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10 Jul 2003 : Column 944W—continued
Telecommunication Masts
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many planning applications have been made to site mobile telecommunications masts on land owned by the Department. [124809]
Mr. Caborn: There have been no planning applications to site telecommunications masts received by DCMS.
UK Sports Institute
Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much the Department has spent on the UK Sports Institute in each of the last 10 years; and what proportion of that funding has been allocated for grassroots sporting activity. [122837]
Mr. Caborn: The decision to establish the United Kingdom Sports Institute (UKSI) was taken in 1996.
The UKSI is the name given to a network of centres and a central team of experts that helps the country's top sportsmen and women to win medals in major tournaments like the Olympics and the World Athletics Championships. It provides much needed world class
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facilities and a higher standard of co-ordinated support services to high performance athletes than the UK has ever had before.
The Institute is made up of four Home Country Sports Institutes in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, along with a central services team, which is part of UK Sport, based in London. The funding provided to the Home Country Institutes is a matter for the Devolved Administrations.
Funding by DCMS to support the UKSI is found from both the exchequer and the lottery. UK Sport expends exchequer funding, while Sport England use their Lottery funds. The level of expenditure is for these organisations to determine. Details of their expenditure on the UKSI is shown in the following table:
| UK Sport | Sport England | |
|---|---|---|
| 1996–97 | 210,000 | — |
| 1997–98 | 164,000 | — |
| 1998–99 | 339,000 | — |
| 1999–2000 | 414,000 | 900,000 |
| 2000–01 | (6)1,404,000 | 3,100,000 |
| 2001–02 | 3,046,000 | 14,700,000 |
| 2002–03 | 3,142,000 | 39,100,000 |
(6) For this financial year only, UK Sport spent Lottery funding on the UKSI.
While the primary focus and purpose of the UKSI is to assist our top sportsmen and women, all the facilities in the network can also be enjoyed by the local community, when not being used for elite training.
NORTHERN IRELAND
Consultation Documents
John Barrett: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will list the consultation
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documents issued by his Department in each of the last four years; what the cost was of producing each of these; how many documents were issued in each consultation; and how many responses were received in each consultation. [124570]
Mr. Paul Murphy: This information could be obtained only at a disproportionate cost.
Cultural Diversity Branch
Mr. Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what (a) programmes and (b) projects have been supported by the Cultural Diversity Branch in each year since it was set up. [123801]
Angela Smith: The Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure in pursuing its vision of "a confident, creative, informed and prosperous society" is committed both to promoting a greater respect and understanding of the richness of our cultural and linguistic diversity and to celebrating this diversity. In progressing this objective the Department supported Diversity 21 as a means of examining cultural diversity with a view to promoting deeper understanding and to represent this diversity as a sign of strength in our society. Diversity 21 provided the means of promoting cultural diversity work already happening; identifying and delivery of new projects aimed at stimulating the imagination and exploring diversity in an open, creative and accessible way; and providing a cultural diversity grant funding scheme. Since April 2001 the Department has supported a schedule of exhibitions on language, faith and history in Northern Ireland and the wider Commonwealth, to a number of organisations and community groups throughout the Province; a programme of workshops on the different drums of Northern Ireland; and Intercom 21—a contemporary music project which used music as a means of exploring diversity. In addition the Department under the Diversity 21 funding programme supported a range of community based projects. These included:
| Group | Project | Total Funding |
|---|---|---|
| Apprentice Boys of Derry | Maiden City Festival 2001 | 50,000 |
| Football in the Community | Football course with underachievers | 35,000 |
| Young at Art | Family friendly day | 5,000 |
| East Tyrone | Marshalling training | 5,000 |
| Tinderbox | No place like home | 38,162 |
| Cineversity | Cinema and the city | 6,000 |
| The Gathering | Literary festival | 13,000 |
| Lisburn Development Organisation | Chinese New Year festival | 9,000 |
| Down Community Arts | Neighbours | 830 |
| Queen's Film Theatre | 'Crossing barriers through the moving image' | 3,820 |
| Old Museum Arts | 'I'm not a racist but . . ' | 5,000 |
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Housing Construction (Belfast)
Mr. Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland when work will start on construction of housing on the site of the former Somerdale School in Belfast. [124477]
Mr. Spellar: In response to community representations that the scheme would infringe their human rights, the PSNI, which has a responsibility to advise on new proposals such as this, undertook to review its original advice that the scheme could proceed. That undertaking was given at a public meeting on 4 June 2003 and the PSNI report is still awaited. The scheme is therefore delayed meantime.
However, subject to a positive response from PSNI, my Department and the Housing Executive, which is taking the lead in trying to resolve the community issues at local level, are firmly committed to seeing this much needed scheme start on site at the earliest possible date. We have given commitments to local residents that they will be fully consulted beforehand.
Provided the outstanding difficulties are resolved, it is hoped that the scheme can start in 2004–05.
MOT Tests
Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland pursuant to his answer of 30 June 2003, Official Report, column 98W, on MOT tests, what proportion of vehicle test failures were due to brake defects in each year since 2000–01. [124555]
Angela Smith: This information is not currently available.
Until recently the records of the Driver and Vehicle Testing Agency of the Department of the Environment were largely manual and it was not practicable to collate information on the causes of test failures.
However, when the programme to re-equip the Agency's test centres with new computerised test equipment is completed, it will be possible to develop management information systems which will provide analyses of test results. The re-equipment programme is scheduled to be completed in September 2003.
There is anecdotal evidence that customers and the motor trade are having difficulty in preparing vehicles for the brake imbalance test. It should be borne in mind, however, that the extent of the imbalance in braking efficiency between two wheels on the same axle that would cause the test to be failed would render the vehicle unroadworthy and constitute a road safety risk.
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Northern Ireland Housing Executive
Mr. Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many contractors had money withheld by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive in each year since 1997 because of poor or sub-standard work. [123807]
Mr. Spellar: Because of the considerable number of contracts let annually by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, the information for each year dating back to 1997 could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. However, all contractors have money withheld, pending the making good of defects. In any given year, this amounts to an average of £1.2 million.
The Housing Executive is currently withholding some £1.3 million, pending the satisfactory completion of 221 contracts. The gross value of these contracts is around £89 million. The Housing Executive is also currently involved in six legal disputes, to a gross value of some £480,000, with contractors who have disputed, among other things, that their work is substandard.
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