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27 Jan 2010 : Column 968W—continued
Departmental Consultants
Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how much consultants employed by her Department and its agencies have been paid (a) in total and (b) in reimbursable expenses in each of the last 10 years. [314000]
Angela E. Smith: The information requested for the Cabinet Office is not readily available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Government Departments: Internet
Mr. Maude: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many of the 1,499 Government websites identified for closure in the Varney review have (a) been closed and (b) not been closed. [312184]
Angela E. Smith: I have asked the chief executive of the Central Office of Information to write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Mark Lund, dated 27 January 2010:
As Chief Executive of the Central Office of Information (COI), I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question [312184] regarding Government Websites.
The purpose of closing websites is to package the content appropriately for the intended audience and put into a place easy to find and useful for them. The Varney review requested Departments undertake Website Reviews because the number was not at that time known. We have now got a robust process for identifying and recording government websites. Of the 1,700 websites identified by Departments by 31 December 2009, 907 were closed with a further 479 committed to be closed that are not yet closed.
Mr. Maude: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office which websites were identified for closure by the Department Website Review; which of these have been closed; and what Department or other body sponsors or sponsored each website. [312302]
Angela E. Smith: I have asked the chief executive of the Central Office of Information to write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Mark Lund, dated 27 January 2010:
As Chief Executive of the Central Office of Information (COI), I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question [312302] regarding Government Websites.
Each Department is responsible for its own Website Review, with guidance and advice from the Cabinet Office and Central Office of Information. The list of websites that Departments have reported as closed and those which they have committed to close was placed in Parliament's Library. The list is the latest prepared and was up to date end of June 2009.
Government: Internet
Mr. Maude: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many websites are being operated by (a) Government departments, (b) executive agencies and (c) non-departmental public bodies. [312281]
Angela E. Smith: I have asked the chief executive of the Central Office of Information to write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Mark Lund, dated 27 January 2010:
As Chief Executive of the Central Office of Information (COI), I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question [312281] regarding Government Websites.
As of 31 December 2009, Departments have reported through their Website Reviews that they are operating 1,700 websites minus the 907 they have closed, i.e. 793. Of these, 182 are run by Departments and 611 by Executive Agencies and NDPBs. No central record is held that distinguishes between Executive Agencies and NDPBs.
Life Expectancy
Mrs. May:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what the average life expectancy was for (a) males and (b) females in each (i) local authority area, (ii)
parliamentary constituency, (iii) middle layer super output area and (iv) lower layer super output area in each of the last five years. [313164]
Angela E. Smith: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Stephen Penneck, dated 26 January 2010:
The Director General for the Office for National Statistics has been asked to reply to your recent question asking what the average life expectancy was for (a) males and (b) females in each (i) local authority area, (ii) parliamentary constituency, (iii) middle layer super output area and (iv) lower layer super output area in each of the last five years. I am replying in his absence. (313164)
Life expectancy figures are calculated as three-year rolling averages, and are published annually by ONS(1). A local government reorganisation took place on 1st April 2009, in which a number of former local authorities were merged to form new unitary authorities. Life expectancy figures on the latest boundaries are only available for 2006-08. Life expectancy figures based on the old boundaries are available for all five years (2002-04 to 2006-08). For completeness, both sets of figures have been provided in this Answer.
Table 1 provides the period life expectancy at birth for (a) males and (b) females in each (i) local authority in England and Wales, for 2002-04 to 2006-08 using pre-April 2009 boundaries. Table 2 provides the period life expectancy at birth for (a) males and (b) females in each (i) local authority in England and Wales, for 2006-08 using post-April 2009 boundaries (the latest figures available). A copy of each table has been placed in the House of Commons library.
Life expectancy figures for (ii) parliamentary constituencies, (iii) middle layer super output areas and (iv) lower layer super output areas are not available. Life expectancy cannot be reliably calculated for areas smaller than local authorities for similar time periods.
(1) Office for National Statistics (2009). Report: Life expectancy at birth and at age 65 by local areas in the United Kingdom, 2006-08. "Health Statistics Quarterly" 44, 59-68.
Married People
Mr. Laws: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many married couples there are in the UK; and how many such couples there are where both persons are under the age of 65, have not remarried, are living together in the same residence have children under the age of 18, and are not both in employment; and if she will make a statement. [312613]
Angela E. Smith: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Dennis Roberts, dated January 2010:
The Director General for the Office for National Statistics has been asked to reply to your request asking how many married couples there are in the UK; and how many such couples there are where both persons are under the age of 65, have not remarried, are living together in the same residence, have children under the age of 18, and are not both in employment; and if she will make a statement. I am replying in his absence. (312613)
The number and type of families in the UK can be estimated using Annual Population Survey (APS) household data. The table below shows 2008 estimates from the APS for the family types requested. It is not possible to estimate from this source whether couples have or have not remarried. In addition, figures are based on dependent children (children aged under 16 and those aged 16 to 18 who have never married and are in full time education) rather than all children under the age of 18.
For information, the estimate of married couples includes all married couples with and without children, and is the same as given in the letter from the Director General in Official Report 504, column 51.
Married People: Statistics
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what changes have been made to the mechanisms by which information on marital status has been collected by the Office for National Statistics since 1997. [313090]
Angela E. Smith: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Stephen Penneck, dated 26 January 2010:
As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your request to the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what changes have been made to the mechanisms by which information on marital status has been collected by the Office for National Statistics since 1997. (313090)
Information on marital status can be broadly separated into information that provides estimates of the population by marital status at a given point in time ('stocks'), and information on the movement of people between different marital status categories over a given period of time ('flows'). Both types of information are collected by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) through a variety of sources, and both types of information are used to calculate population estimates and projections by marital status. For most statistics on marital status, ONS currently publishes statistics for England and Wales only.
With regard to both stocks and flows, the main change since 1997 in the collection of information on marital status has been the introduction of civil partnerships. The Civil Partnership Act 2004 came into force on 5 December 2005 in the UK. The Act enables same-sex couples aged 16 and over to obtain legal recognition of their relationship. Other than this change, the collection of information on marital status has remained largely unchanged since 1997.
The main mechanisms for the collection of data on stock estimates by marital status are social surveys and censuses. Following the introduction of the Civil Partnership Act, questions in ONS social surveys (such as the Annual Population Survey) have been changed to allow the collection of information on the currently and previously civil partnered population. Information on revised survey questions is available in the following document:
"Harmonised Concepts and Questions for Social Data Sources: Primary Standards-Demographic information, household composition and relationships"
The main mechanism for the collection of data on changes in marital status (flows) is the registration of vital events. Data on birth, death, marriage and civil partnership registrations are collected by the General Register Office (GRO), which supplies
data to ONS for statistical purposes. Similarly, data on divorces and civil partnership dissolutions are supplied to ONS by the HM Court Service.
The main change in marital status vital event registration since 1997 has been the collection of data on the formation and legal dissolution of civil partnerships. In addition, changes have been made to the registration of deaths (to identify deaths of the currently and previously civil partnered population) and the registration of births by parents' marital status (related to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act). Information on civil partnerships is available at the link below.
Public Sector: Public Appointments
Mr. Drew: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office (1) whether she plans to encourage Select Committees to hold pre-appointment hearings in respect of public sector appointments; [311449]
(2) whether she has plans to provide to Select Committees information on candidates short-listed for an appointment in respect of which they hold pre-appointment hearings. [311450]
Tessa Jowell: The Government have introduced pre-appointments hearings as part of a wider programme of work to strengthen the role of Parliament. Policy on pre-appointment hearings is set out in the White Paper "The Governance of Britain-Constitutional Renewal". Copies are available from the Libraries of the House and online at:
Public Sector: Termination of Employment
Mr. Maude: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office whether her Department has issued guidance to Government departments on the termination of employment of public sector workers on grounds of inefficiency. [312293]
Angela E. Smith: The Cabinet Office has not issued any guidance to Government Departments on the termination of employment of public sector workers.
In relation the terms and conditions of service of staff, the Cabinet Office's remit covers the civil service.
Skin Cancer
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many cases of melanoma in (a) adults and (b) children have been reported in each primary care trust area since 1997. [313973]
Angela E. Smith: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Stephen Penneck, dated January 2010:
As Director General for Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many cases of melanoma in (a) adults and (b) children have been reported in each primary care trust area since 1997. [313973]
The latest available figures for newly diagnosed cases of melanoma (incidence) are for the year 2007. Please note that these numbers may not be the same as the number of people diagnosed with cancer, because one person may be diagnosed with more than one cancer.
The tables attached provide the number of melanoma cases reported in (a) adults aged 16 years and over, for each primary care organisation in England, from 1997 to 2007 {Table 1), and (b) children aged under 16 years in England, from 1997 to 2007 {Table 2). A copy has been placed in the House of Commons Library.
Figures have not been provided for children aged under 16 years for each primary care organisation, as these data are judged to be too detailed to preserve anonymity in cancer registration statistics.
Social Mobility Commission
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what criteria will be used to appoint members of the Social Mobility Commission announced in Cm 7755, Unleashing Aspiration; what the Commission's budget will be in its first year; and whether this funding will be additional to funding announced in the pre-Budget report. [312700]
Angela E. Smith: In 'Unleashing Aspirations', published on 18 January 2010, the Government set out their response to the final report of the Panel on Fair Access to the Professions, and agreed to establish a Social Mobility Commission. It will give expert advice to Government and report on progress towards a fairer, more mobile society.
A transition team has been set up within the Cabinet Office to make the necessary preparations for this Commission, which will follow shortly. The transition team will develop the detail of the Commission's governance, remit, funding and work programme. It will also advise on the appointment of members and the selection criteria for any appointments to the Commission.
The budget for the Social Mobility Commission has yet to be established, and will form part of the consideration of the transition team.
Business, Innovation and Skills
Apprentices: Torbay
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what estimate he has made of the number of apprenticeships which will be taken up by people over 24 years old in Torbay constituency in the next five years. [312864]
Kevin Brennan: Information on projected apprenticeship volumes is not available by parliamentary constituency.
In 2008/09, there were 190 apprenticeship starts by learners aged 25 and over in Torbay parliamentary constituency.
Nationally, in our Skills Strategy (Skills for Growth, November 2009) we promised to boost advanced and higher apprenticeship opportunities for 19 to 30-year-olds.
Notes:
1. Figures for parliamentary constituency are rounded to the nearest 10.
2. This figure is based on age at start of programme and upon the home postcode of the learner.
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