| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
9 Feb 2009 : Column 1585W—continued
Departmental Location
Mr. Maude: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how many Cabinet Office posts have been relocated away from London and the south-east since the adoption of relocation targets arising from the 2004 Spending Review; and when he expects these targets to be met. [249960]
Mr. Watson: The Lyons Review set relocations to be achieved by 2010-11. Details of the numbers of Cabinet Office posts relocated in relation to SR 2004 Lyons Review were last reported in Cabinet Office Autumn Performance Report 2008 which is available in the Libraries of the House for the reference of Members.
Departmental Manpower
Linda Gilroy: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how many staff are employed in No. 10 Downing Street. [255677]
Mr. Watson: I refer the hon. Member to the answer the Prime Minster gave to the hon. Member for Fareham (Mr. Hoban) on 1 May 2008, Official Report, column 624W.
Departmental Pensions
Mr. Maude: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how many and what proportion of Cabinet Office staff are members of a Civil Service final salary pension scheme. [249907]
Mr. Watson: The total number of Cabinet Office employees in a civil service final salary pension scheme was, as at November 2008, 1,234 or 73.3 per cent. of staff. These figures include ex-HMSO employees with reserved rights who are no longer Cabinet Office staff but are included within the Department's pension administrator's database.
Departmental Publications
Mr. Maude: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster when he expects his Department to publish the next edition of “Public Bodies”. [249922]
Mr. Watson: I refer the right hon. Member to the statement I made on 2 February 2009, Official Report, column 31WS.
Departmental Rail Travel
Norman Baker: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster on what date he last used a train in the course of his official duties. [242605]
Mr. Byrne: My official travel is undertaken in line with the requirements of the Ministerial Code. The last rail journey I undertook on official business was 8 January 2009.
Employment
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (1) how many people flowed from jobseeker’s allowance into paid employment in each year since 2001; [255649]
(2) how many people flowed off jobseeker’s allowance in each year since 2001; [255682]
(3) how many people flowed off jobseeker’s allowance on to incapacity benefit in each year since 2001. [255686]
Kevin Brennan: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated February 2009:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Questions asking; how many people flowed from Jobseeker’s Allowance to paid employment in each year since 2001, how many people came off Jobseeker’s Allowance in each year since 2001, and how many people flowed off Jobseeker’s Allowance onto incapacity benefit in each year since 2001. (255649, 255682, 255686)
The table shows a breakdown of the destination of off-flows recorded by Jobcentre Plus in each year since 2001.
Information on the destination of off-flows from Jobseeker’s Allowance comes from a form completed by Jobcentre Plus employees when terminating a claim. Although effort is made to complete the termination as accurately as possible for each claim, there are a significant proportion of off-flows that fall into non-specific categories such as ceased claiming, not known and failed to sign.
| Table 1: Destination of off-flows from jobseeker’s allowance | |||||
| Into paid employment( 1) | Claimed incapacity benefit | All other specified reasons | Not known( 2) | Total | |
| (1) Either found work or increased work to 16+ hours per week. (2) Includes ceased claiming and failed to sign. Note: Data are rounded to the nearest five. | |||||
Government Departments: Recruitment
Mr. Evennett: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what estimate he has made of the total cost to the Government of (a) recruitment and (b) job advertising in the last year for which figures are available. [248494]
Mr. Watson: The information requested is not held centrally and therefore it could be provided only at disproportionate cost with no guarantee of accuracy.
Government Information: Public Participation
Margaret Moran: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster whether he plans to repeat the data mash up competition Show Us a Better Way in 2009. [248188]
Mr. Watson: The Show Us A Better Way competition generated a strong public response, with over 450 entries. The Power of Information Task Force will be concluding its work shortly. The Government are committed to harnessing the power of social media in order to spread innovation across the public sector.
Higher Civil Servants: Official Hospitality
David Taylor: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster with reference to the answer of 7 May 2008, Official Report, column 885W, on the recording of hospitality received by senior civil servants in 2007, how he plans to publish the list of hospitality received by members of departmental boards during 2007; and what timetable he has set for publication. [245315]
Mr. Watson: Hospitality received by members of departmental boards will be published shortly and copies placed in the Library of the House.
Horizon Scanning Forum
Mr. Hague: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster when the Horizon Scanning Forum led by his Department was established; what its role and composition is; how often it meets; and what the role of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is in the forum. [246279]
Mr. Watson: The first meeting of the Horizon Scanning Forum (HSF) was held in September 2008. The HSF works closely with the new Cabinet Office Strategic Horizons Unit to meet the National Security Strategy commitment to
“strengthen the Government’s capacity for horizon-scanning, forward planning and early warning.”
The HSF acts as the main commissioning and co-ordinating body for national security-related horizon scanning work. The HSF will sit quarterly at working level, improving cross-government co-ordination between those involved in horizon scanning, identifying emerging themes and building an effective community that can share products, expertise and experience. For security reasons, it would not be appropriate to make public the precise composition of the HSF, but the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is represented.
House of Commons: Right of Search
Mr. Jenkin: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what meetings he has attended with Mr. Speaker on the arrest of the hon. Member for Ashford and the search of his office; what was discussed; if he will place in the Library a copy of records held by his Department of such meetings; and whether he has received a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 from the hon. Member for North Essex for this information. [248924]
Mr. Byrne: I have not attended any meetings with Mr. Speaker on the arrest of the hon. Member for Ashford (Damian Green) and the search of his office. I can also confirm that my Department has received a request, under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, from the hon. Member for North Essex asking for this information. A response confirming the position set out in this answer has been sent to the hon. Member for North Essex.
Migration
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will rank the UK among other EU member states in terms of net migration in (a) 1997 and (b) the most recent year for which figures are available. [254538]
Kevin Brennan: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated February 2009:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to respond to your question concerning how the UK ranks among other EU member states in terms of net migration in (a) 1997 and (b) the most recent year for which figures are available. (254538)
Eurostat publish net migration figures for all EU member states. These may differ from the estimates produced by individual national statistics institutes as Eurostat make adjustments to improve comparability across member states. These show that the UK had the fourth highest levels of net migration in 1997 and third highest in 2007, the latest year for which complete data are available. However care should be taken when comparing net migration estimates as a small net migration figure may mask large immigration and emigration flows.
Non-profit Associations
Mr. Grogan: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what the cost of the national survey of third sector organisations was; and what percentage of surveys were returned completed. [254481]
Kevin Brennan: The national survey of third sector organisations closed with a final national response rate of 47 per cent. The cost of the survey is commercially confidential, and the release of this information would adversely affect Government's commercial interests in contracting future work of this sort.
Property: Databases
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what estimate he has made of the cost of the property database being created for the 2011 census. [253765]
Kevin Brennan: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated February 2009:
As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking what estimate has been made of the cost of the property database being created for the 2011 Census. (253765)
The cost of developing an Address Register for the 2011 Census is now estimated to be about £12m over the years 2008 - 2011. The additional estimated cost since my reply to your previous question in November 2008 (Hansard reference 235103) is due to a decision following successful piloting to match fully the two key national address lists - the Royal Mail Postal Address File and Local Government’s National Land and property Gazetteer.
It is misleading to refer to this as a ‘property database’ since the Address Register will contain a list of household and communal establishment addresses linked to higher level geographic areas. The pre-requisite for a successful strategy of post-out of Census questionnaires as the primary delivery method, is the availability of a comprehensive, high quality address register for all areas of England and Wales. The Office for National Statistics is developing an address register that meets Census requirements in terms of quality and coverage and which local authorities can be confident will effectively underpin Census enumeration and outputs.
Roads: Taxation
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what consideration the Office for National Statistics has given to the classification of (a) local and (b) national road pricing schemes for the purposes of taxation statistics. [252473]
Kevin Brennan: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated February 2009:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking what consideration the Office for National Statistics has given to the classification of (a) local and (b) national road pricing schemes for the purposes of taxation statistics (252473).
ONS produces the United Kingdom’s National Accounts. The National Accounts are an internationally comparable accounting framework that describes the activities in a national economy, including the transactions that take place between sectors of that economy. The relevant international manuals are the System of National Accounts 1993(SNA93) and the European System of Accounts 1995 (ESA95) in particular.
As part of the process of producing the National Accounts, ONS decides on the classification of institutions and transactions within the economy. This well-established process is set out in Annex A of the National Statistics Protocol on Statistical Integration and Classification available at:
Whilst ONS has not considered the classification of any proposed national road charging scheme, some other government schemes have been examined. Those examined include the London Low Emission Zone (LEZ); the London Borough of Richmond Upon Thames emissions based parking charge, the London congestion charge and road/bridge toll charges.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |