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DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

Affordable Housing

Mr. Drew: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will list the authorities that (a) met their targets for (i) affordable and (ii) social housing in the last year for which figures are available and (b) did not meet their targets. [136752]

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Keith Hill: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister does not set annual targets centrally for local authorities on either affordable or social housing.

Planning policies for affordable housing are set out in Planning Policy Guidance note 3, 'Housing', and in Circular 6/98, 'Planning for Affordable Housing'. They advise that where local planning authorities are able to demonstrate a lack of affordable housing to meet local needs, based on up-to-date surveys and other data of

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local need, they should indicate in their local plan how many affordable homes need to be provided throughout the plan area, and set indicative targets for specific suitable sites (expressed either as numbers of homes or a percentage of the homes on the site).

Local planning authorities should be monitoring their performance against their local plan policies and targets, but this information is not held centrally, and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Census 2001

Mr. Gordon Marsden: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what action his Department will take in response to the recent Statistics Commission report on the accuracy of the 2001 census for the Westminster city council area. [136992]

Mr. Raynsford: Accurate census and population statistics are an important issue for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, particularly for financial allocation and as the basis for population and household projections which underpin a range of policy needs for housing and community support. We look to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to supply these to the highest standard achievable, and in response to the statistics commission report the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and other Central Government Departments will engage with ONS to ensure that this is achieved.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has also noted the recommendation to make progress on the creation of an accurate address register. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister agrees with the need for this and will be working with ONS and other relevant bodies to improve national address information.

Computer Fraud

Dr. Cable: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how much has been (a) budgeted and (b) spent by his Department since April 2002 on (i) combating computer fraud, (ii) preventing theft of computers and (iii) safeguarding the security of information held on computer; and if he will make a statement. [128797]

Yvette Cooper: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister manages the security of its information, including information held on its computer system, in accordance with the guidance given in the Manual of Protective Security, a comprehensive body of policy and interdepartmentally agreed security standards that is issued by the Cabinet Office.

Over the period referred to, many of the services involved in managing our security, were provided jointly to Department for Transport (DfT)as well as the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister . In addition, the services are provided as part of the overall provision of Information Technology, Audit and other security related service. It is therefore not possible to provide an accurate breakdown in the way requested without incurring disproportionate cost.

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The overall staff costs across both Departments for some of the areas contributing to the management of our security are:

	£ thousand
IT Audit Services:	224.5
IT Security Office:	122.3
Internal Firewall Management:	216.2
Other IT Security Services:	158.3

As part of the commitment to information security, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is currently moving to compliance with BS7799 for corporate ICT services for DfT and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. The budget for this project is £300,000 for 2002–04.

Council Tax

Mr. Edward Davey: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the (a) average and (b) average band D council tax was in (i) Sedgefield borough council and (ii) Durham county council in each year since 1997. [136593]

Mr. Raynsford: The information requested is tabled as follows:

£

	Sedgefield borough council		Durham county council
	Authority's own Band D council tax1	Authority's own average council tax per dwelling1	Authority's own Band D council tax	Authority's own average council tax per dwelling
1996–97	111	130	486	397
1997–98	235	155	548	372
1998–99	246	162	634	429
1999–2000	254	168	662	448
2000–01	265	174	692	470
2001–02	278	183	721	489
2002–03	302	198	828	562
2003–04	311	205	903	615

⁽³⁸⁾ Including parish and town council precepts

Mr. Edward Davey: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the average council tax was in England in each financial year since 1995–96. [136595]

Mr. Raynsford: The information requested is tabled as follows:

£

	Average Band D council tax fortwo adults	Average council tax per dwelling
1995–96	609	498
1996–97	646	525
1997–98	688	564
1998–99	747	614
1999–2000	798	656
2000–01	847	697
2001–02	901	741
2002–03	976	804
2003–04	1,102	908

Mr. Cousins: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many properties there were (a) in 1997 and (b) on 1 April 2003 in each council tax band in (i) England and

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(ii) each council tax collecting authority in England; and what the proportion of total properties was in each case. [137221]

Mr. Raynsford: Information on the number of properties in council tax bands as at 1 April is not available. Figures are available, however, as at 16 October. Those as at 16 October in the previous year have been provided for England are given in the following table. A table giving figures for individual billing authorities is available in the Library of the House.

Council tax bands, England

Band	Number of chargeable dwellings	Percentage of total chargeable dwellings	Number of chargeable dwellings	Percentage of total chargeable dwellings
A	5,203,350	26.1	5,293,456	25.4
B	3,870,586	19.4	4,011,941	19.2
C	4,351,090	21.8	4,515,653	21.7
D	2,956,331	14.8	3,151,048	15.1
E	1,813,481	9.1	1,975,568	9.5
F	947,300	4.8	1,044,435	5.0
G	688,168	3.5	749,382	3.6
H	103,297	0.5	113,545	0.5
Total	19,933,605	100.0	20,855,028	100.0

Source:

CTB1 returns

Council Tax Benefit

Mr. Pickles: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what proportion of those eligible for council tax benefit took up the benefit in 2002–03. [135357]

Mr. Pond: I have been asked to reply.

The information requested is presented in the DWP annual report, "Income Related Benefits-Estimates of Take-Up", which is available in the Library.

Cumbria

Mr. Martlew: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will restore Cumbria to the Northern Region; and if he will make a statement. [137125]

Mr. Raynsford: Cumbria is part of the North West Region and will remain so.

Housing (Seller's Pack/Overcrowding)

Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister (1) in relation to the draft Housing Bill, how many surveyors will be required to fulfill the requirement of the seller's pack proposals; how these will be trained; and over what timescale they will be available; [R] [136895]

(2) what plans the Government have to amend the Overcrowding Standard as defined in the Housing Act 1985. [136939]

Keith Hill: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's initial estimate is that between 7,500 and 8,500 Home Inspectors will be needed to carry out home condition reports but this figure may be revised in the light of consultations and further work with the industry. Research indicates that there is a substantial pool of

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labour that could meet this potential demand, including the 4,500 people who are carrying out residential surveys now.

Home Inspectors will have to be certified and trained to National Occupational Standards. An awarding body will be appointed by the certification scheme to accredit the training courses and qualifications for home inspectors. Academic institutions, professional institutions and major employers are likely to run courses and training will take account of differences in prior knowledge and skills. Work on this has already started and we expect this will accelerate once the proposed new legislation is in place. Any requirement for sellers to provide a home condition report will not be brought into force until the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is satisfied that there are sufficient trained Home Inspectors in place.

The Government recognises that the statutory overcrowding standards in the Housing Act 1985 are now out of date, and is considering whether they should be reformed in the light of the arguments presented during the Westminster Hall Debate on 29 October 2003, Official Report, column 105WH.

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