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29 Nov 2004 : Column 20W—continued
Gideon Hoffman
Mr. Whittingdale: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport whether Gideon Hoffman is an employee of her Department; and if she will make a statement. [199726]
Mr. Caborn: Gideon Hoffman is a permanent employee of Her Majesty's Treasury on loan to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Licensed Premises
Mr. Beggs: What assessment she has made of whether additional policing costs arise from the extension and late opening of premises for the sale of alcohol. [199879]
Mr. Caborn: The reforms associated with the Licensing Act 2003 apply only to England and Wales. The regulatory impact assessment presented to Parliament when the Licensing Bill entered the House of Commons in March 2003 indicated that there should no additional costs to the police in terms of enforcing licensing law generated by the reforms. The reforms should however generate administrative savings for the police. The police are currently involved administratively in an average of 1.6 million licensing processes annually in England and Wales across the six existing licensing regimes that are merged into a single regime by the 2003 Act. The number of administrative processes in which the police are involved is expected to reduce to fewer than 200,000 annually once the Act becomes fully operational. The saving to the police in respect of administrative activity is estimated to be £45 million over a period of three years, which can be redeployed to frontline police work.
Parliamentary Questions
Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many written questions tabled in the last parliamentary session her Department had been unable to provide a substantive answer before the end of the session. [199651]
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Mr. Caborn: Seven written questions did not receive a substantive answer at the end of the 2003–04 parliamentary session. Four of these questions were amongst 36 written questions tabled to DCMS in the week prior to prorogation.
At all times DCMS Ministers make every effort to answer written questions substantively before prorogation. However, this is not always possible. Where right honourable and hon. Members did not receive a substantive response it is open to them to re-table their question this session.
Satellite TV
Mrs. Ellman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what controls are in place to ensure foreign satellite TV channels available in the UK are not broadcasting material which breaches UK laws on incitement to (a) racial hatred and (b) violence. [199744]
Estelle Morris: The regulation of such stations is principally a matter for their country of origin. Under the Television without Frontiers Directive, member states of the European Union are required to ensure that broadcasts do not contain any incitement to hatred on grounds of race, sex, religion or nationality. The Directive also provides that broadcasts from another member state which manifestly, seriously and gravely infringe that requirement can be restricted.
The Broadcasting Act 1990 provides a power for the Secretary of State to proscribe a foreign satellite TV service if it has been notified to her by Ofcom. Ofcom may notify a service on the grounds that it repeatedly broadcasts material which offends against good taste and decency, or which is likely to encourage or incite to crime or to lead to disorder or to be offensive to public feeling. This can include services which incite racial hatred or violence.
Proscription means that it is an offence for anyone in the United Kingdom to perform certain acts connected with the service, including advertising it, advertising on it, supplying decoding equipment designed or adapted to be used primarily for receiving it, and supplying equipment or other goods in connection with its operation. The Secretary of State may proscribe a foreign satellite TV service only if that is compatible with the international obligations of the UK.
School Sports
Sandra Gidley: what assessment she has made of girls' attitude to sport in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools. [199962]
Mr. Caborn:
There has been a number of previous reports over the years on the attitudes of young women towards sport. Sport England commissioned the University of Oxford to examine, systematically, UK published and unpublished qualitative research studies on children and adults' reasons for participation and non-participation in sport. They also reviewed attitudinal questions in recent UK published quantitative surveys on sport and physical activity. The report of this review "Understanding participation in sport and physical activity amongst children and adults" will be published in January 2005.
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Some evidence from the draft report shows that school age girls do want to do sport and be physically active. There is also the need to offer them a choice of activities and on dress, as well as the ability to work in single sex groups.
Sport Spending
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what estimate she has made of the proportion of sports spending which benefits girls. [199961]
Mr. Caborn: At present, we do not have specific figures on the proportion of sports spending which benefits girls. However, over the past 10 years, about £2 billion of Lottery funding has been invested in sport and physical activity, and it is an imperative that each initiative, programme or scheme must demonstrate how women and girls will be specifically addressed.
Sport England is responsible for delivering the Government's sporting objectives in England. It is committed to creating opportunities for people to start in sport, stay in sport and succeed in sport.
Specific posts aimed at girl and women sports development across England have been funded through Sport England's Active Communities Development Fund.
Awards for All, another of Sport England's funding programmes, has targeted specific girl and women only groups in order to increase their grassroots participation in sport.
The Sport Action Zones have specifically targeted women and girl issues in sport. In addition, Sport England established "Girl Sport"—a programme that addresses dropout rates in sport by girls.
The Women's Sports Foundation's main source of funding is from Sport England, receiving £200,000 a year. The WSF is the UK's leading organisation dedicated to improving and promoting opportunities for women and girls in sport and physical activity.
The Government is investing £459 million into the national strategy for PE and School Sport which aims to increase the percentage of school children in England who spend a minimum of two hours each week on high quality PE and school sport within and beyond the curriculum to 75 per cent. by 2006 and to 85 per cent. by 2008. This will have an impact on all children.
NORTHERN IRELAND
Fisheries Conservancy Board
Mr. Beggs: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland on how many occasions the (a) Chief and (b) Deputy Chief Executive of the Fisheries Conservancy Board carried out unassisted patrols in a FCB vessel in each of the last three years. [199859]
Angela Smith:
The Chief Executive and Deputy Chief Executive carried out no unassisted patrols in either 2002 or 2003. A total of nine unassisted patrols were carried out in 2004.
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Mr. Beggs: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many prosecutions have been recommended by bailiffs of the Fisheries Conservancy Board in each of the last three years; and how many prosecutions have resulted. [199860]
Angela Smith: The number of prosecutions recommended by Fisheries Conservation Officers of the Fisheries Conservancy Board, the number of prosecutions taken forward by the board, and the number of successful prosecutions in each of the last three years are as follows:
Mr. Beggs: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland on how many occasions a Fisheries Conservancy Board vessel has been in the sole control of the (a) chief and (b) deputy chief executive without the designated skipper in each of the last three years; and if he will publish the log report of each such patrol. [199888]
Angela Smith: The chief executive and deputy chief executive have been in the sole control of a Fisheries Conservancy Board vessel on 10 occasions without the designated skipper. Both officers are qualified to skipper the board's north coast fisheries protection vessel.
The Fisheries Conservancy Board does not publish log reports that support its fisheries enforcement activities.
Mr. Beggs: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland on how many occasions the (a) chief and (b) deputy chief executive of the Fisheries Conservancy Board, accompanied by other FCB officials, carried out patrols on an FCB vessel in each of the last three years; and which areas were patrolled. [199889]
Angela Smith: The chief executive and deputy chief executive did not carry out any patrols accompanied by other FCB officials in 2002 or 2003. These officers undertook five patrols of the north Antrim coast with other FCB officials in 2004. The deputy chief executive also undertook a further patrol of the north Antrim coast, and one patrol of Lough Neagh, accompanied by FCB officials other than the chief executive in 2004.
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