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Commencement of Legislation

Brian White: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what pieces of legislation passed in the last 30 years that the Department is responsible for remain to be brought into force, broken down by year of enactment. [195614]

Phil Hope: The information requested is not held centrally, and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Decent Homes Standard

Tim Loughton: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how much has been spent on promoting the Decent Homes Standard. [198340]

Keith Hill: This financial year the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has spent just under £8,000 promoting the Decent Homes Programme. This money was spent on the Decent Homes Event held on 5 May 2004. This event was to announce policy changes to the financing of the programme, the success of local authority bids for additional funding and the achievement of a 1 million reduction in the number of non-decent homes.

It is up to individual local authorities to decide how they wish to promote the standard, as they will need to take into account the situation in their authority, i.e. size of area, distribution of stock. This will determine any amount they spend.

Departmental Archaeologists

Tim Loughton: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many professional archaeologists are employed in his Department. [198848]

Phil Hope: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister does not employ archaeologists.

Departmental Events (Funding)

Charles Hendry: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will list the (a) conferences, (b) publications, (c) initiatives, (d) projects and (e) receptions organised by his Department which have received funding from outside commercial bodies since May 1997, broken down by (i) funding body and (ii) amount paid. [196606]

Phil Hope: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister was created on 29 May 2002.

Details of individual amounts of sponsorship valued at more than £5,000 are published in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's Annual Report for 2003 published on 13 May 2003 and the Annual Report for 2004 published on 30 April 2004.

Copies are available in the Library of the House.

Freedom of Information Act

Dr. Julian Lewis: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what assessment he has made of the likely costs to his Department in the first quarter of 2005 of compliance with the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000; and if he will make a statement. [198765]

Phil Hope: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister already deals with requests for information under the Open Government Code of Practice on Access to
 
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Government Information and the Environmental Information Regulations. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has made an assessment, through internal research, and estimates that the introduction of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act will generate additional requests for information above and beyond the volumes that the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is currently handling, but this research suggests that it is not possible to quantify the additional volumes reliably.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has implemented a variety of measures aimed at keeping down the costs of responding to FOI requests which include general awareness raising for staff, more detailed training for inquiry handlers in the handling of FOI requests and the introduction of efficient standardised request handling procedures and systems. In so doing, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has made full use of central guidance from the Department for Constitutional Affairs. The efficiency and effectiveness of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's procedures and systems is currently being tested in the run up to full implementation of FOI access rights on 1 January 2005.

Gambling

Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will list the occasions on which (a) he and (b) other Ministers in his Department have met representatives of (i) US casino operators, (ii) British casino operators and (iii) casino operators from other countries to discuss gambling issues, broken down by date of meeting. [195069]

Phil Hope: Since the publication of the report of the Gambling Review Body (Cm 5206) in July 2001, the Department has undertaken a very extensive programme of consultations with interested bodies about options and proposals for changes to gambling law in Great Britain. There have been two formal public consultations, the first on the Review Body's report and the second on the draft clauses published for pre-legislative scrutiny in November 2003. In addition to these consultations the relevant Government Departments have corresponded with and met-individual companies, trade associations, charities and other bodies concerned with problem gambling or who benefit from lotteries, local authorities, trade unions, law enforcement agencies, academics and many other bodies and individuals, including member of the public, with an interest. These contacts, designed to ensure that the Government's policy proposals are sound and take full account of all relevant benefits, costs and risks, have involved both Ministers and officials. All such contacts are conducted in accordance with the Ministerial Code and the Civil Service Code.

Government Offices for the Regions

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will list the responsibilities of the Government Offices for the Regions; and if he will break down the components of their estimated programme expenditure in the current financial year by main budget heading. [190612]

 
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Phil Hope: The responsibilities of the Government Offices for the Regions are set out in the Regional Co-ordination Unit and Government Office Network Corporate Plan 2004–05. A copy of which will be made available in the Library of the House.

Details of the programme expenditure of the Government Office for the Region (GO) are given in their published annual reports. A copy of each GO's most recent report will be made available in the Library of the House. Two GOs are still to publish their reports for the year 2003–04 and those will also be made available in the Library of the House in due course.

Mr. Pickles: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will break down the programme expenditure of each Government Office for the Regions in (a) 1997 and (b) the current year by main budget heading. [194331]

Phil Hope: Details of the programme expenditure of the Government Office for the Region (GO) are given in their published annual reports. A copy of each GO's most recent report will be made available in the Library of the House. Two GOs are still to publish their reports for the year 2003/04 and those will also be made available in the Library of the House in due course.

Home Ownership

Mr. Cash: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister (1) how many homes have been transferred in large scale voluntary transfers by local authorities since 1 May 1997; [198465]

(2) how many local authorities have completed a large scale voluntary transfer since 1 May 1997. [198469]

Keith Hill: Since 1 May 1997, 100 local authorities have completed large scale voluntary transfers (LSVTs) and as a result 604,158 dwellings have been transferred.

Mr. Cash: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many homes are in the ownership of local authorities. [198466]

Keith Hill: The latest data returns to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister from local authorities in England record a stock of 2,309,948 at April 1 2004. Since then there has been some loss of stock resulting from transfers to Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) and from the exercise of Right To Buy.

Housing (Leicester)

Mr. Gill: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many people are on the housing list waiting to be rehoused in Leicester. [198639]

Keith Hill: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is advised by Leicester city council that there are currently 13,000 people on their housing waiting list.

Housing Directorate

Mr. Hayes: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the total number of employees was within the Housing Directorate and its predecessor for each year since 1997. [197926]

Phil Hope: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister was established in May 2002.
 
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The Housing Directorate currently employs 125 staff but this is only part of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's work on housing, which is integrated into the work of a number of directorates across the Office. Owing to changes in the structure of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister since May 2002 it is not possible to give meaningful equivalent figures for previous years.

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