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Land Searches

Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what proportion of local authorities are able to undertake land searches electronically; and when this is expected to be extended to all authorities. [166892]

 
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Phil Hope: For land searches to be carried out electronically, local authorities must first have set up   electronic Local Land and Property Gazetteers (LLPGs). All authorities in England have been encouraged to set these up as part of their individual programmes to electronically enable 100 per cent. of their priority services by 2005. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's Local e-Government programme is helping local authorities to achieve this target, in particular by allocating a flat rate grant of £200,000 per annum in 2002 and 2003 to each authority submitting a    satisfactory Implementing e-Government (IEG) statement. The IEGs submitted in 2003 indicated that on average every authority would have electronically enabled 66 per cent. of their priority services by March 2004; most authorities indicated that they would have electronic LLPGs by that date.

Local authorities have also been encouraged to have automated links with the National Land Information Service (NLIS), which is an electronic search engine intended to be a one-stop shop for information about land and property in England and Wales. It was developed in the 1990s by a group of public sector bodies, but was transferred in 2000 to the Local Government Information House (LGIH), a private, wholly-owned subsidiary of the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA), to take forward. The IDeA has told us that by January 2004, two-thirds of authorities in England and Wales had enabled electronic responses to searches via NLIS. It is important to note, however, that authorities do not have to be linked to NLIS to offer searchers an electronic search option.

Local Government Finance

Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the total amount of section 106 payments for the last year in which figures were available was; what his estimate is of the percentage of section 106 payments likely to be transferred to the new tariff system when it is introduced; what his estimate is of the compliance cost of the new tariff system; and when he expects to publish all of the regulations relating to the tariff system. [166888]

Keith Hill: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister does not currently collect statistics centrally for total amounts secured through section 106 payments, and could therefore provide this information only at disproportionate cost. It is not possible to say what percentage of planning obligations will be covered by the proposed optional planning charge, as it will be for individual applicants to choose whether or not they want to pursue this option. While we accept that setting up a charge system could lead to an increased burden on local planning authorities in the short term, this should be more than, offset by the longer term pay-off in being able to process individual planning obligations much more quickly and efficiently.
 
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The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister aims to consult on its draft revised policy and draft regulations later this year.

Ministerial Travel

Bob Russell: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister when he last used a train in connection with his ministerial duties. [167422]

Yvette Cooper: My right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister travels by train regularly on official business. He last travelled by train on official business from London to York on Thursday 22 April 2004.

All travel by my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister is undertaken in accordance with the rules set out in the "Ministerial Code and Travel by Ministers", copies of which are available in the Libraries of the House.

New Deal for Communities

Mr. Edward Davey: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the value of the contract given to the National Evaluation Team for the New Deal for Communities was; and if he will make a statement on its work. [166908]

Yvette Cooper: The value of the contract between the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and a consortium led by Sheffield Hallam University for the interim phase of the national evaluation of the New Deal for Communities programme is £16.4 million. The contract covers work on the national evaluation to the end of September 2005.

The national NDC evaluation is supporting the work of the 39 individual NDC Partnerships, the nine respective Government Offices and the Neighbourhood Renewal Unit by providing evidence about how well the NDCs are delivering against their outcome targets.

For each of the 39 NDCs, the evaluation is providing an initial baseline household survey, a follow-up survey two years later and annual detailed reports on a wide range of process issues, such as community engagement and mainstreaming. In addition, the evaluation is providing NDC-area specific analysis of administrative data from DWP, DH, DfES and the Home Office, among others The annual NDC reports inform the Government Office reviews of the Partnerships and are collated into an annual NDC programme-wide report. The 2002–03 NDC evaluation report was published in October last year.

The report of the interim evaluation, due in mid-2005, will provide detailed evidence of how much progress each of the 39 NDCs has made in closing the gap between conditions in the partnership neighbourhood and the wider district and identify the critical success factors and barriers to performance.

Non-domestic Hereditaments

Brian Cotter: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many non-domestic hereditaments with a rateable value of (a) less than £8,000, (b) between £8,001 and £25,000 and (c) over £25,001 there were in each billing authority in the last year for which figures are available. [167502]

 
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Mr. Raynsford: The information requested has been made available in the Library of the House.

Planning

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the average amount of time taken by his Department to give permission for planning to go ahead was in (a) 2003 and (b) 1997. [168276]

Keith Hill: The average time taken to grant planning permission was 24 weeks in 2003 and 25 weeks in 1997.

Public Lavatories

Mr. Gummer: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister whether the valuation of public lavatories is affected by (a) usage and (b) takings. [165936]

Mr. Raynsford: The valuation for rating of public conveniences is normally reached taking account of the cost of construction and making allowance for obsolescence, expense of upkeep and location.

(a) The number of persons using a public lavatory will depend on its location. A town centre convenience is likely to have greater usage than one in a remote location. In some coastal resorts, public lavatories may be used relatively intensively during the summer but closed altogether in the winter. The valuation of a public convenience is unaffected by usage. It is valued by reference to the cost which the occupier would otherwise incur if it had to construct an alternative facility. The cost of providing a facility which is intensively used is no greater than that of providing a facility which is less used, or used only seasonally. Exceptionally, instances have arisen where conveniences have been permanently closed at or before the relevant valuation date, and are thus not used at all; in such cases the Valuation Office Agency's Rating Manual recommends that no value is assessed.

The VOA recognises that in some instances local authorities may be operating public conveniences where, in present circumstances, the cost of provision would not be justified. In such cases, current capital cost may be a doubtful indication of value. The VOA has addressed this by applying an age-related scale of obsolescence allowance, which is more generous than applied to other classes of property valued by reference to cost.

(b) Since public conveniences are not operated for commercial profit, takings are irrelevant to valuation, and rateable value is unaffected by the absence, or presence/amount of revenue.

Regional Assemblies

Mr. Curry: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will list the (a) dates and (b) venues of all meetings open to members of the public or by special invitation held in the (i) North East, (ii) North West and (iii) Yorkshire and the Humber organised by the relevant Government regional offices to discuss the Government's proposals to establish regional assemblies at which a Government Minister spoke; what the cost was of holding each meeting; how many (A) members of the public and
 
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(B)   invitees attended; what the schedule is for future meetings; and what the budget is for each meeting in each of the relevant regions. [165977]

 
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Mr. Raynsford: The dates, venues, audience size and cost of the Hearings in the regions attended by Ministers so far are tabled:

Date	Venue	Region	Public	Invitees	Cost (£)
4 March 2004	Ewood Park, Blackburn	North West	210	40	5,400
4 March 2004	Berwick Community High School, Berwick	North East	55	65	6,600
18 March 2004	Pennine Theatre, Sheffield Hallam University	Yorkshire and the Humber	68	67	10,300
25 March 2004	University of Newcastle	North East	132	88	9,700
1 April 2004	Windsor Suite, Quality Royal Hotel, Hull	Yorkshire and the Humber	180	170	6,900
5 April 2004	Liverpool Marriott City Centre Hotel	North West	126	42	12,400
15 April 2004	Stonecross Manor Hotel, Kendal	North West	179	31	5,100

Ministers have attended public meetings in Middlesbrough and Halifax on 22 April at estimated costs of £11,400 and £7,700 respectively.

Future meetings are being scheduled, but details of these meetings have yet to be finalised.

In addition, the dates, venues, audience size and cost of previous meetings with an invited audience attended by Ministers, as indicated in the written statement on 3 November 2003 are tabled as follows:

Date	Venue	Region	Public	Invitees	Cost (£)
3 November 2003	Durham Castle	North East	—	100
3 November 2003	St. William's College, York	Yorkshire and the Humber	—	57	Total of 25,000
4 November 2003	The Village Hotel, Warrington	North West	—	80
1 December 2003	The Door, Hanover St, Liverpool	North West	—	15	—
4 December 2003	Town Hall, Barnsley	Yorkshire and the Humber	—	31	—
22 January 2004	Midland Hotel, Manchester	North West	—	400	3,200
23 January 2004	West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds	Yorkshire and the Humber	—	240	6,000
23 January 2004	Vermont Hotel, Newcastle	North East	—	120	6,200
29 January 2004	Speke, Parklands Youth Centre,	North West	—	25–30	44
	King George V College, Sefton	North West	—	20
25 February 2004	North Manchester Chambers of Commerce, Bolton	North West	—	30	—

Mr. Jenkin: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the total spending relating to the proposed elected regional assemblies by regional chambers has been in the (a) North West, (b) North East and (c) Yorkshire and the Humber; and, for each of these regions, what the total anticipated spending is for the period up to the regional referendums. [166561]

Mr. Raynsford: The Regional Chambers have not spent, and will not spend, any Government grant money campaigning for, publicising or promoting the case for an elected regional assembly. They are prohibited from doing so under the terms of their funding agreements, by which they receive Government grant.

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