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.
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 |
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.
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 |
| 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]
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) | |
| (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:
I undertook to write to you in response to your Parliamentary Question of the 17 June 2009, (Official Report, column 334W) about the number of cannibalisations undertaken, broken down by each type of RAF aircraft, in each year since 2005 and in each of the last 12 months, once officials had completed collating the data.
As I am sure you will be aware, cannibalisation is where one aircraft benefits from the removal of serviceable parts from another. It is a routine and temporary measure to ensure that the maximum number of aircraft is available for front line duty.
The number of cannibalisations in each year since 2005 broken down by aircraft is provided in the following table.
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