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11 Jun 2009 : Column 971W—continued
Olympic Games 2012: Finance
Bob Spink: To ask the Minister for the Olympics what her most recent estimate is of the cost of hosting London 2012 Olympics events at the ExCel centre in London. [278319]
Tessa Jowell: The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) has responsibility for staging the Olympic and Paralympic Games at existing venues. The direct costs associated with staging the events at existing venues come from LOCOG's revenues which are primarily derived from commercial sponsorship, broadcast rights, ticket sales and merchandising/licensing—not from the public purse.
There will be attributable costs to the public purse, for example in respect of the security and transport functions associated with the venue. However these costs have not yet been identified separately for individual venues, but they will form part of the overall security and transport budgets.
Olympics Games 2012: Safety
Justine Greening: To ask the Minister for the Olympics what progress has been made by the Government Office for London in its corporate plan aim to develop and implement resilience plans to ensure the safety of the London 2012 Olympics. [278689]
Mr. Hanson: I have been asked to reply.
As part of the wider Home Office led 2012 Olympics safety and security programme, the Government Office for London is currently assessing where further work may be required to ensure that we have the necessary capabilities (i.e. plans, staff, facilities etc.) in London to respond to Olympic specific resilience risks to the safety and security of the Games. Once this analysis is complete, the Government Office for London will take forward a programme of work to build any new capabilities that are required, or enhance existing capabilities, to ensure that relevant risks are effectively managed.
Northern Ireland
Departmental Data Protection
James Brokenshire:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many notifications his Department made to the Information Commissioner in the year ended 30 April 2009 in respect of the loss or mishandling of personal information or data; what was
notified in each such case; and how many individuals were the subjects of personal information or data in respect of which such notifications were made. [278721]
Paul Goggins: Under the mandatory requirements of the Data Handling Report published on 25 June 2008, the Northern Ireland Office is required to give a summary report on data breaches reported to the Information Commissioner in our annual resource accounts.
The Northern Ireland Office has reported on personal data breaches in the 2007-08 annual resource account and this can be found at:
We will be publishing information on personal data security breaches reported to the Information Commissioner for the 2008-09 reporting year before Parliament rises in July. The information is currently being compiled and is to be audited and verified before it is laid before Parliament.
Work and Pensions
Bus Services: Greater Manchester
Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate she has made of the number of pensioners resident in Denton and Reddish constituency who have received a free bus pass and free eye test. [277713]
Angela Eagle: As part of the implementation of the new England-wide concession, which guarantees older and eligible disabled people free off peak travel on local buses anywhere in England, all concessionary passes are now issued as smartcards to a new standard design. Local authorities are responsible for issuing passes, and so central Government does not maintain records of how many individual authorities have issued, though we do know that around eight million passes have now been issued in total across England.
The last information held by the Department for Transport was that as of 31 March 2009, Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive, which administers the concession for residents of Denton and Reddish, had issued around 460,000 of the new smartcard concessionary passes. This includes applications from disabled people as well as those aged 60 and over.
The Department of Health has been unable to provide the number of NHS-funded sight tests for those aged 60 and over in the Denton and Reddish constituency. Information is provided by Primary Care Trust (PCT) and by Strategic Health Authority (SHA) but is not available by parliamentary constituency.
The number of NHS sight tests for those aged over 60, in 2007-08 is available in Table B3 of Annex C of the General Ophthalmic Services: Activity Statistics for England and Wales: Year Ending 31 March 2008 report. This report, published on 20 November 2008, has already been placed in the Library and is also available on the NHS Information Centre website at:
From 1 April 1999, eligibility for an NHS sight test was extended to everyone aged 60 or over. Patients may qualify for an NHS sight test on more than one criterion. However, they would only be recorded against one
criterion on the form. Patients are more likely to be recorded according to their clinical need rather than their age. For example, a patient aged over 60 with glaucoma is likely to be recorded in the glaucoma category only. The count by eligibility is therefore approximate. Patients may also have had more than one sight test in the specified time period.
2007-08 is the latest full year for which information is available. Information for 2008-09 is expected to be published by the NHS Information Centre in August 2009.
Cold Weather Payments: Scotland
Mr. Davidson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people received the extra cold weather payment of £60 awarded for the winter of 2008-09 in (a) Scotland, (b) Glasgow and (c) Glasgow South West constituency. [270800]
Angela Eagle: The £60 payment was a Christmas bonus. More than 15 million customers have been paid this additional Christmas bonus following the Chancellor's pre-Budget announcement on 24 November 2008.
Information about the number of Christmas bonus recipients in specific areas is not available, because the data are not collected in a form which would allow us to identify the geographical location of customers.
For the available estimates on the number of eligible pensioners in each parliamentary constituency, I refer the hon. member to the reply I gave to the hon. Member for Falmouth and Camborne (Julia Goldsworthy) on 23 February 2009, Official Report, columns 99-100W.
For cold weather payments, the information requested is not available. Estimates of the number of people who received a cold weather payment during the winter of 2008-09 are not available geographically other than by weather station area. Some weather stations cover areas which straddle the border between Scotland and England.
Jobcentre Plus: Digital Technology
Alun Michael: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the principles of digital inclusion are applied to Jobcentre Plus. [268967]
Jonathan Shaw [holding answer 20 April 2009]: The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the acting chief executive of Jobcentre Plus, Mel Groves. I have asked the acting chief executive to provide the hon. Member with the information requested.
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question asking what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the principles of digital inclusion are applied to Jobcentre Plus. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Acting Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
Jobcentre Plus supports the principles set out in the Government's Digital Inclusion Action Plan and the work of the Cabinet Committee set up last year to ensure that everyone, especially disadvantaged people, benefits from the use of digital technologies in delivering public services.
I recognise how important this is for Jobcentre Plus and for our customers. Many of the people we help are disadvantaged and some are amongst the most vulnerable members of society. We are tackling that challenge by extending access to our online services and by helping people to acquire the confidence and ability to use those online services.
Job vacancies notified to Jobcentre Plus can be accessed online, through digital television and through Jobpoint Kiosks located in all of our local Jobcentres. We are now starting to replace and upgrade that network of Jobpoints. We are also exploring making some online services accessible by mobile telephone which, like digital television, are more extensively owned and used by our customers than home computers.
Customers can already access information which enables them to answer some basic enquiries about their benefit entitlement through the online Benefit Adviser service on Directgov. Later this year customers will be able to make their claim for benefit online and that service will be extended in 2010 to enable customers to track progress of their claim and notify changes of circumstances through a secure personal account. We are also planning to make these services available to intermediaries and welfare rights organisations such as Citizens Advice Bureaux so that customers can access them there or be helped by those organisations to use them.
It is equally important that we provide help for those customers who need to become confident about using digital services. Through the work-focused interviews carried out by our Personal Advisers, we identify people who could benefit from that help and refer or signpost them to a wide range of information technology training offered through DWP's Employment Programmes, Learndirect or UK Online centres.
I also recognise the importance of ensuring that our services are accessible to disabled people or people with other barriers to using digital technology. Our online services are compliant with the Government's Web Accessibility Standards, compatible with the main assistive software packages including JAWS, Dragon, Supernova and Zoomtext. All our services are also accessible by telephone or through our local Jobcentres for those people who need it or who find it difficult to access online services. Later this year, we will be able to offer a new “Text Box” service which will improve the service we provide to speech and hearing impaired people over the telephone.
I recognise that improving digital inclusion is essential to ensuring that all our customers can benefit from the improvements in service that digital technologies can provide to help them move off welfare and into work.
Motor Vehicles: Manufacturing Industries
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent discussions she has had with representatives of motor industry employees on private pensions for (a) retiring and (b) retired motor industry employees. [278019]
Angela Eagle: Ministers and officials have had discussions with representatives of motor industry workers and others about the level of Pension Protection Fund compensation payable to individuals who started to draw pensions from their pension scheme before they reached the scheme's normal pension age.
Pension Credit
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent steps her Department has taken to reduce the number of pensioners not claiming pension credit for which they are eligible. [275443]
Angela Eagle: Maximising the take-up of benefits is crucial to tacking pensioner poverty. Since its introduction in October 2003 the number of pensioners in relative low income has reduced by around 500,000.
We want to increase take-up of pension credit and council tax benefit and are working hard to encourage those entitled but not yet claiming to do so.
In order to increase take-up of pension credit and council tax benefit we introduced further simplifications to the claims process so that pensioners can now claim state pension, pension credit, housing benefit and council tax benefit in one easy free phone call, without the need to sign and return any claim forms.
The Pension, Disability and Carers Service will continue to promote take-up of benefits by those entitled. It will continue to press forward with data matching to identify eligible non-recipients, home visits for vulnerable customers and ever closer working with partner organisations. We are rolling out a targeted take-up campaign across 20 regions where our insight suggests there are a high number of eligible non-recipients of pension credit. The approach involves local service teams working closely with national and local partners, both in planning and delivering the campaign to ensure we are using all available knowledge to deliver a highly effective take-up campaign.
The new campaign, launched in Sheffield and North Kent in January 2009, is designed to engage with the local pensioner population, using channels of communication and organisations that are likely to be familiar, for example WRVS, Mecca bingo, voluntary organisations. In some areas, for example the North East, the campaign will be extended to the wider region.
In addition, we are taking powers in the Welfare Reform Bill to allow us to pilot new approaches that make better use of the information Government already have available to it for this purpose.
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pensioners in each local authority area are in receipt of pension credit; and what the average payment in each such area was in 2008. [276266]
Angela Eagle: The information requested will be placed in the Library.
Pensioners
Linda Gilroy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pensioners in Plymouth are estimated to have received a (a) free bus pass, (b) free television licence and (c) free eye test. [276358]
Angela Eagle: The information is as follows:
(a) As part of the implementation of the new England-wide concession, which guarantees older and eligible disabled people free off peak travel on local buses anywhere in England, all concessionary passes are now issued as smartcards to a new standard design. Local authorities are responsible for issuing passes, and so central Government does not maintain records of how many individual authorities have issued, though we do know that around 8 million passes have now been issued in total across England.
The latest information held by the Department for Transport was that, as of 7 April 2008, Plymouth city council had submitted approximately 36,419 applications for the new smartcard concessionary passes to their pass supplier. This includes applications from disabled people as well as those aged 60 and over.
(b) TV Licensing, which administers free television licences for people aged 75 or over as agents for the BBC, can provide breakdown only by postcode. However,
according to the records of the Department for Work and Pensions the number of households with at least one person aged 75 or over claiming the winter fuel payment in the Plymouth Devonport and Plymouth Sutton constituencies in 2007-08 was 13,950. Figures for 2008-09 are still being compiled.
(c) The number of NHS-funded sight tests for those aged 60 and over in the Plymouth area during 2007-08 was 29,696.
2007-08 is the latest full year for which information is available. Information for 2008-09 is expected to be published by the NHS Information Centre in August 2009.
Michael Connarty: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many UK pensioners formerly resident overseas have returned to live in the UK in each of the last five years. [277744]
Angela Eagle: The following table shows the numbers of pensioners now living in Great Britain receiving the UK state pension who were previously in receipt of their pension overseas:
| Number | |
| Notes: 1. Great Britain is defined via the country code recorded on the Pension Service Computer System. Excludes claimants returning from Northern Ireland. 2. British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies are classified as overseas in this analysis. 3. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10. Source: Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study, November 2003-November 2008 | |
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