| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
20 July 2009 : Column 1054W—continued
Jobseeker's Allowance: Lancashire
Geraldine Smith: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many people have been claiming jobseeker's allowance in Morecambe and Lunesdale for over two years. [288360]
Angela E. Smith: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, July 2009:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking how many people have been claiming jobseekers allowance in Morecambe and Lunesdale for over two years. (288360)
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) compiles the number of claimants of Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) from the Jobcentre Plus administrative system. There were 10 people in Morecambe and Lunesdale claiming Jobseeker's Allowance for two years or more in June 2009.
National and local area estimates for many labour market statistics, including employment, unemployment and the claimant count, are available on the NOMIS website at:
Lobbying: Charities
Norman Lamb: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many investigations by the Charity Commission for breaches of rules relating to political lobbying by registered charities (a) were initiated, (b) were completed and (c) resulted in the application of sanctions in each of the last three years. [286675]
Angela E. Smith: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Charity Commission. I have asked the Commission to reply.
Letter from Andrew Hind, dated July 2009:
As the Chief Executive of the Charity Commission, I have been asked to respond to your written Parliamentary Question on how many investigations by the Charity Commission for breaches
of rules relating to political lobbying by registered charities (a) were initiated, (b) were completed and (c) resulted in the application of sanctions in each of the last three years.
It may be useful if I start by explaining the framework which the Charity Commission applies to charities and campaigning and political activity. Charity law on campaigning and political activity is set out in our published guidance "Speaking Out-Guidance on Campaigning and Political Activity by Charities (CC9)" which is available on our website at www.charitycommission.gov.uk. All charities must be established for exclusively charitable purposes and, as a general principle, charities may undertake campaigning and political activity, subject to the law and the terms of their governing document, in as much as it is a positive way of furthering or supporting their purposes. However, in doing so, charities must be mindful of their independence and must not engage in any form of party political activity.
Your question is in three parts and I will deal with each part separately.
Turning to part (a) of your question, the Charity Commission's Assessment Unit considers those complaints where it is evident that they cannot be dealt with by advice and support and which appear serious enough for us to look at more closely. The Assessment Unit determines the appropriate way to deal with complaints based on issues of risk and proportionality, and whether the issue raised falls within our regulatory remit. The following table shows how many of the cases we assessed in each of the last three financial years included issues that we categorised as "political activities" (issues of "political lobbying" would be categorised in this way):
| Political activity cases identified at compliance assessment stage | |
Turning to part (b) of your question regarding completed investigations the Commission undertakes two types of investigations into concerns of non-compliance including breaches of rules around charities and campaigning and political activity. Firstly we undertake non-statutory "regulatory compliance cases". These are cases where risk to the charity is limited and where it is likely that issues can be resolved through providing supervision, regulatory advice and guidance to trustees, and without the need to intervene by using our statutory powers. Secondly, in the few cases of significant risk and more serious regulatory concern, we may open a statutory inquiry under section 8 of the Charities Act 1993.
The following table sets out the number of regulatory compliance cases and statutory inquiries that the Commission completed during that year which involved concerns about "political activities".
| Investigations-Regulatory Compliance Cases completed which included concerns about "political activity" | Investigations-Statutory Inquiries completed which included concerns about "political activity" | |
Finally, turning to part (c) of your question regarding sanctions, it is important to explain that our objective in such cases is to protect charitable assets and our actions are designed to protect these assets rather than as punitive measures.
When we close a statutory inquiry we publish a "statement of results of inquiry" (SORI) on our website. We also publish reports for those regulatory compliance case investigations which meet certain criteria relating to the public interest-the criteria are published on our website at:
The publication of these reports can, in itself, be a form of sanction as the findings of the investigations are put into the public domain. Nonetheless the main aim of publication is to enable other charities to better understand the work we do and to learn general lessons from the way we have dealt with particular cases. Copies of both these types of reports, if they are less than six months old, are available on the Commission's website. Older reports are available by request. If you would like a copy of any of the reports which contain issues relating to political activity we are happy to provide these to you.
In terms of more formal sanctions, in most cases issues have been resolved through providing supervision, regulatory advice and guidance to trustees without the need to intervene by using our statutory powers. However, there has been one occasion in the last three years when we have used our statutory powers to ensure compliance in this area. We used section 19A of the Charities Act 1993 (introduced by section 20 of the Charities Act 2006) to direct the charity to carry out a governance review.
In general, it would be unusual in this type of case for the Commission to need to use the interventionist and remedial measures which are available only in statutory inquiries, such as the freezing of bank accounts, the suspension and removal of trustees, or the appointment of interim managers.
I hope this is helpful. If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Pay: Hertfordshire
Mike Penning: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office (1) what the average annual earnings of people of working age was in (a) Hemel Hempstead constituency, (b) Dacorum and (c) Hertfordshire in each year since 1997; [287858]
(2) what the rate of average earnings growth was in (a) Hemel Hempstead constituency, (b) Dacorum and (c) Hertfordshire in each year since 1997. [287859]
Angela E. Smith: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated July 2009:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Questions asking what the average earnings of people of working age was in (a) Hemel Hempstead constituency, (b) Dacorum and (c) Hertfordshire in each year since 1997 (287858) and what the rate of average earnings growth was in (a) Hemel Hempstead constituency, (b) Dacorum and (c) Hertfordshire in each year since 1997. (287859)
Average levels of earnings are estimated from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), and are provided for all employees on adult rates of pay whose pay for the survey period was not affected by absence.
ONS's primary indicator of average earnings growth is the Average Earnings Index. As this does not produce regional estimates, the ASHE has been used. The ASHE, carried out in April each year, is the most comprehensive source of earnings information in the United Kingdom. It is a sample of all employees who are members of pay-as-you-earn (PA YE) schemes.
The sample sizes for more detailed geographies can be small and this affects the quality of the resulting estimates, which are subject to a margin of uncertainty.
Estimates for people of working age would only be available at disproportionate cost, but we have provided median gross weekly earnings estimates and annual percentage changes for the specified geographies for full-time and part-time employees.
| Median gross weekly pay (£) for full-time employee jobs( a) | ||||||
| Hemel Hempstead parliamentary constituency | Dacorum local authority | Hertfordshire | ||||
| Median | Annual percentage change | Median | Annual percentage change | Median | Annual percentage change | |
| Median gross weekly pay (£) for part-time employee jobs( a) | ||||||
| Hemel Hempstead parliamentary constituency | Dacorum local authority | Hertfordshire | ||||
| Median | Annual percentage change | Median | Annual percentage change | Median | Annual percentage change | |
| Notes: (a) Employees on adult rates whose pay for the survey pay-period was not affected by absence. (b) 2004 results excluding supplementary survey for comparison with 2003 (c) 2004 results including supplementary surveys designed to improve coverage of the survey (for more information see National Statistics website www.statistics.gov.uk). (d) 2006 results with methodology consistent with 2005 (e) 2006 results with methodology consistent with 2007 Guide to quality: The Coefficient of Variation (CV) indicates the quality of a figure, the smaller the CV value the higher the quality. The true value is likely to lie within +/- twice the CV - for example, for an average of 200 with a CV of 5%, we would expect the population average to be within the range 180 to 220. Key CV <= 5% * CV >5% and <=l0% ** CV > 10% and <=20% x CV > 20% Source: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), Office for National Statistics. 1997 - 2008 | ||||||
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |