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13 Jan 2010 : Column 1027W—continued
Work and Pensions
Children: Maintenance
Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many referrals were made to the Child Maintenance Options website from Jobcentre Plus in each month since July 2008; how many telephone contacts were made to the Child Maintenance Options helpline in each such month; and how many unique visits the Child Maintenance Options website received. [300691]
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 Maintenance and Enforcement Commission, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Child Maintenance Commissioner.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many referrals were made to the Child Maintenance Options website from Jobcentre Plus in each month since July 2008; how many telephone contacts were made to the Child Maintenance Options helpline in each such month; and how many unique visits the Child Maintenance Options website received. [300691]
Jobcentre Plus in England, Wales and Scotland provide a leaflet for all new clients with a child maintenance interest to introduce the Child Maintenance Options service and then asks them if they wish to be referred. Those who agree have their contact details passed on to Child Maintenance Options, which subsequently contacts them by phone. Although the Child Maintenance Options website address is included in the leaflet, Jobcentre Plus customers are not directly referred to the Child Maintenance Options website.
The number of telephone contacts made to the Child Maintenance Options service and the number of unique visits to the Child Maintenance Options website are provided in the attached table. The table also includes information on the successful outbound contacts.
I hope you find this answer helpful.
| Number of telephone contacts made to the Child Maintenance Options service July 2008 to September 2009 | ||
| Child Maintenance Options calls received( 1,2) | Number of successful contacts on outbound calls( 4) | |
Departmental Assets
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assets of her Department are planned to be sold in (a) 2009-10 and (b) 2010-11; what the (i) description and (ii) book value is of each such asset; what the expected revenue is from each such sale; and by what date each asset is expected to have been sold. [309924]
Jim Knight: The Government have stated their intention to realise £16 billion in asset disposals over the period 2011-14 and will publish further details of opportunities to commercialise business assets in the coming weeks.
One of this Department's key investment strategies during the 2004 Spending Review period was to reduce asset ownership and to contract for key services. The successful implementation of that strategy resulted in a greatly reduced asset base.
The DWP does not own any land or property. Asset transfer has already been completed through a PFI contract known as PRIME, returning exchequer receipts of £250m in 1998 and £100 million in 2003 when the Department outsourced its estate. This arrangement covers the majority of property occupied by the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission (a Crown non-departmental public body). There is currently no intention to sell any of the Commission's assets during the years in question.
Planned asset sales for the Health and Safety Executive (a Crown non-departmental public body) are outlined in the following table:
| £ 000 | ||||||||||
| 2009-10 | 2010-11 | 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | ||||||
| NBV | Sales | NBV | Sales | NBV | Sales | NBV | Sales | NBV | Sales | |
| (1) Vehicle sales are mainly related to the Health and Safety Executive's Private User Scheme which provides vehicles on a three year contract for staff travelling in excess of 5,000 business miles per annum on a shared cost basis and will occur over the course of the year as individual vehicles are replaced. (2) The land transactions relate to some very minor works at the Health and Safety Laboratory in Buxton mainly around improving access to the site. The timing of these transactions depends on a number of factors but should take place by March 2010 and April 2010 respectively. | ||||||||||
The DWP disposed of the majority of its vehicle fleet in August 2007. The Department's IS/IT and telephony requirements were outsourced to EDS (now part of Hewlett Packard) and BT in 2005.
Leasehold improvements to Jobcentre Plus sites are classed as assets but cannot be disposed of independently so the impact on value is negligible, as the assets themselves (the buildings) are not owned by the Department.
Departmental Domestic Visits
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many planned visits by Ministers in her Department within the UK were cancelled within 72 hours of the visit taking place in the last 12 months; and what the planned venue or venues were for each such visit. [309871]
Jim Knight: The information that requested could be provided only at disproportionate costs.
Departmental Freedom of Information
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many requests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 her Department received in 2008; and how many of these received a substantive response within 20 days. [305486]
Jim Knight: In 2008, this Department received 1,469 requests of which 63 per cent. were dealt with within the 20 working day deadline. However, in the first three quarters of this year an average of 76 per cent. have been met within 20 working days.
Departmental Sick Leave
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many days sickness absence were taken by staff in her Department and its agencies in each of the last 12 months; and what the cost to her Department was of such absence. [305552]
Jim Knight: Information about sick leave taken by staff in the Department for Work and Pensions is not reported in precisely the format requested. In accordance with cross-government arrangements, the Department reports sick leave using annual average working days lost (AWDL) per full-time employee. This is calculated and reported monthly on a rolling year basis.
| AWDL | ||||
| Agencies | ||||
| Jobcentre Plus | Pension, Disability and Carers Service | Other, including central directorates | DWP overall | |
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