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Election Arrangements

Mr. Cash: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many submissions have been received to the Lord Chancellor's Department/ODPM consultation paper,

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Combining English Local Authority, Greater London Authority and European Parliament Elections in 2004; and how many of the submissions support the proposals to move the date of the May 2004 elections. [97757]

Mr. Leslie: By the close of consultation on 31 January 2003 a total of 364 responses had been received. Of those responses expressing a view, 172 support the proposal to move the date of the May 2004 local and Greater London Authority elections and 138 are against.

Mr. Cash: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister when (a) his Department and (b) the Lord Chancellor's Department have had discussions with representatives from (a) the National Assembly for Wales, (b) electoral administrators, (c) the Greater London Authority, (d) the European Parliament and Commission, (e) local government representatives and (f) the Electoral Commission concerning the proposals to combine English local authority, Greater London Authority and European Parliament elections in 2004, (i) prior to the publication of the Government consultation paper on that topic and (ii) subsequent to the publication. [97759]

Mr. Leslie: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Lord Chancellor's Department, as part of their ongoing contact with bodies interested in electoral matters, have had discussions with representatives of the National Assembly for Wales, electoral administrators, the Greater London Authority, local government representatives and the Electoral Commission about the idea of combining local council, Greater London and European Parliamentary elections. These have taken place both prior and subsequent to the publication in October 2002 of the consultation paper: "Combining English Local Authority, Greater London Authority and European Parliament Elections in 2004". The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Lord Chancellor's Department has not held discussions about this proposal with either the European Parliament or the European Commission.

Fire Dispute

Mr. Edward Davey: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the total cost incurred by his Department as a result of the fire strikes has been. [97806]

Mr. Raynsford: The estimated cost to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister to the end of January of providing emergency cover for the fire dispute is approximately £70 million. Each extra day the military remains ready to provide cover costs up to about £l million. The figures are necessarily approximate estimates and will remain so until invoices are received and audited.

IT Contracts

Mr. Sayeed: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will list IT contracts in his Department and its predecessors above £50 million in each of the last 10 years; what the inception date for each system was; when it became fully functional; when it became fully debugged; and what the cost of over-runs has been. [99009]

Mr. Leslie: No IT contracts have been let by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister or his predecessors over the last 10 years with a value over £50 million.

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Landfill Tax Credit Scheme

Helen Jones: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what estimate he has made of the change in revenue to Warrington Borough Council as a result of the proposed changes to the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme. [98527]

Mr. Meacher : I have been asked to reply.

There should be no loss of revenue to Warrington Borough Council as a result of the changes to the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme because local authorities are prohibited from benefiting directly from that scheme.

Local Government Ombudsman

Mr. Gareth Thomas: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many complaints about the clarity of literature published by the Local Government Ombudsman he has received in each of the last five years. [97939]

Mr. Leslie: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is not aware of any such complaints about publications by the Commission for Local Administration in England, two of which have in the last two years received the 'crystal mark' award for their clarity.

Looked-After Children

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister when the Social Exclusion Unit will publish its report into looked-after children. [98595]

Mrs. Roche: The Social Exclusion Unit will publish its report on raising the educational attainment of children in care in the spring 2003.

Market Renewal Pathfinders

Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister whether the status of market renewal pathfinders was conferred by application; what consultations were held in advance with the local authorities; how many applied; and why (a) nine and (b) seven were accepted. [99062]

Mr. McNulty: Low demand pathfinder projects have been established in nine areas of the country at the invitation of the Government. The nine areas are those most acutely affected by the problem of low demand housing. Informal discussions about the low demand situation generally as opposed to the establishment of pathfinder projects were held with some, but not all, of the local authorities participating in the low demand pathfinder projects.

Minimum Wage

Pete Wishart: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will estimate the impact of increasing the minimum wage (a) in line with average earnings, (b) to £4.17 per hour, (c) to £4.87 per hour, (d) to £5.00 per hour and (e) to £5.30 per hour, on the cost of salaries of departmental employees (i) in total and (ii) for each nation of the United Kingdom in the next financial year. [90601]

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Mr. Leslie: Increasing the minimum wage in the manner described would have no impact on the cost of salaries for employees of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

New Deal for Communities

Matthew Green: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how much funding the New Deal for Communities has budgeted for each Government office of the region in (a) 1999–2000, (b) 2000–01, (c) 2001–02 and (d) 2002–03. [97810]

Mrs. Roche: The following table is New Deal for Communities provision for each government region.

Round 1 partnerships started their implementation phase in 2000–01 and Round 2 partnerships in 2001–02. Prior to this, expenditure was limited to setting up the partnerships, preparing a delivery plan and a small number of 'quick win' projects.

NDC provision budgeted for each Government Office Region£ million

	1999–2000	2000–01	2001–02	2002–03
London	2.6	13.7	28.6	37.6
South East	0.4	2.4	4.7	7.0
South West	0.3	2.6	6.1	7.6
East	0.2	4.2	9.5	13.2
East Midlands	0.5	0.0	15.6	15.7
West Midlands	1.0	8.9	17.9	22.4
Yorkshire and Humber	0.8	7.0	14.6	17.7
North East	0.8	5.3	15.7	18.8
North West	1.0	4.7	14.1	31.0
Total	7.5	48.8	126.8	170.9

Regional Government

Mr. Liddell-Grainger: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what level of support the Regional Assembly will be given in relation to the planning of the SWAMMS report. [98304]

Mr. Jamieson : I have been asked to reply.

In addition to the £689,000 previously announced for expenditure by the South West Regional Assembly on regional planning purposes in 2003–04, my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Planning and Regeneration, announced on 10 February that a further £324,000 is being provided to the Assembly in the form of Planning Delivery Grant to carry out this function. This means in all some £1,013,000 is available which will include work arising from SWARMMS.

Sangatte

Mr. Cox: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many people allowed into the UK from the Sangatte refugee camp have found (a) employment and (b) housing; and if he will make a statement. [97534]

Beverley Hughes: I have been asked to reply.

All those admitted from Sangatte were offered temporary accommodation, provided by the Home Office, on their arrival in the United Kingdom. Jobcentre Plus officials have made assessments of their

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skills and are referring them to job opportunities. Home Office officials are working closely with local authorities to advise on longer-term accommodation.

Sustainable Communities

Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister (1) on what statistical basis councils were chosen as Market Renewal Pathfinders, as described in the White Paper Sustainable Communities; who chose them; and what changes have been made since the Pathfinder status was announced last year. [99057]

Mr. McNulty: The then Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions chose the areas to be invited to establish low demand pathfinder projects by reference to two primary data sources:

(i) the statistical returns compiled by local authorities as part of the Housing Investment Programme; and, where available,

(ii) local housing market studies undertaken by the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies (Birmingham University) and others. On the basis of this data, the Department looked at the scale of the low demand problem across sub-regional housing markets, as well as individual local authorities. It sought to identify the most acute problems of low demand in terms of scale and intensity of the problem.

Since pathfinder projects were established last year, we have added Rossendale Borough Council to the East Lancashire project.

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