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Charter Flights (Ministers)

Mr. Pickles: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister on how many occasions aircraft have been chartered for (a) himself and (b) other Office of the Deputy Prime Minister Ministers; when each charter took place; what the cost was; and what aircraft was used in each case. [113568]

Yvette Cooper: A helicopter was chartered for my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister to view the Thames Gateway on 16 January 2003 at a cost of £4,658.63. He was accompanied by Sir Sandy Brace Lockhart, leader of Kent county council.

A helicopter was also chartered for my right hon. Friend, Lord Rooker to view the Thames Gateway on 23 September 2002. He was accompanied by David Watts, Director of Technical Services at Southend on Sea borough council. On this occasion, Southend-on-Sea borough council met the cost.

Use of a helicopter was considered to be the only viable way of viewing the complete Thames Gateway in order to get an idea of the scale of the potential development.

Departmental Website

Mr. Pickles: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how much it cost to develop the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister Best Value Performance Indicators website. [115489]

Yvette Cooper: The Best Value Performance Indicators website (www.bvpi.gov.uk) puts a wide range of information into the public domain and demonstrates our commitment to facilitating better public understanding of local service delivery. The information it holds includes Best Value Performance Indicator data for 2000–01 and 2001–02, Comprehensive Performance Assessment scores for upper-tier authorities, data from the Index of Multiple Deprivation, and details of authorities that have been designated as Neighbourhood Renewal Fund areas. There is a statutory requirement on local authorities to publish their BVPI data and the website brings this information together into one easily accessible place. The data can be analysed interactively

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enabling users, including local authorities and the general public, to compare performance between authorities and over a period of time. On average, the website receives over 130,000 hits per month.

The contract to develop the Best Value Performance Indicators website in its current format was awarded in November 2001 following a competitive tender and amounted to £62,450.

Energy Efficiency

Mr. Roger Williams: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what targets his Department has for improving energy efficiency; and how he intends to achieve these targets. [116642]

Yvette Cooper: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has adopted the cross government interim target of 1 per cent. per annum reduction in (weather-corrected) CO2 emissions from its estate, relative to the base-year 1999–2000. The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs will agree new targets for 2010, based on benchmarking the performance of individual buildings where possible by the end of the year.

This approach should provide central and local energy managers with an effective management tool to identify the best opportunities for efficiency improvements. Detailed measures will be a matter for individual circumstances.

Government Agencies

Vera Baird: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will make a statement on his policy on the role of devolving Government agencies to the regions as a tool of regeneration. [120739]

Yvette Cooper: The Government recognise that decisions made at the regional level can take better account of the unique opportunities and challenges faced by an individual region. This can lead to improvements both for the region in question and the country as a whole.

The Government have already begun to implement its strategy of decentralisation, strengthening the regional tier to provide the catalysts for growth in every region. In particular:

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has created eight Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) and the London Development Agency to promote economic development and regeneration in the regions. The RDAs have significant powers, funding and flexibility to allow them to develop and deliver tailored economic strategies to secure better and more sustainable economic performance and regeneration for their region;

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has encouraged and facilitated the creation of voluntary, multi-party regional chambers in all of the English regions (outside London), made up of local authority and other stakeholder representatives, to contribute to regional economic strategies and scrutinise their delivery. All eight chambers will take on the role of the regional planning body for their region, ensuring closer integration with other regional strategies, in particular the regional economic strategy;

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The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has improved the delivery of central Government activity in the English regions by bringing more responsibilities into the ambit of the Government Offices for the Regions, and by strengthening the capacity of these offices;

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has strengthened the role of local authorities, for example, through the introduction of Business Planning Zones, and more generally, through the Government's localism agenda;

A Rural Affairs Forum, supported by eight regional forums, has been formed to bring together rural stakeholders to contribute to the development of rural policies at national level;

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has recently announced that regional housing boards will be established in England, involving key stakeholders in the region;

My right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister announced on 16 June 2003 that the North East, North West and Yorkshire and the Humber would proceed towards referendums for elected assemblies. Assemblies will have powers to make a difference in key areas such as jobs, planning, housing, transport, culture and environment. Their block grant will give them freedom to allocate spending according to regional priorities. Regional Development Agencies will be accountable to their elected assemblies;

In his 2003 Budget speech, the Chancellor asked Sir Michael Lyons, Professor of Public Policy at Birmingham University, to make recommendations for the relocation of civil service and other public sector workers in the light of the need to improve delivery and efficiency of public services, and the regional balance of economic activity. This review will take account of updated Government departmental pay and work force strategies. Sir Michael Lyons will make his recommendations by the end of the year, in time to inform the next Spending Review. These actions will strengthen the building blocks for economic growth and regeneration in all regions and give the regions powers to address their particular needs.

Local Elections

Jeff Ennis: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many candidates stood for election in the recent local parish and town council election; and how many candidates stood in the 1999 election. [121054]

Mr. Raynsford: The information requested is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Local Government Funding

Valerie Davey: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister (1) what the Government's policy is on ring-fenced funding for local government; [121107]

(2) what target he has for reducing the amount of local government funding which is ring-fenced. [121108]

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Mr. Raynsford: The Government's policy on ring-fencing of grant to local authorities was set out in the White Paper, Strong Local Leadership—Quality Public Services of December 2001 (Ref: CM5237). While recognising that ring-fencing can be an important tool for bringing about change, we are aware that a proliferation of ring-fenced grants erodes local discretion and diverts resources on bureaucracy. So our policy is to reduce the total of ring-fenced grants.

In the 'Freedoms and Flexibilities' paper of 26 November 2002 we made it clear that for revenue funding councils awarded 'excellent' and for capital funding councils awarded 'excellent' or 'good' would receive all funding as unfenced grants, except for those grants passported to schools.

On current plans, revenue ring-fencing will be less than 10 per cent. by the financial year 2005–06. For capital funding, the target is to increase the level of resources funded through the unfenced Single Capital Pot to two thirds of relevant finance.

Pay Audits

Angela Eagle: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what progress has been made on completing a pay audit in his Department and its non-departmental public bodies to measure any disadvantage in terms of remuneration for (a) women, (b) ethnic minorities and (c) people with disabilities; and if he will publish the results of such an audit. [117444]

Yvette Cooper: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and its agencies have completed the review of their pay systems encompassing women, ethnic minorities and people with disabilities. Action plans for each have been produced. These will be placed in the Library of the House in due course after full consideration has been given to the issues identified.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's non-departmental public bodies have carried out reviews as a matter of good practice. Summaries of the main findings of these will be published after consideration has been given to any issues identified.

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