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11 Mar 2004 : Column 1712W—continued
House Building (Hampshire)
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister pursuant to his answer of 23 February 2004, Official Report, column 25W, on development sites, if he will make a statement on the conclusions reached by the Joint Advisory Panel at the meeting on 10 March regarding the review of progress made on Hampshire's house building targets. [159998]
Keith Hill: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister welcomes the decision of the Joint Advisory Panel to recognise the uncertainty surrounding future housing provision in Hampshire, and to recommend a number of measures to reduce that uncertainty. The Panel has agreed to prepare a draft action plan, which we would like to agree in a month's time. The measures will need to be implemented by local authorities in Hampshire speedily, in order to obviate the need to release the reserve.
Local Authority Debt
Mr. Goodman: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what (a) instructions and (b) guidelines are issued by his Department to local authorities on the writing off of (i) Council Tax and (ii) Housing Benefit debt when the debt recovery costs are greater than the debt itself; and if he will make a statement. [160689]
Mr. Raynsford: Local authorities are under a duty to collect all council tax revenues owing to them. "Council Tax Practice Note 9: Recovery and Enforcement", issued jointly by the former Department of the Environment and the Welsh Office in 1993, states that authorities should have provisions in their Standing Orders or Financial Regulations to enable amounts to be written off if they are irrecoverable or not economical to pursue.
The recovery of housing benefit debt is a matter for the Department for Works and Pensions.
Local Government Finance (Isle of Wight)
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what additional grant is to be paid to the Isle of Wight Council in 2004–05 following his decision to add £1 million to the grant for 2003–04. [160646]
Mr. Raynsford: In 2003–04, during the final consultation on our proposed formulae changes, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister accepted the Isle of Wight's argument that their New Earnings Survey sample size was too small for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister to reliably calculate a separate area cost adjustment (ACA) for the island. As a result the Isle of Wight received the same ACA as Hampshire in the 2003–04 settlement. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister used the same methodology to calculate the ACA for the 2004–05 settlement when the Isle of Wight once again received the same ACA as Hampshire.
The Local Government Finance Settlement was approved by the House of Commons on 5 February 2004.
Pre-Budget Report Leaflet
Mr. Fallon: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will make a statement on the timetable for (a) publication
11 Mar 2004 : Column 1713W
and (b) circulation to hon. Members by the Government Office for the South East of copies of the pre-Budget report leaflet for the south east; and what the (i) cost and (ii) purpose of the exercise were. [160634]
Mr. Raynsford: The information is as follows.
- (a) This document is distributed after the pre-Budget statement via Government Offices for the Regions.
- (b) The objective of the document is to explain the impact of the pre-Budget report on each region.
- (i) The total cost of the publication and distribution of the document was £286.00 for the south-east.
- (ii) Distribution of the document is in line with Government's commitment to promote dialogue with the regions, to strengthen their input into future policy making.
Regional Assemblies/Government
Mr. Jenkin: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister on what basis he decided that the referendums for elected regional assemblies should be conducted by all-postal ballot. [159824]
Phil Hope: Following a series of pilots in local authority elections and thorough evaluation by the Electoral Commission, it is clear that all-postal ballots can significantly increase the levels of participation in elections. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister considered this evidence carefully, before announcing our intention to hold the referendums by all-postal ballot in response to a question from the hon. Member for South Ribble (Mr. Borrow) on 22 October 2003.
Ann Winterton: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister to whom Government Offices of the Regions would be accountable if regional assemblies are introduced. [160740]
Mr. Raynsford: Government Offices for the Regions will remain as part of central Government and will continue to be responsible to Government Ministers.
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However the Government intend to devolve to elected assemblies some of the functions currently discharged through Government Offices. The assembly would be accountable to its electorate for those devolved functions.
Ann Winterton: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister from which funding source the difference between the 2002–03 Government grant of £780 million for the North West Region, £350 million for the North East Region and £570 million for the Yorkshire and the Humber Region and the EU funding of £254 million for the North West, £88 million for the North East and £185 million for Yorkshire and the Humber was provided. [160742]
Mr. Raynsford: The difference between the 2002–03 likely total budgets for elected regional assemblies and the European programme funding is the block grant which assemblies will receive from central Government. The budgets for which a future elected regional assembly would be responsible (in the form of the block grant) are currently allocated to the Government Offices and non-departmental public bodies from central Government Departments.
Regional Spatial Strategies
Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will set out the current progress of the regional spatial strategies in each region. [159961]
Keith Hill: As the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Bill now stands as amended in the other place, there will be no regional spatial strategies until elected regional assemblies are established. As the Bill was introduced the intention was that regional planning guidance in each region would become the regional spatial strategy following commencement of Part 1 of the Bill. Current progress on the relevant regional planning guidance is tabled as follows.
| Existing RPG | Revision timetable | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Region | Draft RPGpublished | Publicexaminationinto RPG | Issue of finalRPG | Draft RPG/RSSpublished | Publicexaminationinto RPG/RSS | Target for issueof final RPG/RSS |
| East of England (Formally RPG6 but to become RPG 14) (Revision will extend coverage to whole of the East region) | August 1998 (issued for consultation by GO) | February 1999 | November 2000 | September 2004 | June/July 2005 | July 2006 |
| North East (RPG1) | December 1999 | June/July 2000 | November 2002 | November 2004 | August 2005 | June 2006 |
| East Midlands (RPG8) | November 1999 | June 2000 | January 2002 | Spring 2003(35) | Autumn 2003(35) | Autumn 2004(35) |
| South East (RPG9) (Revision will exclude areas now included in the East and London) | December 1998 | May 1999 | March 2001 | Summer 2005 | Late 2005 | Autumn 2006 |
| South East (Waste Review) | — | — | — | Early 2004(35) | Autumn 2004(35) | Summer 2005(35) |
| South West (RPG10) | August 1999 | March/April 2000 | September 2001 | Autumn 2004(35) | Early 2006(35) | Early 2007(35) |
| West Midlands (RPG11) | — | — | April 1998 | November 2001 | June 2002 | Early 2004 |
| Yorkshire and the Humber (RPG 12) | October 1999 | June/July 2000 | October 2001 | End 2004 | Autumn 2005 | Summer 2006 |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | — | — | — | June 2003(35) | February 2004(35) | Late 2004(35) |
| North West (RPG 13) | June/July 2000 | February 2001 | March 2003 | March 2004(35) | November 2004(35) | Late 2005(35) |
| Milton Keynes and South Midlands Study (MKSM), will inform RPG for the East of England, the South East and the East Midlands. | — | — | — | July 2003 | March-April 2004 | February 2005 |
(35) Partial reviews only.
ana
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EDUCATION AND SKILLS
Adoption
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what funding has been made available to each local authority for the establishment of adoption support services under the Adoption and Children Act 2002 in the last 12 months. [156528]
Margaret Hodge [holding answer 26 February 2004]: Funding for local authority adoption support services (including adoption support services) derived from the following sources in the financial year 2003–04:
- The children's social services Formula Spending Share (Children's FSS) of £3038.350 million, which is intended to fund all local authority children's social services, including adoption services.The Quality Protects (QP) main grant, which included approximately £60 million funding over the three years 2001–02 to 2003–4 to secure sustained improvements in adoption services. This funding will be mainstreamed from 2004–05 into the CSS baseline.An extra £70 million of ring-fenced money for Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Services from 2003–04 to 2005–06. £12 million of this was allocated to local authorities in the year 2003–04.
A breakdown of the allocations by local authority for the Children's FSS, overall QP main grant and Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Services grant is available in Local Authority Social Services Letter (LASSL) (2003)1, copies of which have been placed in the Library.
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