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12 Oct 2009 : Column 52W—continued
(2) how many and what proportion of people were in receipt of carer's allowance in each local authority area on the latest date for which figures are available. [289391]
Jonathan Shaw: The available information has been placed in the Library.
John Mason: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much her Department spent on the administration of carer's allowance in the last five years. [289707]
Jonathan Shaw: The following table shows the administration costs for carer's allowance over the last five financial years.
| Total (£) | |
| Notes: Total administration costs include: 1. Staff: including salaries, national insurance, superannuating, overtime costs and other payroll adjustments. 2. Non staff: including medical evidence costs, travel, subsistence, postage and general office expenses i.e. stationery. 3. Recharges: payments given to take account of additional costs incurred piloting changes to working practises. Source: General ledgers (GL) and expenditure reports. | |
Carer's Allowance: Hemel Hempstead
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in Hemel Hempstead constituency (a) are entitled to and (b) receive carer's allowance. [289438]
Jonathan Shaw: The available information is in the following table:
| People in Hemel Hempstead constituency who are entitled to and receiving carer's allowance at November 2008 | |
| Number | |
| Note: Figures are rounded to the nearest 10. Source: Work and Pensions Longitudinal study 100 per cent. | |
Children: Maintenance
Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many parents resident in Wales defaulted on child support payments in each of the last five years. [291172]
Helen Goodman [holding answer 14 September 2009]: The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission is responsible for the child maintenance system. I have asked the Child Maintenance Commissioner to write to the hon. Member with the information requested and I have seen the response.
In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Child Maintenance Commissioner as the Child Support Agency is now the responsibility of the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many parents resident in Wales defaulted on child support payments in each of the last five years. [291172]
Information on the number of cases where the non-resident parent is not compliant and is living in Wales is provided in the attached table. This includes child maintenance cases held on both the current (CS2) and old (CSCS) computer systems and excludes cases administered clerically.
Quarterly figures as at June 2009 show 73% of non-resident parents living in Wales are compliant with their child maintenance payments.
I hope you find this answer helpful.
| Number of non-compliant cases where the non-resident parent lives in Wales | |||
| June each year | Cases where maintenance requested | Non-compliant cases | Percentage compliant |
| Notes: 1. This table shows the number of cases that were charged money via the Agency's collection service over a three month period and the number of cases from which a payment was not received from over the same period. 2. Cases have been allocated to Wales by matching the residential postcode of the non-resident parent against the Office for National Statistics postcode directory. 3. Figures cover cases held on the CS2 and CSCS computer systems only and exclude the performance of cases administered clerically. 4. Volumes are rounded to the nearest hundred. | |||
Cold Weather Payments: Birmingham
Mr. Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many cold weather payments have been made to residents of Birmingham, Sparkbrook and Small Heath constituency in each year since 2003. [291702]
Helen Goodman: Birmingham, Sparkbrook and Small Heath constituency is linked to Coleshill weather station. The number of times cold weather payments have been triggered at this weather station in each year since 2002-03 is given in the following table.
| Cold weather payment triggers at Coleshill weather station | |
| Number | |
| Source: DWP records | |
It is not possible to give the estimated number of payments made in 2002-03 and 2008-09 to residents of Birmingham, Sparkbrook and Small Heath constituency
as this information is not available at constituency level but only by weather station, and Coleshill weather station covers a wider area than just this constituency.
Departmental Electronic Equipment
Justine Greening: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many (a) mobile telephones, (b) Blackberrys and (c) laptop computers have been issued to staff of her Department in each of the last five years; and how many of these were issued to (i) new staff and (ii) existing staff following (A) loss or (B) theft of a previous device. [290409]
Jim Knight: The information is not available in the format requested and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. The information that is available is provided in the following tables.
| Numbers issued | |||
| Devices | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | 2008-09 |
| n/a = Not available. (1) Number of active laptop computers in issue at 31 March 2009. | |||
The Department's records do not differentiate between items issued to new or existing staff, nor whether items were replaced as a result of loss, theft or other reasons. These details could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
The number of Blackberry devices which were replaced for any reason during 2007 and 2008 is as follows:
| Number of devices replaced | |
Departmental Manpower
Justine Greening: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate she has made of the average length of employment of staff of her Department at each Civil Service payband. [290412]
Jim Knight: The following table shows, at 31 March 2009, the average length of time staff have been employed at the Department for Work and Pensions and its predecessor organisations, broken down by grade.
| Grade | Average length of service years |
Departmental Official Hospitality
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 14 May 2009, Official Report, column 909W, on departmental official hospitality, how much her Department spent on hospitality and entertainment in 2008-09. [290176]
Jim Knight: The 2008-09 accounts have now been published and the expenditure on hospitality can be confirmed as £116,652.
All expenditure on entertainment (also known within the Department as hospitality) is made in accordance with published Departmental guidance on financial procedures and propriety, based on principles set out in "Managing Public Money" and the Treasury Handbook on Regularity and Propriety.
Departmental Paternity Leave
Justine Greening: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many staff took paternity leave from her Department in each of the last five years; and what the average duration of such leave was. [290414]
Jim Knight: The total number of staff in DWP that took paternity leave and the average length of such leave is shown in the following table.
| Number of staff taking paternity leave | Average duration (days) | |
| (1 )Information for the current year is available for the first quarter. | ||
Information is available from April 2007 when the Department introduced a new personnel computer system. Information prior to April 2007 is held on a number of legacy systems. The cost of extracting this information from these in the format requested for the period prior to April 2007 would be at a disproportionate cost.
Departmental Pay
Justine Greening: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what employee reward schemes are offered to staff of her Department; what the purpose of each scheme is; how many staff participate in each scheme; and what the cost of operating each scheme was in each of the last five years. [290416]
Helen Goodman: There are two pay-related employee reward schemes operating in the Department for Work and Pensions. These are the end of year non-consolidated performance pay and special awards.
End of Year non-consolidated Performance Pay
DWP employees below the Senior Civil Service are eligible for an annual individual non-consolidated performance payment if they attain a "Top", "Higher" or "Majority" rating under the annual Performance and
Development System. The payment awarded is determined by the employee's pay band and the performance level achieved.
For the Senior Civil Service, end of year non-consolidated performance pay is determined by the relevant DWP SCS Pay Committee, in line with recommendations by the independent Senior Salaries Review Body.
(1) Performance awards from the year 2008-09 were payable in July of the financial year 2009-10. A total of £21.81 million has been paid. This is broken down as follows:
| Table 1: Department total | ||
| Financial year | Total number of recipients | Total paid (£ million) |
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