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14 Dec 2004 : Column 1045W—continued

US Navy

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what representations he has received regarding the downsizing of the US Navy operations in London and the consequences on employment in London. [202302]

Jane Kennedy: No representations have been received.
 
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Winter Fuel Payment

Mr. David Stewart: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many constituents of Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber have received the winter fuel payment. [204848]

Malcolm Wicks: For winter 2003–04 there were 17,945 constituents in Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber who received a winter fuel payment. We would expect the number to be similar for winter 2004–05.

Notes:

1. Numbers are rounded to the nearest 5. 2. Local authorities and parliamentary constituencies are assigned by matching postcodes against the relevant ONS postcode directory.

Source:

IAD Information Centre, 100 per cent. samples.

Mr. Pike: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people have received winter fuel payments in (a) Burnley and (b) Lancashire in 2004. [204504]

Malcolm Wicks: For winter 2003–04 there were 16,885 people in Burnley who received a winter fuel payment and 240,640 people in Lancashire. We expect the numbers for winter 2004–05 to be similar.

Notes:

1. Numbers are rounded to the nearest 5. 2. Local authorities and parliamentary constituencies are assigned by matching postcodes against the relevant ONS postcode directory.

Source:

IAD Information Centre, 100 per cent. samples.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

Aggregates

Mr. Boswell: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what account is taken of the description of a special landscape area in connection with the selection of land for gravel and aggregate production; and what recent advice his Department has circulated to local authorities on this. [204493]

Keith Hill: Draft Minerals Policy Statement 1 "Planning and Minerals" (MPS1), is the most recent advice the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has sent to local planning authorities about minerals extraction and special landscape areas. It states that one of the Government's key objectives for minerals planning is to protect nationally designated areas of landscape from minerals development (that is National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty), other than in exceptional circumstances. It also indicates that Mineral Planning Authorities should have regard generally to the need to protect the wider undeveloped countryside and seek to minimise the impact of minerals development on its quality and character. Mineral planning authorities will have to take into account MPS1, as they prepare their development plans and consider the selection of any sites for minerals development. In respect of landscape protection, proposed policies in MPS1 are not materially different from existing policy in Minerals Planning Guidance Notes 1 and 6.
 
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Childcare Allowances

Bob Russell: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what level of childcare allowance is available for elected members serving on (a) county, (b) unitary, (c) Metropolitan boroughs and (d) borough and district local authorities. [203767]

Mr. Raynsford: The level of allowance for childcare and other care of dependants is for each local authority to decide, having had regard to the recommendations of its independent remuneration panel. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister does not collate information on the levels of allowance that local authorities have made available.

Departmental Expenditure

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the cost has been of criminal damage to his Department's buildings in each of the last two years. [202458]

Phil Hope: The cost of criminal damage to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's office buildings in the last two years has been:

	£
2002–03	6,100
2003–04	6,500

These costs include the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's agencies and the Government Office Network. 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 ten Government Departments.

The Rent Service became an Executive Agency of the Department for Work and Pensions on 1 April 2004, but was part of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in the period in question.

Email

Mr. Maude: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what plans he has to introduce an automatic e-mail notification facility for all announcements and publications issued by his Department and those public bodies reporting to him. [203682]

Phil Hope: Most announcements and publications issued by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister are placed on the info41ocal website—www.info41ocal.gov.uk which provides an automatic e-mail notification facility.

There is also a separate facility on the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's website to subscribe to an e-mail alert for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's news releases—http://www.odpm.gov.uk/pns/newslist.cgi

Engagements

Norman Lamb: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements over the last six months; who was present at each meeting; what the
 
14 Dec 2004 : Column 1048W
 
(a) date and (b) location was of each meeting; what issues were discussed; and what plans he has to establish a public register of such information. [202405]

Phil Hope: Ministers meet many individuals and organisations and attend many functions relating to Government business, and as part of the process of policy development. To provide the detailed information requested would incur disproportionate cost. The daily on the record briefing by the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman regularly provides details of Minister's public engagements.

Housing and Employment Services Mobility Project

Mr. Boswell: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will make a statement on progress in developing the Housing and Employment Services Mobility project. [204653]

Keith Hill: Good progress is being made on the development of the Housing Employment Mobility Service (HEMS). Scout Solutions Projects Ltd. (SSPL) was awarded the contract in February. The existing HOMES and LAWN mobility services have been provided by SSPL since 2 May. New services will be launched in early 2005.

Human Rights Act

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many cases have been brought against his Department under the Human Rights Act 1998; and what the cost has been in (a) legal fees to defend cases and (b) compensation payments. [202466]

Phil Hope: The Human Rights Act has not given rise to a great deal of specific litigation; HR points are most often taken in support of other causes of action. This makes them very difficult to count separately. In addition, the subjects of the convention rights themselves are, to a very great extent, already actionable in existing domestic law.

For these reasons it would not be possible to apportion costs and compensation payments as requested without reviewing all the cases handled by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister since its formation in 2002, which would give rise to disproportionate cost.

Local Government Finance

Ms Buck: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will rank each local authority in England by the percentage of total expenditure financed by council tax in 2003–04. [204063]

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

The data are taken from the Revenue Account budget form for 2003–04.

Total expenditure is taken to be revenue expenditure financed from revenue support grant, special and specific grants within Aggregate External Finance, non-domestic rates, police grant and general Greater London authority grant.
 
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