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7 Jun 2004 : Column 270W—continued
Official Vehicles
John Barrett: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what percentage of official vehicles used by his Office are run on (a) petrol, (b) diesel, (c) liquid petroleum gas and (d) compressed natural gas. [172778]
Yvette Cooper: The Government as a whole have signed up to various targets for improving the performance of their own vehicle fleet, details of which, together with reports on each Department's progress towards these targets, are available at: www.sustainable-development.gov.uk
Ministerial group vehicles in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister are provided by the Government Car Service. Detailed information on the breakdown of the GCS vehicle fleet is being provided separately.
The following table provides a breakdown of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's vehicle fleet (apart from those referred to in the previous paragraph) as of May 2004 by vehicle category and fuel type. Although the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has overall responsibility for the buildings occupied by Government offices, they carry out functions on behalf of 10 Departments.
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In addition, there is the fleet of Green Goddesses and fire training vehicles used by the Fire Service College, all of which run on diesel.
Ordnance Survey
Mr. Edward Davey: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the current valuation is of the Ordnance Survey. [177475]
Yvette Cooper: The Balance Sheet of Ordnance Survey is shown in the Annual Report and Accounts. The most recent Accounts including the opinion of the Comptroller and Auditor General of the National Audit Office were published on 10July 2003 and show a value of £57,919,000.
PFI Contracts
Sir Paul Beresford: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister whether he is planning amendments to the structure under which private finance initiative contracts are awarded; and if he will make a statement. [177017]
Yvette Cooper: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has no current plans to amend the structure under which private finance initiative contracts are awarded. We continue to follow Her Majesty's Treasury guidance on Private Finance Initiative.
Postal Voting
Mr. Nigel Jones: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will make a statement on his policy requiring electoral registration officers to issue lists of postal voters who have voted prior to polling day in general, European, local council and regional elections and referendums; and if he will estimate the timescale for introducing such a requirement. [159041]
Phil Hope:
Ordinarily, our electoral arrangements do not provide for the release by returning officers, before the close of poll, of "polling progress information" showing lists of electors who have voted. However, political parties have tended to make arrangements to identify electors who have cast their votes at polling stations on Polling Day. Such arrangements are not possible at an all-postal election.
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Against this background, some local authorities were permitted in 2002 and 2003 to provide polling progress information before the close of poll at local election pilots. The European Parliamentary and Local Elections (Pilots) Act 2004 requires that such information must be provided by returning officers in this year's four pilot regions to persons or organisations specified in the pilot order made under its provisions.
Before taking decisions about introducing such a requirement in elections or referendums more generally, we will want to have careful regard to the outcome of the pilots undertaken in this year's combined European Parliamentary and local elections and to the Electoral Commission's evaluation of those pilots.
Regional Funding (Worcestershire)
Mr. Luff: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what assessment he has made of the further report by Professors Blanchflower and Oswald on Calculating an Appropriate Regional Funding Adjustment for Worcestershire, a copy of which has been sent by the county council; and what assessment he has made of the relative pay levels of Worcestershire compared to neighbouring areas. [177065]
Mr. Raynsford: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister have considered the further report by Professors Oswald and Blanchflower and concluded that it does not provide a case for awarding Worcestershire an area cost adjustment (ACA) top-up within the local government funding system.
The relative pay levels of Worcestershire, if they were to be considered separately, would similarly not justify an ACA factor higher than one, which is the present ACA factor for Hereford and Worcestershire.
As announced in the 2001 white paper 'strong local leadership—quality public services' (CM5237) the funding formulae will be frozen for at least 2004–05 and 2005–06. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister does not intend to change the way that the ACA is calculated during this period.
Standards Board
Mr. Luff: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what discussions he has had with the Standards Board for England about the appropriateness of its making public the result of its investigation of councillors during an election for which councillors are standing for re-election. [177444]
Mr. Raynsford: While neither my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister nor I have had any such discussions with the Standards Board, my officials have sent to the Board's Chief Executive guidance, issued by the Secretary of the Cabinet, on the conduct of business in the period before elections. That guidance indicates that for non-departmental public bodies decisions on individual matters are for the bodies concerned.
Starter Homes Initiative
Mr. Edward Davey:
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister (1) how many key workers, broken down by worker category, were assisted by the Starter Homes Initiative; [175947]
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(2) how much was spent on (a) administration and (b) staff costs under the Starter Homes Initiative. [175948]
Keith Hill: At the end of April 2004, 9,021 key workers had completed their house purchases under the £250 million Starter Home Initiative (SHI): 4,028 health workers, 3,255 teachers, 1,351 police and 387 other key workers such as social workers. 295 of these were key workers who jointly purchased a home with another key worker. There are also some further key workers who exchanged contracts before the end of March 2004 who have still to complete their SHI house purchases.
As at the end of April 2004, £12.4 million had been spent on scheme managers' administration costs including marketing of the scheme, an average of £1,374 per key worker helped.
In addition, extra funding was identified in March 2004 to help a further 1,200 key workers applying under the SHI. A breakdown of this figure by sector is not held centrally.
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Staff costs in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister associated with the Starter Home Initiative are in the region of £220,000 over the entire three-year life of the scheme.
Temporary Staff
Matthew Taylor: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many staff the Department employs on a temporary basis through employment agencies; what percentage this is of total staff employed; and how much the Department paid employment agencies to supply temporary staff in (a) 2001–02, (b) 2002–03 and (c) 2003–04 to the most recent date for which figures are available. [158241]
Yvette Cooper: The Office was formed on 29 May 2002. At any one time the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister employs approximately 120 individuals through employment agencies, which represents around 5 per cent. of the total staff employed. Since June 2002 the Office has spent £4.2 million with employment agencies.