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Lord Hoyle asked Her Majesty's Government:
How many over-80s in Warrington are receiving the extra winter fuel allowance; and what is the cost to the taxpayer. [HL3578]
Baroness Hollis of Heigham: The number of people in the Warrington local authority aged 80 or over who are in receipt of the extra winter fuel payment is 6,380 at a cost of £1,622,700.
IAD Information Centre, WFP data winter 2003–04 100 per cent sample.
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Notes:
1. Figures for total number of payments made are rounded to the nearest five.
2. Please note that the figures for 2003–04 refer only to the main payment run so they do not include the late payment run figures. We estimate that there are approximately 100,000 people in Great Britain paid in late payment runs (0.8 per cent of all payments). Since most of the payments made in late payment runs are people who are not receiving another benefit from DWP and whose claims had not been received by the qualifying week, very few indeed are aged 80 or over.
3. Local authorities are assigned by matching postcodes against the relevant postcode directory.
Pension Credit
Lord Hoyle asked Her Majesty's Government:
How many people in Warrington qualify for pension credit; how many are receiving this; and what is the cost to the taxpayer. [HL3579]
Baroness Hollis of Heigham: Estimates of the level of eligibility for pension credit are not available in respect of individual constituencies or local authority areas. However, we estimate that approximately 500,000 households in the north-west region (rounded to the nearest 50,000) are likely to be eligible for pension credit in 2004–05.
At 31 May, 3,995 households in the constituency of Warrington North and 3,456 households in the constituency of Warrington South (rounded to the nearest five) were receiving pension credit, with average awards of £39.42 and £38.50 respectively.
Information on the administrative costs of pension credit is not available. In accordance with the requirements of resource accounting and budgeting, the department now accounts for its administration and benefit expenditure by strategic objective, as set out in its public service agreements (PSA), and by individual requests for resources (RfRs), as set out in the departmental estimates and accounts.
Web Accessibility: Disabled People
The Earl of Northesk asked Her Majesty's Government:
What progress is being made in their discussions with the Disability Rights Commission following its April report on web accessibility; and when they anticipate making recommendations arising from these discussions. [HL3581]
Baroness Hollis of Heigham: The recommendations for government in the Disability Rights Commission's report on web accessibility are the responsibility of a number of departments. Officials are meeting to consider those recommendations and we will respond to them in due course.
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Television Licences
Lord Hoyle asked Her Majesty's Government:
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Lord McIntosh of Haringey): TV Licensing, which administers free television licences for people aged 75 or over as an agent for the BBC, is not able to provide geographical breakdowns of the number of free licences issued. However, 2001 Census data for parliamentary constituencies identifies 12,209 people aged 75 or over living in the Warrington North and South constituencies.
Financial Services Compensation Scheme
Lord Laird asked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answer by Lord McIntosh of Haringey on 1 July concerning the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (WA 46), what is meant by "compensation is payable to eligible claimants, nearly always irrespective of current residence". [HL3594]
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: The statement "compensation is payable to eligible claimants, nearly always irrespective of current residence" refers to certain types of claim against insolvent insurers. For claims from individuals in respect of certain types of insurance contract, the habitual residence of the claimant at the date the insurance contract commenced may determine whether a contract is protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, although the scheme's present rules provide that, for this purpose, residence in the UK (including Northern Ireland) does qualify. The scheme's rules are written by the Financial Services Authority and form part of the authority's handbook, which can be found on the FSAs website (www.fsa.gov.uk). The following link goes straight to the scheme's rules: http://www.fsa.gov.uk/vhb/html/comp/comptoc.html The particular rules illustrating the above point are 5.4.2, 5.4.3 and 5.4.4.
Lord Laird asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the Financial Services Compensation Scheme has paid out to an individual or company based in Northern Ireland in respect of an incident which occurred outside Northern Ireland. [HL3595]
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: The Financial Services Compensation scheme has paid compensation to claimants based in Northern Ireland. The scheme's rules do not prevent compensation being paid to claimants in Northern Ireland in respect of incidents that occurred outside Northern Ireland. Records of individual claims paid are not available to Her Majesty's Government but further details are available from the scheme at: Financial Services Compensation Scheme, 7th Floor, Lloyds Chambers, 1 Portsoken Street, London E1 8BN.
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TB Testing: Collection of Roadside Carcases
Lord Rotherwick asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs's Wildlife Unit collect badger and deer carcasses from the roadside for tuberculosis testing in all regions of the United Kingdom; and, if not, in which regions removal of such wildlife carcasses is the responsibility of the highways agencies alone. [HL3392]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Whitty): In Cornwall, Devon, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Shropshire and Dorset, Defra's Wildlife Unit will collect any badger carcases from the roadside deemed suitable for TB testing. Defra is also undertaking a survey of badger carcases (and deer with suspect lesions) in the Furness peninsula, Cumbria.
Outside these counties, the local authority is responsible (or, in the case of motorways, the appropriate highways agency).
Lord Rotherwick asked Her Majesty's Government:
What guidance they give for the treatment of wildlife carcasses collected by highways agencies. [HL3394]
Lord Whitty: The carcases, or parts of carcases, of wild animals are exempt from the scope of the Animal By-Products Regulation unless they are thought to be diseased or are used to produce game trophies. Although the regulation places them under no legal obligation, owners of property on which there are dead wild animals are advised to contact their local authority for advice on appropriate disposal methods.
However, in some parts of the country, (these are the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire), badger carcases may be collected for examination for TB as part of a limited road traffic accident (RTA) survey of badger carcases. Road accident badger carcases in Cornwall, Devon or Dorset should be reported to Defra on freephone 0800 389 7395 and those in Gloucester, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire reported on freephone 0800 389 7423.
Orchards
Baroness Byford asked Her Majesty's Government:
How many acres of traditional orchards there were in each of the years 2000 to 2004; how many of these had dual use for grazing; and what percentage of that total for dual use was within the Stewardship Scheme. [HL3402]
Lord Whitty: Data are not collected on traditional orchards or the area of orchards that are used for grazing. The June agricultural census gives the area of non-commercial and commercial orchards grown on
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holdings. Traditional orchards may fall into either of these categories. Provisional figures for June 2004 will be published in September 2004.
| Non-commercial | Commercial | |
| 2000 | 3,331 | 22,479 |
| 2001 | 3,557 | 22,441 |
| 2002 | 3,365 | 20,250 |
| 2003 | 3,496 | 19,870 |
Source:
June agricultural census.
Notes:
1. The areas shown are the field area of the orchard, not the tree area.
2. Non-commercial orchards are those where the fruit is not sold for any purpose.
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