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21 Apr 2008 : Column 1834W—continued
Departmental Training
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many staff in his Department and its agencies have attended the (a) Influencing with Integrity, (b) Emotional Intelligence, (c) Counselling Skills for the Workplace, (d) Managing your Confidence, (e) Balancing Work/Life Realities and (f) Working Assertively training course run by the National School of Government in the last 12 months for which information is available; and at what cost. [197072]
Mrs. McGuire: The following table gives a break down of the number of people in The Department for Work and Pensions (and its agencies), who have attended the events specified during the past 12 months 1 April 2007 — 31 March 2008.
| Number | £ | |
| Source: National School of Government | ||
Departmental Translation Services
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much was spent by his Department and its associated agencies and non-departmental public bodies on translation services from English into (a) Welsh and (b) other languages in (i) 2003-04, (ii) 2004-05, (c) 2005-06, (d) 2006-07 and (e) 2007-08. [197607]
Mrs. McGuire [holding answer 31 March 2008]: I have provided the availability and the range of options for translation services in DWP and the following table shows spend for the areas where details are available.
Please note, for the earlier years (2003-04, 2004-05) spend data are not fully available so I have provided all the relevant information available.
DWP provides a wide range of translation services including the translation of leaflets into a range of ethnic languages and all publications for DWP's customers must be available in Welsh. DWP also translates individual and ad hoc items such as letters and guidance for forms including back translating of all claim forms.
| 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08( 1) | |
| (1 )Recorded to date | |||||
Discrimination
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many claims for discrimination, based on (a) sex, (b) race and (c) sexual orientation, were brought by members of his Department and settled (i) in and (ii) out of court in each of the last five years. [194972]
Mrs. McGuire: From January 2003 to date, excluding a large block of cases challenging the Department’s then dress code which were brought in 2003, the Department has been the respondent in 56 cases alleging race discrimination, 79 cases alleging sex discrimination and seven cases alleging discrimination relating to sexual orientation.
31 of these cases were settled; 14 of which related to sex discrimination, 13 related to race discrimination and four related to discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation.
The available statistics do not show at which point in a case the settlement took place.
Employment: Disabled People
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many full-time equivalent disability employment advisers were in post in England in each of the last five years. [196981]
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 21 April 2008:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question asking how many full-time equivalent Disability Employment Advisers were in post in England in each of the last five years. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
There are currently 500.81 full time equivalent Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentre Plus of which 415.05 are in England. During 2005 and 2006 there was an average of 570 full time equivalent Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentre Plus. We are not able to identify how many of these were based in England.
We are unable to provide numbers of Disability Employment Advisers in England for the years 2000 - 2004.
I hope this information is helpful.
Employment: Females
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps he is taking to meet the Lisbon Treaty strategy objective of increasing female employment; and if he will make a statement. [190890]
Mr. Plaskitt: The UK has already exceeded the Lisbon target for getting the female employment rate above 60 per cent. by 2010. The female working age employment rate is 70.2 per cent., up from 67.3 per cent. in February-April 1997.
We do not have a further target specifically for the female employment rate but there is a target to raise the employment rate overall. Clearly our efforts to achieve that should help raise employment across the board and some of our initiatives, for example on lone
parents, while increasing employment among both men and women, are likely to have a particular impact on the female employment rate.
Employment: Tribunals
Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many employment tribunals with (a) three members, (b) two members and (c) one member adjudicating sat in each of the last five years. [184574]
Bridget Prentice: I have been asked to reply.
The precise information on the number of panel members is not held centrally. To gather the required information would require the development of a new report, to do so would be of disproportionate cost.
However, hearings are normally conducted by panels comprising three members—one is a member of the judiciary and the other two are lay members. Available data of the number of session days for panel members are shown in the following table.
| Year (April to March) | Total session days for the judiciary | Total session days for lay members |
| (1) April 2007 to January 2008. | ||
To obtain figures for lay members not centrally held until 2007 would be at a disproportionate cost.
Figures for the number of days of single judge hearings have been collected since February 2007. The latest available figure is 8,100 sit alone days compared with 25,900 session days for the period April 2007 to March 2008 (or 31 per cent. of the total).
Government Offices for the Regions
Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions which of his Department's programme budgets were administered by the Government Offices for the Regions in each of the last five years. [195173]
Mr. Plaskitt [holding answer 18 March 2008]: Government offices have directly administered the European Social Fund programmes on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions for each of the last five years.
Housing Benefits
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the average housing benefit payment was in each year since 1990. [196685]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information is in the following table.
Incapacity Benefit
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of (a) working age adults were in receipt of incapacity benefit and (b) households in each Metropolitan council area were workless in the most recent period for which figures are available. [181649]
Mrs. McGuire: At May 2007 7.2 per cent. of working age adults were claimants of incapacity benefit/severe disablement allowance.
Information about working age workless households is in the following table:
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