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Written Answers to Questions

Wednesday 1 July 2009

Work and Pensions

Carers: National Insurance Contributions

Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate her Department has made of the number of people in receipt of carer's allowance who may have recourse to national insurance contribution credits in accordance with the provisions of the National Insurance Contribution Credits (Transfer of Functions) Order 2009; and what estimate she has made of the monetary value of such credits in 2009-10. [282800]

Jonathan Shaw [holding answer 29 June 2009]: Since 1976, people receiving carer's allowance (formerly invalid care allowance) have normally been awarded National Insurance credits for weeks for which the allowance is paid unless they have a valid married women's election. The National Insurance Contributions Credits (Transfer of Functions) Order 2009 is an enabling instrument which allows HMRC to award and administer National Insurance credits on behalf of the Secretary of State. It does not provide for any new credits. However, it is anticipated that regulations will be introduced shortly which will extend the range of credits available for certain people engaged in caring from April 2010. These credits will have no monetary value in 2009-10 since they will not be available before 6 April 2010.

International Labour Organization

Mr. MacShane: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions which Minister represented the UK at the recent International Labour Organization annual meeting. [282410]

Angela Eagle: At least one DWP Minister normally attends the annual International Labour Conference. My hon. Friend the Member for Chatham and Aylesford (Jonathan Shaw) was scheduled to attend the 2009 event but had to withdraw at very short notice due to unforeseen parliamentary business arising on the day of his planned visit.

Members: Correspondence

Sir Gerald Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when she plans to reply to the letter to her predecessor of 19 March 2009 from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard to Mr. J Harris. [283358]

Jim Knight: I refer my right hon. Friend to the replies given on 11 May 2009 and 21 May 2009, Official Report, columns 571W and 1502W.


1 July 2009 : Column 244W

New Deal Schemes: South East

Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent changes have been made to the methods of delivery of Flexible New Deal contracts in the south east district; and if she will make a statement. [282684]

Jim Knight [holding answer 29 June 2009]: None. Following the announcement of the preferred bidders on 29 May 2009 we remain committed to bringing in the Flexible New Deal Phase 1 from October 2009. At this time, Phase 1 contracts have not been let.

Pension Protection Fund

Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in (a) the UK and (b) Tamworth constituency have claimed pension payments from the Pension Protection Fund in each year since its inception. [282740]

Angela Eagle: Information relating to the Tamworth constituency could be provided only at disproportionate cost. Such information as is available is as follows:

The cumulative number of people in the UK whose pension scheme transferred into the Pension Protection Fund
Year ending 31 March People receiving compensation People due to receive compensation on retirement

2006

Nil

Nil

2007

1,457

5,621

2008

3,596

8,577

2009

12,778

17,737


Social Security Benefits: Fraud

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what information her Department collects on benefit claims to assist in detecting fraudulent claims. [273207]

Helen Goodman: To detect both fraud and error once a benefit claim is active within our systems we match our data against that from other sources. We do this using a range of data from both other Government Departments and private sector sources. Data are extracted from these sources at routine intervals and matched against our benefit data to identify anomalies, which are then referred for investigation.

Social Security Benefits: Low Incomes

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment her Department has made of the effect on customers from low-income socio-economic backgrounds of recent changes to the frequency of benefit payments. [275746]

Jim Knight: The changes made to frequencies and paydays are a key step in the, long-term, simplification of the benefits system. Before implementing this policy we consulted extensively with customer representative groups to ensure that customer's interests were fully considered.


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We do, however, recognise that the initial move from weekly payments to fortnightly payments may be difficult for some of our customers but have addressed this by making a repayable loan equal to the customer's weekly benefit.

Unemployment

Paul Rowen: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people have registered as unemployed at Jobcentre Plus in the last six months. [278310]

Jim Knight [holding answer 8 June 2009]: The available information is in the following table:

Jobseeker’s allowance—on-flows onto JSA for the last six months—Great Britain
Date On-flow Off-flow Net difference

November 2008

350,920

265,555

85,365

December 2008

288,192

191,255

96,937

January 2009

290,785

163,585

127,200

February 2009

474,127

298,035

176,092

March 2009

336,234

272,085

64,149

April 2009

311,697

276,360

35,337

Notes:
1. This information is published on the Nomis website at:
www.nomisweb.co.uk
2. Off-flow data are rounded to the nearest five.
Source:
Count of unemployment-related benefits, Jobcentre Plus computer systems (computer held cases only).

Defence

Afghanistan: Peacekeeping Operations

Dr. Murrison: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many UK (a) citizens and (b) residents have been arrested by (i) British, (ii) International Security Assistance Forces, (iii) American and (iv) Afghan authorities in Afghanistan since 2001. [280191]


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Mr. Bob Ainsworth [holding answer 16 June 2009]: No UK nationals suspected of links to the insurgency have been arrested by British forces in Afghanistan since 2001.

Since 2004, the number of arrests on a variety of charges and not necessarily specifically linked to insurgency of UK nationals in Afghanistan by Afghan authorities is provided in the following table.

Number of arrests( 1)

2008-09

4

2007-08

4

2006-07

3

2005-06

3

2004-05

2

(1) From 2004-08 as reported in the Consular Annual Return from the British embassy Kabul and from 2008 as reported from the Consular Assistance Database held by the British Embassy Kabul. Information on arrests prior to 2004 and on arrests made by International Security Assistance or American Forces are not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Air Force: Military Aircraft

Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many cannibalisations of each type of RAF aircraft there have been in (a) each year since 2005 and (b) the last 12 months. [279952]

Mr. Quentin Davies: The information requested covers a large number of aircraft and will take some time to collate. I will write to the hon. Member when this work is complete.

Substantive answer from Quentin Davies to Liam Fox:


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1 July 2009 : Column 248W

2005 2006 2007 2008

Harrier (all types)

530

505

862

924

Tornado GR4

1,863

2,048

1,838

2,012

Tornado F3(1)

872

667

667

238

Typhoon

243

542

540

621

Nimrod MR2

510

224

344

151

Nimrod R1

48

61

41

69

Sea King

270

204

115

126

Tristar

154

182

126

90

VC10

177

82

167

148

Hercules C130K

203

167

185

207

Hercules C130J

662

691

591

541

Sentinel R1(2)

7

36

Sentry

51

140

81

95

BAe 125

58

49

23

46

BAe146

8

9

17

15

C17

40

45

39

39

Dominie

161

95

46

53

Hawk

415

398

241

135

Tucano

4

8

32

34

Vigilant

10

29

20

24

Viking

4

1

2

0

(1) The drop in cannibalisations for the Tornado F3 in 2008 is due to the drawdown of the force and its replacement by Typhoon.
(2) Sentinel R1 did not enter service with the RAF until 2007.

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