreting the figures in the table, it is important to bear in mind that the Labour Force Survey (LFS) is not designed to cover everyone who is present in the UK. The survey may undercount the numbers of people who were born overseas. The reasons are set out in the table footnote.
As with any sample survey, estimates from the LFS are subject to a margin of uncertainty.
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