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3 Mar 2008 : Column 2166W—continued
Telephone Services
Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) which telephone contact centres are the responsibility of his Department; what mechanisms are in place to monitor their effectiveness; and how many people have been employed in each of those centres in each year since they were established; [166535]
(2) when he expects to answer Question 166535, on telephone contact centres, tabled on 15 November 2007 by the hon. Member for Falmouth and Camborne. [190896]
Kevin Brennan: This Department does not operate a telephone contact centre as such; rather, there is a central Public Communications Unit (PCU) that deals with telephone inquiries, e-mails, written correspondence and public consultations.
In line with the Government’s response to Sir David Varney’s report on Service Transformation, the PCU is using information gathered against the performance
management indicators published by The Citizen and Business Contact Centre Council (CBCCC) to monitor its effectiveness.
The PCU operates a flexible resourcing model, moving people between the various contact channels according to business need. It is not therefore possible to provide a figure for the number of people employed specifically on telephone contact work.
In addition to the PCU, DCSF also contracts with suppliers to provide telephone helpline services to the public, usually in support of information campaigns. These contracts cover the provision of data by the suppliers to enable the Department to ensure that the supplier is meeting the Key Performance Indicators set out in the contract. Additionally, the Department may run mystery shopping or user survey research to further monitor the performance of the contact centres. To provide information on the number of people employed by these suppliers on DCSF work would incur disproportionate cost.
Vocational Training
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what assessment he has made of the effect on employment opportunities for young people aged 16 to 18 years of the Government’s plans to raise the education leaving age to 18 years; and if he will make a statement. [163325]
Jim Knight: The estimated costs and benefits of raising the participation age are set out in the impact assessment published alongside the Education and Skills Bill on 29 November. The estimates of the costs to employers are based on a range of assumptions and scenarios of how employers will respond to the policy. The impact assessment can be accessed at
http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/publications/educationandskills/docs/Impact_Assessment_Education and Skills_Bill.pdf
and I have placed a copy in the Library of the House. Those employing 16 and 17-year-olds for less than 20 hours a week and for less than a period of eight weeks will be unaffected. We will work with employers to ensure they fully understand their duties under this policy and will continue to support them in employing young people and in providing accredited training where appropriate.
Treasury
Alcoholic Drinks: Death
Jim Cousins: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many deaths there were with an alcohol-related underlying cause in (a) the North East, broken down by local authority area, and (b) the UK, broken down by (i) region and (ii) country in (A) 2004, (B) 2005, (C) 2006 and (D) 2007; and what the death rate per head of population from alcohol-related causes was in each case. [190819]
Angela Eagle: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Colin Mowl, dated 1 March 2008:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many deaths there were with an alcohol-related underlying cause in (a) the North East, broken down by local authority area, and (b), the UK, broken down by (i) region and (ii) country in (A) 2004, (B) 2005, (C) 2006 and (D) 2007; and what the death rate per head of population from alcohol-related causes was in each case. I am replying in her absence. (190819)
The following tables attached provide the number of deaths with an alcohol-related underlying cause in (a) local authorities in the North East government office region, (b) government office regions in England, and (c) the United Kingdom and its constituent countries, from 2004 to 2006 (the latest year available). Age-standardised mortality rates per 100,000 population are also shown.
| Table 1: Number of deaths and age-standardised mortality rates per 100,000 population( 1, 2 ) with an alcohol-related underlying cause of death( 3) , local authorities in North East Government Office Region( 4) , 2004 to 2006 | ||||
| Deaths (persons) | Rate | |||
| Area | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2004-2006 |
| (1) Age-standardised mortality rates per 100,000 population, standardised to the European standard population. Age-standardised rates are used to allow comparison between populations which may contain different proportions of people of different ages. (2) It is ONS practice not to calculate mortality rates where there are fewer than 10 deaths in an area, as rates based on such small numbers are susceptible to wide random fluctuations. Consequently, rates for local authorities were calculated based on deaths in the years 2004 to 2006 combined. For two local authorities, no rate could be calculated even for the aggregated three year period (shown as '—'). (3) Cause of death was defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) for the years 1997 to 2000, and Tenth Revision (ICD-10) for 2001 onwards, for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and ICD-9 for the years 1997 to 1999 and ICD-10 for the years 2000 to 2006 for Scotland. The specific causes of death categorised as alcohol-related, and their corresponding ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes, are shown in the following box. (4) Based on boundaries as of 2007. | ||||
| Table 2. Number of deaths and age-standardised mortality rates per 100,000 population( 1 ) with an alcohol-related underlying cause of death( 2) , Government office regions in England, United Kingdom and constituent countries, 2004 to 2006( 3) | ||||||
| 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | ||||
| Area | Deaths | Rate | Deaths | Rate | Deaths | Rate |
| (1) Age-standardised mortality rates per 100,000 population, standardised to the European standard population. Age-standardised rates are used to allow comparison between populations which may contain different proportions of people of different ages. (2) Cause of death was defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) for the years 1997 to 2000, and Tenth Revision (ICD-10) for 2001 onwards, for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and ICD-9 for the years 1997 to 1999 and ICD-10 for the years 2000 to 2006 for Scotland. The specific causes of death categorised as alcohol-related, and their corresponding ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes, are shown in the following boxes. (3) Based on boundaries as of 2007. Figures presented for the United Kingdom include non-residents, which are excluded from the figures for constituent countries, government office regions and local authorities. | ||||||
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