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15 Mar 2004 : Column 54W—continued
Parliamentary Questions
Norman Baker: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many Parliamentary Questions have been tabled to the Department or its predecessors since 1 January 2003, broken down by (a) ordinary written and (b) named day; what percentage in respect of (a) were answered within 10 working days; and what percentage in respect of (b) were answered by the specified date. [157520]
Mr. Leslie: During the period 1 January 2003 to 24 February 2004, my Department has answered 963 ordinary written Parliamentary Questions of which 89 per cent. were answered within 10 days and 122 named day Parliamentary Questions of which 82 per cent. were answered on the specified date. My Department endeavours to answer all Parliamentary Questions within their deadlines.
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Westminster Hall
Bob Spink: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs if he will make it the policy of the Department to have senior Ministers reply to debates in Westminster Hall. [159609]
Mr. Lammy: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to him by the Leader of the House on 8 March 2004, Official Report, column 1234W.
CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT
Television Licence Fees
Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what (a) amount and (b) proportion of BBC licensing revenue was lost as a result of evasion in the last year for which figures are available. [160683]
Estelle Morris: As at March 2003, the estimated television licence evasion rate was 7.2 per cent., representing approximately £205 million in lost television licence fee revenue.
Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport for what proportion of television licence-holders the cost of their licence exceeded 2 per cent. of annual income in the last year for which figures are available. [160686]
Estelle Morris: The information requested is not available since TV Licensing, who administer the television licensing system for the BBC, do not maintain statistics on the income of licence fee payers.
Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many persons were (a) fined and (b) imprisoned for not having a television licence in 2003. [160687]
Estelle Morris: Home Office figures show that 94,590 defendants were fined for offences under the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949 to 1967 (mainly television licence evasion) in England-and Wales in 2002. Figures for 2003 will be published in late Autumn.
Custodial sentences are not available for television licence evasion, the maximum penalty being a fine. However, custodial sentences can be imposed for non-payment of such a fine. In 2003, 17 males and three females received custodial sentences for defaulting on the payment of a fine for TV Licence evasion.
Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many prosecutions there were for offences connected with television licensing in 2003. [160684]
Estelle Morris: TV Licensing, who administer the television licensing system for the BBC, gather these figures on a financial year basis. 149,000 people were prosecuted during 2002–03.
Cultural Programmes
Mr. Denis Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will list the UK bodies that have benefited from funding under (a) the Kaleidoscope Programme, (b) the Ariane Programme and (c) the Raphael Programme. [160940]
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Estelle Morris: Neither this Department nor the European Commission maintain an electronic database of awards that were made under the Kaleidoscope, Ariane and Raphael cultural funding programmes. We have, however, asked Euclid, the UK's Cultural Contact Point, who maintain paper records of all awards made under the aforementioned programmes to compile a list of UK recipients.
The list is likely to be too extensive to be printed in full in the Official Report and therefore will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses by 19 March 2004. Euclid has already started work on compiling an electronic database for UK recipients of awards under the current Culture 2000 funding programme.
Edgworth Cricket and Recreation Club
Janet Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when the North West Regional Sports Board will reach a decision on the application from the Edgworth Cricket and Recreation Club for support for pavilion development. [161124]
Mr. Caborn: Sport England have advised that following the first meeting of the North West Regional Sports Board they wrote to Edgworth Cricket and Recreation Club on 5 February 2004 setting out the three funding options available to the Club in light of the current funding streams in the North West Region.
Entertainment Costs
Miss Kirkbride: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what the costs to public funds was of parties held for the private offices of Ministers in her Department in the last five years. [157774]
Mr. Caborn: Since 2001 no parties have been held solely for the benefit of private office staff. From time to time private office staff are invited to attend certain functions held for external people.
No information is held for the period prior to 2001.
Libraries (Digitisation)
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much money has been spent on the digitisation of content in libraries in Crosby since 1997. [160451]
Estelle Morris: Sefton borough council is a partner in the Merseyside Gateway Project which received £370,000 from the New Opportunities Fund to create a website depicting the history and growth of the Port of Liverpool and its environs. Crosby library supplied around two-thirds of the local images supplied by Sefton to the website. The Council's contribution to the project was £5,000.
New Opportunities Fund (Buckingham)
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much money from the New Opportunities Fund was allocated to Buckingham in each year since 1997. [161323]
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Estelle Morris: The New Opportunities Fund began making grants in 1999. The awards to the Buckingham constituency are shown in the table which is derived from information supplied by the New Opportunities Fund.
| £ | |
|---|---|
| 1999 | 26,850 |
| 2000 | 73,109 |
| 2001 | 5,000 |
| 2002 | 9,130 |
| 2003 | 128,658 |
| To February 2004 | 0 |
Project Funding
Mr. Colman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many (a) solely state-financed and (b) public-private partnership and private finance initiative projects for which her Department is responsible have been launched in each region in each of the last 10 years. [160947]
Mr. Caborn: I refer my hon. Friend to HM Treasury's website which contains details of all signed PFI projects: <http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/documents/public private partnerships/ppp pfi stats.cfm>. The list can be searched by Department and by region and it contains details of all PFI deals signed over the last 10 years, including the capital value of each project.
The information concerning solely state financed projects, and all public-private partnerships could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Colman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much was spent by (a) the Government on solely state-financed projects and (b) the (i) Government and (ii) private sector on public-private and private finance initiative projects for which her Department is responsible, in each of the last 10 years, broken down by region. [160948]
Mr. Caborn: I refer my hon. Friend to HM Treasury's website which contains details of all signed PFI projects: <http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/documents/public private partnerships/ppp pfi stats.cfm>. The list can be searched by Department and by region and it contains details of all PFI deals signed over the last 10 years.
The information concerning solely state financed projects, and all public-private partnerships could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Television Ownership
Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what estimate her Department has made of the number of households who do not own a television in (a) Scotland, (b) England, (c) Wales and (d) Northern Ireland. [160703]
Estelle Morris: The information requested is not available since TV Licensing, who administer the television licensing system for the BBC, do not maintain statistics on television ownership in the individual
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nations of the United Kingdom. However, in the UK as a whole, an estimated 2 per cent. of households do not have a television set.
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