Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people working in his Department are over 65 years old; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Steve Webb
DWP employs 91,272 staff of which 1531 of them are aged 65 and over. (data supplied as at 30 September 2014)
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people with a disability work in his Department; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Steve Webb
To build a world class Civil Service we need to recruit and retain the very best Civil Servants, on merit, irrespective of who they are and any visible or non-visible disability or difference.
As at 30 September 14, DWP has 5404 disabled employees which represents 6.9% of the total workforce.
This data is based on the number of employees who have chosen to individually record their disability status on the departmental HR system. Any such declaration is voluntary and confidential. Within DWP, 85.9% of employees have chosen to declare their disability status.
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he has taken to insulate his Departmental estate in order to improve energy efficiency; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Steve Webb
DWP has outsourced the provision of its estate until 31st March 2018 under a 20-year contract with its private sector partner Telereal Trillium (TT), leasing back fully serviced accommodation, via a PFI Contract known as PRIME.
The buildings occupied by DWP under this PFI arrangement are generally multi-storey offices and roof space is therefore limited, resulting in most significant heat loss being via the walls, which are predominantly windows for good natural light.
As part of on-going life cycle replacement projects planned by TT, for windows and to recover roofs, the work is carried out to the current building standard which includes modern insulating requirements.
Additionally, during estate rationalisation DWP carefully consider the energy rating of a building as part of the decision process and where possible moves out of poorly insulated buildings.
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the capacity of his Departmental buildings for the micro-generation of renewable energy; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Steve Webb
DWP has outsourced the provision of its estate until 31st March 2018 under a 20-year PFI contract with its private sector partner Telereal Trillium.
Telereal Trillium’s technical experts have undertaken regular extensive reviews (both site based and desk-top studies) of the Department’s estate with a view to assessing the practical and financial viability of investing in micro-generation. These have included:
• solar photo-voltaic and wind turbine generation of electricity; and
• solar and bio-mass generation of heat.
Following this review 18 sites were identified for a site visit and more detailed examination by Telereal Trillium’s technical experts and potential suppliers. Detailed business cases were then developed for the biomass sites offering the quickest payback and with the potential to meet the Department’s investment criteria. Unfortunately, although these sites offered a practical means of generating renewable energy they did not meet the Department’s investment criteria and so have not been pursued. Solar photo-voltaic and wind turbine generation projects had even longer payback periods.
The Department also commissioned EDF to undertake independent surveys at five sites. These confirmed the results of the work undertaken by Telereal Trillium’s technical experts in that the break-even periods were too long to meet the Department’s investment criteria.
Telereal Trillium are continuing to assess whether reductions in costs and/or improvements in technology will improve the financial viability of micro-generation.
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to reduce water (a) usage and (b) bills in his Department; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Steve Webb
The Department for Work and Pensions, in partnership with its facilities provider Telereal Trillium, continues to reduce water consumption and costs as the tables below from DWP’s Annual Sustainable Development Report 2013 to 2014 illustrate.
We work with our facilities provider to proactively identify and report water leaks by regularly monitoring water usage. Waterless urinals have already been installed throughout the DWP Estate and old large-capacity toilet water cisterns are replaced with dual-flush systems as routine property repairs and improvements are carried out. Water invoices are scrutinised for accuracy and challenged where necessary and we continue to work with our facilities provider to identify initiatives to continue to reduce consumption and costs year on year.
Table 11a: GGC Water Target – a) Reduce water consumption from a 2009/10 baseline
2009-10 (Baseline) | 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | |
Water Consumption(m3) |
810,701 |
716,155 |
639,688 |
626,818 |
Table 11b: Financial Indicators (£)
2009-10 (Baseline) | 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | |
Water supply | 1,185,033 | 1,024,078 | 1,032,589 | 980,776 |
Sewerage | 2,578,008 | 2,335,237 | 2,373,314 | 2,331,337 |
Total Water Costs |
3,763,041 |
3,359,315 |
3,405,903 |
3,312,113 |
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to ensure its services are available online; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Steve Webb
The Department for Work and Pensions currently provides digital options for a number of services. For example, it has been possible to claim Jobseekers Allowance online since 2009 and as of Oct 2014 87.1% of all new claims are now made through that channel[1] and over 90% of Universal Credit claimants are making their claim online[2].
The Department for Work and Pensions’ Digital Strategy committed to redesigning all services that handle over 100,000 transactions a year which will enable the provision of high quality digital services to claimants and the public.
Carer’s Allowance digital service which has been in public beta since October 2013 and has recently successfully completed its go live assessment.
We are currently building an in-depth understanding of Personal Independence Payment service to see which parts of the process might best be delivered through digital channels.
In addition we are developing a digital service for New State Pension and are looking more broadly at further transformation to improve efficiency and good customer service, which will involve exploring further opportunities to put services online.
[1] DWP Business Plan transparency measure: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dwp-business-plan-transparency-measures/dwp-business-plan-transparency-measures#proportion-of-new-claims-to-jsa-submitted-online
[2] UC at Work October 2014, page 42: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/368805/uc-at-work.pdf
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how often his Department reviews its processes regarding the logging of emails, letters and other correspondence received; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Steve Webb
My Department aims to respond to all correspondence within 20 working days in line with its published targets. Officials responsible for handling correspondence keep the processes constantly under review to ensure they are fit for purpose.
Current guidance on handling correspondence from Members of Parliament, Peers, Members of the European Parliament and Members of devolved Administrations is available online at the following link - https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/61196/guide-handling-gov-correspondence.pdf