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Tourism (Regional Development Agencies)

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will make a statement on the work of regional development agencies in developing tourism in Crosby. [160564]

Mr. Caborn: The North West Development Agency (NWDA) is working closely with The Mersey Partnership (TMP), the nominated Destination Management Organisation (DMQ) for Merseyside.

During 2003–04 TMP received £320,000 from NWDA's Marketing Image Budget for tourism and investment campaigns to promote Merseyside, including Crosby. In addition, £419,000 was provided from NWDA's Tourism budget for a variety of projects. However, NWDA does not have a specific breakdown of funding provided to the area at this stage.

NWDA has also supported a programme for the Mersey Waterfront Regional Park, which covers an area from Southport to Wirral, including Crosby. The programme is aimed at transforming and energising the Mersey Waterfront to produce a unique sense of place for people to live, work, visit and invest in Merseyside.

Weymouth Transmitter

Jim Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport whether planned upgrades to the Weymouth transmitter will enable the broadcast of digital signal prior to turning off the analogue signal. [161056]

Estelle Morris: The Weymouth site has recently been updated to transmit digital radio. However, until analogue signals are switched off there will be no frequencies available to broadcast digital television services from the Weymouth transmitter without causing interference to viewers' existing analogue signals.

Jim Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport which broadcasters are responsible for the upgrading of the Weymouth transmitter to enable digital broadcasting. [161057]

Estelle Morris: The Weymouth site is owned by Crown Castle but ntl also use the transmitter. Upgrading is therefore their joint responsibility on behalf of the multiplex operators (BBC, Digital 3/4, SDN and Crown Castle International) under Ofcom's regulation.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

Casinos

Sue Doughty: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what account regional development agencies take of the prevention of proliferation in problem gambling when assessing proposed large regional casino schemes. [158314]

Jacqui Smith: I have been asked to reply.

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The consideration of where large regional casino schemes should be encouraged falls to regional planning bodies (RPBs) rather than regional development agencies (RDAs), as it is RPBs that prepare regional planning guidance.

Child Poverty

Mrs. Roche: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what steps his Department is taking to achieve the Government's targets of (a) ending child poverty by 2020, (b) halving it by 2010 and (c) reducing it by a quarter by 2004–05; and if he will make a statement. [154370]

Yvette Cooper: I refer my right hon. Friend to the answer given by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions my hon. Friend the Member for Gravesham (Mr. Pond) on 12 February 2004, Official Report, column 1590W.

Civil Servants

Dr. Cable: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many civil servants, broken down by grade, there are in the Department and the agencies for which the Department is responsible; and what the figures were in January 1997. [150266]

Yvette Cooper: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my hon. Friend the Minister for the Cabinet Office on 9 February 2004, Official Report, column 1294W.

Care Homes (Gloucestershire)

Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister (1) whether his Department sanctioned Gloucestershire county council's accumulation of uncollected rents from Coverage Care (Gloucestershire) Ltd.; and what steps his Department is taking in the matter; [155230]

(2) what financial guarantees he has approved Gloucestershire county council to make in order for (a) Coverage Care (Gloucestershire) Ltd. and (b) a successor body to continue to operate elderly care homes; [155231]

(3) what contingency arrangements his Department has made to prevent closure of care homes run by Coverage Care (Gloucestershire) Ltd.; what liabilities will be undertaken by Gloucestershire county council; and whether any liabilities will be funded by council tax revenues. [155232]

Yvette Cooper: Section 25 of the Local Government Act 1988 requires the consent of the Secretary of State to be obtained if a local authority decides to give financial assistance in connection with elderly persons' residential accommodation.

The Secretary of State consented to Gloucestershire county council giving financial assistance in 1994 when the current arrangements with Coverage Care (Gloucestershire) Ltd were entered into. In 1999, my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister granted a general consent to all local authorities in England to give financial assistance in various circumstances. No other consent has been sought by the Council or

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granted. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has not sanctioned the accumulation of uncollected rents from Coverage Care.

Powers to make arrangements for residential care are vested in local authorities and therefore it is the responsibility of Gloucestershire county council to deliver this service to the public. Consequently, it is not for Government to make contingency arrangements.

Housing (Buckingham)

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will make a statement on how the change in the level of central Government funding for local authority financed housing has affected the residents of Buckingham since 1997. [161468]

Keith Hill: Buckingham is within the district of Aylesbury Vale. Aylesbury Vale district council received housing capital allocations of £1.7 million in 1997–98, rising to £6.1 million in 2004–05. This is an increase of 250 per cent. over the period.

How these allocations have been spent in relation to the residents of Buckingham is a matter for Aylesbury Vale district council.

Quality Parish and Town Council Scheme

Mr. Steen: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how public participation is implemented in the Quality Parish and Town Council Scheme; and if he will make a statement on how the scheme is progressing. [161192]

Mr. Raynsford: Decisions to award Quality parish status are taken by county accreditation panels established through the National Association of Local Councils and approved by Government. To gain Quality status a parish or town council must demonstrate that they effectively communicate and actively engage with the electorate they represent, including having a majority of their seats filled through election.

There has been considerable interest in the scheme since its launch last year, and so far 36 councils have been granted Quality status.

Radon Tests

Mr. Donaldson: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will make legislative provision for (a) radon tests to be carried out on (i) old and (ii) new homes and (b) to require a radon test certificate to be furnished at the time of conveyancing. [161517]

Phil Hope: There are no plans for legislation to require radon testing of homes.

(i) In the case of homes built without radon protection, successive governments have run a radon measurement programme to identify the extent of the radon problem. In the last eight years it has mainly focused on homes likely to be at most risk. In England, where the problem is estimated to be greatest, and in Northern Ireland, that has meant every home with a greater than 5 per cent. probability of having radon concentrations at or above the National Radiological Protection Board recommended level of 200 becquerels per cubic metre of air, has been offered a free radon test. The Government's current programme continues to

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offer free tests to the homes at most at risk. This targeting has encouraged the more at risk householders to undertake radon remediation. This is an approach that has been tested and shown that it can double the amount of remediation in homes where there is greatest risk from this naturally occurring radioactive gas.

Under the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's proposals for home information packs, the pack is likely to include information on whether the property is located within a radon affected area. Issues of practicality and cost suggest that it would not be appropriate to require radon testing as part of a statutory home information pack scheme. However, this will be considered further by specialist working groups that are being set up to consider the contents of the pack before any final decisions are taken.

(ii) Post completion tests of houses that include radon measures had demonstrated that the level of protection is adequate and it would be uneconomic to test every house. Of the few houses where the radon levels have risen after occupation all but one were due to alterations to the house and the increase level in the remaining house was due to the use of a method of protection that is not recommended in official guidance.

(b) The revised questions in the searches form used in conveyancing are much more pointed in relation to radon and ask about radon tests and radon proofing. As the standardised procedures relating to house purchases address radon much more effectively than was the case in the past, there is no case to require test certificates through legislation.

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