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1 Jun 2009 : Column 92W—continued
Departmental Data Protection
Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what property containing personal information on members of the public has been (a) lost and (b) stolen from his Department in each of the last 10 years. [277674]
Jonathan Shaw: Except in exceptional cases, when it is in the public interest, it has been the policy of successive Governments not to comment on breaches of security.
The Department takes its responsibilities to protect personal data extremely seriously. Where breaches of security involve personal data, the Department will, in appropriate cases, alert individuals and provide them with support and advice, and bring the matter to the attention of the Information Commissioner.
The Department will cover information assurance issues in its annual resource accounts, which also include details of significant incidents involving personal data that have been reported to the Information Commissioner.
Departmental Furniture
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much his Department spent on furniture in 2008-09; and how much its agencies spent on furniture in each of the last five years. [273743]
Jonathan Shaw: Information broken down by agency could only be provided at disproportionate cost. The Department’s expenditure is provided in the following table.
| Financial year | Furniture spend (£ million) |
Departmental Land
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when he expects his Department to make its return for 2008 to the National Land Use Database of Previously Developed Land. [274823]
Jonathan Shaw: I do not anticipate DWP reporting data for 2008 from the National Land Use Database of Previously Developed Land.
DWP does not own any land or property. The Department has outsourced its estate via a private finance initiative (PFI) contract known as PRIME whereby the vast majority of the DWP estate was sold to Land Securities Trillium (now Telereal Trillium).
Departmental Official Hospitality
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much his Department has spent on (a) conference services and (b) banqueting services in each of the last five years. [274494]
Jonathan Shaw: The total departmental spend on management conferences is shown in the table. The Department does not have banqueting events.
All expenditure is made in accordance with published departmental guidance on financial procedures and propriety, based on principles set out in Managing Public Money and the Treasury handbook on Regularity and Propriety.
| £ | |
| Source: General ledger. | |
The figures for 2008-09 are not yet available.
Departmental Pay
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much (a) his Department and (b) its agencies paid in end-of-year performance bonuses to (i) all staff and (ii) senior Civil Service staff in 2008-09; and how many such payments were made. [275244]
Jonathan Shaw: Less than 1 per cent. of the total pay bill is used for non-consolidated performance payments which have to be re-earned each year against pre-determined targets and, as such, do not add to future costs.
All DWP employees in pay bands below the senior civil service (SCS) are eligible for an annual individual non-consolidated performance payment if they attain a qualifying rating under the annual performance and development system. The amount of payment awarded is differentiated on the basis of an employee’s pay band and the performance level achieved and is the same across all business units.
For the SCS, end of year non-consolidated performance payments are determined on an individual basis by the relevant DWP SCS pay committee.
Performance awards are payable in July and are attributable to performance in the previous financial year. In the 2008-09 financial year £23.32 million has been paid as follows:
| 2008-09 | ||
| Grade | Total paid (£ million) | Total number of recipients |
In response to the current economic conditions, the Government have frozen the size of the overall amount available for performance awards payable to SCS in July 2009.
Departmental Stationery
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much his Department spent on the purchase of (a) recycled office supplies in the last 12 months and (b) printer ink cartridges in each of the last five years. [274568]
Jonathan Shaw: The information is as follows:
(a) Over the past 12 months (April 2008 to March 2009) the DWP spent approximately £10,402,244.00 on recycled office supplies (i.e. paper, cardboard products, box files, toner and ink cartridges).
(b) Over the past five years the DWP spend on printer ink cartridges is estimated to be:
| April to March each year | £ |
Information for the period April 2004 to March 2006 cannot be determined without disproportionate cost.
Departmental Training
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 23 April 2009, Official Report, column 845W, on departmental training, how much has been spent on media training for Ministers in his Department necessary in order to carry out their duties effectively. [272104]
Mr. McNulty: The figures in the table give details of how much had been spent by the Press Office on media training in the last three years. We are unable to break down how much was spent on training for Ministers, senior officials and press officers.
| £ | |
Employment
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people resident in (a) Castle Point constituency, (b) Essex and (c) England over 50 years old have returned to work after being made redundant in each of the last five years. [276613]
Kevin Brennan: I have been asked to reply.
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated May 2009:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking how many people resident in (a) Castle Point constituency, (b) Essex and (c) England over 50 years old have returned to work after being made redundant in each of the last 5 years. (276613)
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) compiles labour market statistics for local areas from the Annual Population Survey (APS), however redundancy estimates from this source are not available at the level of detail requested.
Employment and Support Allowance
Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what back to work support will be offered to new and existing claimants of employment and support allowance who are not part of the progression to work pathfinders. [255129]
Mr. McNulty: Nationally, employment and support allowance claimants will continue to have access to back to work support through the successful Pathways to Work Programme, including a series of six mandatory work focused interviews with a personal adviser in the first eight months of the claim. From late 2010 we will extend to two years the period during which new claimants are required to engage with us through work focused interviews. This will provide a more comprehensive framework of engagement in which to address the claimant’s barriers to work. Claimants in the support group will not be required to attend any work focused interviews, but will be able to volunteer for pathways support.
Additionally, we anticipate that approximately 6 per cent. of new employment and support allowance claimants will be included in the personalised employment programme pilots which will test a single, integrated, flexible employment programme for jobseeker’s allowance claimants, new employment and support allowance claimants and parents with younger children. They will be required to engage in a framework of work focused interviews and work
related activity for two years. This is subject to the successful passage of provisions in the Welfare Reform Bill.
Claimants who are migrated from incapacity benefits to employment and support allowance will be subject to different conditionality requirements, as set out in the response to questions 255137 and 255138.
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much his Department expects to save from the introduction of the employment and support allowance in place of incapacity benefit in the first 12 months in which the allowance is available. [273631]
Jonathan Shaw: Employment and support allowance was introduced for new claims in October 2008. It is estimated that by paying employment and support allowance rates to new claimants rather than the relevant incapacity benefit rates, the Department saves £2 million in 2008-09 and spends an extra £33 million in 2009-10. These figures reflect only the changes in rates of benefit and do not take into account the effect of different eligibility criteria in the benefits.
Although starting rates of benefit are very similar for employment and support allowance and incapacity benefit, under employment and support allowance people get more money much sooner. New customers to employment and support allowance will benefit from higher rates after three months. Under incapacity benefit arrangements the highest amounts are not payable until after a year of incapacity.
Employment Schemes: Lone Parents
Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when the £40 back to work credit for lone parents was made available on a national basis; and how many lone parents have received the credit since that date. [275894]
Kitty Ussher [holding answer 15 May 2009]: In work credit for lone parents was introduced nationally from 7 April 2008. The total number of lone parents who have taken it up since then, up to the end of March 2009, is 61,610.
Employment: Conferences
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 5 May 2009, Official Report, column 118W, on employment conferences, how many (a) Ministers, (b) civil servants and (c) others attended the employment summit on 12 January 2009. [274882]
Mr. McNulty: Over 120 key figures from business, trade unions, academia, workplace providers and representative bodies attended the Employment summit on 12 January, alongside nine Ministers and approximately 40 civil servants. I refer the hon. Member to a full list of attendees that I placed in the Library in answer to PQ No. 249916 which gives full details of those in attendance.
Source:
DWP Communications Directorate.
Housing Benefit
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) which local authorities have requested median rents for local housing allowance for accommodation with six or more bedrooms; and what the median rent for such accommodation was in each case; [249338]
(2) in how many broad market rental areas median rents for accommodation with (a) six, (b) seven, (c) eight, (d) nine and (e) 10 or more bedrooms have been estimated; what those broad market rental areas were; and at what level the median rents for accommodation with six or more bedrooms were in each instance. [249372]
Kitty Ussher: Local Housing Allowance rates for larger properties are only provided if a local authority requests them. Since Local Housing Allowance was launched in April 2008, 156 local authorities have requested a rate for accommodation with six or more bedrooms. The Rent Service has provided Local Housing Allowance rates for properties over six bedrooms in 114 Broad Rental Market Areas. From April 2009, all new claims to LHA are capped at the five bedroom rate.
A full list of monthly Local Housing Allowance rates for properties with five bedrooms or less, together with maps of the Broad Rental Market Areas, are available on the LHA-Direct website at:
lha-direct.therentservice.gov.uk/Secure/Default.aspx
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