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29 Sep 2008 : Column 2371Wcontinued
All figures have been centrally gathered by the Department for Work and Pensions Library Services team who manage all publications purchases for the Communications Directorate.
In addition, other teams across the Department may incur incidental expenditure relating to publications. These costs are recorded on a number of different financial systems and this detail is not consolidated by the central team, or included in the figures quoted in the table. The costs of undertaking such an exercise are considered to be disproportionate.
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what his Department's policy is on requesting discounts from its suppliers in return for swift payment of invoices. [220419]
Mrs. McGuire:
It is both Government and departmental policy to make payment to suppliers in arrears after goods or services have been satisfactorily provided and
to pay promptly in accordance with the terms of the contract, which normally would be within 30 days of receipt of a valid invoice.
Suppliers will sometimes offer a discount for prompt payment. The conditions attached to these discounts must be stated on the tender or if not they must be obtained. If a tenderer offers a discount, commercial representatives will evaluate whether the discount offered represents value for money.
Consideration is made of the value of the loss of interest that early payment will incur. The prevailing Bank of England base rate is used to calculate this and a comparison of the cost of paying early, with the monetary value of the discount offered, is made.
Payment terms of less than 30 days are never accepted unless there is some advantage to the Department. Payment terms in excess of 30 days are not acceptable.
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the (a) forecast cost in (i) real and (ii) net present value terms and (b) most recent estimated cost was of (1) the pension transformation programme, (2) the customer information system, (3) the employment and support allowance computer system and (4) the central payment system. [211146]
Mrs. McGuire: The information is as follows:
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions which projects his Department has commissioned from (a) think tanks and (b) charities in each of the last two years for which figures are available; what the aim of each project was; which think tank or charity was commissioned; and how much was paid. [221619]
Mrs. McGuire: The information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what the average duration of single periods of sick leave taken by staff in (a) his Department, (b) its agencies and (c) the non-departmental bodies for which it has responsibility who gave (i) stress and (ii) mental health and behavioural disorders as the reason for their absence was in each of the last 10 years; and if he will make a statement; [216165]
(2) how many staff in (a) his Department, (b) its agencies and (c) the non-departmental bodies for which it has responsibility have taken sick days due to (i) stress and (ii) mental health and behavioural disorders in each of the last 10 years; what proportion of staff of each body this represented in each year; and if he will make a statement; [216164]
(3) how many sick days were taken by employees in (a) his Department, (b) its agencies and (c) the non-departmental bodies for which it has responsibility due to (i) stress and (ii) mental health and behavioural disorders in each of the last 10 years; what proportion of sick days taken this represented in each case; and if he will make a statement. [216163]
Mrs. McGuire: The information is not available or held centrally, and could only be provided incompletely and at a disproportionate cost. Information on sickness absence for the years 2004, 2005 and 2006-07 has been published and can be obtained from the civil service website:
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the average duration of single periods of sick leave taken by staff in (a) his Department, (b) its agencies and (c) the non-departmental bodies for which it has responsibility was in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [216166]
Mrs. McGuire: The information is not available or held centrally, and could be provided incompletely and only at a disproportionate cost. Information on sickness absence for the years 2004, 2005 and 2006-07 has been published and can be obtained from the civil service website:
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many and what percentage of staff in his Department have had more than two periods of sickness absence of less than five days in each of the last three years. [218699]
Mrs. McGuire: The information currently recorded on the Department's personnel computer system is provided in the following table.
2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | |
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many staff in his Department have had five or more periods of sickness absence of less than five days in two or more of the last five years. [218959]
Mrs. McGuire: The number of staff currently recorded on the Departments personnel computer system as having had five or more periods of sickness absence of less than five days in two or more of the last five years is 4,851. DWP currently employs more than 114,000 full and part time staff.
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many staff in (a) his Department, (b) its agencies and (c) the non-departmental bodies for which it has responsibility have received sick pay for sick leave due to (i) stress and (ii) mental health and behavioural disorders in each of the last 10 years; what the average length of time was for which sick pay was paid in these cases; and if he will make a statement. [216167]
Mrs. McGuire: The information requested is not available because the Department for Work and Pensions does not attribute sick pay to causes of illness.
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much was paid in sick pay to staff in (a) his Department, (b) its agencies and (c) the non-departmental bodies for which it has responsibility in each of the last five years; what proportion of the staffing expenditure of each body this represented in each year; and if he will make a statement. [216168]
Mrs. McGuire: The information is not available or held centrally, and could be provided only incompletely and at a disproportionate cost. Information on sickness absence for the years 2004, 2005 and 2006-07 has been published and can be obtained from the civil service website:
Paul Rowen: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many claims there were for disability living allowance by (a) children and (b) adults with Aspergers syndrome in each of the last five years; [171065]
(2) how many claims there were from (a) children and (b) adults with autism spectrum disorders for disability living allowance in each of the last five years; and what proportion these constituted of all claims for that allowance; [171463]
(3) how many claims there were for disability living allowance on behalf of (a) children and (b) adults with Aspergers syndrome in each of the last five years. [171465]
Mrs. McGuire [holding answer 4 December 2007]: The information is not available.
Entitlement to disability living allowance is not linked to particular disabling conditions, but on the extent to
which a severely disabled person has personal care needs and/or walking difficulties as a result of their disability. Parents can claim disability living allowance for children, including those with autism spectrum disorder, as long as their disability meets the aforementioned criteria.
Mr. MacDougall: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what progress has been made in his Department's discussions on granting blind people entitlement to the higher rate mobility component of disability living allowance; and if he will make a statement. [220803]
Mrs. McGuire [holding answer 21 July 2008]: We have been in long-term discussions with the Royal National Institute of Blind People and others on whether there is scope to extend the higher rate mobility component of disability living allowance to people with severe visual impairments. While we understand the force of the arguments put forward by the Royal National Institute of Blind People, and are sympathetic to their aims, including providing greater financial assistance to allow visually impaired people to return to or remain in work, we cannot, at this time, commit to amending the existing arrangements for the mobility component of disability living allowance.
The Green Paper, "No One Written Off: Reforming Welfare to Reward Responsibility" Cm 7363, published on 21 July, sets out our strategy to help greater numbers of sick and disabled people who want to work, fulfil their aspirations. Part of this strategy is the proposal to increase the Access to Work budget to help greater numbers of disabled people return to, and remain in, work. Currently, around one in four customers of Access to Work are people with a visual impairment.
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much has been spent on (a) employment and support allowance and (b) incapacity benefit in the latest year for which figures are available; and how much is expected to be spent on each in each of the next five years. [220203]
Mrs. McGuire: In 2006-07, nominal expenditure on incapacity benefit was £6,566 million. For the available information about future incapacity benefit expenditure, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 16 July 2008, Official Report, column 472W.
For the available information about employment and support allowance expenditure, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 13 June 2008, Official Report, column 617W.
Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps his Department is taking to help those with acute learning disabilities find sustainable employment. [221675]
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