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28 Jan 2009 : Column 579W—continued
John Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many cold weather payments were made (1) to people living in Glasgow North West constituency in (a) 2007 and (b) 2008; [248547]
(2) in (a) 2006, (b) 2007 and (c) 2008. [248548]
Kitty Ussher: Estimates of the number of cold weather payments made are not available by parliamentary constituency or local authority, but only by weather station.
The available information is shown in the following table.
| Cold weather payments made in Great Britain | |
| Number | |
| Notes: 1. Figures for 2005-06 and 2007-08 include payments triggered in March but not actually made until April of the following year. 2. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 1,000. Source: Annual reports by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on the Social Fund. | |
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the number of winter fuel payment applications which have been delayed owing to incomplete application forms in the latest period for which figures are available. [248887]
Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 19 January 2009]: Over 95 per cent. of winter fuel payments are made automatically before Christmas. This is to reassure pensioners that they will have extra money available to pay for heating their homes during the coldest part of the year before the winter heating bills arrive.
To date for this year's exercise over 12 million payments have been made and, of them, 63,000 (0.5 per cent. off all winter fuel payments made) claims for winter fuel payments suffered a delay in processing, which was due to customers not supplying all the information required to progress their claim.
Winter Fuel Payments: Wansdyke
Dan Norris: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many claims for winter fuel payments were made by households in Wansdyke in each of the last five years. [251836]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Information on winter fuel payment claims made by households in Wansdyke is not available. The following table shows the number of households in Wansdyke constituency receiving a winter fuel payment in the last five years. Figures for winter 2007-08 are not yet available but we expect the numbers to be similar.
| Number of households in Wansdyke constituency receiving a winter fuel payment | |
| Notes: 1. Figures from 2002-03 to 2004-05 are rounded to the nearest five. 2. Figures from 2005-06 are rounded to the nearest 10. 3. Parliamentary constituencies are assigned by matching postcodes against the relevant ONS postcode directory. Source: Information directorate 100 per cent. data. | |
Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
Trade Unions: Legal Opinion
Mr. Hurd: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform if he will place in the Library a copy of the legal advice commissioned by the Office of Fair Trading on whether trades union members are consumers for the purposes of consumer protection legislation. [250296]
Mr. Thomas: The OFT did not commission external legal advice on whether trade union members are consumers for the purposes of consumer protection legislation, conducting a preliminary internal analysis only.
Women and Equality
Domestic and Sexual Violence
Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality what recent discussions she has had with ministerial colleagues on steps to ensure that women are not discouraged from giving evidence in court proceedings in cases of domestic and sexual violence. [250985]
Maria Eagle: Successful prosecutions for domestic violence and rape have both increased since 2003. We want to build on this, which is why we have committed to:
Expanding the Specialist Domestic Violence Court (SDVC) programme;
Ensuring there are Specialist Officers and Specialist Rape Prosecutors across the country; and
Making video-recordings of rape victims automatically admissible as evidence-in-chief in trials.
I have regular discussions with ministerial colleagues on this matter through the inter ministerial group on sexual and domestic violence.
Departmental Internet
Grant Shapps: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality which websites were operated by the Government Equalities Office in addition to its main website in each year since its inception. [251310]
Maria Eagle: Since its inception in 2007, the Government Equalities Office has operated one website:
Departmental Working Hours
Mr. Laws: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality what the policy of the Government Equalities Office is on granting staff time off in lieu for working (a) in lunch breaks, (b) in evenings and (c) at other times outside contracted working hours; and if she will make a statement. [252027]
Maria Eagle: The Government Equalities Office's policy is to allow staff time off in lieu for work in lunch breaks, evenings and at other times outside contracted working hours. These arrangements are subject to agreement between individual staff and their line managers and take account of the business needs of the Office.
Treasury
Adjudicator's Office: Complaints
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many complaints were received by the Adjudicator's Office in each of the last five years. [251175]
Mr. Timms: The information requested is provided in the Adjudicator's Office annual reports, available from the following website
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the average time taken to resolve complaints made to the Adjudicator's Office was in (a) 2007-08 and (b) 2008-09. [251186]
Mr. Timms: The average time taken from receipt to resolution was 23 weeks in 2007-08.
Information relating to 2008-09 will be collated at the end of the financial year and will be published in the Adjudicator's Office 2008-09 annual report.
Adjudicator's Office: Correspondence
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what targets his Department set for the Adjudicator's Office to respond to correspondence in (a) 2007-08 and (b) 2008-09; and what his assessment is of the performance of the Adjudicator's Office against these targets. [251176]
Mr. Timms: HM Revenue and Customs does not set targets for the Adjudicator's Office. The performance targets for the Adjudicator's Office are set out in its annual business plan. The targets for dealing with correspondence, along with performance against these targets, are as follows:
1. When a customer first contacts the Adjudicator's Office and a written response is required, 95 per cent. of responses will be within 10 working days. Actual performance against this was 97.3 per cent. in 2007-08.
2. 95 per cent. of investigation correspondence dealt with within 15 days. Actual performance against this was 98.3 per cent. in 2007-08.
Information relating to 2008-09 performance will collated at the end of the financial year and will be published in the Adjudicator's Office 2008-09 annual report.
Banks: Regulation
Mr. Drew: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what restrictions he has put in place to prevent the payment of bonuses to bankers who work for those institutions in which the Government has a majority stake. [248145]
Ian Pearson: On 13 October, implementing the measures announced on 8 October, the Chancellor announced that the Government would be underwriting capital investments for Royal Bank of Scotland and, on successful merger, for HBOS and Lloyds TSB.
UK Financial Investments Ltd. (UKFI), which is wholly owned by the Government, will oversee the conditions attached to subscribing to the Government’s recapitalisation fund, including in relation to remuneration policies. UKFI will work to ensure management incentivisation based on long-term value maximization, which attracts and retains high quality management and which minimizes the potential for rewarding failure.
Northern Rock and Bradford and Bingley have their own conditions on remuneration—these are set out in their respective shareholder relationship framework documents, available on the Treasury website.
More broadly, on 13 October the chief executive of the Financial Services Authority wrote to the chief executives of the major banks and building societies,
setting out the criteria for remuneration policies and practices which are properly aligned to sound risk management and controls. The FSA is currently undertaking a review of regulated firms remuneration practices and the authorities have made it clear that failure to comply with the standards set out in the 13 October letter will be reflected in the FSA’s risk assessment of firms and will be taken into account when setting capital requirements.
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what (a) guidance and (b) instructions he has issued to those banks in receipt of public money under the Bank Lending Programme announced on 19 January in respect of lending to overseas-registered companies with (i) operations and (ii) no operations in the United Kingdom. [250936]
Ian Pearson: As set out by the Chancellor on 19 January 2009, Official Report, columns 485-86, the Government intend to negotiate lending agreements with each bank which will be binding and externally audited in return for access to support measures.
Child Trust Fund: Wansdyke
Dan Norris: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many children in Wansdyke constituency have been eligible to receive a voucher to open a child trust fund account in each year since the scheme’s inception; and how many such accounts were opened in each of those years. [251834]
Ian Pearson: Constituency level data, including parental account opening figures, on Child Trust Fund accounts was published on 6 November 2008 and can be viewed on the HM Revenue and Customs’ website at:
This information is not broken down by year as HMRC does not hold the information in that format.
Corporation Tax
Mr. Gauke: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what estimate he has made of the full-year cost to the Exchequer for (a) 2009-10, (b) 2010-11 and (c) 2011-12 of reducing the main corporation tax rate to 25 per cent.; [251190]
(2) what estimate he has made of the full-year cost to the Exchequer for (a) 2009-10, (b) 2010-11 and (c) 2011-12 of reducing the small companies rate of corporation tax to 20 per cent. [251191]
Mr. Timms: The direct revenue effects of a one percentage point change in both the small companies’ rate and the main rate of corporation tax are shown in table 5 of “Tax Ready Reckoner and Tax Reliefs November 2008”.
These estimates will be updated at Budget 2009.
Departmental Correspondence
Grant Shapps: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his Department's average response time to a letter received from (a) an hon. Member and (b) a member of the public was in each of the last three years. [251448]
Angela Eagle: The Cabinet Office, on an annual basis, publishes a report to Parliament on the performance of departments in replying to Members correspondence. The report for 2007 was published on 20 March 2008, Official Report, columns 71-74WS. Information for 2008 is currently being collated and will be published as soon as it ready. Reports for earlier years are available in the Library of the House.
This information relating to correspondence from members of the public could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Disclosure of Information
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what progress the inquiry into the premature disclosure of information from his Department in 2008 has made. [251702]
Angela Eagle: It has been the policy of successive Administrations not to comment on the initiation of, content of, or outcome of internal leak inquiries.
Departmental ICT
Jenny Willott: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer which ICT projects initiated by his Department were abandoned before completion in each year since 1997; what costs were incurred on each project; who the contractors were; what the date of (a) commencement and (b) abandonment was in each case; and if he will make a statement. [251137]
Angela Eagle: In respect of projects prior to September 2008, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr. Hammond) on 10 September 2008, Official Report, column 1950W, and to the answer given by the then Financial Secretary to the Treasury to the hon. Member for Angus (Mr. Weir) on 9 October 2006, Official Report, column 289W.
HM Treasury has no record of any projects that have been abandoned since then.
Jenny Willott: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer of 15 December 2008, Official Report, column 428W, on departmental ICT, what his most recent estimate is of (a) the cost and (b) the completion date of each of the projects referred to; and if he will make a statement. [251246]
Angela Eagle: In respect of the Consultancy Frameworks Contract, which was completed in July 2008, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Fareham (Mr. Hoban) on 15 December 2008, Official Report, column 428W.
The Corporate Shared Service Programme, completed in January 2009, will have actual costs of £1.36 million.
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