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14 Sep 2009 : Column 2138W—continued
Incapacity Benefit
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate her Department has made of the total monetary value of payments to recipients of incapacity benefit in each year since 1997. [290723]
Jonathan Shaw [holding answer 9 September 2009]: The available information is shown in the table.
| Incapacity benefit-Expenditure for Great Britain | ||
| £ million | ||
| Cash | 2009- 10 p rices | |
| Notes: 1. Figures to 1999-2000 include significant expenditure on people above pension age. 2. All figures are outturn expenditure, rounded to the nearest million pounds. 3. The DWP benefit expenditure tables can be viewed at http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd4/expenditure.asp Source: DWP accounting data, as published in the DWP benefit expenditure tables. | ||
Members: Correspondence
Mr. Winnick: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when she plans to reply to the letter of 9 July 2009 from the hon. Member for Walsall North, transferred from the Cabinet Office, concerning a constituent. [291084]
Helen Goodman: A reply was sent to the hon. Member on 31 August 2009.
Social Security Benefits
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many (a) incapacity benefit/severe disablement allowance and (b) employment and support allowance claims have commenced in each quarter since 1 January 2007. [290725]
Jonathan Shaw: The available information is in the following tables.
| Incapacity benefit and severe disablement allowance commencements in each quarter since 1 December 2006 | |
| Number | |
| Notes: 1. The best statistics on benefits are now derived from 100 per cent. data sources. However, the 5 per cent. sample data still provide some detail not yet available from the 100 per cent. data sources. 2. Severe disablement allowance has been closed to new claimants since April 2001. 3. Figures have been updated to include late notified commencements and are rounded to the nearest hundred. 4. All figures back to 1995 have been revised and may be subject to further change. Figures for the latest quarter do not include any late notifications and are subject to major changes in future quarters. For illustration purposes, total commencements for November 2003 increased by 14 per cent. in the year following their initial release. 5. These figures do not include employment and support allowance, which replaced incapacity benefit and income support paid on the grounds of incapacity for new claims from 27 October 2008. Source: DWP Information Directorate: 5 per cent. sample data. | |
| Employment and support allowance commencements: quarterly time series | |
| Quarter ending | Number |
| (1) Provisional. Notes: 1. Case load figures are rounded to the nearest 10. 2. For on flows, the benefit type is defined as the pay status at the start of the claim. 3. The figures relating to employment support allowance have been thoroughly quality assured to National Statistics standard. However, it should be noted that this is a new benefit using a new data source which may not have reached steady state in terms of operational processing and retrospection. Hence most recent data shown is provisional. 4. Employment and support allowance data can be found on the DWP tabulation tool at: http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/tabtool.asp Source: DWP Information Directorate: 100 per cent. Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study. | |
Justice
Conditional Cautions: Females
Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice following the pilots that commenced on 1 September 2008, what decision the Government have made regarding the use of conditional cautions for vulnerable women; and upon what criteria this decision was made. [291101]
Mr. Straw: Early indications from these pilots show that the conditional caution scheme is a positive way to divert women offenders from the criminal justice system and into supportive services in the community. No decision has yet been made on the further development of this condition as we are awaiting the results of the full evaluation of the pilots in early 2010.
Convictions: Fraud
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many convictions for offences of fraud in relation to child adoption there were in (a) England and Wales, (b) the East of England, (c) Essex and (d) Castle Point in each of the last 10 years. [287496]
Claire Ward: "Adoption fraud" is not an offence covered by specific legislation, and defendants may be dealt with by different fraud offences. From information held on the Court Proceedings Database, the Ministry of Justice are not able to ascertain which individual cases within these fraud offences relate to adoption fraud.
Dangerous Dogs Act 1991: Hampshire
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many (a) prosecutions were brought and (b) convictions were secured for offences under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 in each local authority area in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in each of the last five years. [288892]
Claire Ward: Information showing the number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts and found guilty at all courts for offences under the 1991 Dangerous Dogs Act in the Hampshire police force area, 2003 to 2007 (latest available) are shown in the following table. Data for 2008 will be available in the autumn of 2009.
Data have been provided for Hampshire police force area as information by local authority is not collected centrally by the Ministry of Justice.
| Number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts and found guilty at all courts for offences under the 1991 Dangerous Dogs Act, Hampshire police force area, 2003 to 2007( 1,2) | |||||
| 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | |
| (1) The statistics relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences the principal offence is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe. (2) Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. Source: Evidence and Analysis Unit-Office for Criminal Justice Reform | |||||
Departmental Drinking Water
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much his Department spent on water coolers in each of the last six months. [287964]
Mr. Wills:
Expenditure on water coolers can only be separately identified within two areas of the Department-headquarters and the Office of the Public Guardian.
Expenditure in the period April to September 2009 amounted to £3,420. Invoices are received quarterly and cannot be broken down by month.
Identification of expenditure on water coolers in the rest of the Ministry of Justice would involve the examination of a large number of invoices, many held locally within the courts, prison and probation systems, and would incur disproportionate cost.
The Ministry's policy is to move away from water coolers to mains-fed water filtration systems on cost and environmental grounds. Such a system is in operation in the Ministry's main headquarters building.
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much his Department has spent on bottled water in each of the last six months. [287965]
Mr. Wills: The Ministry's accounting records do not specifically record expenditure on bottled water. To identify relevant expenditure would require examination of thousands of individual invoices, many held locally within the courts, prison and probation systems, and would incur disproportionate cost. It has, however, been possible to identify expenditure on bottled water within the Ministry's headquarters function as stated:
Ministry of Justice HQ-£1,315
Billing is on a quarterly basis so cannot be provided for each month. The expenditure relates to bottled water used for water coolers and dispensers. The cost includes sanitisation and maintenance of these devices. Water dispensers are gradually being replaced by mains-fed water filtration systems across the Ministry's estate. The Ministry no longer provides bottled water when catering for meetings or events within its headquarters buildings.
Departmental Internet
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much has been spent on the maintenance of his departmental website in each of the last two years. [287962]
Mr. Wills: The Ministry of Justice does not separately identify expenditure on website maintenance in its accounting records. However, the Ministry's Information, Communications and Technology division holds offline records on this expenditure for the following business areas for the last two financial years:
| £ | ||
| 2008-09 | 2007-08 | |
It is not possible to reliably distinguish website maintenance costs from other IT expenditure for HM Courts Service and the National Offender Management Service except at disproportionate cost.
House of Lords: Reform
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice when he plans to publish draft legislation on reform of the House of Lords; if he will take steps to promote the Government's proposals for a wholly or substantially elected second chamber; and if he will make a statement. [290757]
Mr. Straw: Following cross party talks, the Government published a White Paper last year building on the outcome of the free votes in the Commons in March 2007 in favour of an 80 per cent. or 100 per cent. elected second chamber. The statement on 20 July on the Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill reiterated our commitment to comprehensive reform of the Lords. We are, therefore, working up final proposals which we hope to publish later this year.
Members: Correspondence
Mr. Winnick: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice when he plans to reply to the letter of 12 August 2009 from the hon. Member for Walsall North concerning a constituent; and what the reasons are for the time taken to acknowledge receipt of the letter. [291085]
Mr. Wills: The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) target to reply to ministerial correspondence is 20 working days from the date of receipt and the MoJ endeavours to respond to letters as promptly as possible within this deadline.
The hon. Member's letter of 12 August was not received in the MoJ Ministerial Correspondence Unit until 21 August; taking into account the bank holiday on 31 August this case was assigned a target date of 21 September.
As Duty Minister for the Department during the summer recess, I replied to the hon. Member's letter on 10 September.
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