(AQW 4329/01)

The Minister for Social Development (Mr Dodds): There is a distinction between the public use of the lands of both the Housing Executive and the Roads Service and accordingly each employ very different maintenance regimes. The Housing Executive is responsible for 3,500 acres of both urban and rural open space, predominantly in and around areas of public housing. These open spaces provide social and recreational facilities for local communities. The Housing Executive endeavours to maintain these areas to a high standard, which includes the cutting of grass areas 18 to 21 times per year.

The Roads Service programme for grass cutting is carried out for safety reasons, the aim being to ensure that sight lines, road markings and traffic signs are not obstructed by overgrown vegetation. A recent policy review of grass cutting procedures concluded that roadside verges should be cut 5 times per year in urban areas and twice per year in rural areas. The review also confirmed that grass cutting operations are carried out for safety reasons and not for cosmetic or amenity purposes.

In addition, the Roads Service and Housing Executive employ a mixture of direct labour and external contractors to undertake grass cutting operations. Furthermore, from the Housing Executive’s viewpoint, there could well be legal implications of maintaining verges to carriageways with regard to possible liability in relation to road traffic accidents. In these circumstances, it would not be possible to co-ordinate a joint system of grass cutting.

(AQW 4335/01)

Mr Dodds: The amount of money spent by my Department, and details of the effectiveness of the expenditure on programmes/measures whose main aim has been to promote good relations between persons of different religious belief, political opinion or racial group during the last three years since December 1999, is as follows:

Over the last three years there was an additional £2.89m paid out by my Department under the measures in the EU Peace and Reconciliation Programme (Peace 1).

While this funding was not specifically for community relations it had an element of that activity in most of the projects. A Programme-Wide ex-post evaluation of Peace 1 will be completed by September 2003.

(AQW 4359/01)

Mr Dodds: I refer the Member to my written response of 10 July 2002 to AQW 4335/01.

(AQW 4377/01)

Mr Dodds: There is no official state retirement age, although many peoples’ retirement age is linked to the age at which State Pension becomes payable or their pension age for their occupational pension scheme. My Department’s legislation already allows considerable flexibility in choosing when a person retires, for example, a person can receive State Retirement Pension and, if they wish, carry on working or can defer claiming their Retirement Pension and earn increments.

There are indications that, on a United Kingdom basis, approaches to early retirement have been changing as over the last four years the employment rate of people aged 50 to State Pension Age has increased faster than the overall employment rate. There is a special arrangement which, on a voluntary basis, offers people aged 50 and over help to return to paid employment.

A review of United Kingdom pensions regulation headed up by Alan Pickering, a previous Chairman of the National Association of Pensions Funds, reported on Thursday 11 July 2002. Ron Sandler’s review of the retail savings market commissioned by Her Majesty’s Treasury reported on Tuesday 9 July 2002. A further review of the tax treatment of pensions is also being carried out by the Inland Revenue. The United Kingdom Government will issue proposals in a Green Paper this autumn, which will include recommendations for making pension schemes more sustainable and flexible.

(AQW 4390/01)

Mr Dodds: A young person suffering from Myalgic Encephalomyelitis will, like other sufferers, have his or her condition assessed under a personal capability assessment. The decision maker will decide whether the conditions of entitlement are met after considering all the evidence relating to the person’s incapacity. The decision maker is also able to seek guidance from the Department’s medical officers.

In medical conditions which fluctuate or vary in severity, such as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, the medical officers are trained to base their advice on the level of function that the claimant is capable of most of the time taking into account such factors as pain, fatigue and variability of symptoms. In particular they look at the proportion of time a claimant is affected, to ensure their opinion is not based on a snapshot of the person at the time of assessment. Where it is appropriate to do so the doctor will also advise on the mental effects of a person’s condition. Each claim is, therefore, determined on its own merits by the Department.

(AQW 4391/01)

Mr Dodds: The claim form for Disability Living Allowance provides customers with ME the opportunity to state the effects of their disability on everyday life, on the same terms as any other disabled person. To assist in deciding a claim, guidance is available on the likely effects of a variety of medical conditions, including Chronic Fatigue Syndromes.

(AQW 4395/01)

Mr Dodds: Research by the University of Ulster has identified a need for 1,500 new social houses each year, over the period 2002/03 to 2004/05. Current funding plans allow for provision of only 1,400 new homes in each of these years. As part of the 2002 Spending Review, I have made a strong bid to the Northern Ireland Executive for additional funds to cover this shortfall.

One element of success so far, has been this month’s confirmation of an extra £5m to provide additional accommodation for homeless people. This money has been allocated as a result of bids made, by my Department, under the Chancellor’s Reinvestment and Reform Initiative for Northern Ireland.

In addition, my Department is also seeking to maximise the resources that are currently available, so as to provide additional social housing. For example:

• New procedures requiring housing associations to fund major repairs to their own properties. Previously my Department funded these repairs in full.

• Piloting of competitively tendered schemes to produce new social housing at a lower cost to the public purse.

• Requirement for housing associations to ring fence the proceeds from their house sales to provide additional housing stock.

(AQW 4396/01)

Mr Dodds: Ninety new social houses were completed in the Ards Borough Council area in 2001/2002. These are detailed in the table below.

My written answer to AQW 3467/01 contained in the official report of 24 May, detailed plans for the new build programme for the 3-year period 2002/2003 to 2004/2005 and beyond.

(AQW 4397/01)

Mr Dodds: In Ards Borough Council Area the numbers of applications and percentages of offers made within 10 weeks for 2000/2001 and 2001/2002 were as follows:

(AQW 4398/01)

Mr Dodds: I refer the Member to my written answer to AQW 3616 contained in the official report of 31 May 2002.

(AQW 4400/01)

Mr Dodds: Eaga Partnership Ltd, the Warm Homes Scheme manager, is contracted to ensure that on receipt of a grant application insulation works are completed within 40 working days and heating works within 90 days. Some applications for oil heating are outstanding. These relate solely to solid fuel heating systems with high capacity back boilers on which a technical report has highlighted potential problems following decommissioning. My Department has arranged for an independent investigation from the Northern Ireland Centre for Energy Research and Technology based at the University of Ulster to facilitate the swift resolution of this difficulty. For the interim period, as a safety precaution, applicants with high capacity solid fuel back boilers will not receive new heating systems until the position has been resolved. However the installation of energy efficiency measures will continue as normal.

Other outstanding work relates to a very small number of properties in which the contractor has identified health and safety issues which demand attention before installation work can progress. These are being dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

(AQW 4401/01)

Mr Dodds: Under the Warm Homes Scheme, solid fuel systems are not removed. They are disabled, by drilling and draining the back boiler.

However, recently commissioned research by a GB Government Department indicates that there may be problems associated with leaving high capacity output boilers in place, if the fireplace and chimney are in persistent use. In light of the research, my Department has commissioned the Northern Ireland Centre for Energy Research and Technology at the University of Ulster at Jordanstown to investigate the matter further. The findings of this investigation will help inform the future operation of the scheme.

(AQW 4402/01)

Mr Dodds: Eaga Partnership Ltd, the Warm Homes Scheme manager contacts each applicant, including those awaiting heating installations, at each stage of the process. This is to ensure that each client is fully aware of the progress of his or her application. To support this Eaga Partnership Ltd provides a point of contact for all enquiries and operate a free-phone service. Eaga Partnership Ltd is contracted to ensure that insulation works are completed within 40 working days and heating works within 90 days of receipt of a grant application.

Where difficulties are encountered Eaga Partnership Ltd liase directly with clients to keep them informed of progress. Given the clear guidelines for the scheme’s management, as detailed above, I do not consider it necessary to write to individual applicants at this time.

(AQW 4403/01)

Mr Dodds: The 10 cottages are located as follows:

The work to be carried out is a multi-element improvement scheme; all dwellings will be rewired and will have oil-fired heating installed. Kitchens and bathrooms will be refurbished and any other matters which require attention will be repaired or replaced as necessary. The scheme is currently programmed to start in the last quarter of this financial year (January-March 2003).

(AQW 4404/01)

Mr Dodds: The number of dwellings in the scheme has been reduced to 41, through house sales. The dwellings are located as follows:

(AQW 4405/01)

Mr Dodds: The Heatsmart service although delivered under the auspices of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive is operated by Bryson House, Northern Ireland’s Charity via the three Energy Efficiency Advice Centres in Belfast, Enniskillen and Londonderry. For this reason the figures are only available on an area basis; they are not available by District Office as requested. The breakdown of figures on advice given from each Energy Efficiency Advice Centre is as follows:

(AQW 4417/01)

Mr Dodds: The Social Security Agency works closely with a wide range of voluntary organisations to identify and address barriers to benefit. Agency officials met recently with representatives of the Royal National Institute for the Blind to discuss service delivery to visually impaired people and further work is currently planned.

(AQW 4423/01)

Mr Dodds: The Northern Ireland Housing Executive set aside a budget of £5m for SPED for 2002/03. A bid for a further £10m has been made and was approved at the first monitoring round in June this year bringing the total funding to £15m.

(AQW 4447/01)

Mr Dodds: A breakdown of my Department’s forecast capital underspend of £2.1 million in the 2001-2002 financial year is set out in the table below.

It is anticipated that these projects will proceed during 2002-2003 although the cost requirements may differ.

(AQW 4449/01)

Mr Dodds: The Northern Ireland Housing Executive set aside a budget of £5m for SPED for 2002/03. Applications, however, have risen dramatically and in order to meet this demand a bid for a further £10m was made and approved at the first monitoring round in June this year bringing the total funding to £15m. If additional funding is required bids will be submitted at later monitoring rounds.

(AQW 4450/01)

Mr Dodds: Applications received in the first quarter of this year totalled 159.

The Northern Ireland Housing Executive set aside a budget of £5m for SPED for 2002/03. A bid for a further £10m was made and approved at the first monitoring round in June this year bringing the total funding to £15m of which £12m remains.

(AQW 4452/01)

Mr Dodds: All Housing Executive grass cutting for the month of May 2002 in the Ards Borough area was completed in line with the programme. Its grass cutting programme for June 2002 was completed 2 days late, due to inclement weather.

(AQW 4454/01)

Mr Dodds: There is no reliable measure of the distribution of funds available at a ward level. To collate robust information on the distribution of expenditure would entail a considerable additional burden being placed on recipients of funding, in terms of data collection and reporting.

(AQW 4455/01)

Mr Dodds: The Belfast Regeneration Office targets all of its funding at a number of electoral wards and enumeration districts that have been selected using an objective statistical measure of multiple deprivation. The geographical area within which a project is located, or will impact, must comply with this demarcation and this is confirmed at the application stage.

(AQW 1942/01)

The Representative of the Assembly Commission (Mrs E Bell): [holding answer 22 February 2002]: The total money spent on external consultants and consultancy reports in the past three years is detailed as follows:

These costs relate to the establishment of the Assembly’s corporate infrastructure and include the implementation of the Assembly’s recruitment programme, the establishment of resource accounting procedures in the Assembly, consultancy in relation to the Members Pension Fund and the installation of computer equipment in constituency offices. In addition, some smaller individual consultancy projects were undertaken to establish key parliamentary services such as the catering, printing and media provisions.