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25 Feb 2008 : Column 1149W—continued
Mr. Tyrie: To ask the hon. Member for Gosport, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission pursuant to the answer of 15 January 2008, Official Report, column 1085W, on political parties: finance, if the Electoral Commission will request Sir Hayden Phillips to submit his background work into trade union funds and political funds to assist the Commission's research into trade union political funds and political levies. [186183]
Peter Viggers: The Electoral Commission informs me that it has made arrangements to meet officials who performed research on trade unions for the review of party funding recently completed by Sir Hayden Philips.
Mr. Tyrie: To ask the hon. Member for Gosport, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission pursuant to the answer of 15 January 2008, Official Report, column 1085W, on political parties: finance, if the Electoral Commission will seek to obtain copies of constituency development plans made between the Labour Party and trades unions to assist its research into trade union political funds and the political levy. [186184]
Peter Viggers: The Electoral Commission informs me that it does not plan to obtain copies of constituency development plans made between the Labour party and trade unions as this is beyond the scope of the research.
Mr. Tyrie: To ask the hon. Member for Gosport, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Horsham of 25 January 2008, Official Report, column 2280W, on political parties: finance, if he will name the accounting units of the Labour Party which had accounting units below £25,000 in (a) 2004 and (b) 2007. [186286]
Peter Viggers: The Electoral Commission informs me that 578 out of 690 accounting units of the Labour Party responded in 2004 to confirm that their total income and gross expenditure for the 2003 financial year were below the reporting threshold of £25,000. A full list of those who responded has been placed in the library.
The Commission has reviewed the canvass of registered accounting units performed in 2007. The results of the canvass are incomplete and the Commission intends to update its records by working with the parties and undertaking a new canvass of accounting units in 2008.
Mr. Tyrie: To ask the hon. Member for Gosport, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Horsham of 25 January 2008, Official Report, column 2280W, on political parties: finance, if he will place in the Library copies of the accounts provided to the Commission by associations under the threshold. [186287]
Peter Viggers: The Electoral Commission informs me that these documents are held in paper form and copies can be provided only at disproportionate cost. However, the accounts are available for inspection in the Electoral Commission’s London office on request.
Mr. Tyrie: To ask the hon. Member for Gosport, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission pursuant to the answer of 15 January 2008, Official Report, column 1084W, on political parties: finance, if the Electoral Commission will be inviting evidence from interested parties to assist the research into trade unions political funds and the political levy. [186288]
Peter Viggers: The Electoral Commission informs me that it has no plans to invite contributions from interested external parties.
Trade Unions: Constituencies
Mr. Tyrie: To ask the hon. Member for Gosport, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission whether the Electoral Commission holds copies of Labour party trade union constituency development plans. [186161]
Peter Viggers: The Electoral Commission informs me that it does not hold copies of Labour party trade union constituency development plans.
Trade Unions: Finance
Mr. Tyrie: To ask the hon. Member for Gosport, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission if the Electoral Commission will undertake research into funding of trades unions through (a) the Trade Union Modernisation Fund and (b) other public funding. [186185]
Peter Viggers: The Electoral Commission informs me that it has no plans to undertake such research.
Work and Pensions
Departmental Disciplinary Proceedings
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many and what percentage of staff in his Department have received written warnings for breaching standards of behaviour or attendance in each month in the last five years. [181267]
Mrs. McGuire: The Department introduced a new personnel computer system incrementally from November 2006, being fully implemented by April 2007. The following information reflects the number of staff with a written warning for (a) breaching standards of behaviour; or (b) unsatisfactory attendance recorded on that system from April 2007 in each month to December 2007.
Information prior to April 2007 is held on a number of legacy systems. The cost of extracting this information in the format requested from these, and clerical records, for the period prior to April 2007 would be at a disproportionate cost.
The percentage of DWP staff receiving written warnings is calculated on the total number of staff employed by DWP in each month.
| As at 2007: | Unsatisfactory attendance written warning issued | Number of written warnings for unsatisfactory attendance as a percentage of all DWP staff | Standards of behaviour written warning issued | Number of written warnings for standards of behaviour as a percentage of all DWP staff |
Pension Education Fund
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how his Department plans to measure the performance and efficacy of the pension education fund. [183535]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: DWP has commissioned an independent case study evaluation to:
Explore the impact of the fund initiatives on individuals’ knowledge and attitudes towards planning for retirement and on savings behaviour;
Provide evidence to help assess the potential role that a trusted third party can play in delivering pensions information; and
Explore providers’ experiences of setting up and running the initiatives.
Research has been conducted with 14 Pension Education Fund schemes selected to ensure coverage of a range of different types of initiatives. In-depth interviews were the main research tool in this study, through which the research organisation have collected detailed information on providers’ experiences of setting up and running particular initiatives, on employers’ experience of participating, and on the influence that funded activities have had on individuals’ attitudes to retirement planning and saving for retirement.
In addition, all 26 schemes are being monitored through contract management processes and PEF funded organisations are conducting their own evaluations to understand their perspectives on delivery.
A DWP research report on the evaluation will be published in spring 2008.
Notes:
1. The PEF offered funding to local and national not-for-profit organisations (such as trade unions, charities, trade associations and the voluntary sector) to use innovative ways to increase financial awareness and encourage working people to provide for their retirement, especially among those that might be at more risk of undersaving.
2. The principle is to provide impartial and accurate information on pensions and retirement planning via trusted third parties to individuals (employees and self-employed people) in the workplace, where practicable.
3. The projects are running between January 2006 and March 2008.
4. Closing date for applications was 2 September 2005.
5. 55 applications were received and examined against financial and quality criteria and the process overseen by an Independent Decision Panel.
6. 26 were accepted, covering all Government Office regions and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and a range of organisational types including charities, trade unions, employer groups and the voluntary sector.
7. Information is being delivered by the projects using a variety of methods including group events, one to ones, websites, CDs, information booklets/packs and by training intermediaries and union members who return to the workplace and cascade information.
Social Security Benefits: Offenders
Nick Herbert: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what state benefits offenders in England and Wales are eligible for while serving (a) community service sentences and (b) custodial sentences. [178705]
Mr. Plaskitt [holding answer 29 January 2008]: Convicted offenders serving community service sentences are entitled to any benefits for which they qualify, in the same way as any other person.
In general, DWP benefits are not payable to convicted prisoners in custody. However, since 1995 and subject to certain qualifying conditions, those serving short sentences of 13 weeks or less may continue to receive housing benefit and council tax benefit. This ensures that people with very short sentences do not become homeless upon release.
Tax Allowances: Pensioners
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much his Department has spent on administering the 25 pence old age allowance in each year since its introduction; and how many people over 80 received the allowance in the most recent year for which figures are available. [173446]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: The age addition is an automatic payment made to eligible pensioners. The cost of administering the age addition is a relatively small element of the administration costs of The Pension Service and is not separately available.
The latest available information as at March 2007 is that there are around 2,693,300 pensioners in receipt of the 25p age addition.
Notes:
1. Data is taken from a 5 per cent. extract of the Pension Service Computer System, therefore figures are subject to a degree of sampling variation. They are also adjusted to be consistent with the overall caseload from the Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study.
2. Figures are rounded to the nearest hundred.
3. This figure includes everyone who is eligible to receive the age addition in GB and overseas, not everyone who is aged 80 or over.
Source:
DWP Information Directorate
John Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what the cost of paying the over 80s age-related allowance is expected to be in 2007-08; [180976]
(2) how many people receive the over 80s age allowance. [180972]
Mr. Mike O'Brien [holding answer 25 January 2008]: The age addition is an automatic payment made to eligible pensioners. The cost of administering the age addition is a relatively small element of the administration costs of the Pension Service and is not separately available.
The latest available information as at March 2007 shows that there are around 2,693,300 pensioners in receipt of the 25p age addition. The estimate of the 2007-08 expenditure is £33 million.
Notes:
1. Data relating to the number of pensioners are taken from a 5 per cent. extract of the Pension Service Computer System, therefore the figure is subject to a degree of sampling variation. It is also adjusted to be consistent with the overall caseload from the Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study.
2. The figure relating to the number of pensioners is rounded to the nearest hundred.
3. The figure relating to the number of pensioners includes everyone who is eligible to receive the age addition in GB and overseas, not everyone who is aged 80 or over.
4. The figure relating to the value of age addition payments covers payments made to those in Great Britain and overseas.
5. The figure relating to the value of age addition payments has been rounded to the nearest million.
Source:
DWP Information Directorate; Comprehensive Spending Review 2007
Vocational Guidance: Carers
Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps he has taken to ensure that (a) effective advice and support is available to those who wish to return to work after undertaking caring responsibilities and (b) that his Department’s staff are trained to provide that advice and support. [188990]
Mr. Timms: The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the chief executive of Jobcentre Plus, Lesley Strathie. I have asked her to provide the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Lesley Strathie , dated 25 February 2008:
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