10 Apr 2014 : Column 303W

10 Apr 2014 : Column 303W

Written Answers to Questions

Thursday 10 April 2014

Women and Equalities

Gender

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities what assessment she has made of the implications for her Department of the results of publicly-funded research into gender differences in brain development and functioning. [195615]

Mrs Grant: I have made no assessment of the implications for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport of the results of publicly-funded research into gender differences in brain development and functioning.

Gender: Discrimination

Mr Marsden: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities how many times gender discrimination in the maritime sector has been (a) reported to the Equal Opportunities Commission, (b) prosecuted and (c) penalised under the Equality Act 2010 since the Act came into force. [195430]

Mrs Grant: In October 2007 the Equal Opportunities, Racial Equality and Disability Rights Commissions were merged to form the Equality and Human Rights Commission. The Equality and Human Rights Commission is an independent body and I have asked the commission to provide the information requested. The commission can only provide information on cases that have been referred to it, and does not hold information on any legal action that may have been taken independently on this issue by individuals. The commission's records of complaints received and cases taken to court do not specifically identify gender discrimination in the maritime sector. Providing a comprehensive and accurate response on the number of times this issue has been reported to the commission, cases prosecuted or penalties imposed would require a manual search of files and therefore could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

LGBT People

Simon Kirby: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities when she plans to bring forward legislative proposals to enable LGBT people in civil partnerships to convert these to marriages as defined in the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013; and if she will make a statement. [195370]

Mrs Grant: Our priority has been to ensure that same-sex couples who were not currently in a civil partnership and who had been waiting to marry in order to formalise their relationship were able to do so as soon as possible. Therefore our focus has been on enabling marriages to take place and this happened several months earlier than anticipated. The first marriages of same-sex couples took place on 29 March 2014.

10 Apr 2014 : Column 304W

We are working hard to ensure that couples wanting to convert their civil partnerships into marriages are able to do so as soon as possible. We aim to do this before the end of 2014.

These aspects of implementing the Act take longer because they involve developing and implementing completely new procedures and processes. This contrasts with the work to make new marriages for same-sex couples possible, where we were able to build on existing processes so implementation was more straightforward.

Electoral Commission Committee

Electoral Register

Chris Ruane: To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, pursuant to the answer of 3 December 2013, Official Report, columns 611-2W, on electoral registration officers, which local authorities failed to meet performance standard 1 on using local government databases, in each year for which information is available. [194403]

Mr Streeter: The Electoral Commission informs me that the Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) who did not meet performance standard 1 in each year from 2008 to 2010 are shown in the following list. No EROs have been assessed as not meeting this standard in 2011, 2012 and 2013.

EROs not meeting Performance Standard 1

2008

Barnsley

Berwick-upon-Tweed

Blaby

Blackburn with Darwen

Brentwood

Chester-le-street¹

Durham¹

Harborough

Ipswich

North East Derbyshire

North Lanarkshire²

Nottingham

Sutton

South Lanarkshire²

Three Rivers

Windsor and Maidenhead

Weymouth and Portland

Walsall

2009

Bradford

Nottingham

Sefton

2010

Barnsley

Nottingham

¹ Chester-le Street and Durham are now part of County Durham unitary authority.

² North and South Lanarkshire are covered by one ERO

10 Apr 2014 : Column 305W

The Electoral Commission also informs me that it published its report, titled “Readiness for the transition to Individual Electoral Registration”, which included its assessment of ERO performance in 2013, on 31 March 2014, and wrote to the hon. Member with a copy of the report. The report explains that all EROs reported that they were meeting or exceeding standard 1 in 2013, and that the Commission is in the process of conducting a detailed analysis of EROs' electoral registration data from the 2013 canvass, following which it will publish its final assessment of EROs' performance.

Chris Ruane: To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, which local authorities have failed performance standard 3 on house-to-house enquiries; how many times they have failed; and how many times a Cabinet Office regional delivery manager has intervened. [194793]

Mr Streeter: The Electoral Commission informs me that in 2013 five Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) reported that they did not meet performance standard 3: Mid Devon; Taunton Deane; Torridge; West Devon; and West Somerset. The following table shows the number of times these EROs have not met this standard.

The Commission is in the process of conducting a detailed analysis of EROs' electoral registration data from the 2013 canvass, following which it will publish its final assessment of EROs' performance in 2013.

The Cabinet Office has established a network of regional delivery managers to monitor EROs' readiness for the transition to individual electoral registration in 2014. However, the Commission does not have specific details of the activities undertaken by these all of these officials.

Chris Ruane: To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, how many and what proportion of households which had a door step contact under performance standard 3 were called on (a) once, (b) twice and (c) three times in each local authority in the UK which passed that performance standard in the most recent period for which figures are available. [194794]

Mr Streeter: The Electoral Commission informs me that it does not collect information about the number of visits that Electoral Registration Officers' staff make to individual households as part of their activities to maintain the electoral registers.

10 Apr 2014 : Column 306W

Electoral Register: Young People

Chris Ruane: To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, with which (a) mobile telephone companies, (b) voluntary groups and (c) travel card providers the Electoral Commission is working to improve registration rates of young people. [194344]

Mr Streeter: The Electoral Commission informs me that it continues to work to identify partners for its work on IER. As agreements are put in place, it will make these available on its website and will inform the hon. Member when the first batch is published.

Chris Ruane: To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, pursuant to the answer of 29 January 2014, Official Report, column 620W, on the electoral register, what progress the Electoral Commission has made in improving registration rates of attainers; and what measures the Electoral Commission uses to judge its performance of increasing registration rates of attainers. [194422]

Mr Streeter: The Electoral Commission informs me that Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) are responsible for maintaining the electoral register in their local areas. The Electoral Commission supports them in this work in a number of ways, including by targeting its performance standards to help ensure that they understand the particular challenges in their registration area and develop plans to address these and improve registration rates.

The Commission refers the hon. Gentleman to its earlier reply of 29 January 2014 in which it outlined the steps it was taking to register attainers.

It is not possible to isolate registration form downloads from the Commission's

www.aboutmyvote.co.uk

website by demographic, however it does regularly review what media channels are most used by attainers, for example Video On Demand (VOD). This ensures that its campaigns are targeted as effectively as possible.

Electoral Registration Officers

Chris Ruane: To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, pursuant to the answer of 3 December 2013, Official Report, columns 611-2W, on electoral registration officers, when the Electoral Commission will make available its final assessment of performance for 2013; and if he will make a statement. [194423]

Mr Streeter: The Electoral Commission informs me that it published its report, titled “Readiness for the transition to Individual Electoral Registration”, which included its assessment of ERO performance in 2013, on 31 March 2014, and tabled a written statement informing the House of this. It also wrote to the hon. Member with a copy of the report and placed a copy in the House of Commons Library. A copy of the Commission's statement can be found on the Parliament website:

www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-vote-office/March_ 2014/31st-March-2014/14.Speakers-Performance-Standards.pdf

10 Apr 2014 : Column 307W

The Commission informs me that it is in the process of carrying out a detailed analysis of EROs' electoral registration data from the 2013 canvass, following which it will publish its final assessment of EROs' performance in 2013.

Electoral Registration Officers: Scotland

Margaret Curran: To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, which parliamentary constituencies in Scotland are part of local authority areas whose electoral registration officers did not reach the required performance indicators on Standard 3 in respect of electors who failed to register to vote. [195258]

Mr Streeter: The Electoral Commission informs me that no EROs in Scotland reported not meeting standard 3 at the recent 2013 canvass. The Commission is in the process of conducting a detailed analysis of EROs' electoral registration data from the 2013 canvass, following which it will publish its final assessment of EROs' performance.

Culture, Media and Sport

Broadband: Rural Areas

Andrew Percy: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment he has made of the economic effect of mobile internet services on the rural economy. [195500]

Mr Vaizey: The Secretary of State has not made any direct assessment of the economic effect of mobile internet services on the rural economy. The Department has however recently undertaken work to assess the wider impact of broadband internet access. The UK Broadband Impact study is available on the GOV.UK website:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-broadband-impact-study--2

Children: Day Care

Lucy Powell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much funding is still available through the childcare business grant scheme; how many grants under that scheme have been allocated in each region; and how many such grants with a value of (a) £250 and (b) £500 have been allocated. [195192]

Mrs Grant: The Childcare Business Grants scheme was launched in April 2013 to help those wishing to start a new child care business with start-up costs. To date, 4,417 applications have been received; of these, 4,001 applications have been for £250 grants and 416 have been for £500 grants.

As at 7 April 2014, £791,750 is still available through the scheme.

The regional breakdown of grant applications is in the following table:

10 Apr 2014 : Column 308W

Culture: Finance

Lucy Powell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much funding his Department and his Department's Executive agencies allocated to museums, galleries and libraries in (a) London and (b) Greater Manchester in each year since 2010. [192693]

Mr Vaizey: Funding awarded was as follows:

The DCMS London figure includes 11 national museums, which all have a national remit to work across the country, the Horniman Museums and Gardens, the Geffrye Museum and the British Library. It also includes funding for the Museums, Libraries and Archives council until such time in 2011 that funding transferred to Arts Council England, including funding for Renaissance in the Regions. The DCMS Greater Manchester figure relates to funding for the Museum of Science and Industry which joined the Science Museum Group in 2012.

Significant differences in lottery funding relates to both the number and size of applications received, the funding available to support these applications and the way in which activity is classified.

10 Apr 2014 : Column 309W

Employment Agencies

Chris Leslie: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport which five companies were used most often to provide temporary workers for his Department in the last financial year; and how much in agency fees was paid to each of them. [195548]

Mrs Grant: The five companies that were used most often in the last financial year ending 31 March 2014 to provide temporary workers were:

Capita Resourcing Ltd

Brook Street UK Ltd

Capita Business Services Ltd

Hudson Global Resources Ltd

Michael Page International Recruitment Ltd

We do not hold the details of specific agency fees paid to each of these. This information is not separated out from the total charge that we pay to the agency for an individual. To try and separate out this cost would incur disproportionate cost.

Members: Correspondence

Sir Gerald Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when he intends to reply to the letter to him dated 26 February 2014 from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard to Mrs J. Higham. [195060]

Mrs Grant: A response to the right hon. Gentleman will be sent shortly.

Mobile Phones

Andrew Percy: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment his Department has made of the economic effect of mobile network outages. [195501]

Mr Vaizey: The Department has not made any direct assessment of the economic effect of mobile network outages. In May 2011 a new requirement was introduced for operators to report to Ofcom any significant incidents which affect the availability of their networks and services. In November 2012 Ofcom published an update to the Communications Infrastructure Report including details of significant incidents and outages to mobile services, and their causes. This is available on Ofcom's website:

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/market-data-research/other/telecoms-research/broadband-speeds/infrastructure-report-2012/

Andrew Percy: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what discussions he has had with mobile network operators on reform of the electronic communications code; and if he will make a statement. [195502]

Mr Vaizey: Ministers and officials have had a number of representations from the mobile network operators about the Electronic Communications Code since the Law Commission published its report on the reform of the code in February 2013. My Department is considering the implications of the Law Commission's recommendations on network roll-out and service provision

10 Apr 2014 : Column 310W

to consumers. In January 2014, the Department published an economic analysis of the impact of various wayleave valuation regimes. A copy of this report has been placed in the House of Commons Library. The analysis work is ongoing and I will make public the plans to reform the Electronic Communications Code in due course.

National Lottery: Scotland

Margaret Curran: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what proportion of national lottery grants have been provided for good causes in Scotland in each year since 2010. [195303]

Mrs Grant: From information provided to DCMS by the national lottery distributing bodies, the value of grants given in Scotland as a proportion of all grants where a recipient location is specified is shown in the following table.

Public Expenditure

Helen Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what his Department's total (a) departmental expenditure limits (DEL), (b) resource DEL, (c) capital DEL, (d) resource departmental annually managed expenditure (AME) and (e) capital Department AME will be in 2015-16. [195253]

Mrs Grant: The answer is as follows:

Helen Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport pursuant to the answer of 2 April 2014, Official Report, column 718W, on public expenditure, what the projected spending is by his Department in 2015-16 by functional flows to categories other than those specified in the answer, disaggregating (a) grant-in-aid, (b) Lottery, (c) capital and (d) current expenditure. [195495]

Mrs Grant: The only area of public expenditure omitted from the answer of 2 April 2014, Official Report, column 718W, relates to the administration and research of the Department This expenditure is met solely from Exchequer funding, and the plans for 2015-16 are £36.4 million resource and £1.1 million capital.

10 Apr 2014 : Column 311W

Helen Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport pursuant to the answer of 2 April 2014, Official Report, column 718W, on public expenditure, under which category Heritage Lottery Fund monies have been shown. [195496]

Mrs Grant: Moneys from the Heritage Lottery Fund were not included.

Responsible Gambling Trust

Graham Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (1) what recent discussions he has had with the Gambling Commission on the independence of the research programme of the Responsible Gambling Trust; [195493]

(2) what discussions he has had with the Responsible Gambling Trust on funding for research into fixed odds betting terminals. [195494]

Mrs Grant: The Government hold regular discussions with the Gambling Commission and the Responsible Gambling Trust (which is an independent charity) on a range of matters, including the independence of the Responsible Gambling Trust’s research programme. At present, the Government is satisfied of the integrity of the research programme, all aspects of which will be vigorously peer-reviewed and transparent to the Responsible Gambling Strategy Board, the Gambling Commission and Government. Following Government-led discussions, the Responsible Gambling Trust has increased the available budget for commissioning independent research into fixed odds betting terminals by 50% to £750,000.

Tickets: Touting

Alun Cairns: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will make it his policy to follow the model used for the restriction of the resale of football match tickets for other live events. [194233]

Mrs Grant: The resale of football match tickets is restricted for reasons of public order and is a matter for the Home Office. I have no plans to extend these regulations in relation to the secondary ticket market for other live events.

Alun Cairns: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what action his Department is taking to prevent the resale of event tickets on the internet at a significant increase to their original face value. [194271]

Mrs Grant: The Government continue to encourage improvements so that all customers have an opportunity to purchase tickets and can do so in a secure environment. The Government believe it is for event organisers together with the professional ticketing organisations to determine suitable arrangements for ticket sales to their events.

Prime Minister

Euthanasia

Mr Amess: To ask the Prime Minister if he will make it his policy to suspend collective responsibility on any vote in the House on assisted suicide legislation. [194777]

10 Apr 2014 : Column 312W

The Prime Minister: Issues on matters of conscience have, by tradition, been the subject of a free vote in the House of Commons.

Cabinet Office

Building Regulations

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what discussions he has had with the Department for Communities and Local Government on how building regulations can contribute to his Department's Building Information Modelling Smart City project. [195614]

Mr Maude: As was the case under previous Administrations details of internal discussions are not normally disclosed.

Census

Margaret Curran: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many and what proportion of people in England and Wales identified themselves as (a) British, (b) Scottish and (c) British and Scottish in the 2011 census. [195616]

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

Letter from Caron Walker, dated April 2014:

In the absence of the Director General for the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many and what proportion of people in England and Wales identified as a) British, b) Scottish and c) British and Scottish in the 2011 Census. (195616)

The following is an extract from 2011 Census Table KS202EW which shows the numbers of residents and what proportion stated their national identity was British, Scottish and British and Scottish as at Census day – 27 March 2011.

Full results can be found here:

http://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/KS202EW/view/2092957703?cols=measures

Job Creation

Lucy Powell: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office whether the Office for National Statistics includes in its estimate of newly-created private sector jobs those which have been reclassified from public to private sector as a result of privatisation or outsourcing. [195608]

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

10 Apr 2014 : Column 313W

Letter from Peter Fullerton, dated April 2014:

In the absence of the Director General for the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the Office for National Statistics includes in its estimate of newly-created private sector jobs those which have been reclassified from public to private sector as a result of privatisation or outsourcing. (195608)

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes statistics relating to both the number of people in employment and the number of jobs but does not make estimates of the number of newly-created private sector jobs.

Reclassifications between the public and private sectors are highlighted in the quarterly Public Sector Employment and monthly Labour Market Statistics releases so that their impact on labour market statistical outputs is clear.

Jobseeker's Allowance: Scotland

Margaret Curran: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many people aged under 25 years in each parliamentary constituency in Scotland have claimed jobseeker's allowance for more than (a) one and (b) two years in each year since 2010. [195613]

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

Letter from Caron Walker, dated April 2014:

In the absence of the Director General for the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many people aged under 25 years in each parliamentary constituency in Scotland had claimed jobseeker’s allowance for more than (a) one and (b) two years in each year since 2010. (195613)

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) compiles data on the number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance from the JobcentrePlus Administrative System.

Table 1 shows the number of people aged under 25 years claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance for more than one year in each parliamentary constituency in Scotland for February 2014 and February for each year since 2010. Table 2 shows the number of those who had been claiming for more than two years.

A copy of the tables will be placed in the Library of the House.

National and local area estimates for many labour market statistics, including employment, unemployment and claimant count are available on the NOMIS website at:

http://www.nomisweb.co.uk

10 Apr 2014 : Column 314W

10 Apr 2014 : Column 315W

10 Apr 2014 : Column 316W

Unemployment: Essex

Mr Simon Burns: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what estimate he has made of the proportion of young people in (a) Chelmsford constituency and (b) Essex who have been unemployed for more than 12 months. [195485]

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

10 Apr 2014 : Column 317W

Letter from Peter Fullerton, dated April 2014:

In the absence of the Director General for the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking the Minister for the Cabinet Office for the proportion of young people in (a) Chelmsford constituency and (b) Essex who have been unemployed for more than 12 months. (195485)

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) compiles unemployment statistics for local areas from the Annual Population Survey (APS) following International Labour Organisation (ILO) definitions. However, estimates of unemployment for the requested age band, duration and geographies are not available due to small sample sizes.

As an alternative we have provided the proportion of young people who had been claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) for more than 12 months. The counts of people claiming JSA are those who are claiming benefits for unemployment related purposes. At a UK level the total number of JSA claimants is around half of the total unemployment level.

In February 2014 the proportion of people aged 18 to 24 years who had been claiming JSA for more than 12 months in Chelmsford constituency and Essex were 0.6% and 0.7% respectively.

National and local area estimates for many labour market statistics, including employment, unemployment and claimant count are available on the NOMIS website at:

http://www.nomisweb.co.uk

Youth Services

Ms Buck: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office (1) if he will rank each English local authority by the (a) percentage and (b) actual change in (i) total and (ii) per capita expenditure on all provisions for young people since 2010; [195480]

(2) how much each local authority in England reported as its (a) budgeted and (b) outturn expenditure on all youth work and provision of activities for young people in each year since 2010. [195481]

Mr Hurd: The information requested is collected by Department for Education and published on gov.uk. I have asked that this information for each year since 2010 is placed in the Library of the House as soon as is practicable.

Figures for actual spend by local authority in 2013-14 will be available in December 2014.

Work and Pensions

Housing Benefit: Rural Areas

Hywel Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the level of need in rural communities for discretionary housing payments beyond 2014-15. [195835]

Steve Webb: An assessment has not yet been made about the level of need in rural communities for discretionary housing payments (DHP) beyond 2014-15. DHP funding after 2014-15 will be agreed in due course and will be informed by evidence on the use and demand for DHPs, including in rural communities. The Department is currently collecting data on the use of discretionary housing payments in the 2013-14 financial year.

10 Apr 2014 : Column 318W

Housing Benefit: Social Rented Housing

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many and what proportion of social housing tenants affected by the implementation of the under-occupancy penalty have been given exempt status in each (a) constituency and (b) local authority area. [195086]

Esther McVey: The only group exempt from the removal of the spare room subsidy and therefore unaffected by the policy are those housing benefit social sector tenants who have reached state pension credit age.

Registered foster carers are allowed an additional bedroom if they have fostered a child during the last 52 weeks and parents of armed forces personnel who have been deployed on operations are allowed to retain that adult child’s bedroom.

Internet

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions which suppliers his Department has contracted for the delivery of his Sorting Out Separation Web Application; and how much was awarded under each contract. [195621]

Steve Webb: The information is as follows:

Current contracts

Memset Ltd to provide hosting services. The amount awarded was £10,990.83 (ex VAT)—contract expires 1 September 2014.

Lightmaker UK Ltd to provide maintenance and development services. The amount awarded was £97,500 (ex VAT)—contract expires 31 July 2014.

Expired contracts

Centre for Separated Families to develop logic for a self diagnostic tool and the contract amount awarded was £19,630 (ex VAT)—contract expired 5 July 2013.

Lightmaker UK Ltd to provide interactive content services and the amount awarded was £99,625 (ex VAT)—contract expired 15 January 2013.

Bullet Ltd to provide Syndication/Promotion services and the amount awarded was £99,160 (ex VAT)—contract expired 31 October 2013.

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps he plans to take to ensure the effectiveness of the Sorting Out Separation Web app in providing constructive support to assist collaboration for longer-term separated parents in response to the evaluation commissioned by his Department which indicated that the Web app had little relevance or use for this group. [195737]

Steve Webb: DWP research report 863: “Sorting Out Separation Web App: evaluation of effectiveness” highlighted that the longer-term separated found the Sorting out Separation Web app less relevant because they were more likely to know most of the information provided.

The evaluation confirmed that we need better to understand the needs of this group. Several projects funded in the second round of the Innovation Fund are specifically focusing on what type of support works to help longer-term separated couples to collaborate. When these projects have been completed and evaluated, we will be able to consider how further to improve support for longer-term separated parents.

10 Apr 2014 : Column 319W

Jobcentre Plus

Teresa Pearce: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 6 March 2014, Official Report, columns 971-2W, on Remploy, what proportion of the £4.2 million spending has gone to Jobcentre Plus; and who the recipients are of the majority of that funding. [195306]

Mike Penning: Of the £4.2 million spent on providing individual support to former Remploy disabled employees, up to the end of January 2014, £0.7 million has been provided to Jobcentre Plus to fund personal case workers, who provide personalised one-to-one help to find and keep employment. As at 21 March 2014, 1,513 disabled former Remploy workers have chosen to work with our personal case workers to find another job and 716 are in work.

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what provision is made by Jobcentre Plus for victims of domestic violence. [195445]

Esther McVey: Jobcentre Plus directly supports domestic violence victims in a number of ways. The jobseeker’s allowance domestic violence (JSA DV) easement helps victims of actual or threatened domestic violence by allowing a break from job seeking activity. This helps to give claimants the opportunity to begin to stabilise their lives and those of their families. The Destitute Domestic Violence Concession ensures migrant spouse victims of domestic violence who have been granted leave to remain outside the immigration rules are able to access eligible income-related benefits.

As well as these initiatives our operational staff signpost domestic violence victims to local support organisations. Partnership working opportunities with local voluntary and community support groups is continually being developed at a local level.

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what guidance his Department issues to Jobcentre Plus on giving written appointment cards to claimants with details of future appointments. [195946]

Esther McVey: Jobcentre staff are advised to confirm, in writing, the details of all appointments a claimant is required to attend. This includes the date, time and location of the appointment, what the claimant must do if they cannot attend and the consequences of failing to attend any of these appointments without good reason.

Jobcentre Plus: Bolton

Mr Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many complaints about (a) staff behaviour, (b) contested sanction decisions and (c) telephone line waiting times have been made against Bolton Jobcentre Plus offices in each year since 2010. [195040]

Esther McVey: Until July 2012, when a new process for handling and recording customer feedback was introduced, complaints were not formally categorised. It has therefore not been possible to accurately identify

10 Apr 2014 : Column 320W

the requested data prior to that date. In addition, contested sanction decisions are subject to the appeals and reconsideration process and are not categorised as complaints. The information we are able to provide for Bolton Jobcentre is as follows:

Jobseeker's Allowance

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether any jobseeker's allowance claimant was sanctioned for not signing on Christmas Day. [195943]

Esther McVey: It is not Jobcentre Plus policy to sanction jobseeker's allowance claimants for not signing on Christmas day. Jobcentres are closed as this is a public holiday.

Nurseries

Lucy Powell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 24 March 2014, Official Report, column 26W, on nurseries, for what reasons his Department is reviewing provision of workplace nurseries; when that review will be complete; how many families access his Department's workplace nursery provision; how much workplace nursery provision by his Department costs each year; and whether his Department claims tax relief on workplace nurseries. [195198]

Mike Penning: There are currently seven workplace nurseries in operation, by third parties, on DWP premises.

The Department’s current contracts with its nursery providers are soon expiring. Therefore, it is appropriate to review future nursery provision in general and consider whether it is appropriate and cost effective to continue to contract for on site services.

In addition, as part of its remuneration package, the Department supports employees through a salary sacrifice scheme where employees can give up part of their salary in return for childcare vouchers, which allows for significant savings through tax relief. This gives parents support in order to make their own choices for child care. Consequently, as suitable alternatives exist, it is no longer appropriate to continue to contract for workplace nursery provision.

There are currently 361 families who access DWP’s workplace nurseries.

The cost of nursery provision:

10 Apr 2014 : Column 321W

The Department doesn’t claim tax relief on workplace nurseries.

No information is held on Executive agencies and non-departmental bodies. There would be a disproportionate cost to source that information.

Pensioners: Means-tested Benefits

Gregg McClymont: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the minimum income per annum required during an individual's working life to prevent the need to claim means-tested benefits in retirement. [195426]

Steve Webb: No such estimate has been made.

The single-tier pension will be set above the level of the standard minimum guarantee for a single person. This means that for people reaching state pension age from April 2016 onwards, anyone who has built up 35 qualifying years through national insurance contributions and credits should have an income above the level of the basic means test, regardless of how much they earned during their working life.

Some pensioners will still require means-tested support, and at a given level of retirement income an individual's eligibility will depend on a number of factors. These include the level and nature of their housing costs, whether they are single or in a couple, whether they have additional needs associated with caring or severe disability and whether they reached state pension age before or after the introduction of the single-tier pension.

Whether or not a particular salary level in working life would lead to an income in retirement that is high enough to avoid eligibility for any means-tested benefits will also depend on the choices an individual makes, including how much of their income to save for retirement.

Pensions: Russia

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what discussions the Government has had with the government of Russia on the failure of certain Russian companies to fulfil their obligations in relation to pension payments to UK citizens following those companies acquiring the assets of UK businesses. [195639]

Steve Webb: The responsibility for the oversight of work-based pensions in the UK rests with the Pensions Regulator which was set up under the Pensions Act 2004. Parliament gave the Pensions Regulator operational independence, which means that Ministers are not involved in decisions to exercise its powers or able to intervene in its casework. It would therefore not be appropriate for Ministers to comment on any individual pension scheme. Where it appears that scheme abandonment has taken place, it is a matter for the Regulator to establish whether the legal tests in relation to its ‘anti-avoidance' powers, including the power to issue contribution notices, are met.

Personal Independence Payment

Mr Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the average waiting time is for a personal independence payment assessment for claimants in (a) the Torbay local authority area, (b) the South West and (c) England. [195671]

10 Apr 2014 : Column 322W

Mike Penning: Personal independence payment (PIP) started from April 2013 and, although limited data has started to feed through, we need to wait until the Department has quality assured, meaningful figures for publication. The Department is working to guidelines set by the UK Statistics Authority to ensure we are able to publish statistics that meet high quality standards at the earliest opportunity. We intend to publish official statistics on PIP from spring 2014 in line with our publication strategy:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/284330/pip_stats_release_strategy_feb14.pdf

An ad-hoc release of PIP information was published on 11 February 2014.

Personal Independence Payment: Clackmannanshire

Gordon Banks: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the number and proportion of personal independence payment claimants in Ochil and South Perthshire constituency who waited for more than six months for a home medical assessment. [195607]

Mike Penning: It is not possible to provide the data for personal independence payment home assessments in the Ochil and South Perthshire constituency.

Remploy

Rachel Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how much personal budget his Department allocated to each Remploy worker; [195642]

(2) how much of the funding available for Remploy worker personal budgets has been allocated and used by individuals. [195643]

Mike Penning: Personal budgets are an important part of the £8 million People Help and Support Package (PHSP) which was not available for those affected by the 2008 Modernisation Plan. Personal budgets provide additional support where other sources of funding are unavailable. We originally budgeted £4 million for personal budgets but all of the PHSP support, including personal budgets, is allocated based on individual need and there is no specific allocation of funding for each former Remploy disabled employee.

Up to the end of March 2014, DWP has spent in total £4.9 million on providing individual support including £0.4 million on personal budgets. We expect all the original £8 million PHSP funding budget to be utilised by the time the last PHSP period is completed.

As at 21 March 2014, 1,513 disabled former Remploy workers have chosen to work with our personal case workers to find another job and 716 are in work.

Social Security Benefits

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what his Department's policy is when a claimant's regular signing on date falls on a bank holiday. [195945]

10 Apr 2014 : Column 323W

Esther McVey: Jobseeker's allowance claimants who are due to attend their local jobcentre on a public holiday are excused from doing so and an advanced payment is issued.

Claimants must continue to meet the conditions of entitlement, by being available for and looking for work and the actions they have taken to do so are reviewed at the claimant's next attendance.

The claimant is informed of this and issued with a formal notification at their attendance prior to the public holiday.

Unemployment Benefits: Lone Parents

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what provisions are in place to enable a lone parent on out-of-work benefits and on a course taking up more than 16 hours per week, whose youngest child turns five years old, to complete the course notwithstanding the 16 hour rule. [194200]

Esther McVey: Lone parents in receipt of income support and who were undertaking a full-time course that began prior to May 2012 are transitionally protected and they can therefore continue their courses.

Lone parents who began a full-time course post May 2012 were notified prior to them undertaking the course that they will be required to work search when their youngest child turns five, as part of the lone parent obligation changes. This would mean that a claimant who is capable of work could continue with part-time training and still be eligible for JSA.

Vacancies: Internet

Mr Umunna: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many and what proportion of vacancies currently available on Universal Jobmatch are employee only jobs; [195183]

(2) pursuant to the answer of 2 April 2014, Official Report, column 723W, on conditions of employment, how many and what proportion of vacancies available on Universal Jobmatch are zero-hours contracts jobs. [195260]

Esther McVey: In answering question 195183 we have interpreted “employee only jobs” as meaning “employee owner status jobs.”

Universal Jobmatch revolutionises the way jobseekers look for work and it has already helped many jobseekers find the jobs they want. It is part of the Government's plan for providing easy online access to Government services for all.

Universal Jobmatch has streamlined our existing services for employers and empowered claimants to take more responsibility for their jobsearch and get more targeted support from advisers.

It does not capture information on the number and proportion of zero-hours contracts or ‘employee owner' status jobs.

Jobcentre Plus guidance stipulates that claimants should not be mandated to apply for a job offering a zero hours contract. It also states that no sanction action will be taken if claimants refuse or fail to apply.

10 Apr 2014 : Column 324W

Mr Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps he is taking to ensure that jobs advertised on Universal Jobmatch do not breach his Department's terms and conditions. [195431]

Esther McVey: The vast majority of employers offer genuine vacancies for jobseekers to apply for-however, we don't hesitate to take action against anyone who tries to break the rules. Where we identify vacancies that may not comply with our terms and conditions we suspend the vacancy, investigate and remove if appropriate. If the employer is unable to provide assurance of compliance with terms and conditions, their account will also be suspended.