Illegal Immigrants: Employment

Mr Burley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many businesses in (a) Cannock Chase constituency and (b) Staffordshire have been fined for employing illegal foreign national workers in each of the last five years. [178959]

Mr Harper: The information requested has been provided. The figures are based on the number of civil penalties served at visited business addresses.

Please note the figures are for penalties issued at the initial decision stage which may be reduced, cancelled, increased or reissued at the objection or appeal stage.

Immigrants: Children

Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many unaccompanied minors, excluding those from other EU member states, have entered the UK in the last 12 months; [177999]

(2) how many unaccompanied minors departed from the UK in the last 12 months. [178000]

Mr Harper: The Home Office does not hold the information requested.

Immigrants: Detainees

Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the length of time an individual has been held in prison solely under immigration powers

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is used to decide which time-served foreign national prisoners will be transferred from the prison estate to immigration removal centres. [181104]

Mr Harper: When a time served foreign national offender has been risk assessed for their suitability to move from a prison to an IRC, every practical effort is made to ensure that they are moved in chronological order of the time served date.

In addition, the Home Office work hard to balance this need with the need to arrange value for money moves. This involves grouping moves that are both geographically and operationally advantageous to minimise the cost.

Immigration

Dr Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have been listed as an immigration or asylum absconder in each of the last five years. [179759]

Mr Harper: The number of people listed as an immigration or asylum absconder in each of the last six years can be found in the following table.

Immigration Controls

Mr Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment she has made of the potential costs and benefits of extending transitional controls on EU accession states; and if she will make a statement. [177670]

Mr Harper: In June 2005, the previous Government signed the accession treaty with Romania and Bulgaria. In doing so, they granted all Romanians and Bulgarians the right to come to Britain. The treaty came into effect in 2007, and as a result the seven-year transitional controls relating to free movement will end this year.

From 1 January 2014, Romanians and Bulgarians will have the right to free movement across Europe on the same terms as other EU nationals.

We are focusing on cutting out the abuse of free movement between EU member states and addressing the factors that drive European immigration to Britain.

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Across Government, we are working to ensure that our controls on accessing benefits and services, including the NHS and social housing are among the tightest in Europe to protect the UK from abuse. On 27 November 2013 the Prime Minister announced a number of measures to put this principle into effect.

Immigration Controls: Aviation

Mr Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer from the Secretary of State for Transport of 12 November 2013, Official Report, column 572W, on aviation, why her Department has no plans to match arrivals data from general aviation entries into the UK with the national air traffic system. [179581]

Mr Harper: Border Force work to match arrivals data from general aviation entries into the UK with the data from the national air traffic system is under way.

Immigration: Appeals

Stephen Barclay: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have received an immigration decision and reached appeal rights exhausted stage in each of the last three years. [180787]

Mr Harper: The ‘Appeals Rights Exhausted’ (ARE) category applies to appeals lodged by in-country applicants within the United Kingdom. It is relevant because an individual's immigration status may change once this stage is reached. The number of cases reaching ARE for the past three years is as follows:

Immigration: Business

Stephen Barclay: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department with reference to her Department's overarching impact assessment of the Immigration Bill, published on 14 October 2013, if she will publish a breakdown of the £4.71 million estimated as the net annual cost to business. [180599]

Mr Harper: The Immigration Bill's overarching impact assessment includes a breakdown of the £4.71 million equivalent annual net cost to business in table one. The principal cost to business comes from tackling illegal immigration in privately rented accommodation. Housing is a key enabler of illegal migration. The policy is intended to reduce the availability of accommodation for those intending to stay illegally in the UK, and tackle the exploitation of migrants by rogue landlords. Further detailed analysis of the cost to business that results from the measures in the Bill concerning residential tenancies can be found in the separate impact assessment,

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“Tackling illegal immigration in privately rented accommodation”, available on Parliament's website at:

http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2013-14/immigration/documents.html

Immigration: Children

Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will place in the Library records of all the consultations received during the impact assessment for the Immigration Bill in relation to her statutory safeguarding children duties as set out in Section 55 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009 from (a) the Office of the Children's Champion and (b) other bodies. [180472]

Mr Harper: The Government held three public consultations during the summer that relate to provisions in the Immigration Bill. These consultations focused on tackling illegal immigration in private, rented accommodation, regulating migrant access to health services in the UK, and measures to help prevent illegal working. The Government's response to each of these consultations has been published online and includes a summary of responses received. The Office of the Children's Champion is part of the Home Office and as such does not respond to public consultations.

Stephen Barclay: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many children were entered onto the UK Border Agency database in each of the last five years; how many alerts requiring investigation were generated from that data, excluding false positives; and what the estimated cost of those investigations was. [180617]

Mr Harper: The former UK Border Agency had a number of databases—it is not clear to which the question refers, or what kind of alerts are being referred to.

Internet

Valerie Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether access to any websites or domains is blocked from computers in her Department; and if she will publish a list of all such websites and domains to which access is prohibited. [178506]

James Brokenshire: The Home Department does block websites in two broad groups.

1. Individual sites that are specifically notified to Home Office IT either, by CESG GovCert as malicious or other sites specifically notified by business users as being potentially harmful.

2. Sites that are classified by a global service provider into certain categories that are deemed to be inappropriate for Home Office business use. Home Department systems are able to automatically check sites against these categories, a list of which with brief descriptions follows.

Pornography (sites that contain materials that are intended to-be sexually arousing or erotic as the main focus)

Anonymisers (sites used for disguising access to sites that might otherwise be blocked)

Gruesome Content (sites considered to have content that can be considered tasteless, gross, shocking, or gruesome)

Violence (sites considered to have content that includes real or lifelike images or text that portray, describe, or advocate physical assaults against humans, animals, or institutions)

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Games/Cartoon Violence (this category is specific to fantasy or fictitious representations of violence within the context of games, comics, cartoons, or graphic novels)

Extreme (the outer limits of: Gruesome Content, Hate Speech, Politics/Opinion, Violence, or Game/Cartoon Violence, including Child Abuse would also be classed as Extreme)

Social Networking (this category includes URLs that enable social networking for a variety of purposes; friendship, dating, professional, or topics of interest)

Browser Exploits (sites constructed to attempt attacks on browser software)

Consumer Protection (sites that try to rob or cheat consumers)

Illegal UK (this will include for example sites that contain child sexual abuse content hosted anywhere in the world, and criminally obscene and incitement to racial hatred content hosted in the UK. This includes sites notified to McAfee by the Internet Watch Foundation)

Malicious Downloads (sites that allow a user to inadvertently download code that is harmful or annoying)

Malicious Sites (sites that deploy code designed specifically to hijack your computer's settings or activity)

Phishing (sites designed to steal user account information)

Potentially Unwanted Programs (which typically alter security or privacy settings on the client computer)

Spam URLs (links to web pages that arrive in unsolicited spam e-mail with content ranges from product marketing to potentially offensive or fraudulent sites)

Spyware/Adware/Keyloggers (web pages that violate personal or corporate privacy and security by covertly gathering and sending information to another party)

It is not considered appropriate to publish the list of individually blocked sites as many cases are harmful sites that we are informed of by the CESG GovCert regime, Home Office would not wish to endanger any CESG operational intelligence and would refer the request to GovCert. Additionally in many cases these are stored as IP addresses rather than readable URLs. It is not possible to list all of the sites in the blocked categories as this is compiled by an external service provider.

Interpol

Mr Raab: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how much Interpol has charged and received for providing major event support teams in (a) the UK and (b) EU member states in each of the last five years; [180066]

(2) how much Interpol major event support teams cost for the London 2012 Summer Olympics. [180174]

James Brokenshire [holding answer 16 December 2013]:The Interpol Major Event Support Team for the London 2012 Summer Olympics was provided at no cost to the UK.

Interpol has not deployed any other such teams in the UK in the last five years. We do not hold information on the amount charged or received for any Major Event Support Teams that Interpol may have deployed to any other member state in the same period.

Mr Raab: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) pursuant to the answer of 5 December 2013, Official Report, column 2, on Interpol, what the length of time between issue and withdrawal or revocation was of each of the eight Interpol Red Notices which were withdrawn or revoked by the UK; [180398]

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(2) pursuant to the answer of 5 December 2013, Official Report, column 762W, on Interpol, for what reasons it is not possible for figures for Red Notices for UK nationals issued by other countries to be provided. [180071]

James Brokenshire: As previously stated in our response of 5 December 2013, Official Report, column 762W, the Home Office does not collect statistical data centrally on Red Notices. The most comprehensive source of data on Red Notices is that held by the Interpol General Secretariat.

There are 190 Interpol member countries. The data relating to the subjects of Red Notices are owned by the country which has requested the Notice and cannot be released without the permission of that country. To ask each country for details of any of its Red Notices which concern British citizens could be obtained only at disproportionate cost and would not necessarily guarantee a response.

Interpol: Europol

Mr Raab: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department to what extent Europol shares information with Interpol; and what steps Europol takes to ensure that information it relies on has not been obtained by Interpol in breach of human rights. [180062]

James Brokenshire: The 2001 Agreement between Interpol and Europol provides for the exchange of operational, strategic and technical information. The agreement includes in Article 5(2) a ban on the processing of information which has clearly been obtained in obvious violation of human rights.

Ketamine

Charlotte Leslie: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps she will take in response to the Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs' recommendation that ketamine be reclassified as a Class B drug. [181337]

Norman Baker: We welcome the Advisory Council's advice in light of the growing concerns around the harms associated with ketamine misuse. We will respond to the recommendations in due course.

Legal Aid Scheme

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate she has made of how many small and medium-sized legal practices in (a) Barnsley Central constituency, (b) South Yorkshire and (c) England are likely to close as a result of the Government's proposed changes in legal aid. [180684]

Mr Vara: I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

On 5 September 2013 the Government published our response to the ‘Transforming Legal Aid: delivering a more credible and efficient system’ consultation and, simultaneously, published proposals for further consultation on a modified model of procurement for criminal legal aid.

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Under the proposed modified model, there would be an unlimited number of ‘Own Client Work’ contracts on offer meaning that organisations of any size would be able to get a contract to deliver criminal legal aid services to any client who requests them, provided they can show they meet the necessary quality requirements. To ensure there is sufficient coverage of quality service supply for those individuals who do not have their own provider, we proposed to maintain a duty provider scheme. In order for that scheme to be sustainable at the rates of pay on offer we proposed to offer fewer, larger contracts to organisations capable of showing they meet the necessary quality and capacity requirements.

To help inform the number of Duty Provider Work contracts to offer we need to take account of a number of factors including the ability of the current providers to consolidate and grow their businesses and the financial viability of contract values. To help inform this work we commissioned, jointly with the Law Society, a piece of research into the appropriate number and size of contracts necessary to ensure a sustainable and viable market. This work has not yet concluded. We are also in the process of considering the responses to the consultation.

The Government response to consultation due to be published in early 2014 will be accompanied by an impact assessment.

Legislation

Stephen Barclay: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much her Department spent on compliance costs for enforcement of legislation relating to (a) academic institutions and (b) marriages in each of the last five years; how many full-time equivalent staff work on such compliance activity; and what estimate she has made of the amount her Department will spend annually on compliance with new legislation relating to (i) private sector landlords and (ii) NHS staff. [180616]

Mr Harper: We do not hold information at the level requested for parts (a) and (b) in terms of either spending or staff and to provide this would involve disproportionate cost.

Details of spending in Crime and Enforcement Group (part of the former UK Border Agency) can be found in the UKBA annual accounts and can be viewed on the Home Office website via the following link:

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/aboutus/annual-reports-accounts/

The Government have published impact assessments in relation to provisions in the Immigration Bill concerning residential tenancies and the immigration health surcharge. These assessments set out the costs and benefits of the proposed schemes. They are available on the Parliament website at:

http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2013-14/immigration/documents.html

Members: Correspondence

Sir Gerald Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when she intends to reply to the letter to the Minister of Immigration dated 31 October 2013 from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard to Mr Peter Solaja. [180432]

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Mr Harper: I wrote to the right hon. Member on 16 December 2013.

Sir Gerald Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when she intends to reply to the letter to the Minister of Immigration dated 4 November 2013 from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard to Mrs S Parveen. [180433]

Mr Harper: I wrote to the right hon. Member on 16 December 2013.

Sir Gerald Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when she intends to reply to the letter to her dated 4 November from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard to Ms Sultanat Khan Ahmad Khan. [180434]

Mr Harper: I wrote to the right hon. Member on 16 December 2013.

National Crime Agency: Northern Ireland

Mr Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent discussions she has had with the National Crime Agency on its work in Northern Ireland. [180122]

James Brokenshire: Home Office Ministers have regular meetings with the National Crime Agency to discuss its work, including its work in Northern Ireland.

Mr Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent assessment she has made of the operation of the National Crime Agency in Northern Ireland. [180123]

James Brokenshire: The new National Crime Agency (NCA) launched on 7 October 2013. It is operating across the UK, including in Northern Ireland. As the Northern Ireland Executive did not agree to take forward a legislative consent motion for the NCA, the Agency's operations in Northern Ireland are more restricted than in the rest of the UK.

National Crime Agency: Scotland

Margaret Curran: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what activities the National Crime Agency currently conducts in Scotland. [180592]

James Brokenshire: The National Crime Agency (NCA) is UK-wide, and it leads, supports and co-ordinates activity to fight and cut serious and organised crime across the whole of the UK, including in Scotland. The NCA’s annual plan (published October 2013) provides details of the exercise of the agency’s functions in Scotland. The plan is available on the NCA website at:

http://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/

Offences against Children

Mr Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 9 October 2013, Official Report, column 313W, on offences against children, who authorised the destruction of 114 potentially

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relevant files; on what date they were destroyed; and if she will list the title of each file identified by the review that was passed on to the police in the period 1979 to 1999. [180891]

Norman Baker [holding answer 19 December 2013]: I refer to the answer given on 9 October 2013, Official Report, column 313W, by the Minister for Policing, Criminal Justice and Victims. This stated that the relevant files had been presumed destroyed, missing or not found. There is no information therefore held on dates of destruction or authorisation.

Through the publication of the Terms of Reference and the Executive Summaries of both the interim and final report the Home Office has made available all the relevant findings from this review.

Offences against Children: Internet

Mr Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many dedicated staff at GCHQ will be appointed to tackle the problem of child abuse material being shared on peer-to-peer networks; what the budget will be of the new taskforce; how it will be organised; which Minister she has appointed to lead on that project; and if she will make a statement. [180845]

James Brokenshire [holding answer 19 December 2013]: The Minister for Policing, Criminal Justice and Victims, my right hon. Friend the Member for Ashford (Damian Green), chaired the first meeting of the UK/US Taskforce to Counter Online Child Exploitation jointly with the US Assistant Attorney-General on 9 December 2013, and he will be leading on this work.

The Taskforce aims to work with the online industry to stop the internet being used to abuse children by delivering solutions to the most challenging technological problems. Joanna Shields, the CEO of Tech City UK and the UK's business ambassador for Digital Industries, will lead the industry engagement for the taskforce through the Industry Solutions Group. The taskforce will run for one year and will report on its achievements to the Prime Minister and the US Attorney-General by November 2014. The taskforce will have no direct budget.

Secretariat support to the taskforce will be provided by the Home Office from existing budgets.

The issue of peer-to-peer networks is already the subject of a programme of work. Google and Microsoft will take part in a pilot project with the Internet Watch Foundation and the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command of the National Crime Agency (NCA) to identify the means to remove pathways to child sexual abuse. The NCA works closely with many partners including GCHQ by sharing intelligence, capabilities and expertise.

Overseas Students

Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps her Department is taking to make a comprehensive estimate of the number of non-EU international students who leave the UK at the end of their studies. [180558]

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Mr Harper: The Office for National Statistics long-term international migration data now include estimates of the numbers of students leaving the UK. The ONS has recently improved its methodology to make it easier to identify students in the emigration flows to give a more accurate measure of the contribution of students to overall net migration. These statistics, available for the first time in August 2013, showed an estimated 49,000 non-EU students left the UK in 2012 compared with 139,000 who arrived during the same year. Further analysis of these statistics will make it possible, in due course, to determine with greater certainty how many students leave the UK and how many stay for longer periods.

The Home Office has undertaken research using administrative data to improve our understanding of migrants coming to the UK, their countries of origin, their purpose for migrating and how long they stay. The research examines cohorts of migrants arriving in the UK and tracks their immigration status over the following five years. The Migrant Journey Third Report (2013)¹ reported that around one in five (18%) of migrants issued student visas in 2006 have legally remained in the immigration system or settled in the UK after five years. In terms of settlement, those coming to the UK to study in 2006 contributed 13% of settlement grants in 2009, and 16% of grants in 2010 and 2011. The figures of course do not capture any students that may have remained unlawfully.

¹ Home Office (2013) The Migrant Journey Third Report, available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/143930/horr69-report.pdf

Passports: Fingerprints

Stephen Barclay: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will estimate the likely cost to the public purse of adding fingerprint verification to second generation passports. [180619]

Mr Harper: In line with the Government's policy in 2010 to halt the next generation of biometric passports which was due to explore fingerprint technology in passports, the Home Office has no reliable estimate at this time of what the likely cost of this would be.

Passports: ICT

Mr Donohoe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many times automatic passport reading machines have been idle since 31 May 2013. [177833]

Mr Harper: The ePassport gates opening times are in line with operational requirements (for example, they may not open when there are no incoming flights). Since 31 May 2013, the ePassport gates have been closed for 0.6% of the time during operating hours for maintenance reasons.

Passports: Scotland

Margaret Curran: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what her policy is on the Scottish Government's proposal to continue to recognise any currently valid UK passports until their expiry date in

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the event of Scottish independence, as proposed in the Scottish Government document: Your Guide to an Independent Scotland. [180614]

Mr Harper: UK passports are the property of the UK Government. Only the UK Government can decide on the validity of those passports.

In the event of Scottish independence, it would be for a future Government of an independent Scottish state to decide which passports from other sovereign states it would recognise. This would include the passports of the continuing UK.

Pay Television

Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether offices of (a) her Department and (b) its executive agencies have access to Sky Sports or an equivalent premium sports television service; and what the cost to the public purse is in each case. [176433]

James Brokenshire: The Home Office does not subscribe to Sky Sports; however, a small number of offices have access to the parliamentary annunciator service. The annunciator service gives information about parliamentary proceedings, including live feeds from the Commons and Lords Chambers and Westminster Hall, on screens throughout the parliamentary estate. The feed received by Home Office includes the same channels, including Sky Sports, as are provided in the Palace of Westminster. There is no extra cost to the Home Office.

Police: Dogs

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) dogs and (b) dog handlers were employed by each police force in each year from 2008 to 2013. [181799]

Damian Green: The Home Office does not hold information on dogs centrally. The table provided contains data on the number of police workers employed as dog handlers and their supporting staff for each police force area between March 2009 and March 2013.

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Publications

Mr Hanson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department for what reasons her Department's Balance of Compliance study was not published on 11 December 2013; and when she intends to publish this study. [180435]

Mr Harper: The Government intend to publish the next round of reports as part of the Balance of Competences Review in due course.

Sexual Offences

Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many sexual offences reported to the police in the last five years occurred (a) more than 20 years ago, (b) between one and 20 years ago and (c) in the last year. [180189]

Norman Baker: As part of this Government's ongoing commitment to reduce administrative burdens on the police, the Home Office is developing a Data Hub, which makes it easier for police forces to supply data

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directly to the Home Office from their systems for subsequent collation and analysis. Fourteen police forces are now live on the Data Hub, with the remainder anticipated to go live during 2014.

Data on when sexual offences occurred are available for around half of all forces from the data hub for the

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last two years, covering the period from July 2011 to June 2013. These data are shown in the table. They are taken from a live database, and are subject to change when forces revise data. Because they only represent a subset of forces, the total numbers of sexual offences will not match national totals.

Sovereignty: Scotland

Margaret Curran: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what her policy is on the Scottish Government’s proposal for joint working between the UK and Scottish security services in the early period after independence, contained in the Scottish Government document, Scotland’s Future: Your Guide to an Independent Scotland. [180588]

James Brokenshire: The UK Government believe that Scotland is stronger within the UK and the UK stronger with Scotland in it. We are not contingency planning for independence. While the UK endeavours to work with other countries and international organisations to improve security and fight organised crime to everyone’s mutual benefit, being an integral part of the UK is qualitatively different to being outside it. Issues of national security are of the utmost sensitivity, linked to a country’s foreign, security and defence policy posture, and any decisions are closely related to matters of sovereignty and democratic accountability.

For this reason, a security union is inseparable from a political union. The creation of an independent Scottish state would mean an end to the current arrangements for ensuring Scotland’s security, as Scotland, including Police Scotland, would no longer be part of the UK’s national security infrastructure and capabilities.

Stop and Search: Essex

Mr Carswell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will take steps to ensure that her Department’s review of police stop and search powers will enable Essex police to continue to take the same action to deter anyone from carrying a knife in Clacton. [180757]

Norman Baker: The Government are clear that stop and search powers are useful tools for the police in the fight against crime, particularly knife crime. The recent public consultation sought the views of the public on stop and search through various themes, including the effectiveness of the powers as they are currently used.

The Government are analysing the responses to the consultation on stop and search powers and will publish its conclusions in due course.

Witnesses

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of appeals for witnesses in criminal investigations. [180260]

Damian Green: Information relating to the effectiveness of appeals for witnesses in criminal investigations is not collected centrally and would be a matter for individual police forces.

Written Questions: Government Responses

Rehman Chishti: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when she plans to answer question 177453 from the hon. Member for Gillingham and Rainham, tabled on 22 November 2013 for answer on 27 November 2013. [180811]

Mr Harper: I replied to my hon. Friend on 16 December 2013, Official Report, column 394W.

Work and Pensions

AEA Group

Nicola Blackwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions following the takeover of the AEA Technology Pension Scheme by the Pension Protection Fund, what steps he is taking to protect members of the scheme and resolve outstanding funding discrepancies, including the loss of inflation protection and the capping of certain pension benefits. [181329]

Steve Webb: At the time of wind up of any insolvent scheme the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) carries out a detailed examination of the scheme’s assets and liabilities. The final data produced by PPF will differ from any previously published company deficit figures as those previously published are usually a “snapshot” using an accounting basis that assumes an ongoing scheme with an element of higher investment return.

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The PPF pays a standard level of compensation to members of occupational pension schemes whose employer has become insolvent, and where there are insufficient assets in the pension scheme to cover PPF levels of compensation.

It would be unaffordable for the PPF to offer full compensation to everyone; its aim is to pay a meaningful level of compensation without placing an unaffordable financial burden on the continuing pension schemes which are responsible for paying the PPF levy.

The PPF does not pay annual increases on the compensation it pays for pension service accrued before 1997 because prior to that date pension schemes were not required by law to make inflation related increases to all pensions in payment.

We have recognised scheme members’ concerns about the effects of the cap on their compensation where they have been a member of one scheme for a long time. The Pensions Bill currently before Parliament contains measures to increase the compensation cap by 3% for every year of service over 20 years.

Assets

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much his Department has gained from asset sales since 2010. [181861]

Mike Penning: The Department leases the majority of its assets including land and buildings, desktop IT equipment, printers/copiers and telephony networks. The remaining owned assets consist primarily of bespoke developed software and software licences for which there is no external market or the terms of licences do not allow alternative use. For this reason asset sales are unusual.

Since 2010, the following income from the sale of fixed assets has been recorded in the Department's accounts:

Atos Healthcare

Richard Graham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the targets for Atos are for (a) waiting times for medical assessments and (b) length of time for processing and completing paperwork relating to medical assessments; and how many times these targets have (i) been met and (ii) not been met in each of the last five years. [178525]

Mike Penning: The information is as follows:

Employment and support allowance (ESA) target for Atos Healthcare

Atos Healthcare is expected to clear work capability assessments within an actual average clearance target

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(AACT) of 35 working days. This is to handle the referral from the date it is received from the Department. The AACT achievement includes the time for processing and completing paperwork relating to assessments.

Other Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) benefits

The AACT target for industrial injuries disablement benefit (IIDB) is 24 working days, for disability living allowance (DLA)/attendance allowance (AA) and tribunal service (TS) the target is 12 working days, Veterans Agency (VA) the target is 16 working days.

The following tables give a breakdown of the number of targets set and the number of times Atos Healthcare has failed to meet those targets:

The Medical Service contract contains financial remedies where there are service level failures. These are described as service credits. Contractual performance and service credits are monitored and applied by the Department in accordance with contractual arrangements.

Mr Simon Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what timescale has been set for Atos Healthcare to respond to correspondence from hon. Members on behalf of constituents; what advice his Department has given to Atos Healthcare on improving its performance; and if he will make a statement. [181217]

Mike Penning: Atos Healthcare is required to provide a full response to each claimant or their representative within a 20 working day timescale as laid out in the contract. Where Atos Healthcare is unable to provide a full response within the required turnaround time they shall provide an update on what stage the response has reached, and the date the full response is expected shall be provided to the claimant or their representative.

Officials meet regularly with Atos Healthcare to discuss issues associated with performance in line with the contractual obligations of both parties.

Child Maintenance

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the amount of child maintenance that will be received by parents with care under the child maintenance 2012 scheme in each year up to and including 2017-18. [180940]

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Steve Webb: The ‘Child maintenance reforms: CSA case closure, introducing CMS fees, supporting family-based arrangements’ impact assessment available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/259694/cm-case-closure-and-charges-regs-ia-final.pdf

details the revenue raised as a result of the 20% paying parent fee and the 4% receiving parent fee across a transition period and in a steady state. The total amount of maintenance collected and paid through the 2012

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collection service can be calculated from the resulting revenue raised. The following table breaks down the estimated maintenance collected through the 2012 scheme collection service by year.

These collection figures do not include maintenance paid directly between parents ('Direct Pay') or maintenance paid as a result of family-based arrangements. The estimated numbers of Direct Pay arrangements set up through the 2012 scheme each year is included in the following table:

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions with reference to his Department's final impact assessment of the Child Support Fees Regulations 2014, and pursuant to the contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Disabled People of 1 February 2012, Official Report, column 911, on Welfare Reform Bill, what assessment he has made of the costs of (a) establishing and (b) processing (i) application fees, (ii) non-resident parent collection fees, (iii) parent with care collection fees and (iv) enforcement fees. [180942]

Steve Webb: Specific separate costs of establishing and processing fees under the 2012 scheme are not available as this is all included in the automated business as usual process when using the 2012 scheme statutory service.

It is not expected that collecting fees will increase caseworker effort on cases as this has been built into automated processes. With increased use of interfaces such as with HM Revenue and Customs and Jobcentre Plus it is expected that the overall process of maintaining cases will be more efficient and effective.

The ‘Child maintenance reforms: CSA case closure, introducing CMS fees, supporting family-based arrangements impact assessment available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment__data/file/259694/cm-case-closure-and-charges-regs-ia-final.pdf

details the overall costs and benefits of introducing case closure, charging and increasing information and support to help parents make and keep family-based arrangements. Table A4 at page 36 details the costs and benefits in specific categories.

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what savings his Department expects to achieve following the introduction of fees to use the new CMS collection service, (a) during the transition period of Child Support Agency case closure and (b) once the new statutory scheme is in steady state, as a result of the anticipated increase in the proportion of child maintenance cases where payments are made via Direct Pay rather than via the collection service. [181091]

Steve Webb: The ‘Child maintenance reforms: CSA case closure, introducing CMS fees, supporting family-based arrangements’ impact assessment is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/259694/cm-case-closure-and-charges-regs-ia-final.pdf

details the overall costs and benefits of introducing case closure, charging and increasing information and support to help parents make and keep family-based arrangements. Table A4 at page 36 details the costs and benefits in specific categories.

Cold Weather Payments

John Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the number of people who are eligible to claim cold weather payments in 2013-14; and what estimate he has made of the expected number of such eligible people in (a) 2014-15, (b) 2015-16, (c) 2016-17 and (d) 2017-18. [180998]

Steve Webb: The information for 2013-14 can be found in the Commons Library document DEP2013-1751 table showing estimated number of people qualifying for payments at each weather station in the UK, available at the following link:

http://data.parliament.uk/DepositedPapers/Files/DEP2013-1751/2013-14_CWP_Estimated_Qualifers_for_HoC_Library.xls

There are no figures available for the estimated volume of people eligible for cold weather payments from 2014-15 onwards. The expenditure forecast methodology, agreed by the Office for Budget Responsibility, assumes the following volumes of payments based on an average of the 10 years 2003-04 to 2012-13 plus an incremental increase under the universal credit policy:

Cycling

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent progress his Department has made on implementing the Government's Cycle to Work scheme. [181921]

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Mike Penning: After careful consideration of the costs, opportunities and consequences of offering a formal Cycle to Work scheme, this Department decided not to run a formal Cycle to Work scheme. Instead, it continues to offer alternative discount schemes to buy bicycles.

Employees who wish to purchase a bicycle can take advantage of two simple, good value schemes. The Salary Advance scheme offers employees an advance of their salary for the purchase of a bicycle and associated equipment for the purpose of travelling to work. The Employee Discount scheme offers an attractive discount on the price of a bicycle and associated equipment from suppliers.

Disadvantaged: EU Grants and Loans

Mr Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) if he will make it his policy to seek funding from the European Aid to the Most Deprived Fund to support food banks in the UK; [181336]

(2) what criteria the Government have applied in determining its bid to the European aid to the most deprived Fund. [181316]

Esther McVey: The Government do not support the creation of the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived. We believe that it is inconsistent with the principle of subsidiarity. Food and material aid measures are better and more efficiently delivered by individual member states through their own social programmes and their regional and local authorities. Both Houses of Parliament submitted reasoned opinions on the European Commission's proposal to the Presidents of the European Union institutions.

The current proposal for the fund would give each member state an allocation. This would not be additional money, but would be taken from a member state's Structural Funds allocation. The UK would receive the minimum allocation of €3.5 million which would be taken from its Structural Funds allocation. We believe the money would be better invested through the Structural Funds for regional development, employment, skills and social inclusion initiatives. The UK will not lose EU funding by receiving the minimum allocation.

Employment and Support Allowance

Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of successful appeals to decisions on eligibility for employment and support allowance are subsequently recalled for interview; and what the average time is between the appeal and recall for interview. [180815]

Esther McVey: All successful appellants will be reassessed either by interview—the vast majority—or on paper evidence. Information on the average time between the appeal and reassessment is not collected.

Sheila Gilmore: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many recipients of contributory employment and support allowance have stopped receiving this benefit after one year since 1 April 2012; and how many of such people have gone on to receive income-related employment and support allowance. [181133]

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Esther McVey: Statistics on employment and support allowance (ESA) off-flows by payment type and duration of the claim can be found at:

http://tabulation-tool.dwp.gov.uk/100pc/tabtool.html

Guidance for users is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dwp-tabulation-tool-guidance

The rest of the information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Employment and Support Allowance: Greater London

Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people made claims for employment and support allowance in each London borough in each of the last 12 months; and what the average waiting time was for work capability assessments to be undertaken in each borough. [180814]

Mike Penning: Information about the numbers of people who have made claims for employment and support allowance in each London borough in the last 12 months is not available in the format requested and information about the average waiting time for work capability assessments in each borough is not readily available.

Employment Schemes: Disability

Paul Maynard: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the success of the Work Choice wage incentive for young people. [181041]

Esther McVey: The independent evaluation of Work Choice found that many employers think the Work Choice wage incentive is, in principle, attractive. For some smaller employers in particular, it has been pivotal in their decision to recruit a young person from Work Choice.

Paul Maynard: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the role of (a) personal budgets and (b) individual placement and support in the delivery of Work Choice. [181042]

Esther McVey: The use of personal budgets for Work Choice eligible customers has been trialled in seven trailblazers in England as part of the Right to Control pilot, which ended at midnight on 12 December 2013. Evidence from the evaluations and any further information gathered during the extension of Right to Control Trailblazers will be used to inform future decisions.

Work Choice providers have the freedom to tailor their support to the individual, and this may include using the individual placement and support model. As part of the Disability and Health Employment Strategy, we are exploring how the new specialist offer can make greater use of supported employment and specifically the ‘place and train’ approach, with the individual working with their specialist adviser to determine the right job for them and how many hours they can work.

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Paul Maynard: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many applicants were waiting for referral to Work Choice in each of the last 12 months for which figures are available. [181044]

Esther McVey: DWP does not collate these data.

Paul Maynard: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when he expects to respond to the Independent Advisory Panel Report on Residential Training College Provision. [181046]

Mike Penning: On 17 December we published ‘The Disability and Health Employment Strategy: the discussion so far’, which refers to Residential Training as part of our current provision but does not imply any change for the future. We are still exploring all options and will announce our response to the Independent Advisory Panel Report, including which recommendations will be incorporated into the provision going forward, in due course.

Paul Maynard: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what plans he has to expand Work Choice to (a) internships and (b) voluntary work. [181047]

Esther McVey: There are currently no plans to expand Work Choice to internships or voluntary work.

Employment: Scotland

Mr McKenzie: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps he is taking to increase employment on the west coast of Scotland. [181054]

Esther McVey: Employment in Scotland on the year is up 83,000 and private sector employment is up 76,000 on the year.

On the west coast of Scotland, parliamentary constituencies including Argyll and Bute, Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock, Central Ayrshire, Dumfries and Galloway, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire and Arran and Ross, Skye and Lochaber have all seen a fall in the claimant count over the last year. Across these constituencies as a whole, 3.7% of the population aged 16-64 is claiming jobseeker's allowance (JSA), a fall of 0.8 percentage points over the last year.

Jobcentre Plus advisers can offer a variety of support to individual claimants including help with: job search, careers advice, boosting literacy, numeracy and language skills, other skills training, work experience, setting up a business, and some locally tailored provision.

The Work programme provides support, work experience and training for up to two years to help claimants that are long-term unemployed or face significant challenges, to find and stay in work.

Claimants who do not find sustained work during their time on the Work programme receive intensive Jobcentre Plus support to build on their time on the Work programme. From April 2014, under 'Help to Work', this will be expanded to include Community Work Placements.

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EU Social Policy

Mr Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions which public funds are classified by the EU as (a) social assistance and (b) social security for the purposes of interpreting requirements of the EU Treaty; and what the differences are between the criteria applied by the UK Government to measures classified by the EU as social assistance and those classified as social security. [181855]

Esther McVey: EU law does not explicitly define the terms social assistance and social security. Social security benefits fall within the scope of EU Regulation 883/2004 and EU Regulation 1408/71 on co-ordination of social security systems. The regulations provide that social security benefits relate to specific areas such as unemployment and sickness. Social assistance benefits fall outside the scope of those regulations. European Court of Justice case-law has developed the definition of social assistance benefits. Social assistance is provided in order to ensure a minimum means of subsistence as a result of an assessment of personal needs and circumstances. The case law distinguishes social security benefits on the basis that they are linked to certain branches of social security and are granted or refused on the basis of objective, legally defined criteria.

Food Banks

Natascha Engel: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will publish details of the process by which individuals are signposted to food banks by Jobcentre Plus; and what guidance his Department gives on the provision of written reasons when signposting. [181008]

Esther McVey: Since 2011, Jobcentre Plus has signposted claimants in crisis to local food banks. This is only when we have checked there was no other support available. When signposting to food banks a Food bank Signposting Slip is issued to claimants which contains claimant details and details of a local foodbank. However, the decision on providing assistance lies with the food bank and not with Jobcentre Plus.

Guaranteed Minimum Pensions

Teresa Pearce: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what estimate his Department has made of the number of people affected by ending the payment of guaranteed minimum pension increases; [181793]

(2) what impact assessment his Department has conducted of ending the payment of guaranteed minimum pension increases; [181794]

(3) what estimate he has made of the average loss to persons affected by ending the payment of guaranteed minimum pension increases; [181795]

(4) what estimate his Department has made of the total saving to the public purse as a result of ending the payment of guaranteed minimum pension increases. [181860]

Steve Webb: The Department for Work and Pensions does not pay increases on guaranteed minimum pensions (GMPs). GMPs are occupational pension scheme benefits

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which were accrued between 1978 and 1997. Pension schemes are liable for any statutory indexation of GMPs, and this liability will not change as a result of the single tier reforms. The Department for Work and Pensions pays state pension benefits and their indexation, including additional state pension (SERPS and S2P) and basic state pension.

Additional state pension and GMPs are linked in that when a person reaches pensionable age, the total amount of GMP is subtracted from the total amount of additional state pension built up between 1978 and 1997, and any net amount is paid. This subtraction of the total GMP amount is called a ‘contracted-out deduction’, and reflects that reduced national insurance was paid during the period of contracting out in return for meeting legislative requirements. This calculation is performed each year that the pension is payable.

There is no statutory obligation on schemes to pay increases on GMPs accrued between 1978 and 1988. However, additional state pension built up during that period is subject to increases. When the contracted-out deduction is subtracted from the additional state pension, the remaining additional state pension includes an increase linked to prices. In this way, an amount broadly equivalent to the GMP, but which is in fact additional state pension, is subject to an increase. Schemes are under an obligation to pay increases on GMPs accrued between 1988 and 1997, subject to a cap of 3%.

With the introduction of single tier, the additional state pension will close, as will the facility to contract out. For those reaching state pension age from April 2016, we will value their national insurance record to that point. We will compare what state pension the single-tier rules would give them with what they have built up as at April 2016 under the current system. The higher of these two valuations will become the individual’s ‘foundation amount’.

As set out in the White Paper, the design of the transition will benefit many people with a history of contracting out. In effect, these individuals may be able to offset their contracted-out deduction with further qualifying years until they reach the full amount of single tier. This means that many individuals who have previously been contracted-out may receive more state pension than they would have under the current system.

The Department estimates that over 2 million people will reach state pension age in the five years after the introduction of single tier, of whom around 40% to 45% will have been contracted out of private and public sector defined benefit schemes between 1978 and 1988. From 1988 onwards, the facility to contract out was extended to people in defined contribution schemes. By the mid 2030s over 80% of people reaching state pension age will have had a deduction for being contracted out factored into their transitional calculations and many will be able to benefit from the transition described above, as well as from the indexation arrangements for single tier compared to the current arrangements for additional pension and basic state pension.

The single tier reforms will cost no more than the existing system, and expenditure is projected to be within 1% of current spending until the late 2030s. The impacts of the single tier reforms have been captured in the impact assessment for single tier, which is published

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online. We estimate that those who hold GMPs are no more likely to have a lower outcome as a result of the reforms overall than the rest of the population.

Jobcentre Plus

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many Jobcentre Plus offices have closed since 2010. [181862]

Esther McVey: 23 Jobcentre Plus offices have closed since April 2010. The services they provided have been relocated to a nearby jobcentre or are delivered through, for example, local authority premises.

Jobseeker's Allowance

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what guidance his Department issues to decision makers in Jobcentre Plus on the eligibility for jobseeker's allowance of unemployed people who are studying regularly for less than 16 hours per week. [181007]

Esther McVey: Guidance on the eligibility to jobseeker's allowance for jobseekers who are studying for less than 16 hours per week is available publicly in the Decision Makers' Guide. Chapters 21 and 30 provide guidance on jobseeker's allowance and students and can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/256990/dmg-vol4-ch21.pdf

and here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/251817/dmg-vol6-ch30.pdf

Paragraphs 21238 to 21252 in Chapter 21 and paragraphs 30146 et seq. in Chapter 30 contain the relevant guidance.

Mr Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps jobcentres take to ensure that jobseeker's allowance claimants are aware that they can apply for hardship grants. [181825]

Esther McVey: Where a benefit doubt is identified and the case is being referred to a decision maker, claimants are given information (verbally and in writing) about the doubt in question, what happens next, what they can do if a sanction is applied and the availability of jobseeker's allowance under the hardship provision.

Once a decision is made and a sanction applied, a formal notification is issued to the claimant, which includes information about the availability of jobseeker's allowance under the hardship provision.

Where the Department for Work and Pensions is unable to help claimants they will be signposted to other types of support in their areas, including local authorities.

Mr Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of jobseeker's allowance claimants sanctions were subsequently overturned on appeal in each of the last five years. [181826]

Esther McVey: Statistics on the number of jobseeker’s allowance (JSA) sanctions overturned on appeal, up to 21 October 2012 (the last date of the old regulations), can be found at:

6 Jan 2014 : Column 53W

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-work-pensions/series/dwp-statistics-tabulation-tool

From 22 October 2012, new regulations introduced a regime of fixed period sanctions, which replaced the existing sanction rules and moved claimants closer to the sanction regime planned for universal credit in 2013. These data, up to June 2013, can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/jobseekers-allowance-sanctions

Guidance for users is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/203439/tab-tool-guidance.pdf

The numbers from this published information can be used to calculate the proportions requested.

Mr Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps jobcentres take to ensure that jobseeker's allowance claimants are aware that they may appeal sanction decisions. [181827]

Esther McVey: Where a doubt about benefit entitlement is identified and the case is being referred to a decision maker, claimants are given information (verbally and in writing) about the doubt in question, what happens next and what they can do if a sanction is applied and they wish to appeal.

Once a decision is made and a sanction applied, a formal notification is issued to the claimant, which includes information about their rights of appeal.

Mike Crockart: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what additional training has been provided to Jobcentre Plus advisers and decision makers ensuring that his new jobseeker's allowance sanctions regime is implemented fairly and as a last resort; and what steps he is taking to ensure that such advisers and decision makers have a basic knowledge of local support or advice services which they can direct their customers to after sanctions have been issued. [182031]

Esther McVey: In responding to this question, we have made the assumption that it relates to the strengthened sanctions regime introduced in October 2012 and has therefore been generated as a result of the recent release of statistical data relating to sanctions.

All decision makers (DMs) and Advisers have access to comprehensive and clear procedures, guidance and extensive learning which equips them to apply conditionality with unbiased discretion to reach fair and consistent decisions.

The DMs' learning equips them to make decisions by considering all the evidence and applying the law, including any relevant case law, to the facts of each case. Where the legislation specifies or implies discretion, the learning provides the knowledge, understanding of the law and skills to weigh the evidence and to make a decision.

Advisers have access to a comprehensive programme of Adviser skills workshops, designed to build not only knowledge but also focus on the skills advisers need in order to understand the importance of a personalised and individual approach and the impact this may have on claimants' ability to move into sustainable employment.

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Building on this comprehensive learning, advisers and decision makers undertook specific learning to support their understanding of the strengthened sanction regime. This included:

a detailed explanation of the strengthened sanction regime.

repeated instructions for Advisers to explain the effect of sanctions on claimants—before a sanctionable failure occurs.

explanations about how sanctions escalate—including when they should not escalate.

detailed instructions for calculating the correct length of sanction.

that where a claimant has a Good Reason for a failure a sanction must not be imposed.

confirmation that Advisers can, in certain circumstances, treat failure to attend an adviser interview as straightforward (so no referral to a DM is needed).

the circumstances where a DM should not apply a sanction.

This learning has subsequently been incorporated into the learning routeways for advisers and decision makers for people newly in post after October 2012.

Where a doubt about benefit entitlement is identified and the case is being referred to a decision maker, claimants are given information (verbally and in writing) about the doubt in question, what happens next and what they can do if a sanction is applied and they wish to appeal. They are also given information about the availability of jobseeker's allowance under the hardship provision.

Supporting guidance for advisers includes the District Provision Tool (DPT) which is present in all Jobcentre Plus districts. This is a set of intranet pages having a standard national format but containing local information, local provision and more general support such as websites and contact telephone numbers for organisations that may be able to help the claimant.

Once a decision is made and a sanction applied, a formal notification is issued to the claimant, which includes information about the availability of jobseeker's allowance under the hardship provision and the claimants' rights of appeal.

Jobseeker's Allowance: Swindon

Justin Tomlinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the average length of time in receipt of jobseeker's allowance is for claimants in Swindon aged (a) 16 to 24, (b) 25 to 49 and (c) over 50 years. [181770]

Esther McVey: Statistics on the number of jobseeker's allowance claimants in Swindon by age and duration of claim can be found at:

https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/default.asp

Guidance for users can be found at:

https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/home/newuser.asp

Multiple Births

Mr Mark Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what plans the Government have to help the higher one-off costs of child-care of families who have had multiple births. [181889]

Steve Webb: DWP provides the sure start maternity grant (SSMG), a lump sum payment of £500 for each newborn child to help towards baby and maternity

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costs where there is no other child under 16 in the family. It is payable for a child (or children where it is a multiple birth) that is expected, born, adopted, the subject of a parental order (following a surrogate birth), or the subject of a residence order (in certain circumstances). The grant is available to recipients, and partners of recipients, of a qualifying benefit or tax credit. These are: income support, income-related employment and support allowance, income-based jobseeker's allowance, pension credit, child tax credit (at a rate higher than the family element), or working tax credit (which includes a disability or a severe disability element).

Where there already is at least one child under 16 in the family, then the position is more complicated. The underlying rule is a SSMG may be paid in respect of a multiple birth where there is already a child under the age of 16 in the family but only in respect of the additional children of the subsequent multiple birth. Some examples of how this works are as follows:

Example 1: Claimant has a child aged 10 but is now expecting twins. A Sure Start Maternity Grant will be payable for one of the new babies.

Example 2: Claimant already has a set of twins aged 6 and is expecting another set of twins. A Sure Start Maternity Grant will not be payable.

Example 3: Claimant already has a set of twins aged 8 but is now expecting triplets. A Sure Start Maternity Grant will be paid for the additional child.

Mr Mark Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate the Government have made of the number of mothers who give up work after having multiple births. [181890]

Esther McVey: The Office for National Statistics, which is responsible for publishing information on flows into and out of work using the Labour Force Survey, has confirmed that it does not hold the information necessary to estimate how many mothers give up work after a multiple birth.

Pension Credit

John Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what estimate he has made of the number of eligible pensioners that do not currently receive pension credit in (a) Glasgow North West constituency, (b) Glasgow, (c) Scotland and (d) the UK; [180993]

(2) what recent discussions he has had with pensioner representatives on the under-claiming of pension credit; [180994]

(3) what assessment he has made of the reasons for which some eligible pensioners do not claim pension credit; [180995]

(4) what steps he is taking to increase the number of eligible pensioners who receive pension credit in (a) Glasgow North West constituency, (b) Glasgow, (c) Scotland and (d) the UK. [180996]

Steve Webb: The Government are committed to ensuring pensioners receive the support they are entitled to. I regularly engage with a wide range of stakeholders and customer representative groups on a range of issues including access to pensioner benefits. DWP's National Partnerships Team works with over 4,400 customer

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representative organisations, both nationally and locally, to provide a wide range of advice and support for pensioners.

DWP introduced a web-based pension credit toolkit at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pension-credit-toolkit

Its purpose is to provide customer representative organisations with all the information needed in order to talk to pensioners about pension credit. In partnership with Age UK, local authorities and other groups, a structured campaign was undertaken to create awareness of the toolkit among those who support our customers.

In addition, DWP makes information available in various locations (for example, our website at https://www.gov.uk/browse/benefits, and leaflets available from our DWP Information Line on 0845 7313233) to ensure that people are aware of the benefits to which they may be entitled and how to claim them.

With respect to income-related benefits, when a customer makes a claim to state pension or reports a change in their circumstances, a customer adviser also discusses a pension credit application with those who may be entitled. There is also a visiting service available to support vulnerable customers who are unable to access services through other channels. Pensioners can, where eligible, claim housing benefit alongside pension credit in a single phone call, without the need for a signed claim form. Calls to the 0800 claims number from a BT landline or from the six largest mobile phone networks are free.

The Income Related Benefits: Estimates of Take-up report provides caseload and expenditure estimates of take-up for pension credit in Great Britain for the financial year 2009-10. The figures are available online and can be found here:

http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/index.php?page=irb

Estimates of take-up are not available at geographies below Great Britain. This is due to the size of the survey sample they are based on and methods used to generate robust national figures.

The Department for Work and Pensions has published a number of studies looking into pension credit take-up, including the following:

“Understanding the Relationship between the Barriers and Triggers to Claiming Pension Credit.” Bunt, K., Adams, L. and Leo, C. (2006): DWP Research Report No. 336:

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130314010347/http:/research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/rports2005-2006/rrep336.pdf

“Pension Credit eligible non-recipients: Barriers to claiming” by Lucy Radford, Lisa Taylor and Claire Wilkie. (2012) DWP Research Report No 819:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/214374/rrep819.pdf

The DWP ran a study which paid a sample of individuals their estimated pension credit entitlement without them having to make a claim, in order to test subsequent take-up, and explore their attitudes to this direct payment approach. The study showed that despite highlighting potential eligibility, many participants continued to believe they would not be entitled to pension credit, and as a consequence only 8.6% of the participants made a successful claim for pension credit following the study. The findings are published here:

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“Evaluation of the Pension Credit Payment Study” by Lucy Radford, James Holland, Natalie Maplethorpe, Mehul Kotecha and Sue Arthur (2012). DWP Research Reports No. 795 and 796:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/191738/795and796summ.pdf

Personal Independence Payment

Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what the average waiting time is for his Department's response to an initial application for personal independence payment; what the overall success rate of those applications is; and how many such applications are subsequently taken to appeal; [180816]

(2) how many claims for personal independence payment (PIP) have been made in each month since the introduction of PIP in each region; what the average response time is in each region; and what the average time taken for claimants to be called for a personal assessment is. [180817]

Mike Penning: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Stretford and Urmston (Kate Green), 11 November 2013, Official Report, column 516W.

Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service have recently published statistics which show that up to September 2013 14 appeals concerning personal independence payment had been directly lodged with HMCTS:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/265150/tribunal-statistics-tables-jul-sept-2013.xls

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what representations he has received on delays and backlogs in personal independence payment assessments. [181096]

Mike Penning: Provider's performance has recently highlighted that in some cases the end-to-end assessment process is taking longer than originally anticipated and I have received a number of representations from MPs and organisations representing disabled people informing me of these issues.

We are working with the providers to understand why the assessment process is sometimes taking longer than anticipated and to ensure service improvements are put in place to reduce the delays.

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many complaints have been made about the personal independence payment assessment since it was introduced. [181097]

Mike Penning: Personal independence payment started in April 2013. Complaints about the service offered by the assessment providers, including the nature or manner of the assessment, are made directly to the providers and not to the Department.

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the cost to his Department is of disability assessments for personal independence payments. [181155]

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Mike Penning: Personal independence payment (PIP) assessments are carried out on behalf of the Department by Atos Healthcare and Capita. Contracts are delivered in a regional Lot based approach.

The information is available in the public domain at the following links on the Contracts Finder website.

https://online.contractsfinder.businesslink.gov.uk/Common/View%20Notice.aspx?site=1000&lang=en&noticeid=735933&fs=true

https://online.contractsfinder.businesslink.gov.uk/Common/View%20Notice.aspx?site=1000&lang=en&noticeid=740844&fs=true

https://online.contractsfinder.businesslink.gov.uk/Common/View%20Notice.aspx?site=1000&lang=en&noticeid=740846&fs=true

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many applications for personal independence payments have been made since the scheme was introduced. [181156]

Mike Penning: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 11 November 2013, Official Report, column 516W, to the hon. Member for Stretford and Urmston (Kate Green).

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many staff carry out disability assessments for personal independence payments (a) nationally and (b) by region. [181157]

Mike Penning: We only hold details of the number of assessors for each assessment provider.

Capita healthcare professional undertake assessments for Lot 2 covering east and west Midlands plus Wales and employ 172 assessors as of 13 December.

Atos Healthcare undertake assessments for Lot 1 covering the north of England and Scotland and Lot 3 covering London and southern England and employ 440 assessors as of 8 November 2013.

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what guidelines his Department has issued on how long a disability assessment for a personal independence payment should take. [181158]

Mike Penning: The Department has not issued any guidance on how long an assessment for PIP should take as it is important for us to get the assessment right and to give claimants the opportunity to tell the assessor how their health condition or disability effects them on a day-to-day basis. The length of assessments can vary considerably based on a number of factors including the claimant's individual circumstances.

Sheila Gilmore: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the maximum length of time is within which primary contractors are required to complete their part in personal independence payment assessments; and what assessment he has made of contractors' performance since 1 April 2013. [181169]

Mike Penning: We expect that once we are in a steady state the end-to-end assessment process, from DWP referring the case to the assessment provider to the assessment report being returned to DWP, should be completed within 30 working days in 97% of cases with on average no case taking longer than 40 working days. The key requirement is to produce high quality assessments.

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Our provider's performance has recently highlighted that in some cases the end-to-end assessment process is taking longer than originally anticipated. We have built robust expectations of performance into the contracts with the assessment providers and have a full set of service level agreements setting out the Department's expectations for service delivery, including quality of assessments and the number of days to provide advice to the Department. The contracts include a range of remedies which allow the Department to take action on minor as well as more significant poor performance and ultimately the Department has the right to terminate the contract if there is sustained underperformance.

Officials meet regularly with assessment providers to discuss their performance in line with their contractual obligations and to ensure that all the steps in the assessment process are as smooth as they can be.

Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many personal independence payment claims to date have been delayed since the applications were first made; what the average length of delay was; and how many of those delayed applications involved claimants with cancer. [181819]

Mike Penning: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Stretford and Urmston (Kate Green) on 11 November 2013, Official Report, column 516W.

Since the introduction of PIP new claims in April, we have been closely monitoring all aspects of the process. Our latest analysis is telling us that the end-to-end claiming journey is taking longer than expected both within DWP and with the providers. In particular providers are telling us that the assessment process, including booking appointments, gathering further evidence and providing assessment reports to DWP, is taking longer than expected. We are working with providers to ensure that all the steps in the process are as smooth as they can be.

Although PIP is a new benefit, and the Department does not have a target for completion of claims while processes are bedding in, we do deal urgently with special rules claims for terminally ill claimants. We are making a number of changes within the Department for claimants and support organisations including establishing a dedicated telephone claims line for terminally ill claimants to make a new claim to PIP; creating a more rapid transfer of information between the Department and Assessment Providers and reducing the time it takes to get a DS1500 form in support of the PIP claim into the Department.

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions where final responsibility lies for delays with personal independence payment assessments; what the causes are of those delays; and if he will make a statement. [181823]

Mike Penning: Since the introduction of PIP new claims in April, we have been closely monitoring all aspects of the process. Our latest analysis is telling us that the end-to-end claimant journey is taking longer than expected both within DWP and with the providers.

As PIP is a new benefit we are looking closely at how long the claimant journey, which is available at:

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https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pip-claim-process-overview-the-claimant-journey

is taking against original estimates.

We are working with providers to ensure that all the steps in the process are as smooth as they can be. We continue to look at our processes to ensure that satisfactory arrangements are in place to assess a person's entitlement to PIP.

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the (a) average and (b) longest length of time is for a decision to be made for a personal independence payment (i) in the Brighton and Hove local authority area and (ii) nationally. [181824]

Mike Penning: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Stretford and Urmston (Kate Green) on 11 November 2013, Official Report, column 516W.