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1 Feb 2010 : Column 148W—continued
Crisis Loans
Jim Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many crisis loans were made in each social services authority area in England in (a) 2006-07, (b) 2007-08 and (c) 2008-09; and at what cost in each of those years. [313803]
Helen Goodman: The information is not available.
Departmental Public Expenditure
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much her Department spent on (a) new furnishings, (b) works of art and (c) new vehicles in each of the last two years. [312547]
Jonathan Shaw: The information requested on new furnishings and new vehicles is provided in the table.
Works of art displayed in the Department for Work and Pensions are from the Government Art Collection (GAC), which publishes an annual list of acquisitions. The most recent details of acquisitions made by the GAC were published on 5 October 2009 and are available on the GAC website:
| £ million | ||
| Financial year | Cost of new furnishings( 1) | Cost of new vehicles( 2) |
| (1) The provision of furnishings is for approximately 100,000 staff in 1,000 buildings and includes desks, chairs and other office furnishings. (2) The figures provided for the cost of new vehicles represent capital spend. The Department changed from purchasing to leasing vehicles in August 2007. (3) The DWP moved from outright purchase of vehicles to leasing in 2007. The overall cost of the vehicle fleet was £9.992 million. However, this cost includes charges for all vehicles, service and maintenance charges, Road Fund Licence and accident management services etc. | ||
Departmental Telephone Services
Andrew Selous: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate she has made of the cost to callers to her Department's telephone helplines with the prefix of (a) 0845 and (b) 0844 in the last 12 months; and if she will make a statement. [313468]
Jim Knight [holding answer 26 January 2010]: The cost of calls to the Department's 0845 numbers will vary according to each service provider, who will determine their own costs. BT landlines charge the lowest tariff and 70 per cent. of DWP callers do so from a BT landline. BT provide free 0845 calls if the call is made within the individual caller's call plan. The cost of calls to 0845 numbers from mobile phones will also vary according to which mobile operator a customer uses.
It would not, therefore, be possible to determine the cost of calls to the Department's 0845 telephone numbers.
The Department does not use 0844 telephone numbers.
Employment and Support Allowance
Mr. Streeter: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment her Department has made of the compliance of the benefits application process for employment and support allowance with disability discrimination legislation. [310930]
Jonathan Shaw:
Jobcentre Plus conducted an Equality Impact Assessment of employment and support allowance prior to its introduction in October 2008. This included
the process for benefit applications. The screening stage of the assessment concluded that the introduction of employment and support allowance is not likely to discriminate unlawfully or have an unfair effect on particular groups of people.
Employment and Support Allowance: Mentally Ill
Hazel Blears: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of employment and support allowance claimants with mental health problems scored enough points to be considered unable to work in 2009. [313319]
Jonathan Shaw: The information requested is not available at the moment. Data will become available in the near future.
Employment Schemes: Young People
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many places the Government have made available under the Young Person's Guarantee excluding those from the Future Jobs Fund; and if she will make a statement. [312871]
Jim Knight: The Young Person's Guarantee went live on 25 of January and therefore we have no figures of places to date. However, we will make sufficient places available to ensure all eligible young people are delivered the Young Person's Guarantee through a combination of the initiatives in Backing Young Britain, the existing 6 Month Offer, the Future Jobs Fund, Routes into Work, training and the Community Task Force, which will underpin the offer. We have designed the Community Task Force procurement to offer the necessary flexibility to respond to changing volumes and demand for places. The information on numbers of young people participating is not available as DWP does not project unemployment.
The Young Persons Guarantee places will be demand led and all young people claiming past six months will be guaranteed a job, work-focused training, or work experience. A personal adviser will work with them to create a personalised back to work plan, ensuring they receive the most appropriate help to return to work quickly.
Flexible Working: Parents
Chloe Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many parents of young children have requested flexible working in (a) each region and (b) Norwich, North constituency since the Employment Act 2002 came into force. [301695]
Mr. McFadden: I have been asked to reply.
The proportion of employees with children (under 16 years old) who have requested to work flexibly and the acceptance rate for these requests by region and nation in Great Britain are provided in the following table. These figures are from the Flexible Working Survey (2005) and information is not available for the Norwich, North constituency.
The new employment rights introduced on April 2003 gave parents of children under six and disabled children under 18 the right to request flexible working, this was extended to carers in April 2007 and parents of children aged 16 and under in April 2009. The Flexible Working Survey was conducted in January 2005 and respondents were asked to consider whether they made
a request to their current employer in the last two years. BIS' Work Life Balance Survey (2006) and EHRC's YouGov Survey of Parents' Attitudes to Work, Care and Family Life (2008) provide more recent information on requests to work flexibly, but cannot provide robust data by region due to their smaller sample sizes.
| Requests to work flexibly over last two years, employees with children | ||
| Percentage | ||
| Employees with children (under 16) requests for flexible working | Acceptance (fully and partially) | |
| (1) Reliable figures are not available due to small sample sizes. Source: Flexible Working Employee Survey 2005 | ||
Institution of Occupational Safety and Health: Finance
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what funding (a) her Department and (b) the Health and Safety Executive has provided to the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health in 2009-10. [311786]
Jonathan Shaw: To date, DWP has not provided any funding to the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) in the financial year 2009-10.
To date, HSE has not provided any direct funding to IOSH in financial year 2009-10.
HSE is funding a feasibility study by the Chartered Institute for Environmental Health (CIEH) and IOSH on an accreditation system for health and safety professionals. HSE's contract is with CIEH, which will receive £42,000. CIEH will pay IOSH for the work that it carries out on the project.
New Deal for Young People: Salford
Hazel Blears: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many young people in the City of Salford have participated in the New Deal for Young People in each year since its introduction. [311670]
Jim Knight: The available information can be found in the following table:
| New deal for young people-starters (spells): Salford parliamentary constituency, time series by year of starting the new deal | |
| Number | |
| Notes: 1. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10. Some additional disclosure control has also been applied. Totals may not sum due to rounding. 2. The latest new deal figures will be affected by the introduction of the new jobseeker's regime and flexible new deal (gradual implementation started from April 2009). 3. Westminster parliamentary constituency (post May 2005) is allocated using ONS Postcode Directory and customer's postcode. 4. The new deal for young people pilots began in January 1998 and full national roll-out occurred in April 1998. 5. Latest data are to August 2009. Source: Department for Work and Pensions, Information Directorate. | |
New Deal Schemes: Nottingham
Mr. Allen: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in Nottingham, North constituency have been assisted into work through the New Deal since 1997. [308296]
Jim Knight: The information requested is in the following table:
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