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21 July 2009 : Column 1337W—continued
Waste Disposal: Safety
Robert Neill: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether the Health and Safety Executive has assessed the safety of household wheeled refuse containers in relation to deliberate fires. [288270]
Jonathan Shaw: The Health and Safety Executive has not assessed the safety of household refuse containers in relation to deliberate fires, and has no current plans to do so.
Work Experience
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if she will give job centres the discretion to vary the time and day on which a person is required to sign on to allow them to undertake an internship; and if she will make a statement. [288586]
Jim Knight: A customer claiming jobseeker's allowance is normally expected to attend (sign) each fortnight on their benefit week ending date, which is determined by their national insurance number. In circumstances where a customer cannot attend on their normal benefit week ending date, Jobcentres already have the discretion to allocate a different attendance day.
Where a person in receipt of jobseeker's allowance wants to undertake an internship and continue to receive jobseeker's allowance, they must comply with the conditions of entitlement. These conditions require the jobseeker not to be in remunerative work, and to be actively seeking and available for work of at least 40 hours per week. Jobseekers engaged in full-time work experience/internships will not usually be able to satisfy these conditions.
Additionally, jobseekers may be considered to be in remunerative work if the activities they do are for, on average, 16 hours or more per week and equivalent to that being undertaken by a paid employee. In such cases, regardless of whether they receive pay for the work they are doing, they would have no entitlement to jobseeker's allowance.
Changes are underway that will see graduates who have left university this year and are still unemployed after six months, being able to undertake an internship for up to 13 weeks and remain on benefits. This group will move off jobseeker's allowance and onto a training allowance and will not be required to attend every fortnight as a condition of payment.
Work Experience: Disabled
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many work trial placements her Department and its agencies have (a) offered to and (b) fulfilled for disabled people in each of the last three years. [285801]
Jonathan Shaw [holding answer 13 July 2009]: Work Trials are available to support the recruitment of employees under Local Employment Partnership arrangements. These are not specific to disabled people. No central records are kept by DWP businesses on when these are used and obtaining such information would be at a disproportionate cost.
Workstep
Paul Rowen: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many Workstep places were available in each region in (a) each of the last five years and (b) 2009. [284952]
Jonathan Shaw [holding answer 7 July 2009]: The information is in the following table.
| The number of contracted Workstep places by region over the last five years, and preliminary allocations for 2009-10 | ||||||
| 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | 2008-09 | 2009-10 | |
| Notes : 1. Figures are full-time equivalent rounded to the nearest whole figure. 2. Figures are an average, full-time equivalent for each year shown except the current year. 3. Figures for 2009-10 represent preliminary allocations. Additional places will be awarded to reflect local need and provider performance. Overall number of places will match 2008-09. 4. The 'Nationals' column represents providers who deliver support across the country. | ||||||
Written Questions: Government Responses
Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when she plans to reply to Question (a) 269292 and (b) 269293, tabled on 20 April 2009, on the state retirement pension. [281733]
Angela Eagle [holding answer 22 June 2009]: I replied to the hon. Member's questions on 23 June 2009, Official Report , column 817W.
Andrew Selous: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when she plans to answer Question 283625, tabled on 2 July 2009, on claims for benefits relating to housing. [287734]
Helen Goodman [holding answer 20 July 2009]: I replied to the hon. Member's question on 15 July 2009, Official Report, column 427W.
Young People
Paul Rowen: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when she expects her Department to achieve its public service agreement target in respect of people aged between 16 and 18 years old who are not in education, employment or training. [284029]
Mr. Iain Wright [holding answer 3 July 2009]: I have been asked to reply.
The Department's public service agreement target is to reduce the proportion of 16 to 18-year-olds not in education, employment or training (NEET) by 2 percentage points by the end of 2010, from a baseline of 9.6 per cent. at the end of 2004. The figures for 2010 are due to be published in June 2011.
Young Person's Guarantee
Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what funding arrangements have been put in place to enable her Department to transfer the Young Persons' Guarantee from a discretionary to mandatory basis; and if she will make a statement; [286626]
(2) if she will estimate the likely cost to her Department of making the Young Persons' Guarantee mandatory. [286741]
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when she plans to make the young persons guarantee mandatory. [288008]
Jim Knight: The 2009 Budget made £1.1 billion available to deliver the Future Jobs Fund and Young Person's Guarantee. Together they will create new jobs in areas of high unemployment and provide a guaranteed job, work placement or training place for the minority of young people aged between 18 and 24 who reach 12 months unemployment. From next year young people will be required to accept one of the guaranteed offers. This will be met from within the existing funding and there will be no additional costs.
Mrs. May:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many places the Government plans to provide under (a) the Future Jobs Fund, (b) support to take an existing job in a key employment
sector, (c) work-focused training places and (d) places on a community task force to fulfil the Young Person's Guarantee in the period January 2010 to March 2011. [283578]
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many (a) jobs from the Future Jobs Fund, (b) training places, (c) community task force places and (d) offers of support to take an existing job in a key employment sector will be provided in order to deliver the Young Persons' Guarantee in 2009-10; [285144]
(2) how many (a) jobs under the Future Jobs Fund, (b) training places, (c) community task force places and (d) offers of support to take an existing job in a key employment sector are required to enable the change in the Young Persons' Guarantee from a voluntary to a mandatory programme. [285145]
Jim Knight: The Future Jobs Fund aims to create 150,000 new jobs. Of this total, at least 100,000 will be created for young people. The remaining 50,000 will be allocated to unemployment hot spots-in these areas all individuals approaching 12 months or more on out of work benefits will be eligible for a Future Jobs Fund job.
We expect the work-focused training offer to support around 80,000 young people, including pre-employment training. The Community Task Force element of the offer will see young people participating in work placements to deliver real help to their community. This element is responsive to demand. In addition, Jobcentre Plus will work with growth sectors to help up to 100,000 young people access existing jobs in key employment sectors.
The Young Persons Guarantee will provide jobs and training opportunities to meet the terms of the guarantee in 2009-10 and 2010-11.
DWP does not forecast unemployment among young people, however, systems are in place to ensure that the Government will deliver on their commitment to provide sufficient jobs, training or community task force places to meet demand when the Young Person's Guarantee becomes mandatory.
Olympics
Departmental Procurement
Lorely Burt: To ask the Minister for the Olympics what progress the Government Olympic Executive has made in implementing the recommendations of the Glover Report in its procurement processes. [287143]
Tessa Jowell: The Government Olympic Executive (GOE) is part of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport-reporting to me through the Permanent Secretary of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. GOE procurement will therefore be included in the answer provided by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.
Olympic Games 2012: Contracts
Lorely Burt: To ask the Minister for the Olympics what level of security clearance is required for applicants for contracts associated with the London 2012 Olympics; and how long on average it has taken each such applicant to obtain that clearance. [285688]
Tessa Jowell: Security clearance is not required from companies at the bidding stage; save for circumstances when the procurement is highly sensitive, for example, where only List X (Government security accreditation) companies could be invited to bid.
At the first stage of the tender process (pre-qualification questionnaire), the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) checks the company registration details, financial status and governance status.
Following procurement, all ODA contractors, as a minimum requirement, must provide the identity of their staff for checking in accordance with 'Basic Check - Annex B' as detailed within the Cabinet Office document Her Majesty's Government's (HMG) Baseline Personnel Security Standards. Clearance time is dependent on each contractor successfully providing the required information and records of such timings are not kept.
Treasury
Business: Government Assistance
Geraldine Smith: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what support his Department is providing to businesses during the economic downturn. [288436]
Ian Pearson: The Government have introduced a range of measures to support cash flow, credit and investment, to help businesses get through the recession.
This includes HMRC's Business Payment Support Service, which has allowed businesses to spread £3 billion of tax payments over a longer, timetable, and a temporary extension of the time that businesses can claim tax relief for trading losses from one to three years (for losses up to £50,000). Capital allowances have also been increased temporarily, meaning that all firms investing more than £50,000 this year will benefit from higher tax relief. In addition, the small companies rate of corporation tax will not increase this year and the threshold at which empty property becomes liable for business rates has been temporarily increased.
On 14 January 2009 the Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson, announced a package of measures including:
The Working Capital Scheme, which guarantees banks' portfolios of existing loans to businesses with turnover up to £500 million. Over £1 billion of guarantees have now been issued under this scheme;
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