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8 Dec 2009 : Column 248W—continued
Poverty
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent estimate she has made of the number of people with an income below the before housing costs poverty threshold who pay income tax. [300393]
Jim Knight: The information requested is not available.
Sickness Benefits: EU Law
Mr. Gale:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if she will place in the Library a copy of her substantive response to the letter sent to her by the
European Commission on 1 October 2009 giving factual notice in respect of the UK Government's failure to comply with the ECJ ruling on exportable sickness benefits. [303358]
Angela Eagle: The European Commission wrote to the UK Government on 8 October giving formal notification of infraction proceedings challenging how the UK has implemented a 2007 decision of the European Court of Justice relating to Disability Living Allowance (care component), Attendance Allowance and Carer's Allowance.
Correspondence between the European Commission and the member states (including the UK) on such cases is generally regarded by both parties as confidential between them.
As we are currently in dialogue with the European Commission we will not be making our replies to their correspondence public.
Social Security Benefits
Mr. Leech: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate she has made of the cost to the public purse of the Work for Your Benefit scheme pilots. [303807]
Jim Knight: The overall budget for the Work for Your Benefit pilots is £20 million, of which £15 million has been allocated to the provider-led Work for Your Benefit contracts.
We will also deliver an alternative regime of support for jobseekers reaching 24 months on jobseeker's allowance, which we will be comparing to the provider-led programme in the pilot areas. This will be delivered by Jobcentre Plus.
Social Security Benefits: Peterborough
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many former claimants of jobseeker's allowance in Peterborough constituency have moved on to (a) pension credit, (b) a training allowance, (c) the self-employment credit and (d) a Future Jobs Fund job in each month of the last two years. [302013]
Jim Knight [holding answer 30 November 2009]: Data on people who flow off jobseeker's allowance onto pension credit are not collated centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
The information requested on people who have flowed off jobseeker's allowance onto training allowance in the Peterborough constituency in each month of the last two years is given in the following table.
| Number of people in the Peterborough parliamentary constituency flowing from Jobseeker's Allowance to Government-supported training schemes-each month of the last two years. | |
| Number | |
| Notes: 1. Data are rounded to the nearest five. 2. This information is published on the Nomis website at: www.nomisweb.co.uk 3. The percentage of people leaving with an unknown destination recorded has increased over the last 10 years. This is because the completion levels of the JSA40 (forms filled in by people leaving jobseeker's allowance) have decreased over this period. This should be taken into account when interpreting these statistics, as many of these 'unknown' leavers will have moved into employment or other benefits. Source: Count of unemployment-related benefits, Jobcentre Plus computer systems (computer held cases only). | |
Information on the number of people who have flowed off jobseeker's allowance to receive the self-employment credit is not available at constituency level. I refer the hon. Member to the written answer I gave the right hon. Member for Maidenhead, (Mrs. May), on 11 November 2009, Official Report, columns 571-72W, for the data that are available at national level.
The information requested on people who have flowed off jobseeker's allowance into a Future Jobs Fund job is not available.
Winter Fuel Payments
Andrew Stunell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many eligible (a) men and (b) women have not received backdated winter fuel payments in respect of previous years in (i) each local authority in the North West and (ii) England. [304675]
Angela Eagle: The information requested is not available.
Cabinet Office
Caparo Group
Mr. Graham Stuart: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office whether (a) each Minister and (b) officials in her Department have met Angad Paul in each of the last three years. [303111]
Tessa Jowell: My officials and I have meetings with a wide range of organisations and individuals on a range of subjects.
Departmental Information Officers
Mr. Heald: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many full-time equivalent press officers (a) are employed by and (b) work for (i) her Department and (ii) the Prime Minister's Office. [303592]
Ms Butler: The Prime Minister's Office is part of the Cabinet Office. The Cabinet Office currently has 18 full-time equivalent staff employed as press officers.
Departmental Manpower
Mr. Heald: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many staff worked in 10 Downing Street other than in the Prime Minister's office in (a) 2005-06, (b) 2006-07 and (c) 2007-08. [301393]
Angela E. Smith: Other than its own employees the Cabinet Office does not keep records of staff who work in Downing street such as the Metropolitan Police.
Departmental Travel
Norman Baker: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office on what date she last travelled by (a) bus and (b) taxi in the course of her official duties. [302718]
Tessa Jowell: All travel I undertake is in accordance with the Ministerial Code.
Ministers
Mr. Bone: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what criteria determine the order in which Cabinet Ministers are listed in the list of Cabinet Ministers on page two of the List of Ministerial Responsibilities, dated October 2009. [305096]
Tessa Jowell: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to him by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence on 9 November 2009, Official Report, column 83W.
Women and Equality
Departmental Public Expenditure
Mr. Heald: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality what the cost to the Government Equalities Office was of the provision of office facilities to (a) special advisers and (b) press officers in the 2008-09 financial year. [302962]
Michael Jabez Foster: The cost to accommodate GEO's private and press office staff in 2008-09 was £90,272. This figure covers the office facility costs for one special adviser, two press office posts and the wider private office. It is not possible to separate out specific costs for special advisers and press office.
International Development
Africa: Overseas Aid
Mark Pritchard: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will hold discussions with his (a) Egyptian, (b) Sudanese and (c) Ethiopian counterpart to seek progress on re-negotiating the terms of the Nile Basin Initiative. [303800]
Mr. Michael Foster: The Department for International Development (DFID) is not engaging directly in the negotiations for a new agreement on Nile waters. Negotiations are led by the basin countries. DFID along with all partners to the Nile Basin Initiative are following the process closely.
Developing Countries: Educational Visits
Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what funding his Department has provided for children and young people from each local authority area to visit developing countries in each of the last five years. [304342]
Mr. Michael Foster: To collect the disaggregated spend on young people visiting developing countries by local authority would incur disproportionate costs.
Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much his Department has spent in each local authority area on school-based learning about international development in each of the last five years. [304430]
Mr. Michael Foster: We are unable to provide data on how much has been spent on school-based learning about international development in each local authority area, as this information is either unavailable or would incur disproportionate costs to collect.
Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development (1) how many contracts to provide publicly-funded visits for children and young people to developing countries his Department has funded in the last 12 months; what the monetary value of each contract is; when each such contract expires; what assessment has been made of their effectiveness and value for money; and if he will make a statement; [304432]
(2) what assessment his Department has made of the merits of providing public funding for children and young people from the UK to visit developing countries. [304343]
Mr. Michael Foster: The Department for International Development (DFID) has two contracts which provide publicly funded visits for children and young people to visit developing countries. These are Platform2, DFID's youth volunteering programme for less advantaged young adults, and the Global School Partnership (GSP) programme which links schools in the UK and developing countries. The monetary value and expiry date of each contract is provided in the table.
| Name of contract | Contract expiry data | Value of contract (£) |
A recent independent external evaluation of Platform2 concluded that it is successfully changing attitudes towards international development, engaging young people and generating activism around development issues. Furthermore two recent independent evaluations found that GSP has had a substantial impact on schools in the UK and developing countries and that school partnerships result in positive impacts on children's knowledge and understanding of global issues.
Overseas Aid
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much aid his Department provided to each overseas country in each of the last three years. [304227]
Mr. Michael Foster: A summary of the level of aid provided by the Department for International Development (DFID) to each overseas country in each of the five years to 2008-09 is published in Statistics on International Development a copy of which is available in the Library or on the DFID website:
Treasury
Banks: Government Assistance
Mr. Bone: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will place in the Library a copy of the agreement between the Bank of England and HBOS and RBS providing collateral in excess of £100 billion for the emergency liquidity assistance given to those banks. [302697]
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what interest rate was set for repayment of the loan made to (a) RBS and (b) HBOS in October 2008; what guarantees were obtained by the Bank of England as security against each such loan; and whether he discussed those matters with the Governor of the Bank of England prior to the Governor's appearance before the Treasury Committee on 24 November 2009. [302987]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: As disclosed by the Governor of the Bank of England in his letter to the Chairman of the Treasury Committee dated 23 November, collateral with a total value of over £100 billion was taken by the Bank as security to support its loans to HBOS and RBS. The assets taken as collateral comprised Government issued debt, residential mortgages, and personal and commercial loans. These assets were of types eligible to be taken in securitised form in the Bank's market wide facilities.
From 14 October any additional lending under the facilities was conducted under an indemnity by HM Treasury, which covered the residual risk on the loan after significant collateralisation. At its peak this indemnity covered £18 billion of the support provided.
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