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17 Nov 2010 : Column 814W—continued

Police

Mark Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on how many occasions the police have entered premises for which they did not possess an appropriate warrant during raids (a) nationally and (b) in Milton Keynes in each of the last three years. [23954]

Nick Herbert: The information is not available centrally.

Police: Demonstrations

Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what reports she has received from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) on (a) the estimated cost of the damage caused and (b) the estimated number of criminal offences committed in the course of the demonstration in London on 10 November 2010; how many arrests were made; how many people were stopped and searched in connection with the demonstration; what the cost to the MPS was of policing the demonstration; what the policy of the MPS is on recovering policing costs from organisers of demonstrations; and if she will make a statement. [24008]

Nick Herbert [holding answer 15 November 2010]: I refer my hon. Friend to the statement I gave to the House on 11 November 2010, Official Report, columns 457-468, on public disorder at the National Union of
17 Nov 2010 : Column 815W
Students rally. As of 11 November, 47 arrests were made by the Metropolitan Police Service and three arrests by the British Transport Police. The Metropolitan Police Service will be carrying out a comprehensive post-incident investigation and will report to the Metropolitan Police Authority on its findings.

Police: Helicopters

Jack Lopresti: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment she has made of the likely effects of the relocation of the Police response helicopter based at Filton Airfield to RAF Colerne on the ability of the proposed National Police Air Service to reduce crime. [24167]

Nick Herbert: A helicopter is one of a number of assets that can be used by the police to tackle crime. The effects of relocating air support from Filton airfield to RAF Colerne have been carefully considered in the development of the proposed National Police Air Service.

The proposal will mean that the Western Counties aircraft is better placed to meet both urban and rural demand for air support, while offering better value for money for the taxpayer.

Police: Radiation Exposure

Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what (a) national and (b) local agreements there are in relation to the radiation dose uptake limitation system adopted by each police force when attending a radiation emergency at each of the nuclear powered submarine operational berths maintained by the Ministry of Defence as required by Regulation 14 of the Radiation (Emergency Preparedness and Public Information) Regulations 2001. [23633]

Nick Herbert: The Home Office does not hold the information requested. The health and safety of police officers is the responsibility of the relevant chief officer. In relation to potential radiation exposure, local police operational response plans will be informed by appropriate national guidance including for example, that issued by the Health and Safety Executive (including the Radiation (Emergency Preparedness and Public Information) Regulations 2001) and the Health Protection Agency, as well as advice provided to local forces by Ministry of Defence personnel regarding any relevant military facilities located within a particular force area.

Rape

Alan Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps she plans to take to reduce the incidence of (a) sexual assault on women and (b) rape. [16056]

Mrs May [holding answer 11 October 2010]: Reducing the incidence of rape and sexual assault requires effective prevention, the conviction of offenders and the robust management of perpetrators and serial offenders.

In addition, the Government's focus is on the rights and welfare of the victim and we are committed to ensuring that every victim of rape has access to appropriate support. In particular, we are looking at putting funding
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for rape crisis services on a more sustainable basis and looking at establishing new rape crisis centres where there are gaps in provision.

Baroness Stern led an independent review into the way rape complaints are handled by public authorities in England and Wales. The Government will be responding fully to Baroness Stern's review in spring 2011.

The Government are working to support agencies in the criminal justice system to ensure that the effective investigation and prosecution of rape results in the conviction of offenders, in addition, HM Inspectorate Constabulary and HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate are currently taking forward an inspection that focuses on the management of perpetrators, handling of intelligence on suspects and protection of victims from repeat offenders.

Rescue Services

Rory Stewart: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what division of her Department has responsibility for mountain rescue services; and if she will make a statement. [24027]

Nick Herbert: The Finance and Strategy Directorate has co-ordinating responsibility for queries on mountain rescue services across Government.

The following Departments retain responsibility of aspects of mountain rescue services:

Safer Neighbourhood Teams

Conor Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans she has to assist the work of Safer Neighbourhood teams in the current Parliament. [24062]

Nick Herbert: The Government support neighbourhood policing which provides a dedicated, consistent and visible presence in communities, tackling crime and antisocial behaviour. Neighbourhood policing strengthens the public's confidence that the criminal justice system is on their side, encouraging them to play their own part in keeping their communities safe. Police community support officers make an important contribution to the visible and available policing the public wish to see.

We will transfer power in policing, replacing bureaucratic accountability with democratic accountability. Police and Crime Commissioners will be directly elected by the public and hold the police to account for their performance, including the quality of neighbourhood policing.

Neighbourhood policing teams will hold regular beat meetings to provide residents with the opportunity to hold them to account and local crime maps will give the public information on crime in their area.


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Sexual Offences: Registration

Alun Cairns: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps her Department plans to take in response to the Supreme Court judgement on the Violent and Sex Offenders Register and Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. [24319]

James Brokenshire [holding answer 16 November 2010]: On 21 April 2010, in the case of R (on the application of F and Angus Aubrey Thompson) v. Secretary of State for the Home Department (2010) UKSC 17, the Supreme Court declared the present arrangements requiring the indefinite registration of offenders under the Sexual Offences Act 2003, without the prospect of review, to be incompatible with article 8 of the European convention on human rights (ECHR). The effect of a declaration of incompatibility is not to render the relevant primary legislation invalid. Rather, such legislation remains in force until such time as the Government amend it. Protecting the public is a priority for the Home Office and the Secretary of State is considering the judgment carefully and liaising with partners in order to ascertain how best to give effect to the Court's judgment.

South Yorkshire

Angela Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the visit to Penistone and Stocksbridge constituency by a Minister in her Department on 4 November 2010 was classified as an official ministerial visit. [23079]

Lynne Featherstone: There were no official visits to the Penistone and Stocksbridge constituency by Ministers on this date. I visited a local initiative in a private capacity.

Terrorism: Detainees

Alan Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment she has made of the conclusions of the July 2010 report of the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation in respect of the effects on national security of a reduction to 14 days of the maximum permissible pre-charge detention period. [15418]

Mrs May [holding answer 14 September 2010]: The maximum period that terrorists suspects can be detained before charge, including how this period can be reduced below 28 days, is being considered as part of my review of six key counter-terrorism and security powers that I announced to the House on 13 July. The review is taking into account a wide range of contributions, including the reports of Lord Carlile, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation. The outcome of the review will be reported to Parliament.

Treasury

Charities: Finance

Chris Ruane: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much Government funding was allocated to charities in each of the last 10 years; and what estimate
17 Nov 2010 : Column 818W
he has made of the amount of funding to be allocated to charities in each of the next five years. [24211]

Justine Greening: Public funds reach charities through a variety of mechanisms, such as tax reliefs, grants, public service contracts, match-funding etc. It is therefore difficult to calculate total figures for Government allocation of funding to charities and information on this is not held centrally.

The spending review set out a £470 million package of support for the sector including funding for an endowment fund (Community First) to help support local organisations, in addition to a £100 million transition fund. In addition, the Big Society Bank, funded by dormant account funds, will provide a new source of finance for the sector and will leverage in additional private sector resources.

Corporation Tax: Redcar

Ian Swales: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the effect on businesses in Redcar constituency of the reduction in the small profits rate of corporation tax. [23957]

Mr Gauke: No assessment is available on the effect on businesses in Redcar constituency of the reduction in the small profits rate of corporation tax.

Excise Duties: Beer

Stephen Barclay: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much revenue is raised from a pint of beer of average price sold in (a) a pub and (b) a supermarket; and whether he has plans to provide support for pubs through fiscal measures. [24313]

Justine Greening [holding answer 16 November 2010]: Beer duty is levied according to the alcoholic strength of the product, and the same duty rate applies to all products regardless of their point of sale. In addition to excise duty, alcohol products are subject to VAT. The following table shows average prices and tax revenue on a pint of beer of 4.2% abv.

£

Average price Duty VAT Total tax

(a) On-trade

2.73

0.41

0.41

0.82

(b) Off-trade

1.11

0.41

0.17

0.58


At the June Budget a number of measures were announced to boost business, from which pubs will benefit. These include a reduction in corporation tax rates, and reduced employers' national insurance contributions.

Investment

Chris Ruane: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the annual change in the level of business investment was in each of the last five years; and what estimate he has made of the likely change in that level in each of the next five years. [24225]


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Justine Greening: Business investment growth was 4.5% in 2005, 4.8% in 2006, 12.5% in 2007, -1.1% in 2008 and -18.8% in 2009. On 22 June 2010 the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecast business investment to grow by 1.4% in 2010, 8.1% in 2011, 10.0% in 2012, 10.9% in 2013, 9.5% in 2014 and 8.2% in 2015. The OBR will publish an updated forecast on 29 November.

Members: Correspondence

Mr Chope: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he plans to reply to the letter from the hon. Member for Christchurch of 4 October on Antony Bone. [24690]

Mr Hoban: I have replied to the hon. Member.

Child Poverty

Mr Umunna: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) whether his assessment that the outcomes of the Comprehensive Spending Review would have no measurable impact on child poverty for the next two years was made in respect of the period ending in March 2012; [24030]

(2) whether his assessment that the outcomes of the Comprehensive Spending Review would have no measurable impact on child poverty for the next two years took account of the provisions relating to the (a) relative low income, (b) combined low income and material deprivation, (c) absolute low income and (d) the persistent poverty target in the Child Poverty Act 2010; and if he will make a statement; [24031]

(3) whether the tax and benefit microsimulation model used as the basis for his assessment that the outcomes of the Comprehensive Spending Review would have no measurable impact on child poverty for the next two years took account of the Government's proposed changes to (a) housing benefit, (b) council tax benefit, (c) disability living allowance, (d) employment support allowance and (e) in-year income change rules for tax credits; and if he will make a statement; [24032]

(4) what account he took of his estimate of likely reductions in the numbers of public sector jobs in determining that the outcomes of the Comprehensive Spending Review would have no measurable impact on child poverty for the next two years; and if he will make a statement. [24033]

Justine Greening: The estimate that the impact of spending review measures would have no measurable impact on child poverty over the next two years was made in respect of relative low income poverty, and covers the period April 2011 to end March 2013.

The data sources document accompanying the spending review sets out the measures which are included in this assessment.

There is no central target for public sector workforce reductions. Individual employers will determine exact work force implications in line with their overall settlements. In addition, the data underpinning the Treasury's microsimulation model do not record whether individuals work in the public or private sector, which means that it is not possible to allocate any changes in work force numbers to individuals in the data in a sufficiently
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robust way. Accordingly, it was not possible to robustly estimate the impact of reductions in public sector jobs on child poverty at spending review.

Public Expenditure: Wales and Scotland

Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the Barnett consequentials for (a) Wales and (b) Scotland will be of his decision to limit the geographic scope of the Cycling England programme to England; and if he will make a statement. [24515]

Danny Alexander: Barnett consequentials are calculated at departmental, not individual programme, level. Full details of the Barnett formula, together with up to date comparability factors are set out in the 2010 edition of the Treasury publication 'Funding the Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales and Northern Ireland Assembly: Statement of Funding Policy'.

Public Sector: Employment

Chris Ruane: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many public sector jobs he expects there to be in each region in each of the next five years. [24229]

Danny Alexander: The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) released, as part of its Budget forecasts on 22 June 2010, projections for whole economy employment to 2015-16.

Further information on its employment forecast, including projections for general Government employment, was released on 30 June 2010 in its document "OBR forecast: Employment", which can be found on the following webpage:

A revised forecast will be released on 29 November 2010.

The OBR has not published forecasts on a sub-national level.

Tax Evasion

Dr Whiteford: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many (a) individuals and (b) organisations HM Revenue and Customs has (i) investigated and (ii) prosecuted for offences related to tax evasion in each of the last five years. [13418]

Mr Gauke: HMRC does not hesitate to use its criminal investigation powers to pursue a prosecution, however, cost-effective civil settlement procedures are used in the majority of evasion cases. This represents excellent value for the Exchequer, as all undeclared tax is repaid and they also pay a penalty which can be up to 100% of the tax evaded. Every year we collect millions of pounds of evaded tax using these tried, well-established methods.

Compliance officers at all grades are engaged in a wide range of activities, which may include risk assessment, recovery of underpaid tax, the prevention of further tax losses, debt collection and the deterrence of tax evasion through, for example criminal investigation. The number of interventions these officers carried out in 2008-09 totalled approximately 400,000 excluding our education interventions.


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A disaggregated breakdown of HMRC's investigations between individuals and organisations is available only at disproportionate cost.

Details of the number of cases prosecuted for income tax, corporation tax, VAT and excise evasion are:

Number

2006-07

384

2007-08

413

2008-09

306

2009-10

225


Energy and Climate Change

Carbon Emissions

Joan Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what his most recent assessment is of the effect on the reduction of UK greenhouse gas emissions of carbon sink failure. [23809]

Gregory Barker: As indicated in my response to the hon. Member's question on 15 November 2010, Official Report, column 601W, carbon sink failure at the global level is very unlikely. Any weakening of carbon sinks would reduce the global allowable emissions for a given temperature target, but projections for emissions reductions in accordance with a 2° C target take this factor into account. Because we do not expect that global carbon sink failure is a likely scenario it is not expected to have an impact on UK emissions reductions. The UK's carbon budgets under the Climate Change Act, combine both emissions and uptake from sinks. These are reported via the UK Greenhouse Gas Inventory funded by my Department, and increases or decreases in sinks are taken into account in measuring how the UK is meeting its carbon budgets.

Departmental Computer Software

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what assessment was made in developing the 2050 Energy Pathways calculator tool of the merits of making it operate using Open Source software; what factors underpinned the choice of Microsoft Excel for PCs 2007 and 2010 for the tool; and what evaluation was made of the effects of the cost of obtaining this software on the likely levels of use of the calculator tool. [23890]

Gregory Barker: The 2050 Pathways Calculator is open source: the full model is available for inspection, improvement and reuse by anyone. As a result, the Department has received useful suggestions about how to improve the model during the Call for Evidence period which ran between 27 July and 5 October 2010. The file format is .xlxs, which is documented in the ECMA-376 international standard and therefore could be implemented by an open source equivalent to Excel.

The only software that implements the file format sufficiently for the model to run is Microsoft Excel for PCs 2007 and 2010, and Microsoft Excel for Macs 2011. The reason is that the model includes "structured references" and these have not been implemented by
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open source Excel alternatives. Structured references were implemented in the "Excel to Ruby programming language" convertor which was released by the Department under an open source licence as part of the source code for the web version of the 2050 Calculator.

In evaluating the consequences of the use of structured references, it was concluded that the benefit that structured references gave of allowing the model to be implemented and updated accurately within the time available outweighed the drawback of its inability to run on open source alternatives. This drawback was further mitigated by the availability of trial copies of appropriate versions of Microsoft Excel (which were free at the time of the Call for Evidence) and which meant that most people would be able to make use of the 2050 Calculator tool during the Call for Evidence period of the project.

EU Emissions Trading Scheme

Gordon Banks: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change (1) whether he has made an assessment of the net effect of the implementation of the European Commission's proposed hybrid clinker benchmark for phase III of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme on environmental quality standards; [23591]

(2) what assessment he has made of the likely net contribution of the implementation of the European Commission's proposed hybrid clinker benchmark for phase III of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme to meeting his Department's UK carbon budget targets; [23592]

(3) whether he has made an assessment of the potential for carbon leakage as a result of the implementation of the European Commission's proposal for a hybrid clinker benchmark for phase III of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme; [23593]

(4) whether he has had discussions with the European Commission on the methodology it used to determine the reduction factors proposed in relation to the clinker benchmark to be adopted under phase III of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme; [23594]

(5) what estimate he has made of the cost to businesses of complying with the European Commission's proposed hybrid clinker benchmark for phase III of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. [23596]

Gregory Barker: The European Commission's proposal for the free allocation rules for phase III of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) was sent to member states on 22 October. My officials are working closely with colleagues in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to analyse the proposal in detail in order to assess its impact on UK industry. My officials have met with representatives of the UK cement sector in order to discuss the proposal to ensure that we have a full understanding of the implications of the proposed approach. They will also be having discussions with the European Commission on this issue and further discussions with industry before any conclusions are reached.

Feed-in Tariffs

Jack Lopresti: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change whether feed-in tariffs are guaranteed for 25 years for new installations; and what factors would lead to their withdrawal. [23721]


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Charles Hendry: The recent announcements in the comprehensive spending review confirmed any changes to feed-in tariffs as a result of future reviews of the scheme will only affect new entrants to the scheme from that point forward. The Government have no intention of changing tariffs for those already receiving FITs.

Fuel Poverty: Meters

Tom Greatrex: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change if he will take steps to increase the level of awareness among prepayment meter users in or at risk of fuel poverty of the (a) availability of funding from energy efficiency programmes and (b) possibility of carrying out improvement works without a landlord's permission. [24504]

Gregory Barker: The Government are committed to helping those households who are in fuel poverty. We recognise the need to help more of the most vulnerable to keep their homes warm at an affordable cost. Current schemes, including Warm Front and the carbon emissions reduction target (CERT) promote awareness across all customers, including those who have prepayment meters.

In addition, from late 2012 the new energy company obligation, as part of our Green Deal initiative, will focus particularly on those households who need additional support, including the poorest and most vulnerable and those in hard to treat homes.

Energy efficiency improvement works under the Green Deal will require a landlord's permission. However, we are seeking to create powers in the Energy Security and Green Economy Bill which could require landlords to honour reasonable requests for energy efficiency improvements, where a financial support package, such as the Green Deal, is available.

Heat Pumps

Mr Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change if he will bring forward proposals to establish a system of independent verification of the average service life of air-sourced heat pumps. [24695]

Gregory Barker: We have no plans to bring forward such proposals. As with other microgeneration technologies, heat pumps are dealt with under the microgeneration certification scheme but this does not cover average service life.

Service life is influenced by many factors including heat pump design, component selection, installation and maintenance, actual use against expected use, number of hours run, reliability of the sub-components and level of manufacturer support. Verification of average life taking account of all these variables would be an extremely resource intensive activity.

Heating: Fluorocarbons

Mr Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what information his Department holds on the proportion of installed heat pumps which use the refrigerant fluorocarbon gas, R404A. [24691]

Gregory Barker: The Department does not hold specific information on the proportion of heat pumps that use refrigerant R404A. A recent study, undertaken by AEA
17 Nov 2010 : Column 824W
into refrigerant emissions and forecasts, identified only one refrigerant gas emitted from heat pumps- HFC 134.

It might be concluded from this that only a very small proportion of heat pumps use refrigerant R404A. However the authors of the study indicated that it was not easy to locate information about the fluids and refrigerant charge size used in ground and air source heat pumps.

Nuclear Power

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what estimate he has made of the cost of hardening all UK civil nuclear installations against attack from land or sea-launched precision-guided penetrator weapons. [23897]

Charles Hendry: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave her on 15 November 2010, Official Report, column 609W. It is important that security measures adopted at civil nuclear installations are proportionate to the threat. Nuclear site licence companies are responsible for meeting the costs of security measures.

Renewable Energy

Mr Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what steps he is taking to increase the amount of electricity generated from renewable sources. [22715]

Charles Hendry: The main financial mechanisms that the Government have to incentivise the generation of renewable electricity are the renewables obligation (RO) and the feed-in tariff (FIT) scheme:

We are also addressing the non-financial barriers to deployment:

We will publish our renewables delivery plan in the spring. This will set out the actions necessary to drive faster deployment of renewables through the decade.

Stephen Barclay: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what assessment he has made of likely sources of funding to meet the cost of reaching renewable energy targets by 2020. [23835]

Charles Hendry [holding answer 12 November 2010]: We expect funding to help meet our renewable energy target to come from a mix of sources including the renewable financial incentives, direct public funding to support innovation, and private investment.

The main financial mechanisms that the Government have to incentivise the generation of renewable electricity are the renewables obligation (RO) and the feed-in tariff (FIT) scheme, with the renewable heat incentive due to go ahead in June 2011 to support renewable heat.

We are due to publish the electricity market reform consultation document next month. This will set out proposals for changes to the existing market in order to meet our renewables and decarbonisation goals. But whatever the proposal, Government understand the need for investor certainty and protection of existing investments.

Renewable Energy: Israel

Richard Harrington: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what recent steps he has taken to increase levels of energy efficiency; and whether he has assessed the merits of working together with Israel on the development of (a) solar and (b) other renewable energy systems for the purpose of increasing those levels. [24643]

Gregory Barker: The coalition Government have taken a number of significant steps to improve energy efficiency. Key policies include developing the Green Deal to drive major improvements in the energy efficiency of homes and businesses; committing to reducing carbon emissions from central Government by 10% by May 2011; and committing to the rollout of smart meters.

While DECC does engage with Israel through multilateral fora that seek to promote renewable energy-such as the International Renewable Energy Agency-and while
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the UK and Israel are both members of the International Energy Agency's Photovoltaic Power Systems R&D collaboration programme, no specific work has been done by the Department to engage Israel further on either solar or other renewable energy technologies.

Warm Front Scheme

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what plans he has for the future of the eligibility criteria for the Warm Front scheme; and if he will ensure that those who are eligible for assistance under the scheme on the sole ground that they may receive disability living allowance continue to be eligible for such assistance. [24483]

Gregory Barker: As announced in the spending review, DECC will fund a smaller, more targeted Warm Front scheme over the next two years as we transition to the full role out of the Green Deal.

We will shortly be consulting on proposed changes to Warm Front to ensure the eligibility criteria reflect our determination to focus on the most vulnerable households.

Warm Front Scheme: Fuel Poverty

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what assessment he has made of the likely effects on those in fuel poverty of the proposed reductions in funding for the Warm Front scheme in the next two financial years. [24482]

Gregory Barker: The spending review commits very significant resources to tackling fuel poverty. DECC will fund a smaller, more targeted Warm Front scheme over the next two years as we transition to the full roll out of the Green Deal and the energy company obligation. We will shortly be consulting on proposed changes to Warm Front to ensure the eligibility criteria reflect our determination to focus on the most vulnerable households. We have made permanent the increase to cold weather payments at £25 a week to help low income households during periods of cold weather. In addition, from April 2011, energy suppliers will provide greater help with energy bills to more of the most vulnerable fuel poor households, through social price support.

Work and Pensions

Care Homes: Boilers

Mr Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps he plans to take to ensure that hot water tanks heated by heat pumps comply with health and safety legislation designed to ensure control of legionella in (a) residential homes and (b) Government buildings. [24692]

Chris Grayling: Existing health and safety legislation requires all employers who manage premises with a hot/cold water system to consider the risks from legionella bacteria that may affect their staff or members of the public and to take suitable precautions. These requirements extend to Government Departments. Commercial businesses or public services that provide residential accommodation have the same responsibility as employers
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if, in general, they are responsible for the maintenance and repairs of the water system at the premises. The use of new energy saving technology to heat water, including heat pumps, does not in itself introduce a new legionella bacteria risk. HSE has published guidance to assist employers, which is freely available from HSE's website.

Carer's Allowance

Cathy Jamieson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the cost of allowing carers who are enrolled in courses designated as full-time or in training for more than 20 hours per week to receive carer's allowance in the first 12 months following such a change. [22637]

Maria Miller: No such estimate has been made.

Carer's allowance provides a measure of financial support for people who forgo the opportunity of full-time employment in order to provide care for a severely disabled person.

The educational maintenance system, via its range of loans and grants, provides financial support for full-time students, including carers. In consequence, people engaged in full-time study are generally precluded from entitlement to income-replacement and income-related social security benefits.

Cathy Jamieson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether he plans to extend the eligibility criteria for carers allowance to enable more carers who are studying or in training to claim the allowance. [22638]

Maria Miller: The Government recognise that the United Kingdom's 6 million carers play an indispensable role in looking after family members or friends who need support.

Carer's allowance provides a measure of financial support for people who forgo the opportunity of full-time employment in order to provide care for a severely disabled person.

The educational maintenance system, via its range of loans and grants, provides financial support for full-time students, including carers. In consequence, people engaged in full-time study are generally precluded from entitlement to income-replacement and income-related social security benefits.

We have set out our commitment to simplify the benefit system in order to improve work incentives and encourage responsibility and fairness. We will consider carefully the needs of carers as we develop our plans for welfare reform.

Child Benefit

Julie Hilling: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Erith and Thamesmead of 19 October 2010, Official Report, column 643W, on child benefit, whether there has been a re-assessment of the changes announced to child benefit in relation to the effects on national insurance credits towards state pension; and if he will make a statement. [24130]


17 Nov 2010 : Column 828W

Steve Webb: We are still considering the full implications of the changes announced to child benefit to ensure that those entitled continue to receive national insurance credits towards their state pension.

Departmental Early Retirement

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many staff of (a) his Department and (b) its agencies have been offered enhanced early retirement packages in each of the last three years. [22031]

Chris Grayling: The early retirement benefits that are available to civil servants are set out in the Civil Service Compensation Scheme. Currently there are two categories of enhanced early retirement benefits: flexible early retirement and compulsory early retirement.

Flexible early retirement provides an enhancement of up to six and two thirds years to the reckonable service used to calculate pension benefits. The enhancement cannot take the adjusted reckonable service beyond that which would have been earned by pension age (age 60) nor can it take the total enhanced reckonable service beyond the maximum of 45 years.

Compulsory early retirement benefits include the same enhancement applicable to the flexible early retirement pension calculation plus a lump sum compensation payment of up to six months' pay.

Central records are not kept of the number of packages offered, however, the following table sets out the numbers of employees who opted to leave the Department for Work and Pensions and its agencies in the last three years under enhanced early retirement packages.

Agency Flexible early retirement Compulsory early retirement Total enhanced retirements

2007-08

Jobcentre Plus

95

323

418

Pension, Disability Carers Service

247

157

404

Corporate and Shared Services

69

22

91

DWP total

411

502

913

2008-09

Jobcentre Plus

17

70

87

Pension, Disability Carers Service

1

122

123

Corporate and Shared Services

5

7

12

DWP total

23

199

222

2009-10

Jobcentre Plus

3

11

14

Pension, Disability Carers Service

2

0

2

Corporate and Shared Services

5

0

5

DWP total

10

11

21


17 Nov 2010 : Column 829W

Departmental Pay

Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much was paid to officials in his Department and its non-departmental public bodies in bonuses and other payments in addition to salary in each year since 1997; how many officials received such payments; and what the monetary values was of the largest 20 payments made in each such year. [18713]

Chris Grayling: The information has been placed in the Library.

Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what allowances and payments in addition to salary were available to officials in his Department and its non-departmental public bodies in each year since 1997; and what the monetary value was of payments and allowances of each type in each such year. [18714]

Chris Grayling: The Department for Work and Pensions was established in 2002 and information can be provided
17 Nov 2010 : Column 830W
only from that date. DWP has 16 allowances that can be paid in addition to salary, four of which are payable only to employees who hold reserved rights to those particular allowances.

Details of the individual rates of allowances and payments payable since the Department's first harmonised pay award in 2002 have been provided in a separate table which has been placed in the Library. The table also includes 14 allowances that have been abolished; many of which were abolished following a review held in 2005. The Department could provide details of the total amount spent on these allowances only at disproportionate cost.

The rates of allowances across DWP and NDPBs are frozen for two years (2010-11 and 2011-12) as part of the pay freeze. We are currently reviewing all departmental expenditure to drive out inefficiencies and deliver value for money for the taxpayer.

Non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs)

Details of the total amount spent on allowances and other payments for NDPBs are provided in the following table:


17 Nov 2010 : Column 831W

17 Nov 2010 : Column 832W
£
Body Payment/allowance type 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10

The Pension Regulator (TPR)

Duty Allowance

n/a

n/a

48,470

85,277

134,698

Duty Rota Allowance

1,117

4,549

11,097

15,537

15,552

First Aiders' Allowance

3,756

5,121

5,215

4,410

4,422

Pensions Ombudsman (PO) and Pension Protection Fund Ombudsman (PPFO)

Responsibility Allowance

n/a

n/a

6,567

6,000

5,560

Pension Protection Fund (PPF)

Additional Responsibility Allowance

n/a

n/a

n/a

48,000

0

Independent Living Fund (ILF)

On Call Allowance

n/a

n/a

1,503

2,688

2,994

Health and Safety Executive (HSE)

Recruitment and Retention Addition

171,713

192,428

258,188

253,669

277,833

Qualification Allowance

6,250

4,250

8,500

2,500

3,950

Child Maintenance and Executive Committee (CMEC)(1, 2)

Emergency Officers' Allowance

n/a

n/a

n/a

472

0

Language Allowance

n/a

n/a

n/a

318

310

Locational Allowance

n/a

n/a

n/a

4,689

0

On Call Allowance

n/a

n/a

n/a

2,399

7,090

Private Secretary Allowance

n/a

n/a

n/a

2,579

9,103

Procurement Allowance

n/a

n/a

n/a

9,402

45,398

Responsibility Allowance

n/a

n/a

n/a

2,431

16,460

Responsibility on Temporary Duties Allowance

n/a

n/a

n/a

(3)-

671

Secondment Allowance

n/a

n/a

n/a

(3)-

7,024

Shorthand Audio Allowance

n/a

n/a

n/a

455

849

Skills Allowance

n/a

n/a

n/a

2,257

14,939

Skills Annual Allowance

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

3,000

Typing Allowance

n/a

n/a

n/a

858

1,941

Extended Working Hours Allowance

n/a

n/a

n/a

969,402

2.3 million

Miscellaneous Allowance

n/a

n/a

n/a

3,413

560

n/a = Allowance was not applicable. (1) Figures for CMEC are from its inception in November 2008 to March. (2) Table excludes Temporary Duty Allowance where a member of staff 2010 is acting temporarily in a higher. (3) Not available.

Departmental Sick Leave

Mr Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what programmes his Department and its agencies have to reduce the number of working days lost through sickness and absence. [23407]

Chris Grayling: The Department has cut average sickness absence by 25%, from 11.1 days per employee per year in 2007 to 8.3 days per employee per year currently. The latter figure is below the rate of 9.6 days per employee per year reported by the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development for the public sector in 2010.

The Department achieved this reduction by applying an ongoing programme to help employees maintain good health, such as providing stress counselling. Where employees do take sick leave, we use occupational health services to support rehabilitation. If, following the provision of all reasonable help, an employee is unable to maintain a satisfactory attendance record, action is taken to dismiss or retire them on ill health grounds.

Other types of unauthorised absence are investigated on a case by case basis. Where appropriate, disciplinary action is taken.

Employment

Mr Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of (a) men and (b) women between the ages of 21 and 60 years have been in employment (i) full-time, (ii) part-time and (iii) in total in each year from 1980 to 2009; and if he will make a statement. [24359]

Mr Hurd: I have been asked to reply.

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.

Letter from Stephen Penneck, dated November 2010:

Proportion( 1 ) of men and women aged 21 to 60 in full-time and part-time employment, three months ending June, 1992 to 2009, United Kingdom, not seasonally adjusted
Percentage
Male Female

Full-time Part-time Total( 2) Full-time Part-time Total( 2)

1992

79

3

81

38

28

66

1993

77

3

80

38

29

66

1994

77

3

81

38

29

67

1995

78

3

81

38

28

67

1996

77

4

81

38

29

67

1997

78

4

82

39

29

68

1998

79

4

83

39

29

69

1999

79

4

84

40

29

69

2000

80

4

84

41

29

70

2001

80

4

84

41

29

71

2002

79

5

84

41

29

71

2003

79

5

85

42

29

71

2004

79

5

84

42

29

71

2005

79

5

84

43

29

72

2006

79

5

84

44

28

72

2007

79

5

85

43

28

72

2008

79

6

85

44

28

72

2009(3)

*76

*6

*82

*44

*28

*72

(1) The proportion is the number of people in each employment status divided by the population. (2) Total includes those whose full-time and part-time status was not known. (3) Coefficients of Variation have been calculated for the latest period as an indication of the quality of the estimates, as described below. Guide to Quality: The Coefficient of Variation (CV) indicates the quality of an estimate, the smaller the CV value the higher the quality. The true value is likely to lie within +/- twice the CV-for example, for an estimate of 200 with a CV of 5% we would expect the population total to be within the range 180-220.
Key: * 0 = CV<5%-Statistical Robustness: Estimates are considered precise **5 = CV <10%-Statistical Robustness: Estimates are considered reasonably precise ***10 = CV <20%-Statistical Robustness: Estimates are considered acceptable ****CV ? 20%-Statistical Robustness: Estimates are considered too unreliable for practical purposes
CV = Coefficient of Variation Note: It should be noted that the above estimates exclude people in most types of communal establishment (e.g. hotels, boarding houses, hostels mobile home sites etc.) Source: Labour Force Survey (LFS).

Employment and Support Allowance

Nicky Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many people are claiming contributory employment and support allowance in the work-related activity group; and how many of those cited a mental health condition as their primary reason for claiming; [23305]


17 Nov 2010 : Column 833W

(2) how many people are claiming contributory employment and support allowance; and how many of those cited a mental health condition as their primary reason for claiming. [23306]

Maria Miller: The information is provided in the following table.

Number of contributory employment and support allowance claimants under the mental and behavioural disorders category by stage of claim-February 2010, Great Britain

Number

All ESA claimants

All stages

479,430

Work related group

80,910

ESA claimants with a contributory element

All stages

203,680

Work related group

43,070

Mental and behavioural category

All ESA claimants

All stages

182,880

Work related group

31,700

ESA claimants with a contributory element

All stages

62,120

Work related group

12,740

Notes:
1. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10.
2. ESA statistics by medical condition can be found at
http://83.244.183.180/ESA/esa_additional_feb10.xls
3. Benefit type-The type of ESA is defined as pay status at the case load date-this may differ to the status at the start or end of the claim
4. Employment and support allowance (ESA) replaced incapacity benefit and income support paid on the grounds of incapacity for new claims from 27 October 2008
5. Stage of ESA claim-The stage of claim is derived from the amount of payment a claimant receives. There are a number of cases where the stage is unknown, these are claimants which do not receive any payment for ESA (those who receive national insurance credits only).
6. ICD (disease) code Causes of incapacity are based on the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision published by the World Health Organisation. Medical condition is based on evidence provided at the start of the claim, this in itself does not confer entitlement to employment support allowance and may not represent a claimants most recent medical condition. For ESA claimants, data on medical condition is only available from February 2010 onwards.
Source:
DWP Information Directorate: Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study 100%

Employment and Support Allowance: Birmingham

Mr Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in Birmingham, Hall Green constituency applied for and were refused employment and support allowance in each of the last two years for which figures are available. [23447]

Chris Grayling: This information is not available for individual constituencies.

The following table presents the outcome for all employment and support allowance (ESA) claims received in the Birmingham local authority area for the dates shown. The table presents data between October 2008, when ESA was introduced, to February 2010, the latest data available.


17 Nov 2010 : Column 834W
Outcome of all ESA claims received in Birmingham local authority area, rounded to nearest 10
Month of claim start Support Group Work Related Activity Group Fit for Work Claim closed before assessment complete Assessment still in progress Total

2008

October

20

20

60

70

0

170

November

50

90

360

360

10

860

December

60

100

290

290

10

740

2009

January

70

140

400

420

10

1,030

February

70

150

400

390

10

1,020

March

70

170

510

410

10

1,170

April

60

140

490

380

20

1,090

May

70

140

550

390

10

1,150

June

60

140

520

380

10

1,120

July

70

140

540

430

10

1,180

August

60

140

470

350

10

1,040

September

80

150

490

330

20

1,070

October

50

140

470

330

20

1,000

November

40

150

450

320

30

990

December

60

110

350

270

30

820

2010

January

60

190

460

390

50

1,150

February

50

160

450

340

80

1,080

Total

980

2,260

7,270

5,830

340

16,680

Source:
Benefit claims data held by the Department for Work and Pensions and functional assessment data sourced from Atos Healthcare

Employment: Public Sector

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many and what proportion of people were employed in the public sector in each region in the latest period for which figures are available. [24233]

Mr Hurd: I have been asked to reply.

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.

Letter from Stephen Penneck dated November 2010:


17 Nov 2010 : Column 835W
Regional employment: by region and country of workplace Q2 2010( 1) , not seasonally adjusted
Thousand
Public sector
Region Headcount( 3) Percentage Total e mployment( 2)

London

782

18.7

4,172

South East

684

17.3

3,957

South West

518

20.3

2,551

West Midlands

503

20.5

2,452

North West

690

21.8

3,164

North East

285

25.1

1,136

Yorkshire and the Humber

534

22.3

2,391

East Midlands

384

19.5

1,973

East of England

457

17.8

2,566

Wales

343

26.5

1,296

Scotland(4)

606

24.8

2,450

Northern Ireland(5)

228

30.0

759

England

4,838

19.9

24,361

Great Britain

5,787

20.6

28,107

United Kingdom(6)

6,048

20.8

29,142

(1) Estimates are based on where people are employed.
(2) Labour Force Survey-All in employment aged 16 and over. Data refer to May to July 2010.
(3) Public sector estimates include banks reclassified to the public sector-Northern Rock from 9 October 2007, Bradford and Bingley from 26 September 2008, Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group from 13 October 2008.
(4) Estimates of PSE for Scotland are supplied by Scottish Government and match those produced by Scottish Government on a quarterly basis.
(5) Estimates of PSE for Northern Ireland will differ to those published by DETINI; ONS figures include HM Forces personnel. In addition, ONS percentage figures use the Labour Force Survey employment as a denominator as opposed to the Quarterly Employment Survey employee estimate used by DETINI.
(6) Includes overseas employees, those who did not state their region of workplace when surveyed as part of the Labour Force Survey and approximately 30,000 public sector employees that could not be assigned to a region.

Funeral Payments

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many complaints his Department has received on the funeral payment in the latest period for which figures are available. [22762]

Steve Webb: Jobcentre Plus does not collate or record complaints about Funeral Payments separately.

From April 2010 to 9 November 2010 1,060 complaints relating to the Social Fund were received by Jobcentre Plus. This does not include any complaints that may have been made directly to the chief executive.


17 Nov 2010 : Column 836W

Government Ministers receive correspondence about Funeral Payments, to which Department for Work and Pensions Ministers or officials reply. (This does not include letters on purely operational issues which are passed to Jobcentre Plus for response by the chief executive.) Some of this correspondence will be complaints, but without investigating each individual case, it is not possible to say which were complaints. The number of such cases received about Funeral Payments from April 2010 to 9 November 2010 was 50.

Dr Whiteford: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what plans he has for the qualifying criteria for payment of funeral payment grant. [23432]

Steve Webb: Our plans for reforming the Social Fund were set out in the White Paper "Universal Credit: welfare that works" (Cm 7957) published on 11 November 2010. The reforms do not include any changes to the qualifying criteria for funeral payments.

Dr Whiteford: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the cost to the public purse of the funeral payment grant scheme has been in each of the last three years. [23436]

Steve Webb: The available information is given in the table.

Cost of the Funeral Payment scheme in Great Britain
£ million
Financial year 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10

Gross expenditure

46.0

48.4

47.1

Recoveries

0.7

0.7

0.2

Administration cost

4.6

5.1

5.5

Net total cost

49.8

52.8

52.4

Notes:
1. The information provided is management information. Our preference is to answer all parliamentary questions using Official/National Statistics but in this case we only have management information available. It is not quality assured to the same extent as Official/National statistics and there are some issues with the data, for example, gross expenditure does not include claims which were processed clerically and had not been entered on to the Social Fund Computer System by the end of the relevant financial year.
2. The administration costs are the total Jobcentre Plus costs, including re-considerations, but excluding work on appeals.
3. Figures have been rounded to the nearest £0.1 million and may not sum due to rounding.
Sources:
Department for Work and Pensions Social Fund Policy, Budget and Management Information System
Jobcentre Plus Activity Based Management Models

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what account he takes of the average cost of a funeral in determining the level of the funeral benefit payment. [24056]

Steve Webb: Social Fund Funeral Payments are not based on average funeral costs. The specific costs of burial or cremation are taken fully into account when each payment is made. In addition, up to £700 can be paid for other related funeral expenses.


17 Nov 2010 : Column 837W

Future Jobs Fund

Kevin Brennan: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many young people in each (a) region and (b) local authority area have taken part in the Future Jobs Fund programme in each of the last six months. [23202]

Chris Grayling: The Young Person's Guarantee statistics were published on 13 October 2010 and cover the period from October 2009 to July 2010. The table shows the number of young people in each (a) region and (b) local authority area that have taken part in the Future Jobs Fund programme in each of the six months from February to July 2010.

The information has been placed in the Library.

Future Jobs Fund: Local Government

Kevin Brennan: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions which local authorities have taken part in the Future Jobs Fund programme in the last six months. [22858]

Chris Grayling: The local authorities, who have taken part in the Future Jobs Fund in the last six months are detailed in the following list. The local authorities are either the Lead Accountable Body, responsible for the co-ordination and administration of the approved bid on behalf of their partners, or have been communicated to the Department as being partners in a delivering a Future Jobs Fund grant.


17 Nov 2010 : Column 838W

17 Nov 2010 : Column 839W

17 Nov 2010 : Column 840W

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