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16 Mar 2004 : Column 189W—continued

Probation Service

Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether there has been an evaluation of the effectiveness of the reorganisation of the Probation Service in April 2001. [159814]

Paul Goggins: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 9 February 2004, Official Report, column 1285W.

Sentencing Powers

Vera Baird: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the Court of Appeal has powers to reduce a sentence if the sentence is not considered to be wrong in principle. [156313]

Paul Goggins: Sections 9(1) and 11(3) of the Criminal Appeal Act 1968 grant the Court of Appeal a very wide discretion to deal with appeals against sentence as it thinks fit, subject only to the proviso that it must not increase the sentence imposed by the Crown court. However, the criminal division of the Court of Appeal is generally bound by its own precedents. When considering an appeal against sentence on the ground that the sentence is manifestly excessive or wrong in principle, the Court of Appeal has traditionally made it clear that it will not interfere with the Crown court's sentence if that sentence is right in principle (i.e. within the general reach of the Crown court's discretion and not manifestly excessive). The interpretation of legislation is, however, a matter for the courts.

LEADER OF THE HOUSE

Legislative Process

38. Hugh Bayley : To ask the Leader of the House, how the Government decides into which House to introduce a Bill. [161279]

Mr. Woolas: When deciding into which House to introduce a Bill, the Government considers a range of factors, including the nature of the Bill and the need to maintain a balanced programme in both Houses throughout the Session.

Pre-legislative Scrutiny

Mr. Allen: To ask the Leader of the House, what recent steps he has taken to promote the use of pre-legislative scrutiny on-line for all proposals for legislation; and if he will make a statement. [161277]

Mr. Hain: Whether to consult on-line—as part of pre-legislative scrutiny or another form of inquiry—is a matter for decision by the individual committee concerned. The Modernisation Committee, which I chair, is currently conducting an on-line consultation as part of our inquiry into connecting Parliament with the public. I commend this approach to other Committees.

Sitting Hours

Mr. Burns: To ask the Leader of the House, what studies he has conducted on the impact of the changes in the working hours of the House on the efficiency of the work of the House. [161278]

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Mr. Hain: I wrote to all Members in January asking for views on the sitting hours, including the impact of the change on the efficiency of the work of the House. Such factors will form part of the forthcoming review by the Modernisation Committee.

CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT

Cinema-goers

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what her Department's policy is on improving facilities for cinema-goers with impaired (a) hearing and (b) sight; and what funding has been made available to improve services. [160814]

Estelle Morris: The UK Film Council announced on 15 September 2003 the launch of a Cinema Access Programme to improve access to cinemas by people with hearing and sight impairments. £500,000 of lottery money has been allocated to this programme, of which £350,000 is being used to supply up to 75 local cinemas across England with subtitling and audio-description equipment; £60,000 is funding the provision of sub-titled and audio-described film prints for use in cinemas; £50,000 is funding the development of a website providing information on when and where subtitled or audio-described films will be seen; and £40,000 is supporting research and development into a personal captioning device to work alongside existing digital systems.

Gambling

Mr. Simon Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much public funding has been spent by the Government on (a) publicising the dangers of gambling among under 18-year-olds and (b) rehabilitation for gambling addicts in each year since 1997. [161340]

Mr. Caborn: There is no public funding for (a) It is not possible to provide a specific estimate of the amount spent on (b) within total NHS provision for mental health services, bearing in mind the frequent co-morbidity of pathological gambling with other forms or manifestations of mental disorder.

Mr. Simon Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (1) what research her Department has (a) commissioned and (b) evaluated into the likely effects on repeat play by children of reducing the legal maximum stake for redemption-style gaming machines from 30 pence to 10 pence per game; [161303]

(2) what research has been carried out on behalf of her Department on the extent to which (a) redemption style machines offering exchangeable goods and (b) other category D machines affect the likelihood of repetitive play among children. [161341]

Mr. Caborn: The report of the Gambling Review Body (CM 5206) identifies a number of research studies dealing with gaming machine play by children. These include machines which would be classified as Category D machines under the draft Gambling Bill proposals.

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But the Department is not aware of any studies which relate specifically to redemption style machines, and has not commissioned any.

Libraries (Digitisation)

Mr. Bercow: 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 Buckingham since 1997. [161322]

Estelle Morris: The information requested is not held centrally. However, Buckinghamshire county council is a partner in the Thames Pilot Project, which received £328,000 from the New Opportunities Fund to help establish a website depicting the history of the River Thames and the communities which lie along its length. Separately, in 2003 Buckinghamshire digitised over 500 images of Victorian prisoners held at Aylesbury Gaol to be displayed on the council website at a cost of approximately £2,000. This was in addition to the previous digitisation of over 23,000 historic images of Buckinghamshire in 1994, of which 425 relate directly to Buckingham.

Museums/Libraries (Funding)

Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what written representations she has (a) requested and (b) received regarding local authority financial support for (i) museums, (ii) libraries and (iii) archives in the forthcoming financial year under the local authority financial settlement; and if she will make a statement. [158463]

Estelle Morris: The information requested is as follows.

(a) To date, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has not requested any written representations regarding local authority financial support for museums, libraries or archives in the forthcoming financial year under the local authority financial settlement.

(b) To date, the Department has received:

i. Three written representations regarding local authority financial support for museums, relating to Worthing borough council, Eastbourne borough council and Daventry district council.

ii. Three written representations about potential service reductions in library services from London borough of Barnet, Cambridgeshire county council and Telford and Wrekin borough council following the announcement of the local authority financial settlement for the forthcoming financial year. The Department has received no other written representations regarding local authority financial support in relation to libraries.

iii. One written representation regarding local authority financial support for archives, relating to Essex county council.

National Lottery

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what the cost of administering the National Lottery as a proportion of each ticket sold was in 2003–04. [161437]

Estelle Morris: Information for 2003–04 is not yet available. In 2002–03 the operator of the National Lottery retained 6.3 per cent.

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Television Licence

Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what proportion of television licence fee defaulters fell into each socio-economic category in the last year for which figures are available. [160685]

Estelle Morris: The table shows how, according to figures obtained from the BBC, evasion is spread across all socio-economic groups.

Percentage

	UK Population	TV Licence Evaders
Group	Distribution by socio-economic group of chief income earner, according to National Readership Survey between July 2000 and June 2001	Distribution of socio-economic group of 1,108,787 who have evaded for up to two years
2003
AB	23.7	23.4
C1	27.7	27.2
C2	20.9	19.8
DE	27.7	29.6
2002
AB	23.8	22.4
C1	27.3	26.6
C2	21.2	20.3
DE	27.7	30.7

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