Special Educational Needs
Peter Aldous: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what proportion of the additional £44 million funding for education places for 16 to 19-year- olds in 2012-13 will be allocated to meet the additional needs of learners with special educational needs, learning difficulties and disabilities. [119004]
Mr Timpson: In 2012-13 the Demographic Growth Capital Fund of £44 million will provide capital funds to increase the number of places for young people aged 16 to 19, to plan for demographic changes and increasing participation.
77% (£34.7 million) of the £44 million was awarded to projects to increase local provision to meet the specific needs of young people with disabilities and learning difficulties. 57 projects received funding, one of which is West Suffolk College, which will benefit 38 young people at a cost of £319,729.
The fund was open to all maintained schools, academies, sixth form colleges and colleges of further education (CFEs) with the majority of applications received from CFEs and maintained schools including special schools. Projects ranged from those addressing mild learning difficulties to profound and multiple learning needs.
Mrs Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education (1) how many families are receiving direct payments for special educational needs provision under the terms of the Special Educational Needs (Direct Payments) (Pilot Scheme) Order 2012; [120030]
(2) how much funding is being allocated to each local authority listed in Schedule 2 of the Special Educational Needs (Direct Payments) (Pilot Scheme) Order 2012 for implementation of the order; [120031]
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(3) when he expects personal budgets for special educational provision to be offered to parents in each of the local authorities listed in Schedule 2 of the Special Educational Needs (Direct Payments) (Pilot Scheme) Order 2012; [120033]
(4) what assessment he has made of whether the local authorities listed in Schedule 2 of the Special Educational Needs (Direct Payments) (Pilot Scheme) Order 2012 are complying with the order; and what steps he plans to take to ensure compliance. [120035]
Mr Timpson: The implementation of the SEN (Direct Payments) (Pilot Scheme) Order 2012 is subject to a discreet evaluation as part of the ongoing wider evaluation of the SEND Green Paper pathfinder programme.
The evaluation has yet to report any detail on the numbers of direct payments currently being made. However, the most recent quarterly report (“Evaluation of the SEND Pathfinder programme: Quarterly report—June 2012”, published in August 2012 and available on the Department for Education website) provides information of the scoping phase of the research project. It provides an initial estimate that an average of 12 families per authority (in 21 of the authorities that responded to the scoping study and indicated that they will be making direct payments) will receive direct payments by December 2012.
The Department expects to publish the first interim evaluation report in October 2012. It will provide an updated picture of the implementation of the order, including initial findings from 15 case study areas.
Six of the authorities named in the order were part of the Individual Budgets for Disabled Children pilot and, as such, already have experience in providing personal budgets for families with disabled children. In addition, all of the pathfinder authorities have agreed to test the use of personal budgets. Further information on the pathfinders' progress in offering personal budgets will be contained in the interim evaluation report. However, feedback from the pathfinder support team provides anecdotal evidence of established personal budgets in some of the pathfinders and estimates that approximately 400 families will be offered a personal budget during the programme.
The Department is not conducting any formal standalone assessment of compliance with the order. Such a check would be overly bureaucratic and against the spirit of the testing the pathfinders are undertaking in such a complex area. However, the Department is using the emerging evidence from the formal evaluation, as well as feedback from the pathfinder support team, to ensure that any barriers to implementation are understood.
The Department will continue to work with partners, including its strategic partner, the Council for Disabled Children, to ensure that pathfinders have the ongoing support they need to test fully the use of direct payments, as set out in the order, as well as personal budgets more generally.
The SEN Green Paper pathfinder authorities named in the order will not receive any discreet funding to take part in the pilot. These authorities have been funded to test a broad package of the reforms, including the use of direct payments and more generally the use of personal budgets, and to this end they have been allocated overall pathfinder grant funding of up to:
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| £ | ||
| Local authority | 2011-12 | 2012-13(1) |
| (1) 18 pathfinders were successful in securing an uplift to their funding in their 2012-13 funding. (2) The Isles of Scilly originally received a joint grant allocation with Cornwall but were awarded, following representations to the Minister of State for Children and Families, a discrete grant in 2012-13. | ||
Five of the authorities named in the order (Coventry, Derbyshire, Essex, Gloucestershire and Newcastle) were part of the Individual Budgets for Disabled Children pilot but are not part of the pathfinder programme. To build on their expertise and ensure that learning from the pilot scheme is maximised, each will receive grant funding of up to £100,000 in 2012-13 to undertake the pilot. The sixth individual budget pilot authority (Gateshead) is now a Green Paper pathfinder programme and was funded as part of that programme (see table).
Mrs Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what guidance his Department has provided to Wiltshire county council on the implementation of its responsibilities under the Special Educational Needs (Direct Payments) (Pilot Scheme) Order 2012. [120032]
Mr Timpson: Wiltshire county council is a member of the Department's personal budgets action learning network (ALN) for pathfinders. As such, it has received information from officials at the Department on the content of the order at ALN events as well as tailored support from the Department's dedicated pathfinder support team. The authority has also received direct written advice from the Department on the implementation of the scheme.
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Mrs Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education (1) what representations he has received from (a) parents and carers and (b) hon. Members and councillors in affected local authority areas on the implementation of the Special Educational Needs (Direct Payments) (Pilot Scheme) Order 2012; [120034]
(2) whether his Department has agreed that any local authority listed in schedule 2 of the Special Educational Needs (Direct Payments) (Pilot Scheme) Order 2012 need not comply with the order. [120036]
Mr Timpson: The information is as follows:
(a) The Secretary of State for Education, my right hon. Friend the Member for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove) has received one representation from one hon. Member in a local authority area named in the order. In addition, officials at the Department for Education have received representations from one parent in a local authority area named in the order. Both representations sought clarification of the requirements of the pilot scheme in relation to its implementation in the local authority area.
(b) The Secretary of State and the Department have not received any representations from councillors in a local authority area named in the order.
The Department for Education has not made any agreement for a local authority to not comply with the order.
Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how much his Department spent on special educational needs in each financial year from 2009-10 to date; and what estimate he has made of such spending in each financial year up to 2014-15. [120336]
Mr Timpson [holding answer 10 September 2012]: Spend on special educational needs also includes support to disabled children, young people and their families. Figures for the financial years 2009 to 2011 are as follows:
| £ billion | |
Estimated spending for 2012-13 by local authorities is due to be published later this month. Our plans to reform provision for children and young people with SEN have just been published and will be scrutinised by the Select Committee on Education. The Department has an annual budgeting process which plans and sets the budget for the forthcoming year.
Staff
Mr Bone: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many people are employed in his Department; and how many people were employed by his Department on 5 May 2010. [119530]
Elizabeth Truss: Headcount figures are shown in the following table.
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| Date | Headcount | Full Time Equivalent |
The August 2012 headcount is slightly higher when compared with 2010. This is the result of staff with a legal right transferring into the Department from a closing non-departmental public body (NDPB), Since May 2010 the total headcount for the Department and its NDPBs has reduced by 26% or 1,902 full-time equivalents.
Teachers: Disciplinary Proceedings
Gavin Williamson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many teachers were prohibited from teaching by the General Teaching Council for England due to professional incompetence in 2011-12. [114248]
Mr Laws: In the year 2011/12 six cases relating to serious professional incompetence were considered at a hearing. One resulted in a prohibition order being imposed, four resulted in conditional registration orders and one resulted in no finding of serious professional incompetence.
The General Teaching Council for England (GTCE) was abolished on 1 April 2012 and responsibility for regulating the teaching profession moved to the Teaching Agency. Under the old arrangements, the GTCE was responsible for determining issues involving teacher misconduct and teacher competence. The Teaching Agency no longer considers issues of incompetence in its capacity as the national regulator. Competence issues are most effectively dealt with at a local level; employers being in the best position to make judgments about competence. From 1 September 2012 new, streamlined arrangements for managing teacher performance will be introduced in order to give head teachers the freedom and authority they need to tackle competence issues in their schools. We trust professionals to tackle issues of competence and conduct effectively.
Gavin Williamson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many teachers were referred to the General Teaching Council for England for professional incompetence in the last 10 years. [114249]
Mr Laws: Figures are available from 1 April 2002 to 31 December 2011. Between these dates, 219 teachers were referred to the General Teaching Council for England for serious professional incompetence.
Gavin Williamson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many teachers referred to the General Teaching Council for England for professional incompetence in the last year for which figures are available have been cleared of wrongdoing. [114250]
Mr Laws: During the year 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2012, the General Teaching Council for England considered six cases of serious professional incompetence at a formal hearing. Of these, one case resulted in the Committee making a finding of no serious professional incompetence.
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Teachers: Pay
Damian Hinds: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what the average pay rise for full-time classroom teachers was in (a) academies and (b) maintained schools in each of the last three years. [114131]
Mr Laws: The average pay increase of the 289,000 full-time regular qualified teachers who remained in service in a local authority maintained school in England between March 2009 and March 2010 was £2,100.
There are a number of reasons why the pay of teachers changes during the year, including pay awards, pay progression increments and awards of additional allowances. Pay can indeed go down from one year to the next as well. Concentrating solely on those who saw a rise in pay, the average increase was £2,300. There was a 2.3% pay award on 1 September 2009 and this is the most robust indicator of the overall average “pay-rise” during the period.
No similar figures are available for academies. These figures are provisional. The source of the information is the Database of Teacher Records.
No figures are yet available for 2010 to 2011 or 2011 to 2012.
Third Sector
Mr Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what steps he has taken to put into practice the recommendations of the National Audit Office's review of Central Government's implementation of the National Compact published in January 2012. [120006]
Mr Timpson [holding answer 7 September 2012]: The voluntary and community sector (VCS) has an important role in the development and delivery of services for children, young people and families. The Department for Education funds a number of VCS organisations and is supportive of the National Compact and its principles. In light of the National Audit Office's report, the Department developed an action plan in spring 2012, which is aimed at strengthening approaches to effective partnership-working with VCS organisations. This has included taking forward action to incorporate the Compact into the Department's procurement guidance, delivering training to procurement staff and awareness sessions to policy makers and other staff, and adopting Compact best practice in the award of grants and contracts to VCS organisations.
The Department for Education also funds five Strategic Partners to ensure effective engagement with the VCS sector in policy development and to build capacity in the sector to deliver key services of national significance. Through the close working with strategic partners, the Department will continue to track and review its performance in adhering to the Compact.
Travel
Mr Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many journeys (a) he and (b) officials in his Department made by (i) train, (ii) coach and (iii) Government car in an official capacity in each of the last 12 months. [115021]
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Elizabeth Truss [holding answer 3 July 2012]: The number of journeys made by the Secretary of State for Education, my right hon. Friend the Member for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove), by train and Government car in an official capacity is shown in the following table.
| Table 1 | ||
| Train | Government Car | |
The number of journey bookings made by officials in his Department by train and Government car in an official capacity is shown in the following table.
| Table 2 | ||
| Train | Government Car | |
| (1) Additional data cannot be supplied within the time constrains for the updated PQ on 12 September 2012 | ||
The Secretary of State for Education and officials in his Department have not used coach travel for official business.
Written Questions: Government Responses
Mrs Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education when he plans to answer questions 107269, 107270, 107141, 107066, 107062 and 107061, tabled on 10 May 2012 for answer on 14 May 2012. [114283]
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Elizabeth Truss [holding answer 28 June 2012]: Responses were issued to the hon. Member's questions as follows:
PQ 107269—4 July 2012, Official Report, column 699W
PQ 107270—4 July 2012, Official Report, column 699W
PQ 107141—4 July 2012, Official Report, column 699W
PQ 107062—9 July 2012, Official Report, columns 43-44W
PQ 107061—9 July 2012, Official Report, columns 43-44W and
PQ 107066—3 September 2012, Official Report, column 106W.
International Development
Military Aid
Mr Mike Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps her Department takes to ensure co-ordination with the Ministry of Defence on training on humanitarian airdrop or relief operations. [120579]
Mr Duncan: DFID and Ministry of Defence (MOD) co-operate closely on international humanitarian relief. For example, Royal Air Force Chinook helicopters assisted in delivering humanitarian supplies in Pakistan after the earthquake in 2005 and the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship Largs Bay assisted in Haiti in 2010. DFID has a memorandum of understanding with the MOD in order to ensure efficient and effective co-operation and employment of assets if the need is identified. We work together in line with internationally agreed humanitarian guidelines.
Overseas Aid
Mr Ivan Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development whether it remains her policy to support the private Member's Bill promoted by my hon. Friend the Member for Preston (Mark Hendrick) to enshrine in law that the Government should spend 0.7% of gross national income on official development assistance. [120744]
Justine Greening: The previous Minister of State for International Development my right hon. Friend the Member for Sutton Coldfield (Mr Mitchell) made clear on 13 July 2012 that the coalition Government supported the hon. Member for Preston’s private Member's Bill. That position has not changed.
Mr Ivan Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development whether it remains her policy to support enshrining in law a requirement that the Government should spend 0.7% of gross national income on official development assistance. [120746]
Justine Greening: Yes. A commitment to enshrine 0.7% in law was set out in the coalition programme for government. A Bill has been drafted and, as the Prime Minister has said on several occasions, we will legislate when parliamentary time allows.
Mr Ivan Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development whether it remains her policy to spend 0.7% of gross national income on official development assistance by 2013. [120747]
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Justine Greening: Yes. This is the first UK government to set out (in the 2010 spending review) clear plans to invest 0.7% of gross national income on official development assistance from 2013. This was reconfirmed in the recent Budget and the Humble Address.
Work and Pensions
Child Maintenance
Alec Shelbrooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the effect of the cost of calling the Child Support Agency on low-income households. [120250]
Steve Webb: It is not possible to directly link the cost of telephone calls to low-income households within the cost limits which apply to answering this question. Information has instead been given separately on the estimated cost of calls and proportion of low-income households.
In the month of July 2012, the average call length from landlines was nine minutes with the average call length from mobiles approximately eight minutes. The average call cost based on these call durations is 30p from a landline and £1.50 from a mobile. Costs vary widely between networks, plans and the time of day that the call was made as well as connection charges. The mean number of calls per customer per year is two. This means the total average cost of calls from a landline would be approximately 60p per year with calls from a mobile telephone totalling £3.00 per year.
It is estimated that 48% of parents with care have a pre-maintenance income of under £10,000 per year (gross) with 38% of non-resident parents having a similar income.
Employment Schemes: Young People
Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the answer of 6 July 2012, Official Report, column 865W, on employment schemes: young people, when he expects to announce whether the formal review of the Youth Contract's progress will include information on the number of wage subsidies used by each individual Work programme prime contractor. [120706]
Mr Hoban: The Youth Contract, including wage incentives, went live on April 2012. From this point any young person attached to the Work programme could be placed into work with a wage incentive being offered to the employer. In most cases wage incentives are paid after a young person has been in work continuously for 26 weeks.
Following the collection and quality assurance of this data, I expect the first set of Official Statistics on the wage incentive to be available from early 2013. Decisions on the precise format of the Official Statistics will be taken nearer the time and will be influenced by the quality of available data. The Department is working to guidelines set by the UK Statistics Authority to ensure we publish statistics that meet high quality standards at the earliest opportunity.
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Housing Benefit
Mr Lammy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the answer of 6 February 2012, Official Report, column 110W, on housing benefit, how much housing benefit by (a) value and (b) percentage was paid to tenants in each Government office region in (i) social housing, (ii) private landlords and (iii) other forms of tenure in each of the last five years. [120607]
Steve Webb: Details of past housing benefit expenditure in each Government office region is published and available at the following link. There are separate tables for each year.
http://statistics.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd4/h_tables_budget_2012_300812.xls
The total amount of housing benefit paid to tenants in social housing, consistent with the previous answer, comprises Rent Rebate (column I) and Registered Social Landlord Rent Allowance (column K), less temporary accommodation expenditure (column T).
Temporary accommodation expenditure (column T) is counted as “other forms of tenure” in the previous answer, although this will cover a mix of social and different types of private accommodation.
Figures in the tables include that element of housing benefit funded by local authorities, except tables suffixed “DWP subs”, which relate only to expenditure reimbursed by DWP.
Figures may have changed since the previous answer due to more recent information becoming available.
Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what consideration he has given to increasing the social housing under-occupancy penalty in housing benefit in the event that the savings projected in the impact assessment are not realised. [120701]
Steve Webb: We currently have no plans to change the percentage reduction rates for under-occupancy in the social rented sector. As with all changes, we will monitor the impact of this measure to see whether it is meeting its policy objectives.
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will rank all English local authorities by the percentage change in the number of (a) all households receiving housing benefit and (b) working households receiving housing benefit. [120876]
Steve Webb: The information has been placed in the Library.
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what proportion of new housing benefit claimants in each local authority area were in employment in (a) April 2010 and (b) May 2012; [120877]
(2) what the percentage change was in the number of claims for housing benefit amongst people in employment in each local authority area between (a) April 2008 and April 2010 and (b) April 2010 and April 2012. [120878]
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Steve Webb: The information requested is not collated centrally and could be provided only at a disproportionate cost.
Information on the number of housing benefit claims by local authority is available in the Department for Work and Pensions statistics publication First Release for Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit Speed of Processing. This is available in the Library.
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the gross expenditure was in real terms on housing benefit for (a) all working age claimants and (b) working age claimants in employment in (i) 2010-11 and (ii) 2011-12. [120879]
Steve Webb: The information is in the following table:
| Housing benefit expenditure | ||
| £ million (2012-13 prices) | ||
| 2010-11 | 2011-12 | |
| Notes: The breakdown of HB expenditure into groups (a) and (b) is estimated based on a combination of statistical data and local authority subsidy returns. These estimates are consistent with the latest published expenditure outturn available at: http://statistics.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd4/h_tables_budget_2012_300812.xls | ||
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the gross expenditure in real terms on housing benefit for (a) all working age claimants and (b) working age claimants in employment in (i) 2012-13, (ii) 2013-14 and (iii) 2014-15. [120880]
Steve Webb: Available information is in the following table:
| Forecast housing benefit expenditure | |
| £ million (2012-13 prices) | |
| Working age claimants | |
| Notes: 1. These estimates are consistent with the latest published expenditure forecasts at: http://statistics.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd4/budget_2012_300712.xls 2. Forecasts for claimants in employment are not produced. The published forecasts provide a breakdown by claimant group: most claimants in employment appear in the ‘Housing Benefit only’ category, although this also includes some other claimants who are not receiving a DWP benefit, and claimants in employment may also appear in other categories. Source: Budget 2012 forecasts | |
Housing Benefit: Haringey
Mr Lammy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many and what proportion of housing benefit claimants in the London Borough of Haringey were in work in each year since 2001. [120606]
Steve Webb: The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is in the following table.
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| Housing benefit (HB) recipients, non-passported and in employment in the London borough of Haringey: November 2008 to May 2012 | ||||
| All HB recipients | All non-passported | All HB non-passported in employment | All HB non-passported, in employment as a proportion of all HB recipients (percentage) | |
| Notes: 1. The data refers to benefit units, which may be a single person or a couple. 2. Recipients are as at second Thursday of the month. 3. SHBE is a monthly electronic scan of claimant level data direct from local authority computer systems. It replaces quarterly aggregate clerical returns. The data are available monthly from November 2008 and May 2012 is the most recent available. 4. These data refer to people receiving Housing Benefit not in receipt of a passported benefit and are recorded as being in employment if their local authority has recorded employment income from either the main claimant, or partner of claimant (if applicable), in calculating the housing benefit award. People receiving passported benefits who are working part-time cannot be identified and are therefore not included in this analysis. 5. Caseload figures are rounded to 10, percentages to one decimal place. Source: Single Housing Benefit Extract (SHBE) | ||||
Housing Benefit: South East
Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many and what proportion of (a) housing benefit and (b) local housing allowance claimants in (i) Brighton and Hove local authority area and (ii) the South East of England have been in work in each year since 2001. [120528]
Steve Webb: The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is in the following tables.
| Housing benefit (HB) recipients, non-passported and in employment and local housing allowance (LHA) recipients, non-passported in employment, November 2008 to May 2012 | ||||
| All HB caseload | All non-passported | All HB non-passported in employment | All HB non-passported, in employment as a proportion of all HB recipients (percentage) | |
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13 Sep 2012 : Column 402W
| All LHA caseload | All LHA non-passported in employment | All LHA non-passported, in employment as a proportion of all LHA recipients (percentage) | |
| Notes: 1. Local Housing Allowance was introduced in the deregulated private sector from April 2008 and the first available data is for November 2008. 2. Caseload figures are rounded to 10, percentages to one decimal place. Totals may not sum due to rounding. Source: Single Housing Benefit Extract (SHBE): 2008 onwards | |||
Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether any of the (a) claimants of and (b) landlords interviewed for the recently-published research on the effect of the (i) housing benefit and (ii) local housing allowance measures in “Monitoring the impact of changes to the local housing allowance system of housing benefit: Summary of early findings Department of Work and Pensions (June 2012)” were from (A) Brighton and Hove and (B) the South East of England. [120529]
Steve Webb: The Department published a report of early findings on 14 June and a copy of the report has been lodged in the House Library.
The research was conducted by a consortium of academics and research organisations led by Ian Cole, professor of housing studies at Sheffield Hallam university and is based on the results of a face to face survey with 100 LHA claimants and 80 landlords in each of 19 local authorities selected as case study areas.
Three local authorities in the South East, Portsmouth, Tendring and Thanet formed part of the 19 local authority case study areas.
The Department for Communities and Local Government, the Scottish Government and Welsh Assembly Government are working in close partnership with the DWP and contributing to the costs of the review.
Housing Benefit: Wales
Chris Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of housing benefit claimants in Wales are in employment. [120421]
Steve Webb: The available information is provided in the following table:
13 Sep 2012 : Column 403W
| 4. These data refer to people receiving Housing Benefit not in receipt of a passported benefit and are recorded as being in employment if their local authority has recorded employment income from either the main claimant, or partner of claimant (if applicable), in calculating the housing benefit award. People receiving passported benefits who are working part-time cannot be identified and are therefore not included in this analysis. 5. Case load is rounded to the nearest 10. Source: Single Housing Benefit Extract (SHBE) |
Independent Living Fund
Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much funding his Department has allocated for consultation with Independent Living Fund recipients on the future of the fund; and if he will make a statement. [119114]
Esther McVey: The consultation budget set aside by the Independent Living Fund is £100,000. This does not include staff time costs.
Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps his Department is taking to consult independent living fund recipients on the future of the fund; and if he will make a statement. [119119]
Esther McVey:
The Department is running, in conjunction with the ILF, 14 consultation events for users in locations across the UK. The ILF wrote to every user of the fund at the launch of the consultation to inform them of it, advise them how to respond, inform them how to get accessible documents and tell them how to obtain support to respond to the consultation
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if they were not able to submit a response through the normal channels. As of 7 September the ILF had issued a further 5,237 reminders to users about the consultation through a variety of mediums.
Licensing
Richard Fuller: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what permits and licences his Department and its public bodies issue to businesses. [118811]
Mr Hoban: DWP issues two types of licences. One type is a licence to occupy buildings where DWP occupies a building and there is surplus space. The other is a licence to use intellectual property. DWP does not issue permits.
DWP non-departmental public bodies
Remploy Ltd issues a variety of licences and/or permits in the course of its normal business, to include (but not limited to) those for:
(i) the occupation of property or area owned by Remploy to small businesses, partners and/or charities;
(ii) the use of machinery and equipment belonging to Remploy;
(iii) the use of Remploy intellectual property (for example: copyright, trademarks, designs, patents); and
(iv) other permissions or licences required under commercial or other contractual terms in the normal course of business.
The Health and Safety Executive has issued licences and permits as described in the following appendix.
No other DWP non-departmental public body has issued permits or licences to businesses.
Personal Independence Payment
Mr Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what safeguards he has put in place to ensure that deaf people receive adequate financial support through the personal independence payment system; and if he will make a statement. [120848]
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Esther McVey: The personal independence payment assessment will not consider what impairments an individual has, labelling them simply on this basis. It is being designed to consider their personal circumstances, and will consider the impact their impairment has on their everyday life.
The assessment criteria will take account of physical, sensory, mental, intellectual and cognitive impairments. Entitlement will depend on individuals being determined as having limited or severely limited ability to carry out certain activities and whether someone's ability is limited in this way will depend on the outcome of their assessment.
During our recent consultation we engaged with organisations representing deaf individuals, and I can assure you that we are considering all of their comments very carefully as we evaluate what further improvements need to be made to the assessment criteria.
Social Security: Wales
Alun Cairns: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether he plans to extend the European Social Funding provisions for support for families with multiple problems to Wales. [120440]
Mr Hoban: The Department for Work and Pensions manages the England European Social Fund programme, which is the source of funds for the support for families with multiple problems. As the ESF programme covers England only, so does this support. The Welsh Assembly Government have responsibility for a separate European Social Fund programme in Wales, and they decide what priorities to spend it on.
State Retirement Pensions
Teresa Pearce: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will estimate the cost of increasing the 25 pence increase to the state pension for people over the age of 80 to £10 a week if (a) the payment was tax-free and not taken into account for income-related benefits, (b) it was taxable but not taken into account for income-related benefits and (c) it was taxable and counted as income for the purposes of income-related benefits. [120830]
Steve Webb: I refer the hon. Member to the written answer I gave on 17 May 2012, Official Report, column 295W.
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Third Sector
Mr Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps his Department has taken to implement the recommendations of the National Audit Office report, “Central Government's implementation of the national Compact”. [120627]
Mr Hoban: The Department for Work and Pensions is developing plans to undertake regular stocktakes of its implementation of the Compact and has already demonstrated its commitment to abide by the principles of the Compact in its dealings with Civil Society organisations by publishing relevant information on:
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/publications/corporate-publications/compact.shtml
This also provides contact details for DWP's Civil Society Liaison Officer, who can provide more information upon request.
In public consultation exercises, DWP endeavours to follow the Government Code of Practice on Consultation and if unable, provides a clear explanation as to why that was so. Also, in contracting for services to be delivered on its behalf, DWP continues to comply with its own “Commissioning Strategy” and is implementing “The Merlin Standard” to champion positive behaviours and relationships in the delivery of provision, including with Civil Society organisations.
Work Capability Assessment
Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the answer of 5 September 2012, Official Report, columns 361-2W, on work capability assessment, whether Atos Healthcare professionals are routinely advised of the levels of the parameters which would trigger an audit of their work; what steps are taken to indicate that these parameters are not to be treated as targets; and whether the parameters are adjusted to account for the outcomes of appeal decisions. [120736]
Mr Hoban: Atos Healthcare professionals are routinely audited. They are not routinely made aware of the parameters that would trigger auditing.
Atos Healthcare are not routinely informed of the outcome of individual appeals.