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12 Mar 2010 : Column 492W—continued
introduce a network of care partnership managers
provide training for care partnership managers and Jobcentre Plus advisers
introduce a job search tool to identify jobs that offer flexible working, and
fund replacement care from December 2009 for carers participating in approved training.
As at February 2010, Jobcentre Plus have invested £2 million to fund the recruitment and salaries of care partnership managers in each Jobcentre Plus district and the training of Jobcentre Plus advisers, nationally. The £2 million invested to the end of February 2010 is on budget and to schedule.
Of the funding set aside for replacement care from December 2009, it is too early to report expenditure at this stage.
Additionally, many carers already have access to separately funded employment programmes because of their other circumstances, for example, lone parents or partners of people claiming benefit.
Children: Maintenance
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what (a) value and (b) percentage of payments to the Child Support Agency were made by credit card in each of the last three years. [318743]
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, what (a) value and (b) percentage of payments to the Child Support Agency were made by credit card in each of the last three years. [318743]
The value and percentage of payments to the Child Support Agency made only by credit card is not available.
I am sorry on this occasion I cannot be more helpful.
Community Development: Expenditure
Justine Greening: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much funding has been granted under the Deprived Area Fund in each (a) local authority and (b) lower layer super output area in each year since 2000. [318264]
Angela Eagle: The Deprived Areas Fund (DAF) was created in 2006. Allocations are calculated on the basis of the relative levels of worklessness at ward level.
For the available information on the allocations for 2006-07 and 2007-08, I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to her on 25 February 2009, Official Report, columns 783-5W.
From April 2008 onwards the DAF in England has been pooled with resources from Communities and Local Government to form the Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF).
It is not possible to provide a further breakdown of DAF at either local authority or lower super output area level as the allocation of the fund is not defined by such boundaries.
Council Tax Benefits and Housing Benefit: Tyne and Wear
Jim Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many (a) housing benefit and (b) council tax benefit recipients there were in (i) the City of Newcastle, (ii) South Tyneside, (iii) North Tyneside and (iv) Gateshead in each quarter between February 2007 and February 2010. [321119]
Jonathan Shaw: The available information is in the tables
| Housing benefit recipients in Tyneside local authorities; quarterly February 2007 to August 2007 | |||
| 2007 | |||
| February | May | August | |
| Council tax benefit recipients in Tyneside local authorities; quarterly February 2007to August 2007 | |||
| 2007 | |||
| February | May | August | |
| Notes: 1. The data refers to benefit units, which may be a single person or a couple. 2. The figures have been rounded to the nearest 10. 3. Figures for any non-responding authorities have been estimated. 4. Housing benefit figures exclude any extended payment cases. 5. Council tax benefit figures exclude any single adult rebate cases. 6. Figures are at the second Thursday in each month provided. Source: Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit Management Information System Quarterly 100 per cent. taken in February 2000 - August 2007 | |||
| Housing benefit recipients in Tyneside local authorities; quarterly November 2008 to November 2009 | |||||
| 2008 | 2009 | ||||
| November | February | May | August | November | |
| Council tax benefit recipients in Tyneside local authorities; quarterly November 2008 to November 2009 | |||||
| 2008 | 2009 | ||||
| November | February | May | August | November | |
| Notes: 1. The data refers to benefit units, which may be a single person or a couple. 2. The figures have been rounded to the nearest 10. 3. Figures for any non-responding authorities have been estimated. 4. Housing benefit figures exclude any extended payment cases. 5. Council tax benefit figures exclude any single adult rebate cases. 6. SHBE is a monthly electronic scan of claimant level data direct from local authority computer systems. It replaces quarterly aggregate clerical returns. These data are available monthly from November 2008 and November 2009 is the most recent available. 7. Data from SHBE incorporates the local authority changes from 1 April 2009. 8. Figures are at the second Thursday in each month provided. Source: Single Housing Benefit Extract (SHBE) for October 2009 and November 2008 taken from Table 8 and Table 14 of publication at: http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd1/hb_ctb/HBCTB19082009.xls | |||||
Departmental Carbon Emissions
John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether (a) her Department, (b) its agencies and (c) associated non-departmental public bodies plan to sign up to the 10:10 campaign for cutting carbon usage in 2010; and if she will publish the (i) criteria and (ii) research upon which such a decision will be taken. [312113]
Jonathan Shaw: My Department, its agencies and associated non-departmental public bodies have not signed up to the 10:10 campaign to cut carbon emissions in 2010, but are supportive of the aims of the campaign.
My Department has delivered significant reductions in carbon emissions from our buildings and road travel, by 14 per cent. and 30 per cent. respectively over the last two years. In 2007-08 an estates emissions reduction of 10.8 per cent. was achieved. While this proves that such a reduction is possible, my Department continues to bear a significantly increased work load to support those impacted by the recession. While we remain committed to the achievement of the carbon reductions targets from Sustainable Operations on the Government Estate (our progress is detailed in the Sustainable Development in Government report), it is the opinion of my officials that it would be unrealistic for the Department to commit to a further 10 per cent. reduction in a single year from an already low baseline and with an expanding business.
During December my Department has achieved the Carbon Trust Standard, and we remain committed to actively reducing our carbon emissions. We will exploit, where possible, low carbon technologies and we will be shortly relaunching our energy efficiency campaign across our estate.
Departmental Catering
Mr. Philip Hammond:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the monetary value was of the subsidy paid by her Department in respect of food and drink on sale to staff of (a) her Department and
(b) each of its agencies at official premises in each of the last five years. [320502]
Jonathan Shaw: The Department provides an annual subsidy for various catering outlets that sell food and drink to staff. This subsidy allows outlets to remain viable and varies depending on a number of factors, such as location and canteen usage. There are currently 129 sites with catering outlets, housing around 39,000 staff.
The total value of the subsidy paid by the department for each of the five years is in the following table:
| £ million | |
Departmental Manpower
Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many external contractors were employed by her Department in the last 12 months; and at what cost to the public purse; [313764]
(2) for how long on average staff on interim contracts are employed by her Department; [313765]
(3) how many people in her Department are employed on interim contracts; and at what cost to the public purse. [313766]
Jonathan Shaw [holding answer 28 January 2010]: Contractors and interims are individuals engaged by the Department to provide specific skills or support that is not available in-house or within the required time frame.
The number of contractors/interims working in December 2009 within DWP on that basis was 355. This should be seen in the context of a Department employing well over 100,000 staff. Such contractors are only engaged with the prior approval of an appropriate senior civil servant and their agreement can only be extended beyond 12 months with the approval of the permanent secretary.
During the period from January to December 2009 (inclusive) the associated spend on such contractors was approximately £43 million.
The average tenure of an interim appointment within DWP is currently 9.7 months.
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many and what proportion of staff in (a) her Department and (b) the executive agencies for which she is responsible are disabled; and what the average salary in (i) her Department and (ii) the executive agencies is of (A) full-time disabled staff, (B) full-time non-disabled staff, (C) part-time disabled staff and (D) part-time non-disabled staff. [317900]
Jonathan Shaw:
We are aware that not all staff declare their disability for departmental records, and the true representation of disabled people across the Department may be higher than the figures shown. For example, the 2009 People survey (which is completed anonymously),
showed that 10.5 per cent. of respondents considered themselves to have a long standing health condition or disability.
Due to the self-reporting nature of disability and the process by which part time salaries are up-rated in order that they are comparable to full-time staff salaries, care should be exercised when drawing conclusions based on these statistics. The following table shows the numbers and proportion of disabled and non disabled staff for DWP and its executive agencies.
| Disabled | Non Disabled | Not declared or non-response | Disabled as a percentage of known disability status | |
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