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Sports Funding
Mr. Fearn: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much was spent in the United Kingdom on sports provision per capita in 1999. [119724]
Kate Hoey: In the financial year 1999-2000, exchequer funding for sport in the United Kingdom, channelled through UK Sport and the four home country sports councils, totalled £69,779,000. In addition, Lottery sports funding drawn down by the five distributing bodies was £316,689,340 during this period. Using the 1998 population census, this amounts to per capita expenditure of £6.52 in 1999-2000.
Digital Broadcasting
Mr. Luff: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will set a target date for complete digital television coverage in England; and if he will make a statement. [119759]
Janet Anderson: The Government believe that it is possible that as early as 2006, and no later than 2010, all those who currently receive the free-to-air channels on analogue television will be able to receive those services digitally.
Turf Football Pitches
Mr. Gareth R. Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to his answer of 17 April, Official Report, column 321W, what size of population each (a) full-size and (b) half-size (or 5-a-side) synthetic turf pitches is expected to serve. [119988]
Kate Hoey: Sport England's initial analysis of gaps in synthetic pitch provision is based on each pitch serving a population of 60,000, within a 20 minute drive time. No work has yet to be carried out, nor is any planned, on the demand for half sized synthetic turf pitches.
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TV Licences
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will examine the (a) practicability and (b) cost of collecting TV licence fees with the council tax. [119818]
Janet Anderson [holding answer 20 April 2000]: We have no such plans. It is not clear what benefits would accrue from collecting the licence fee locally which would outweigh the cost of establishing and running licence fee collection arrangements in each local authority area.
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what will be the cost of establishing the free television licence scheme for people aged over 75 years; and how much it will cost to administer in the first full year of operation. [119939]
Janet Anderson [holding answer 20 April 2000]: We estimate that in 2000-01, the cost of the concession will be £344 million, with an additional £23.4 million in administration costs in the first year.
Mr. Salmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much (a) in total and (b) in addition to currently planned expenditure it would cost in (i) the UK and (ii) Scotland to give free TV licences to households headed by someone aged over 65 years. [119983]
Janet Anderson [holding answer 20 April 2000]: The information requested is not immediately available. I will write to the hon. Gentleman as soon as it is available and will place a copy of the letter in the Library. However, the figure will be for the UK in its entirety as no separate figures are kept for Scotland.
Birth Certificates
Mr. Caton: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport for what purposes his Department requires a birth certificate to be furnished by (a) employees, (b) contractors, (c) those applying for employment and contracts and (d) other persons. [120324]
Mr. Chris Smith: As one of its pre-recruitment checks, my Department requires new employees to the Civil Service either on permanent or short-term contracts to provide birth certificates or similar documentary evidence for one or more of the following purposes: proof of identity, proof of eligibility under the Civil Service nationality rules and proof of age. Contractors are required to produce them only if there are questions about identity.
Locomotives
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when locomotives based in the National Railway Museum were last out on the Colne to Preston line. [120326]
Mr. Alan Howarth: The National Railway Museum's locomotive "Green Arrow" hauled a special train over the Preston to Blackburn section of the route on 29 December 1999 en route to Carlisle via Settle.
2 May 2000 : Column: 21W
Film Council
Mr. Ian Stewart: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when the Film Council will announce its strategy. [120792]
Mr. Chris Smith: The Film Council is today announcing its strategy for the development of film culture and the film industry in the UK. I have arranged for copies of the strategy document to be placed in the Library.
TRADE AND INDUSTRY
Minimum Wage
Mr. Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment he has made of the impact of the minimum wage on summary measures of inequality, with particular reference to the gini coefficient and Atkinson index; by what method the assessment was made; and if he will make a statement. [119826]
Mr. Alan Johnson: The Low Pay Commission looked in depth at the impact of the minimum wage on inequality and income distribution. As it says in its second report
- The impact of the national minimum wage on household incomes is complex, being affected by the way that statutory wage increases interact with the tax and benefits systems.
Mr. Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many employers have been reported by inspectors for paying less than the national minimum wage in (a) Britain, (b) Scotland and (c) the relevant area of record, which includes the constituency of Paisley, South. [120394]
Mr. Alan Johnson: The number of instances of employer non-compliance identified by minimum wage officers for the year ended 31 March 2000 is as follows:
(a) 1,280 employers in the UK, including Northern Ireland
(b) 105 employers in Scotland
A more localised disaggregation of these figures is not available.
Websites
Mr. Maclennan: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what his Department's policy is on (a) advertising and (b) acknowledging company sponsorship on the websites of his Department, agencies and non-departmental public bodies; which companies (i) have placed advertisements and (ii) are acknowledged as sponsors on those websites; how much revenue has been received for each financial year since 1997 from such advertisements and sponsorship; and if that revenue has been retained within the budget of his Department, agencies and non-departmental public bodies. [119542]
Ms Hewitt [holding answer 19 April 2000]: The Department of Trade and Industry's policy on advertising on websites follows the guidance in the Central IT Unit's
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"Framework policy and guidelines for the use, management and design of public sector websites" (published last December as part of the e-government strategy). These state:
- Government sites are permitted to carry advertising. In designing pages, departments and agencies should ensure that advertisers' branding does not detract from the effectiveness and appearance of their own branding or that of government as a whole. Particular attention should be given to avoiding any implications of endorsement of products or services or of contradiction between government messages and those of contractors.
In applying these policies, a number of DTI sites have been prepared in partnership with private sector organisations in return for acknowledgement of this sponsorship on the site. In a number of cases, sites delivering the objectives of the Department are run and financed by private sector companies which are allowed to enter advertising and sponsorship arrangements with others. Compiling a comprehensive list of companies which have been involved in such arrangements to date would incur disproportionate cost.
No direct revenue has been received to date from either advertising or sponsorship.
None of the non-departmental public bodies for which the Department is responsible has accepted advertising or acknowledged sponsorship from companies on its website. I have asked the Chief Executives of the Department's agencies to write to the hon. Member separately where they have a substantive reply.
Letter from J. S. Holden to Mr. Robert Maclennan, dated 2 May 2000:
I have been asked to reply to your recently tabled Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in respect of Companies House Executive Agency.
(i) It is Companies House policy not to carry advertising on our web site.
(ii) Companies House web site is not sponsored.
(iii) As we have no advertisements or sponsors on our web site, I confirm we have received no revenue from this source for retention within our budgets.
Letter from Alison Brimelow to Mr. Robert Maclennan, dated 2 May 2000:
In the Patent Office, the policy is not to accept advertising or company sponsorship on The Patent Office website. No companies therefore have placed advertisements or been acknowledged as sponsors on the website, and no revenue has been received.
Letter from Peter Joyce to Mr. Robert Maclennan, dated 2 May 2000:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about advertising and company sponsorship on The Insolvency Service web site.
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The Insolvency Service does not have any advertising on or company sponsorship of its web site. This has been the case since the launch of the web site.
Letter from Ian Jones to Mr. Robert Maclennan, dated 2 May 2000:
You tabled a Parliamentary Question on 13 April 2000 to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry concerning the policy on sponsorship, advertising and any resulting revenue, for web sites operated by the department and its executive agencies. I have been asked to reply in respect of the Employment Tribunals Service (ETS) which is an executive agency of the DTI.
The Employment Tribunals Service provides the administrative support to the Employment Tribunals and Employment Appeal Tribunals. As such, no advertising would be permitted, nor any sponsorship sought, for any site maintained or contributed to by the agency.
The agency has a small entry on the main DTI web site. The only web site directly maintained by the agency is that of the Employment Appeal Tribunal although a parallel site for the Employment Tribunals is under consideration.
I hope this information is helpful, please let me know if there is any further information that you require.
Letter from David Hendon to Mr. Robert Maclennan, dated 2 May 2000:
The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry has asked me to reply on behalf of the Radiocommunications Agency to your Parliamentary Question about advertising and company sponsorship on the RA website.
It is the policy of Radiocommunications Agency not to accept advertising or company sponsorship on its website.
No such advertisements or sponsorship have been placed on the RA website and no revenue for such services has been received by the Agency.
Letter from Seton Bennett to Mr. Robert Maclennan, dated 2 May 2000:
The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry has asked me to reply on behalf of NWML to your question regarding advertising/sponsorship on our web site.
The NWML website currently does not carry any sponsorship or advertising. The site has been set up to transfer knowledge to NWML's stakeholders-Trading Standards Officers, weighing and measuring equipment manufacturers, DTI, other customers and interested parties.
If in the future NWML was approached by a potential sponsor or advertiser, the idea would be thoroughly considered because it may provide an opportunity to raise additional revenue, however it would not be at the detriment of the quality of information provided to NWML's stakeholders.
Letter from David Irwin to Mr. Robert Maclennan, dated 2 May 2000:
I have been asked to reply in respect of the Small Business Service to your recently tabled Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, about advertising and sponsorship on Departmental websites.
The SBS website has no plans to allow advertising at present and no adverts have been placed on the site. The site does not carry any references to sponsorship.
The Enterprise Zone website is a gateway to business information for SMEs. It narrows down the mass of information available on the Internet to the most relevant, providing a single point of access to useful information. Launched in 1997 by the DTI and supported by Business Links, it is maintained and operated by the Dialog Corporation plc. DTI's agreement with Dialog allows the company to enter into normal, commercial arrangements with advertisers--to which the Department is not a party. The financial details of such arrangements are subject to commercial confidentiality.
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