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Departmental Guidance
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what guidance he has issued to employees in his Department on (a) saving water, (b) conserving heat and (c) reducing electricity consumption. [83573]
John Healey: Treasury employees are encouraged to reduce utility consumption and wastage of resources routinely. The department works closely with contractors and staff to improve the efficient use of the building and workplace.
Departmental Staff (Sickness Absence)
David Simpson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer of 28 June 2006, Official Report, column 414W, on sickness absence, to what he attributes the rise in the number of staff with (a) two, (b) three, (c) four and (d) five or more periods of sickness absence of less than five days in each of the last three years. [84075]
John Healey: Staff absenteeism recorded as sickness absence in each year since 1997 is contained in Cabinet Office publication of an annual report “Analysis of Sickness Absence in the Civil Service”. This report gives a detailed analysis of the civil service data, including patterns, frequency and reasons for absence.
This is available in the Library and on the civil service website at:
http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/management/occupational_health/publications/index.asp.
Departmental Water Use
Mr. Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many (a) sprinklers and (b) irrigation systems are used by (i) his Department and (ii) other departments for which he is responsible in London. [83499]
John Healey: There are no sprinklers and one irrigation system in the Treasury building at 1 Horse Guards Road. Information on other London based Departments is not held centrally and could be produced only at disproportionate cost.
Doha Round
Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what action he plans to take over the next month to encourage revival of the Doha round of trade talks. [86766]
John Healey: As the Chancellor set out in his Mansion House speech on 21 June, the most powerful pro-globalisation signal we can send is to make possible the increase in world trade that an ambitious WTO settlement would bring.
The need for an ambitious and pro-development outcome to the Doha round of trade talks was a key message of the UK presidencies in 2005. This was reiterated by G8 heads of government at their St. Petersburg summit on 15-17 July 2006, where they noted their commitment to the development dimension of Doha, and urged all parties to work with the utmost urgency for the conclusion of the round by the end of 2006. As the G8 concluded, all countries should commit to the concerted leadership and action needed to reach a successful conclusion to the Doha round.
To this end Treasury Ministers and officials have meetings, conversations and discussions with a wide range of organisations and individuals as part of the process of policy development, analysis and delivery, including WTO and ED member states.
Dual Flush Toilets
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many dual flush toilets there are in his Department. [83578]
John Healey: All of the 144 toilets in the Treasury building at 1 Horse Guards Road have a dual flush facility.
ECOFIN
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer which of the proposals tabled by the UK presidency at the December ECOFIN meeting regarding the next steps towards better European regulation have been implemented by (a) the UK and (b) other member states. [88098]
Ed Balls: At the December 2005 ECOFIN, the UK, Austria and Finland issued a joint-presidency discussion paper setting out areas for future work by the Commission working together with member states to improve the regulatory framework in Europe. Since December progress has been made in a number of areas. The Commission has been piloting administrative burden measurement and plans to identify priority areas for action and options for setting targets to reduce administrative costs by the end of the year, enabling concrete proposals to be made next year. The Commission is also reviewing its Impact Assessment procedures and its processes for consulting with stakeholders and is due to report on progress on its simplification plan in the autumn.
The UK
continues to take the lead in pushing for Better Regulation in Europe
while in the UK we are
pressing ahead with implementation of the Hampton review recommendations
on risk-based enforcement and the assessment of administrative
burdens.
Economic and Fiscal Strategy Report
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the reference to the high-level group in paragraph 3.103 of HC 968, the Economic and Fiscal Strategy Report and Financial Statement and Budget Report, March 2006, who the members of the group are; on what dates it has met; when it will announce a strategy; and if he will place in the Library the minutes of its meetings. [87532]
Ed Balls: The Treasury will announce publicly the composition of the high-level group when it meets for the first time in the autumn, following a series of meetings at official level which have been under way since the spring. The Treasury will make an announcement on the strategy before the end of the year.
Financial Consumer Education
Mr. Drew: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether (a) his Department and (b) the Financial Services Authority has assessed the merits of setting up a stand-alone financial consumer education initiative. [87386]
Ed Balls: The Financial Services Authority (FSA), in partnership with the Government, the financial services industry and voluntary organisations, leads the national strategy for financial capability.
In March 2006 the FSA published “Delivering Change”, which sets out how it plans to improve financial capability in partnership with others. (http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/other/fincap_delivering.pdf). The programme includes promoting financial education in schools and in the workplace. The FSA also publishes information for consumers on its website including tools and resources for schools, young adults, workplace, new parents and two online consumer tools (the debt test and the financial healthcheck).
The Government have given strong support to the strategy and I announced last week that we would publish a 10-year strategy on financial capability and inclusion in the autumn.
Mr. Drew: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans he has for changes in spending on financial consumer education in connection with his target to educate all children in financial matters. [87387]
Ed
Balls: The Financial Services Authority (FSA), in
partnership with the Government, the financial services industry and
voluntary organisations leads the national strategy for financial
capability. One of the strands of the national
strategy—“Learning Money Matters”—will
provide schools with a comprehensive one-stop shop for help, support
and advice to help them deliver effective personal finance education to
their pupils. Learning Money Matters will be delivered by pfeg (the
Personal Finance Education Group), an independent charity that works
with schools to
promote personal finance education for young people.
The target is to reach 1.8 million children in 4,000 schools by 2010-11
to improve their financial knowledge, understanding and
confidence.
While total costs incurred by all partners are not available, the FSA’s contributions to financial capability (for all aspects not just schools) were £2.5 million in 2003-04, £4 million in 2004-05 and£8 million in 2005-06 and up to £10 million for 2006-07.
What is clear is that improving financial capability is a long-term initiative. The 10-year strategy that I announced last week will take an in-depth look at how the Government can best contribute.
Financial Services Authority
Mr. Walker: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what progress the Financial Services Authority has made in enforcing testable business continuity planning among its members; and if he will make a statement. [87906]
Ed Balls: The UK financial authorities (HM Treasury, Bank of England and FSA) work together closely to ensure that the financial sector is prepared for and able to respond to disruptive events. The FSA has responsibility for ensuring that the firms it regulates have business continuity plans in place, and provides the lead for the authorities in the areas of benchmarking and testing.
The FSA launched the Resilience Benchmarking Project in 2005 to assess the overall resilience of the financial sector. Findings were published in a Discussion Paper on 14 December and a draft Business Continuity Management Guide was recently issued for consultation.
The FSA also organises an annual market-wide exercise to test the contingency arrangements of the financial authorities with market participants.
Fundamental Savings Review
Mr. Redwood: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to his oral answer to the hon. Members for Bosworth and Livingston of 13 July 2006, Official Report, column 1470, on the Fundamental Savings review, whether trading enterprises owned by the public sector will be sold off in the planned sale of assets. [86755]
Mr. Timms: The 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) will take forward the Government’s objective of realising £30 billion of asset disposals by 2010, and will examine options for disposing of other public assets, including public corporations and trading funds.
Gershon Review
Mr. Redwood: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the change has been in staff numbers in Departments subject to Gershon review reduction. [86754]
Mr. Timms: As announced in “Releasing Resources to meet the challenges ahead: value for money in the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review”, by the end of March 2006 departments had delivered more than half of the 84,000 workforce reductions planned by 2007-08 with 45,547 gross reductions.
Departments publish data on the size of their workforce in their annual reports. The relationship between this data and the data used to measure progress against the SR04 Efficiency programme is set out in the technical note published by the Cabinet Office; (http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/management/statistics/publications/doc/workforce_reductions_tech_note.doc).
Home Information Packs
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment (a) his Department and (b) the Bank of England has made of the potential effect of home information packs on the economy. [86827]
John Healey: The Department for Communities and Local Government recently published an assessment of the impact of Home Information Packs in a regulatory impact assessment accompanying regulations made under Part 5 of the Housing Act 2004. This assessment will be updated in the light of the findings of a baseline study of the home buying and selling process reporting later this year, information obtained during the dry-run of Home Information Packs, other research commissioned by the Department for Communities and Local Government, and in consultation with HM Treasury and Bank of England.
Household Statistics
Chris Ruane: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many and what percentage of families with three or more children in which neither parent works lived in each county in (a) Wales, (b) Scotland, (c) England and (d) Northern Ireland in the most recent year for which figures are available. [87733]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 24 July 2006:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question about how many and what percentage of families with three or more children in which neither parent works for each county in (a) Wales, (b) Scotland, (c) England and (d) Northern Ireland in the most recent year.
The table overleaf gives the estimates of the number and the percentage of families with three or more children for the three months ending June 2005. It shows people resident in the counties and unitary authorities in the UK.
Estimates are taken from the Office for National Statistics’ Labour Force Survey (LFS). As with any sample survey, estimates from the LFS are subject to a margin of uncertainty.
| Families with three or more dependent children in which neither parent works by area of usual residence Not seasonally adjusted | ||
| Families with three or more children | ||
| Three months ending June 2005 | In which neither parent works (000) | As percentage of all such families |
| (1)
Includes estimates for counties not listed for which sample sizes are
too small to provide reliable
estimates. (2 )Small sizes for all individual counties in Wales and Scotland are too small to provide estimates. Source: ONS Labour Force Survey | ||
International Finance Facility
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer which countries have committed to joining the international finance facility; and if he will make a statement. [88093]
Ed Balls: The international finance facility for immunisation was launched on 9 September 2005 by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), with announcements of financial contributions from the UK, France, Italy, Spain and Sweden. Norway, Brazil and South Africa have also agreed to contribute financially, their contributions were announced in December 2005, March 2006 and April 2006 respectively.
IFFIm will provide $4 billion over 10 years to support vaccinations in the world’s poorest countries. We expect the first IFFIm disbursement to developing countries to take place later this year, and it is estimated that the frontloaded IFFIm resources will save a total of 10 million lives.
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when the first bond issue will be made under the international finance facility for immunisation; and if he will make a statement. [88094]
Ed Balls: The international finance facility for immunisation (IFFIm) was launched in September 2005 with contributions from France, Italy, Spain and Sweden, as well as the UK. Norway, Brazil and South Africa have since pledged contributions. The first IFFIm bonds will be issued in the next few months, and we expect that the IFFIm will begin purchasing vaccines and delivering these to the poorest countries through the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) before the end of the year.
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