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23 Apr 2009 : Column 844W—continued
Departmental Redundancy
Justine Greening: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions with reference to the answer of 26 November 2008, Official Report, columns 2024-5W, on redundancy, how many staff left his Department under staff exit schemes with a severance package worth (a) between £100,000 and £125,000, (b) between £125,001 and £150,000, (c) between £150,001 and £200,000, (d) between £200,001 and £250,000, (e) between £250,001 and £500,000, (f) between £500,001 and £1,000,000 and (g) over £1,000,000 in each year since 2005-06. [264243]
Jonathan Shaw: With reference to the answer of 26 November 2008 Official Report columns 2024-5W. The following table shows the number of staff who left the Department and its agencies on all types of staff exit schemes with a severance package worth, in total, more than £100,000, grouped by the value of the severance packages:
| Cost of package | Number of cases |
Where the figure is less than five information is suppressed on the grounds of confidentiality.
Staff exits were related to the achievement of an overall headcount reduction of 31,101 as part of the Department's Modernisation and Efficiency Programme during the 2004 spending review period.
Departmental Training
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much has been spent on media training for each Minister in his Department in each of the last three years; how many sessions have been provided; and which organisations provided such training. [268558]
Mr. Hands: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the Answer of 4 February 2009, Official Report, column 1260W, which Minister attended each course; and how much each course cost. [265658]
Jonathan Shaw: Training is provided to Ministers as necessary in order to carry out their duties effectively under the ministerial code.
Housing Benefit
Mr. David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions for what reasons those renting a property which they have previously owned are not normally eligible for housing benefit. [269993]
Kitty Ussher: The exclusion rules concerning previously owned properties are intended to ensure that individuals do not benefit from housing benefit in circumstances that have been contrived in order to take advantage of the system. Help is however provided to those who satisfy the local authority that they could not have continued to live in the property without selling it.
Jobcentre Plus: Redundancy
Justine Greening: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions with reference to the answer of 26 November 2008, Official Report, columns 2024-5W, on redundancy, how many of the staff leaving his Department and its agencies on staff exit schemes were employed by Jobcentre Plus in each year since 2005-06. [264261]
Jonathan Shaw: The following table shows the number of staff, included in the response of 26 November 2008, who were employed by Jobcentre Plus in each of the years 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08.
| Number | |
Natural Gas: Safety
Willie Rennie: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many gas technicians in Scotland (a) were registered under the CORGI scheme and (b) are registered under the new Gas Safety Register scheme. [269001]
Jonathan Shaw [holding answer 20 April 2009]: The information requested is as follows:
The Gas Safe Register came into effect on 1 April 2009 and continues to take registrations on a daily basis.
Nuclear Safety Advisory Committee
Greg Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he made of the performance of the Nuclear Safety Advisory Committee in advising the Health and Safety Executive. [269207]
Jonathan Shaw: No formal assessment of performance was made when the Committee reached the end of its term of office in October 2008. However, the advice contained in the Committee's final report for the period ending 31 October 2008 was reviewed by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The report is available on HSE's website.
Social Fund
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much was paid out in (a) crisis loans, (b) budgeting loans and (c) community care grants in (i) each Jobcentre Plus district and (ii) each region in each month since October 2008; and if he will make a statement. [269535]
Kitty Ussher: The available information has been placed in the Library.
Solicitor-General
Fraud: Convictions
Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Solicitor-General how many people have been convicted of fraud offences in each of the last 10 calendar years. [270712]
The Solicitor-General: Records held by the Crown Prosecution Service can provide an analysis of the outcome of proceedings in defendant cases where the principal offence with which the defendant was charged was either fraud or forgery. The following table shows, for the four year period since 2005-06 for which figures are available, the number of defendants in which the principal offence was fraud or forgery, together with the outcome of proceedings. Outcomes are divided into convictions, including guilty pleas as well as convictions after trial; and unsuccessful outcomes, comprising all other outcomes.
The broad category of fraud and forgery includes cases where the principal offence charged was contrary to the Fraud Act; bankruptcy offences; forgery and counterfeiting; and fraud and forgery associated with vehicle or driver records.
| CPS proceedings for fraud and forgery | |||||
| Convictions | Unsuccessful outcomes | ||||
| Number | Percentage | Number | Percentage | Total | |
The following table shows how many people have been convicted of fraud offences in each of the last 10 financial years(1), following prosecutions brought by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO):
(1 )The statistics for the 2008-09 financial year have not been finalised, and therefore we cannot provide data for the number of people convicted in this year.
| Financial year | Number of convictions |
Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office (RCPO) was created as an independent Government Department on 18 April 2005, data before this cannot be provided.
RCPO have defined "fraud" offences as those relating to VAT, direct tax, tax credits and excise and the following table shows the figures for the last four financial years.
| Number of convictions | |
International Development
Asylum: Overseas Aid
John Battle: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what proportion of the Government's official development assistance has been spent on providing temporary assistance to refugees from developing countries in the last two years. [269085]
Mr. Michael Foster: Nearly all of the UK Government's support for refugees in developing countries is through the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the lead UN agency for providing support to refugees. The assistance to UNHCR includes some support for internally displaced people as well as for refugees. Some funding is provided to other agencies. The most substantial of which is that given to the Thai Burma Border Consortium which provides support to refugees on the Burma/Thai border.
| Funding | 2007 | 2008 |
|
As a proportion of official development assistance (percentage) |
There may be some other small elements of funding through other organisations which support refugees as part of grants not specifically focused on refugees.
Departmental Energy
Greg Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps have been taken by his Department to improve the thermal efficiency of its buildings in the last 12 months. [266761]
Mr. Michael Foster: The Department for International Development (DFID) has taken a number of measures to improve the thermal efficiency of our buildings over the last year. These include:
Refined the plant run times to ensure that heating and cooling is only in operation when absolutely necessary;
Conducting a thermography survey of our headquarters building to identify any areas of heat loss through the external walls, and also any possible issues due to imbalances in electrical equipment or incorrect operation/ventilation of equipment;
Reviewed and reduced the heating set point in some areas of our buildings;
Installed vents in IT server rooms to make use of free cooling where possible;
Reduced the hot water temperature in our headquarters building.
The net impact of these and other measures are that our consumption of gas in our UK buildings will have reduced by 9 per cent. in 2008-09 compared to the prior year.
Greg Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent progress his 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 he will make a statement. [266877]
Mr. Michael Foster: Based on the latest figures for 2008-09, the energy use of the Department for International Development's (DFID) UK estate per square metre is 10 per cent. higher than the 1999-2000 levels.
The increase in energy per square metre is to a significant extent attributable to the fact that our staff per square metre has increased by 15 per cent. over this time, inevitably increasing the energy used through the number of computers and other electrical goods per square metre.
We now have more centralised IT systems in the UK which serve our overseas offices, and have invested significantly in other technologies such as video-conferencing which have resulted in efficiency and carbon savings.
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