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22 Oct 2009 : Column 1599W—continued
Marine Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what projects funded from the Marine Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund have involved work by the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science. [294719]
Huw Irranca-Davies [holding answer 21 October 2009]: Projects which have been funded from the Marine Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund involving work by the Centre of Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science are:
Rural Areas: Grants
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether provision for Vital Villages Community Services grants exists following the abolition of the Countryside Agency. [294562]
Dan Norris: Vital Villages was a demonstration grant programme, set up with the aim of identifying innovative approaches that would meet the needs of rural communities. The programme was set up in April 2001 and ran until 1 April 2005.
The scheme was additional to mainstream Government programmes for community support and development, which remain open to both rural and urban communities.
South Downs National Park
Mr. Tyrie: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much (a) has been spent and (b) is planned to be spent on (i) consultation, (ii) organisational set-up, (iii) project management, (iv) communications, (v) planning, (vi) wages, (vii) pensions, (viii) office running and (ix) other costs of the South Downs National Park in the next 12 months. [293991]
Huw Irranca-Davies: The cost of the two public inquiries and a recent hearing totalled £3.26 million. We expect that less than £1 million will be spent on setting up the South Downs National Park Authority in the current financial year. The budgets for future years have yet to be determined.
Mr. Tyrie: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether any existing local authority staff will be made redundant as a result of the establishment of the South Downs National Park. [293992]
Huw Irranca-Davies: It is for individual local authorities to decide whether or not to retain staff.
Where a national park authority takes over functions from a local authority then, as happened in the New Forest, it is very probable that the existing staff will have employment rights under either (or both) of: the statutory instrument that establishes the national park authority; and the generic Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) legislation.
Waste and Resources Action Programme
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much funding (a) his Department and (b) the Waste and Resources Action Programme has provided to Resources Futures; and for what purposes. [294613]
Dan Norris: DEFRA's Waste and Resources Evidence Programme has commissioned projects from Resource Futures at a total cost of £137,845. The research covers waste growth and the composition of municipal waste.
Since 1 April 2007, the Waste and Resources Action Programme has bought technical services from Resources Futures at a total cost of £1.2 million. These services cover a range of topics, including work with local authorities, the third sector and on evaluating our programmes.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if he will place in the Library an example copy of a waste prevention action plan recommended by the Waste and Resources Action Programme. [294618]
Dan Norris: The plans are the property of the local authorities concerned and can be obtained directly from them. The Waste and Resources Action Programme's Waste Prevention Toolkit is a starting point for authorities to develop their own plans, typically working as part of a larger partnership, and taking account of their local circumstances and priorities.
Work and Pensions
Children: Maintenance
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many parents eligible for maintenance payments via the Child Maintenance Enforcement Commission and its predecessor have received no payment for over (a) three and (b) 10 years. [292041]
Helen Goodman: 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 eligible for maintenance payments via the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission and its predecessor have received no payment for over (a) three and (b) 10 years. [292041]
The Commission estimates that at the end of June 2009, of the 1,140,400 cases due to receive at least one child maintenance payment in the past three years, no payment had been received from the non-resident parent in 57,250 (or 5%) of these cases. The Commission is not able to provide an estimate on the number of parents eligible for maintenance payments who have not received any payments for the last 10 years.
Some parents will go to great lengths to avoid fulfilling their financial responsibilities to their children. The Child Support Agency has made significant improvements over the last three years increasing the number of cases receiving maintenance by a third. The new enforcement powers set out in the Child Maintenance and Other Payments Act 2008 will give the Commission the tools it needs to further increase compliance.
I am sorry on this occasion I could not be more helpful.
Disability Living Allowance: Fraud
Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate she has made of the (a) number and (b) amount spent on fraudulent claims for disability living allowance in each of the last four years. [293576]
Helen Goodman:
The Department's measurement system for fraud and error does not estimate the number of fraudulent cases over a given period. It does, however,
provide an estimate of the average number of fraudulent claims at any one time. Estimates of fraud in disability living allowance were last measured in 2004-05 when the number of fraudulent cases was estimated to be 10,000 cases. There are no estimates for later years.
An estimate for the percentage of fraudulent expenditure has also been produced for 2004-05 and subsequent years by applying the 2004-05 percentage of fraudulent expenditure to the relevant disability living allowance expenditure in each subsequent year. The estimates are in the following table.
| Estimate of the amount overpaid due to fraud in disability living allowance | |
| £ million | |
Employment and Support Allowance
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many individual claims for employment and support allowance were rejected after the individual participated in a work capability assessment up to the end of February 2009; and how many and what proportion of those rejected claimants were moved on to jobseeker's allowance. [291281]
Jim Knight [holding answer 16 September 2009]: National level statistics on the Work Capability Assessment covering Great Britain were published on 13 October 2009 and are available via the ONS Publication Hub. A copy of the publication has been placed in the Library and be accessed directly on the website at:
Information on movement to Jobseeker's Allowance is not yet available but is expected to become available next year.
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