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Lord Harris of Haringey asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What was the total cost to the public purse of the prosecution of Lord Condon and Sir John Stevens for alleged breaches of health and safety legislation.[HL3716]
Baroness Hollis of Heigham: The court was advised that the Health and Safety Executive's legal costs for this prosecution were £250,000. The Metropolitan Police applied for legal costs of £500,00 from central funds. HSE estimated that its investigation costs amounted to £50,000. The Metropolitan Police indicated to the court that its internal costs amounted to some £750,000, and that its costs in total including opportunity costs amounted to an estimated £2 million.
Lord Harris of Haringey asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether, in view of the acquittal of Lord Condon and Sir John Stevens for alleged breaches of health and safety legislation, they regard it as a sensible use of the public purse for one public body to prosecute another after remedial notices have been complied with; and what benefits, if any, they see as flowing from this prosecution.[HL3717]
Baroness Hollis of Heigham: Yes, we believe it was. Parliament made a deliberate decision in 1997 that the protection of health and safety law should extend to police officers. The legislation achieved cross-party support. It was a response to representations by the Police Federation and was passed with the strong support of that body and of ACPO and the national associations of police superintendents. The same principles of enforcement apply to both public and private bodies. The various types of enforcement mechanisms serve different purposes: prohibition notices prevent an immediate danger, improvement notices improve systems, and prosecutions take place because of serious breaches of the law. It is not unusual for the HSE to enforce by way of a notice as well as to bring a prosecution. The HSE's stated policy is to prosecute where death has resulted from a breach of the legislation, with exceptions if the potential defendant is a member of the deceased's family or if the breach is trivial. Neither exception applied. After the death of PC Sidhu, HSE informed the Metropolitan Police of its intention to prosecute. Over a year later, because of the slow progress of improvement in health and safety management, six improvement notices were issued. The benefit from this prosecution has been a substantial improvement in working practices within the Metropolitan Police Service. HSE will now seek to support these improvements, and to assist in the wider application by other police forces through discussion
with the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Home Office.
Lord Harris of Haringey asked Her Majesty's Government:
- How they propose to take forward the debate on the extent to which the requirements of health and safety legislation should be permitted to fetter the duty of police officers to preserve life.[HL3718]
Baroness Hollis of Heigham: The Health and Safety Executive is reviewing with the Home Office and police service stakeholders how health and safety at work legislation applies in the context of operational policing. Those involved include representatives of the Association of Chief Police Officers (England and Wales), police staff associations, the Association of Police Authorities, and the Metropolitan Police Authority. Health and safety legislation requires employers to safeguard the health and safety of police officers and others affected by their work so far as is reasonably practicable. This allows Chief Constables to take full account of the inherent risks in some police work when deciding what safeguards are needed. There is no question of health and safety legislation fettering police duties to preserve life. Neither of the incidents cited in the recent HSE prosecution involved attempts to preserve life, nor even "hot pursuit" of suspects.
Benefit Sanctions
Earl Russell asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Further to the Written Answer by the Baroness Hollis of Heigham on 30 June (WA 62-63), whether the Answer indicates that they do not know whether there is any correlation between increased effort in actively seeking work and increased success in obtaining employment[HL3841]
Baroness Hollis of Heigham: Research into the effectiveness of jobseeker's allowance has found that people are more likely to find work if they increase the effort they put into actively seeking it.
A copy of the report Understanding The Impact of Jobseeker's Allowance, Department of Social Security (2000) Research Report No. 111 by Alison Smith, Rachel Youngs, Karl Ashworth, Stephen McKay and Robert Walker is available in the Library.
Warrington: Pensioners
Lord Hoyle asked Her Majesty's Government:
- How many people in Warrington are drawing the retirement pension.[HL4117]
Baroness Hollis of Heigham: The total number of people in the Warrington local authority area who are in receipt of a state pension is 32,500.
Source:Department for Work and Pensions: Information Centre (IAD). Notes: 1. Figure is based on a 5 per cent sample from the Pensions Strategy Computer System as at 30 September 2002, and is therefore subject to a degree of sampling variation. 2. Figure has been rounded to the nearest hundred.
Lord Hoyle asked Her Majesty's Government:
- How many people in Warrington qualify for the pensions income guarantee; and how many are claiming it.[HL4118]
Baroness Hollis of Heigham: Estimates of the number of people entitled to but not claiming minimum income guarantee (MIG) are not available below national level. These are contained in the publication, Income Related Benefits: Estimates of Take Up 2000–01. Copies are held in the Library.
As at February 2003, 5,100 people were claiming the MIG in the Warrington Local Authority area. Notes: 1. Figure is based on a 5 per cent sample and is therefore subject to sampling variation. 2. Figure has been rounded to the nearest hundred.
Lord Hoyle asked Her Majesty's Government:
- How many pensioners in Warrington, aged 75 or over, are receiving a free television licence.[HL4119]
Baroness Hollis of Heigham: The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is set out below.
The number of people aged 75 and over receiving social security benefit in the Warrington local authority area at November 2002 was 12,500. These people would be eligible to receive a free TV licence. Notes: 1. This figure is based on 5 per cent data taken from the client group analysis of the population over state pension age as at 30 November 2002, and is therefore subject to a degree of sampling variation. 2. Benefits are attendance allowance, disability living allowance, severe disablement allowance, incapacity benefit, minimum income guarantee and state pension. 3. Figure has been rounded to the nearest hundred. 4. As only one TV licence is required per household, the number of free TV licences issued may be lower than the number of people entitled to one. Some households may contain more than one person aged 75 and over and not all households with a person aged 75 will have a television.
Lord Hoyle asked Her Majesty's Government:
- How many pensioners in Warrington draw the winter fuel allowance.[HL4120]
Baroness Hollis of Heigham: Most people aged 60 and over who normally live in Great Britain are entitled to a winter fuel payment, regardless of whether they are receiving a state pension. Some 35,600 people in the Warrington local authority area received a winter fuel payment last winter. Source: Department for Work and Pensions: Information Centre (IAD) Notes: 1. Figures are taken from the Matching Intelligence Data Analysis Service Winter Fuel Payment 2002–03 exercise. 100 per cent sample. 2. Figure has been rounded to the nearest 5.
Lord Hoyle asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What is the estimated take up in Warrington of pensioners credit; and how many pensioners have in fact applied for it.[HL4122]
Baroness Hollis of Heigham: We estimate that around half of all pensioner households across Great Britain will be eligible for pension credit. Estimates of the level of entitlement, and the number of applications, are not available at the level of individual towns, local authorities or parliamentary constituencies. A quarterly report on progress on the take-up of pension credit at the national level was published on 14 July and a copy has been placed in the Library. A further quarterly report will be published in October. Further monthly progress reports, including regional breakdowns of the number of awards, will be published from November onwards.
Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 2002
Lord Dixon-Smith asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What is the estimated annual cost of implementing the Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 2002.[HL4136]
Baroness Hollis of Heigham: The cost of implementing the new measures in the Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 2002 is some £1.7 billion over 50 years. The majority of the costs are for the new duty to manage asbestos in non-domestic premises (£1.4 billion). It is anticipated that much of the costs would be incurred during first 10 years but no annual breakdown of the costs has been made.
This is balanced against the benefits estimated at £3 billion reducing the risks from asbestos and so preventing an estimated 4,700 asbestos-related deaths.
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