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23 Oct 2003 : Column 722W—continued

Council Tax

Mr. Alan Campbell: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister which local authorities take into account war pensions when assessing council tax. [131317]

Mr. Pond: I have been asked to reply.

A statutory disregard of £10 is applied to War Disablement Pensions and War Widows Pensions when calculating entitlement to income-related benefits. In the case of Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit, local authorities have the discretion to apply a further disregard up to the full amount of any War Pension in payment.

At April 2003, 392 local authorities disregarded War Pensions in full and two authorities, Middlesbrough and Bolton, applied a full disregard to War Pensions but not

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War Widows' Pensions. A further 12 authorities applied a disregard in excess of the statutory £10. They are, as follows: Barrow; Chester-le-Street; Gateshead; Newcastle; North Tyneside; Preston; Salford; South Tyneside; Sunderland; Surrey Heath; Tynedale; and Weymouth and Portland. The remaining two authorities, Easington and Wear Valley, applied the statutory disregard only.

This answer corrects the information given in the reply to the hon. Member for Havant (Mr. Willetts) on 14 April 2003, Official Report, column 513W.

Source:

Ministry of Defence Veterans' Task Force from information supplied by the Royal British Legion.

Euro

Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how much has been spent in each year by his Department in preparing for UK entry to the euro; how much his Department plans to spend on preparations for UK entry to the euro for each year from the current financial year up to and including 2005–06; and what estimates he has made of the total costs to his Department of changeover to the European Single Currency. [131598]

Yvette Cooper: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my right hon. Friend the Minister for Local Government, Regional Governance and Fire on 6 October 2003, Official Report, column 1027W.

Fire Scheme

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what representations he has received from (a) individuals and (b) organisations in North Yorkshire on the Fire Scheme. [133586]

Mr. Raynsford: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister understands the hon. Member is referring to the North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Authority's Draft Integrated Risk Management Plan. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has received no representations on the Scheme from either individuals or organisations in North Yorkshire.

Marine Aggregates

Mr. Blizzard: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what assessment he has made of the effects of global warming in drawing up the guidance issued for determining applications for the extraction of marine aggregates. [133249]

Yvette Cooper: The effects of global warming were not assessed during the preparation of Marine Minerals Guidance Note 1 (MMG1) published in July 2002. The progressive effects of climate change due to global warming on the marine environment are still relatively uncertain. However, at present, these appear to include rising sea levels, increased storminess, changes to sea floor habitats and modified behavioural patterns of marine organisms. These are all matters that can be taken into account, as appropriate and as knowledge increases, in the Environmental Statements that accompany each marine minerals dredging licence application. Each Environmental Statement is examined carefully and widely consulted upon before

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that application is determined. Licences for dredging of marine minerals are both time-limited and subject to conditions that include monitoring of the marine environment to ensure that action can be taken if unforeseen effects take place. As regards general policy, MMG1, as with all Government guidance, is subject to periodical review and to revision when necessary. Where the impacts of climate change both become more certain and are sufficiently significant to influence the stance of policy in these areas, the guidance can be revised to take them into account.

Mr. Blizzard: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how much marine aggregate has been extracted from UK coasts in the last 10 years; and what his assessment is of the total amount that may be removed within safe environmental limits. [133252]

Yvette Cooper: Most marine dredging for aggregate takes place over five kilometres away from the immediate vicinity of the coast. There is little extraction closer to the coast. The total amount of sand and gravel extracted for use as aggregate from all licensed areas in UK waters over the past 10 years is about 253.3 million tonnes. It is not possible to estimate with any certainty how much can be removed within safe environmental limits since the total size of the resource is not yet known. In addition, impacts on the sea-floor, marine currents and waves, habitats and uses of the sea all need to be assessed in detail, on a project-by-project basis, to establish whether any individual proposal is environmental acceptable. Each licence application is subject to an environmental impact assessment which includes a coastal impact study. This is the subject of careful analysis and wide consultation and, if necessary, additional investigations before a decision is taken. All licences that are issued by the Crown Estate are subject to conditions specified by Government to make sure that any environmental impacts are minimised. Licences are time-limited so that the position can be reconsidered if further dredging is proposed.

Mobile Phone Base Stations

Mr. Whittingdale: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the maximum distance is from a mobile phone base station that a school can be located in order to meet the definition 'near' thus requiring the relevant body of the school to be consulted under paragraph 62 of Planning Policy Guidance Note 8 (Telecommunications). [133886]

Yvette Cooper: The Government have not defined the maximum distance from a mobile phone base station that a school can be located in order to meet the definition "near" thus requiring the relevant body of the school to be consulted under paragraph 62 of Planning Policy Guidance Note 8 (Telecommunications).

The Code of Best Practice on Mobile Phone Network Development published in November 2002 states that in determining whether a school or college should be consulted the following factors should be taken into account by network operators and local planning authorities:

the proposed site is on school/college grounds;


the proposed development would be seen from the school/college or its grounds;

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the site is on the main access point used by pupils/students to the school/college;


there is a history of concern about base stations within the local community;


the local planning authority has requested consultation with the school/college;


the school/college has requested that it be included in any consultation (DfES has advised schools and colleges that if they wish to be consulted about base stations in their locality they should notify the local planning authority setting out the circumstance in which they would wish to be consulted).

Neighbourhood Renewal

Mr. Cousins: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will place in the Library the calculations, indicators and assessments for each Neighbourhood Renewal Fund authority which led to the identification of 26 such authorities for additional residual NRF support. [132751]

Yvette Cooper: A copy of the table showing the allocations to the 26 local authority areas eligible for residual Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) resources in 2004–05 and 2005–06; the list of indicators against which the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister measured the distance travelled by each area towards floor target achievement, and the set of base data used in these measurements is available in the Library of the House.

Ordnance Survey Framework Document

Andrew Bennett: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister when he expects to publish the Ordnance Survey Framework Document. [133861]

Yvette Cooper: My predecessor, my hon. Friend the Member for Harrow, East (Mr. McNulty) announced in July 2002 that a new Ordnance Survey Framework Document would be produced, following the conclusion of the Quinquennial Review.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is not in a position to say when the Framework Document will be finalised and published, but the Government is well aware of the need to conclude this matter without unnecessary further delay.

Planning Law

Mr. Burns: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will make a statement on his plans to amend the planning laws to give local authorities and planning departments more powers to overcome abuses of planning law, with special reference to the removal of travellers and others from land without the consent of the landowner. [132927]

Yvette Cooper: When travellers have bought and developed land without planning permission, this would be an unauthorised development, which is a breach of current planning laws. A range of powers already exists to deal with unauthorised development, which is a planning matter. When travellers have trespassed onto land they do not own, that is an unauthorised encampment.

The police can issue a Section 61 Direction under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, directing trespassers to leave land. Failure to comply with such a

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direction is an offence. Local authorities may issue a Direction to Travellers on unauthorised encampments under Section 77 of the 1994 Act. Again, failure to comply is an offence. Landowners have power under the common law to remove trespassers from their land. The procedure to be used is contained in Part 55 of the Civil Procedure Rules.

There are also proposals contained in Clause 62 of the Anti-Social Behaviour Bill, to give the police power to direct illegally camped travellers to leave land. The new power could only be used if the local authority has available pitches on sites in their area.

Mr. Burns: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if his Department will make a grant to Chelmsford borough council to assist it in offsetting the money they will have to spend to enforce planning laws through direct action at Cranham road, Little Waltham, Chelmsford; and if he will make a statement. [132929]

Keith Hill: No. Local planning authorities already have powers under section 178 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 to take direct enforcement action and recover their costs from the owner of the land.

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