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1 Apr 2009 : Column 1228W—continued
Social Security Benefits: Interviews
Mrs. Dean: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what provisions are in place for employment and support allowance claimants to be accompanied by a support worker, parent or friend to (a) work capability assessment, (b) work-focused, health-related assessment and (c) work-focused interviews. [244042]
Mr. McNulty: All employment and support allowance customers who are asked to attend a work capability assessment and/or a work-focused health related assessment are sent a letter with their appointment details. The letter confirms that customers are free to bring another person with them to their assessment if they wish.
When arranging an appointment with the customer over the phone Atos Healthcare staff also advise customers who request that they would like to be accompanied at the assessment, that they can bring a companion with them and that if they have no one available to accompany them that Atos Healthcare can provide a chaperone.
Before a work-focused interview takes place, employment and support allowance customers are contacted by letter and by telephone and are informed that they can be accompanied. During the telephone contact, Jobcentre Plus staff also aim to identify any additional support that may be needed because of the customer’s health condition.
State Retirement Pensions: EU Nationals
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many EU citizens working in the UK paid sufficient national insurance contributions to earn a potential entitlement to the state pension in each year since 1997. [265049]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The information requested is not available as National Insurance contributions paid by migrants are not reported separately.
Communities and Local Government
Community Relations: Religion
Mr. Dhanda: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much funding her Department has provided for the Government’s interfaith strategy. [267486]
Mr. Khan: We are committed to a three year programme of investment and support worth over £7.5 million, as announced in our interfaith framework “Face to Face and Side by Side”. This will be invested with a focus on delivering increased opportunities for dialogue and social action within local communities.
Part of this funding will be specifically allocated to the “Faiths in Action” fund, which aims to support local activities and initiatives that have a direct link to one or more of the four building blocks described in “Face to Face and Side by Side”: confidence and skills to bridge and link; shared spaces for interaction; structures and processes; and opportunities for learning. All types of organisations at national, regional or local level in England may apply for this funding.
The other funding is allocated to a programme of investment over three years in Regional Faith Forums to support and build their capacity, in particular their interaction with local inter faith activity.
Departmental Empty Property
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate she has made of the change in the annual cost to her Department of maintaining the empty public buildings owned by her Department as a result of the April 2008 changes to empty property rate relief. [267140]
Mr. Khan: The additional cost in business rates resulting from the changes to empty business rate relief is estimated to be £11,400 in this financial year.
Departmental Energy
Greg Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what recent progress her Department has made towards the target of increasing its energy efficiency per square metre of its Estate by 15 per cent. by 2010, relative to 1999-2000 levels; and if she will make a statement. [266886]
Mr. Khan: The Department has already met the 2010-11 target of increasing energy efficiency per square metre of its estate by 15 per cent. relative to 1999-2000 levels. The following figures show the Department’s performance in recent years:
| Percentage | ||
| Performance against baseline | ||
| 2006-07 | 2007-08 | |
Departmental Surveys
Grant Shapps:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer of 11 March 2009, Official Report, columns 549-50W, on departmental surveys, if she will place in
the Library a copy of her Department's most recent staff survey (a) results and (b) analysis. [265256]
Mr. Khan: Results of all my Department’s recent staff surveys, including the 2008 Pulse Survey, can be found on the Department’s internet site at:
http://www.communities.gov.uk/corporate/about/howwework/corporatereports/reportsaccounts/staffsurvey
I have today placed in the Library a copy of the Power Point presentation prepared by Ipsos MORI on the results of the 2008 Pulse Survey.
Disabled Facilities Grants: Waltham Forest
Mr. Duncan Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what steps her Department is taking to end the suspension of the disabled facilities grants in Waltham Forest. [264794]
Mr. Iain Wright: Disabled facilities grant is a mandatory entitlement administered by local housing authorities under the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996. The implications of the disabled facilities grant legal framework is that following an assessment of need the local authority is required to provide a disabled facilities grant subject to a means test and grant maximum. Suspending disabled facilities grants is not an acceptable means of budget management.
The Government have more than doubled the government funds available for the programme from £57 million in 1997 to £146 million in 2008 with an increase of £10 million in each of the next two years making the budget £166 million by 2010. For 2008-09 Waltham Forest received £630,000 in disabled facilities grant and an additional £47,000 was allocated to Waltham Forest last month. Local authorities are expected to prioritise these services and contribute towards the costs of disabled facilities grants as they have always done so.
Fires
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many deaths there were resulting from (a) dwellings fires and (b) fires in other buildings in each (i) fire authority area and (ii) region in each of the last three years. [266401]
Mr. Khan: The number of deaths resulting from fires in dwellings and other buildings is shown in the table:
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