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11 Nov 2009 : Column WA178

Unemployment

Question

Asked by Lord Ouseley

To ask Her Majesty's Government how they intend to get both parents in low-income families into work, in the light of the level of unemployment. [HL5674]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government & Department for Work and Pensions (Lord McKenzie of Luton): Increasing the number of parents in work is a key priority in lifting children out of poverty. The risk of poverty for children in workless-couple households is 68 per cent, nearly five times the rate of 14 per cent for children in working households.

In the current climate it is more important than ever to ensure that we provide everyone who can work with the support they need to find work, which will benefit not only their own family, but will contribute to the economy as a whole.

Parents need extra support and we are increasing employment support through schools and children's centres to reach out to parents, particularly potential second earners, to encourage and support them to return to work.

The work-focused services pilot in 30 children's centres in 10 English local authority areas is testing how children's centres can offer an effective vehicle to engage parents in labour-market-related activity, and so move them closer to employment and ultimately into work.

The School Gates Employment Initiative launched in October 2009 will enable non-working partners in low-income-couple families to access support and advice at their child's school, which prepares them for, and signposts them towards, employment and training provision.

We are also taking powers in the Welfare Reform Bill to introduce new measures to help partners of unemployed people find employment.

Vehicles: Scrappage

Question

Asked by Baroness Hanham

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many vehicles have been scrapped under the vehicle scrappage scheme. [HL6132]

The Minister for Trade and Investment (Lord Davies of Abersoch): £153,944,000 has been paid out under the scrappage scheme (as at 3 November). BIS payments are made once orders are fulfilled and transactions completed. This equates to 153,944 vehicles scrapped.

11 Nov 2009 : Column WA179

Young People: Custody

Question

Asked by Lord Dholakia

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many young people aged under 18 were sent into custody

11 Nov 2009 : Column WA180

for breach of court orders or licences in each year since 1992. [HL5906]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord Bach): Figures on breaches of court orders are shown in the table below.

15 to 17 year-olds received into all prison establishments in England and Wales 1995 to 2008 for breaches of court orders
	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
Breach of Court Order:	108	137	157	179	174	94	140	319	407	545	701	783	809	273

These figures are taken from the published tables 3.8 in Prison Statistics England and Wales for the years 1995 to 2002; table 7.14 in Offender Management Caseload Statistics for the years 2003 to 2006; and table 6.12 in Offender Management Caseload Statistics for the years 2007 and 2008. Copies of these publications are all available in the House of Commons Library.

Data on licences being revoked are as follows. Since April 2007, when this information became available, there were 57 cases of licences being revoked for under-18 year-olds in the financial year 2007-08; 79 in 2008-09, and 49 in the six-month period April to September 2009. To obtain further information from before April 2007 would involve disproportionate cost as data are not held centrally.

These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems, which, as with any large-scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing. The above tables all relate only to England and Wales; for information relating to Scotland and Northern Ireland please refer to the Scottish Government and the Northern Ireland Prison Service respectively.

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