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3 July 2009 : Column 500W—continued
Treasury
Departmental Buildings
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether any full-time equivalent staff in (a) his Department and (b) its associated public bodies are working on projects relating to legacy planning for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. [283163]
Mr. Byrne: HM Treasury and its associated public bodies have a number of staff involved in working across Government and with other partners on these issues as part of their wider roles.
Members: Correspondence
Damian Green: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he plans to reply to the letter from the hon. Member for Ashford of 23 October 2008, reference 62109/2008. [266388]
Mr. Timms: A reply has been sent to the hon. Member.
Sir Gerald Kaufman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he plans to reply to the letter of 5 January 2009 from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton on Mr. E. Warne. [273753]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: A reply has been sent to the right hon. Member.
Sir Gerald Kaufman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he plans to reply to the letter of 5 January 2009 from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard to Mr. E Warne. [283359]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: A reply has been sent to the right hon. Member.
National Insurance
Steve Webb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what upgrade is being undertaken to the National Insurance computer system; what assessment he has made of the effect of the upgrade on (a) access to National Insurance records and (b) the time taken to process new claims for retirement pension; and when he expects the upgrade to be completed. [284245]
Mr. Timms: HMRC has upgraded the National Insurance computer system as part of its continuing process of improvements to its customer service. The new PAYE service will introduce one single record for an individual's PAYE pay and tax details irrespective of the number of PAYE sources of income they have. This will result in more accurate tax codes and also enable HMRC to deal with the vast majority of customer enquiries at one point of contact.
Apart from a brief planned service interruption before the changeover to the New PAYE Service on 29 June 2009, it has not affected access to National Insurance records. All customer enquiries and NI processing are being dealt with as normal. In particular it has not had any impact on claims for the state pension, which is administered by the Department of Work and Pensions.
Public Service Delivery
Mr. Streeter: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent steps his Department has taken to co-ordinate the improvement of public service delivery. [283141]
Mr. Byrne [holding answer 1 July 2009]: HM Treasury works closely with the Cabinet Office on coordinating and monitoring delivery of key initiatives. The Government have recently set out its approach to improving public services in publications such as Excellence and Fairness: Achieving World Class Public Services; Working Together: Public Services on your side and Building Britain's Future.
The approaches outlined support the Public Service Agreements which set out the Government's top priorities for improving public services and other outcomes. At the Comprehensive Spending Review 2007, the Government set out 30 cross-departmental PSAs covering areas such as better health and wellbeing, safer communities and educational standards. Progress on PSAs is reported to Parliament in the Departmental Annual Reports and the Autumn Performance Report. The Prime Minister's Delivery Unit within the Treasury works closely with other government departments to support improvements to public services through the delivery of cross-departmental PSAs.
Wales
Correspondence
Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what his Department’s (a) target and (b) actual performance for the time taken to respond to correspondence was in the most recent period for which figures are available. [284157]
Mr. Hain: The Wales Office publishes correspondence statistics in its annual report and to the Cabinet Office for their annual report to Parliament.
The Wales Office aims to respond to written correspondence within 15 working days. As reported in my Department’s annual report, 90 per cent. was answered within the time scale during 2008-09.
Women and Equality
Departmental Databases
Mr. Watson: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality what information databases the Government Equalities Office (a) maintain and (b) uses which do not contain personal information. [284382]
Michael Jabez Foster: The Government Equalities Office does not maintain any computer databases that contain personal information.
Work and Pensions
Carer's Allowance: South Yorkshire
Jeff Ennis: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people have been in receipt of carer's allowance in (a) Barnsley and (b) Doncaster in the last 12 months. [282784]
Jonathan Shaw: The information is in the following table.
| Carer’s allowance—cases in payment | ||
| 2008 | Barnsley | Doncaster |
| Notes: Figures are rounded to the nearest 10. Caseload totals show the number of people in receipt of an allowance and exclude people with entitlement, but who do not actually receive carer’s allowance, for example, because of the overlapping benefits rule. Source: DWP Information Directorate. | ||
Carer's Allowance: Enfield
Joan Ryan: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people were in receipt of carer’s allowance in (a) the London borough of Enfield and (b) Enfield North constituency on the latest date for which figures are available. [282572]
Jonathan Shaw: The information is in the following table.
| Carer’s allowance—cases in payment caseloads by local authority and constituency of claimant: November 2008 | |
| Number | |
| Notes: 1. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10. 2. Caseload totals show the number of people in receipt of an allowance and exclude people with entitlement, but who do not actually receive carer’s allowance, for example, because of the overlapping benefits rule. Source: DWP Information Directorate: Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study. | |
Disability Living Allowance: Epilepsy
Greg Mulholland: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people with epilepsy in (a) England, (b) Scotland, (c) Wales and (d) Northern Ireland claim disability living allowance; and what the cost to the public purse of such benefits was in the latest period for which figures are available. [282983]
Jonathan Shaw [holding answer 29 June 2009]: Information regarding Northern Ireland is a matter for the Northern Ireland Office.
The information is not available in the format requested. The available information is in the following table.
| Disability living allowance: epilepsy cases in payment, November 2008, and estimated cost in 2008-09 | ||
| Disability living allowance, epilepsy cases in payment, November 2008 | Estimated cost in 2008- 09 (£ million), cash prices | |
| Notes: Cases in Payment are Caseload Totals. These show the number of people in receipt of an allowance, and exclude people with entitlement where the payment has been suspended, for example if they are in hospital. Latest available data are presented here. Numbers are rounded to the nearest hundred. Caseload Numbers are based on a 5 per cent. sample rated in line with the DWP Information Directorate: Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study (WPLS) total caseload, and are therefore subject to a degree of sampling variation. Estimated caseloads for 2008-09 are the average of caseloads at August and November 2008. Expenditure estimated using 5 per cent. data is adjusted by the ratio of total expenditure estimated on 5 per cent. data to outturn total expenditure. Estimated costs are subject to revision when February 2009 caseloads are available. From October 2008 the way in which a disabling condition is recorded on the live system changed. Disabling conditions are now recorded as primary and secondary, (previously recorded as disability care and mobility codes). For existing cases a mapping exercise was carried out which assigned disability care code to primary disabling condition and disability mobility code to secondary condition. IFD have updated the methodology used to derive main disabling condition to reflect this change in the live system. A diagnosed medical condition does not mean that someone is automatically entitled to disability living allowance. Entitlement is dependent on an assessment of how much help someone needs with personal care and/or mobility because of their disability. These statistics are only collected for administrative purposes Sources: Caseloads: DWP Information Directorate, 5 per cent. sample. Cases included are those where epilepsy is the main disabling condition. Estimated cost: based on applying allowance rates to estimated caseload by care and mobility rate and adjusting by ratio of total outturn estimated from 5 per cent. sample to actual total outturn. | ||
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