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4 Mar 2008 : Column 2427W—continued
It is not standard practice to place communications research in the Library.
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how old the (a) youngest and (b) oldest person convicted of benefit fraud was in the latest period for which figures are available. [186123]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information is not centrally collated and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Social Security Benefits: Publicity
Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps his Department is taking to make families aware of their benefits entitlements. [187311]
Mrs. McGuire: This Department does all it can, through its information providing services, to ensure that people are aware of the benefits to which they are entitled and how to claim them. Leaflets are available at benefits offices, Citizen's Advice Bureaux, and from welfare rights organisations and other advice giving agencies. Information is also available on our website at:
From time to time, the Department for Work and Pensions and its Agencies run targeted take-up campaigns for specific benefits. For example, the Pension Service is currently actively targeting those potential claimants who have been identified as the most likely still to be missing out.
Telephone Services
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what guidance the Department issues to staff in (a) Jobcentre Plus offices, (b) the Pension Service, (c) the Disability and Carer's Service and (d) Benefit Delivery centres on how to respond when clients ask to be called back. [187713]
Mrs. McGuire: Department for Work and Pensions does not issue guidance to its agencies on such operational matters, as these are the responsibility of the agencies' chief executives.
All three agencies require staff to call back customers on the telephone when the customer requests that they do so. If appropriate the call-back will be immediate. However, in many cases arrangements will be made to call the customer back at a mutually convenient time. This allows an appropriate official to provide the best possible service by having the necessary information to hand.
Unemployment Benefits
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people applying for out-of-work benefits were assessed as functionally illiterate in each year since 1997. [185942]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information is not available in the format requested.
The Skills for Life survey, which was conducted in 2002-03, estimated that 38 per cent. of benefit claimants were below Level 1 in literacy.
Winter Fuel Payments
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many and what percentage of pensioners did not receive their winter fuel payment before Christmas 2007. [185874]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: The Winter Fuel Payment is to help with fuel bills rather than to pay for Christmas but the Pension Service aims to pay 99 per cent. of all Winter Fuel Payments before Christmas. This Winter The Pension Service exceeded this target paying 99.98 per cent. of all cases by Christmas. Of the 12,360,293 customers eligible for an automatic Winter Fuel Payment, which should have been paid prior to Christmas, 2,352 customers (0.019 per cent.) did not receive their payment before Christmas.
Innovation, Universities and Skills
Aimhigher Initiative: Finance
Stephen Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills how much his Department expects to spend on the Aim Higher Initiative in (a) 2009, (b) 2010 and (c) 2011; and if he will make a statement. [186614]
Bill Rammell: In our January 2008 Grant Letter to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), we confirmed annual funding of £47.9 million for the Aimhigher Programme for each of the 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11 financial years. Traditionally, HEFCE have supplemented this funding. In addition there is a health care strand which at £1.8 million per annum is jointly funded with the Department of Health. This means that, for the 2008/09 academic year, the total funding allocated to Aimhigher will be £78.0 million. Figures for 2009/10 and 2010/11 are still to be finalised.
The Aimhigher programme brings together universities, colleges and schools in partnership to raise the attainment levels of young people and their aspirations towards higher education. The programme provides opportunities and experiences for learners which helps to widen their horizons, develop talents, increase motivation and maximise potential.
HEFCE guidance on targeting disadvantaged learners, published in 2007, defined priority groups for Aimhigher to ensure utmost effectiveness. These groups are people from lower socio-economic groups; people from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds who live in areas of relative deprivation where participation in HE is low; ‘looked after’ children in the care system; and people with a disability or a specific learning difficulty.
In this next phase of the programme, HEFCE is working with Aimhigher partnerships further to develop targeting of those with the talent and ability who might not consider that higher education is for them and provide a sequenced and challenging range of learning opportunities linked to a future in higher education.
Community Relations
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills which further education colleges worked with his Department to prepare the consultation document, The Role of Further Education Providers in Promoting Community Cohesion, Fostering Shared Values and Preventing Violent Extremism; and how those colleges were selected. [190145]
Bill Rammell: We worked with a number of colleges during the preparation of the consultation document The Role of Further Education Providers in Promoting Community Cohesion, Fostering Shared Values and Preventing Violent Extremism. These were:
Barking College
Blackburn College
Bradford College
College of North East London
Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education
Luton Sixth Form College
Oaklands College
Oldham Sixth Form College.
Stockton Riverside College
Waltham Forest College
These were identified by the Association of Colleges (AOC) as colleges with experience in promoting community cohesion.
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills how many (a) principals and (b) chief executives of further education colleges have been sent a copy of the consultation document, The Role of Further Education Providers in Promoting Community Cohesion, Fostering Shared Values and Preventing Violent Extremism. [190180]
Bill Rammell: The consultation is primarily web-based. The consultation document is available on the DIUS website and we have also set up an e-consultation facility to enable people to respond on-line via the DCSF website.
Principals and chief executives of colleges were informed of the consultation through communications including:
Association of Colleges, Association of Learning Providers and National Council for Faiths and Beliefs in Further Education all informed their members of this consultation via their regular electronic mailings;
The monthly DIUS Further Education Newsletter that is sent to all principals and other training providers.
Further to this, we are holding a series of consultation workshops around the country to discuss the proposals.
Community Relations: Religion
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills how his Department plans to work with key national student/learner organisations in order to raise awareness of risks including violent extremism; and if he will make a statement. [190146]
Bill Rammell: We have provided guidance to further and higher education institutions to raise their awareness of risks and to help them promote good relations and prevent extremism.
Universities and colleges need to promote and reinforce shared values and create the space for free and open debate in which all can join. It is important that institutions break down segregation among different student communities, including by supporting inter-faith and inter-cultural dialogue. They must also ensure student safety and institutions that are free from bullying, harassment and intimidation. They need to provide support and appropriate sources of advice and guidance for students who may be at risk and they need to ensure staff and students are aware of their roles in preventing violent extremism.
In that overall context, we are working with the NUS and student faith groups to explore what further help they need to raise awareness of potential risks and to provide support for students. We will develop our plans for students/learners in the FE sector through dialogue with the National Learner Panel, the NUS and organisations that support student faith societies as part of the consultation.
In addition, we are working with the NUS and other sectoral organisations to take forward the next stage of the debate that the Prime Minister called for in November on
“how to protect and maintain academic freedom while ensuring that extremists can never stifle debate or impose their views”.
Council of Ministers: Meetings
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills if he will make it his policy to make a statement on the agenda of each Council of Ministers meeting he attends before so doing. [181824]
Bill Rammell: There are already arrangements in place for the provision of information to Parliament on Council of Ministers meetings. A written ministerial statement is made in both Houses before and after each Council meeting. During recesses, ministerial letters are sent to the chairman of the European Scrutiny Committees and copied to the Libraries of both Houses.
Counselling: Finance
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills if he will exempt those training to work as counsellors for Relate from the withdrawal of funding for equivalent or lower qualifications; and if he will make a statement. [178973]
Bill Rammell:
No students currently studying equivalent or lower qualifications (ELQs) will be affected by these changes. In future, our policy of redistributing grant will widen participation and mean that more of the million people of working age who do not have a first higher-level qualification, especially those from non-traditional backgrounds, will be able to benefit from participating in higher education. However, in finalising our proposals in the light of consultation we have decided to make a number of adjustments. In particular, there will be a review mechanism each year starting in December 2008 to look at individual subjects of particular economic or social importance. We are sure it would be wrong for us to rush into making special arrangements for any subjects, other than those which had already been identified, before any changes to ELQs, as requiring
support in the public interest (such as medicine, initial teacher training teaching, science, technology, engineering and maths subjects, area-based studies, and modern foreign languages). But we are asking the Funding Council each year to look at levels of demand both for exempt or protected subjects and at any other subjects which might in future be regarded as key because of their economic or social significance, and in cases where there is evidence of a fall in demand advise us on the best way forward. That will provide an opportunity to consider the issue raised by the hon. Member.
Departmental Parliamentary Questions
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what the (a) cost and (b) average response time for answering parliamentary questions was for his Department in the last parliamentary session. [172072]
Bill Rammell: Drafting replies to parliamentary questions is an integral part of the jobs of a significant proportion of the Department's staff and therefore to respond to this question would incur disproportionate cost. The Department's PQ Tracking System is currently unable to break down the average response time in answering parliamentary questions. The PQ tracking IT system is being upgraded and is close to implementation. It will produce accurate statistics and a wider range of management information making it possible to manage and monitor PQs more closely.
Departmental Reorganisation
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills which departments, agencies and sections of the Department for Education and Skills and the Department of Trade and Industry were incorporated into his Department during the recent departmental reorganisation; how many employees there were in those departments, agencies and sections in (a) 2006 and (b) 2007 to date; in which buildings these employees (i) were based in 2006 and (ii) are based; and how much floor space (A) they occupied in 2006 and (B) they occupy. [166876]
Bill Rammell: The following Departments, agencies and sections of the Department for Education and Skills and the Department of Trade and Industry were incorporated into his Department during the recent departmental reorganisation:
| Ex DfES | |||
| Headcount | |||
| DfES Directorate | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 |
Sanctuary Buildings, Great Smith street, London SW1
Caxton House, Tothill street, London SW1
Moorfoot, Sheffield, S Yorkshire
Castle View House, East Lane, Runcorn, Cheshire
Mowden Hall, Staindrop Road, Darlington, Co. Durham
DCSF continues to operate from all four sites.
| Ex DTI | |||
| Headcount | |||
| DTI Directorate/NDPB | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 |
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