Ministerial Correction

Tuesday 25th October 2016 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Pensions (Richard Harrington)]

An error has been identified in a reply to a written question given to the hon. Member for North Thanet, Official Report, 9 September 2013: Column 612W.

The reply given was:

Sir Roger Gale: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions which French tropical overseas territories were included in his Department’s average temperature calculations in respect of winter fuel payments to expatriate UK citizens living in the EU member states. [167864]

Steve Webb: From 2015-16 winter fuel payments will no longer be payable to individuals in countries where the average winter temperature is warmer than the warmest region of the UK (South-West England). The Government have worked with the Met Office to analyse comparable winter temperature data across all EEA countries. The Met Office used recognised administrative regions for each country. For France this was the 27 regions, including French Guyana, Guadeloupe, La Reunion, Martinique and Mayotte. It does not include the French overseas territories, which are not part of the EEA.

It should have said:

From 2015-16 winter fuel payments will no longer be payable to individuals in countries where the average winter temperature is warmer than the warmest region of the UK (South-West England). The Government have worked with the Met Office to analyse comparable winter temperature data across all EEA countries. The Met Office used recognised administrative regions for each country. For France this was the 27 regions, including French Guiana, Guadeloupe, La Reunion and Martinique. It does not include the French overseas territories, which are not part of the EEA.

[HCWS213]