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2 Mar 2006 : Column 932W—continued
Magistrates Courts
Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how much has been spent on the establishment, development and delivery of the (a) North Liverpool Community Justice Centre and (b) Salford magistrates court. [54771]
Bridget Prentice: The information is as follows.
(a) The cost of the establishment and development of the North Liverpool Community Justice Centre was £5.4 million. Running costs to deliver the centre are estimated to be £2.5 million per year.
(b) The Community Justice Initiative within Salford magistrates court has been allocated £100,000 for its establishment and development. Ongoing delivery costs will be met within existing budgets for the court and its supporting agencies.
Parliamentary Questions
Mr. Amess: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs pursuant to the answer of 1 February 2006, Official Report, column 491W, on trials (location), what estimate she has made of the cost of answering the question; and if she will make a statement. [53042]
Bridget Prentice: In order to obtain the information requested, it would be necessary for a member of staff at each of 92 Crown court and 377 magistrates court locations to physically research case files. This would significantly exceed the ceiling of £600 in place for providing responses to Members questions.
Representation Orders
John Mann:
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many representation
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orders have been granted in each court within the east midlands Government office region; and to which firms of solicitors. [55451]
Bridget Prentice: During financial year 2004–05: £47,445 representation orders were granted in magistrates courts within the east midlands Government office region. In some circumstances these orders will also cover proceedings in the Crown court.
Information on representation orders actually granted in the Crown court is not held centrally. We will write to my hon. Friend with additional information at the earliest opportunity. A copy of the letter will be placed in the Library.
An application for a representation order is made by, or on behalf of, the defendant in a case. It is on this basis that representation is granted. Information on which firms of solicitors were selected to represent the defendant is not held centrally and could be produced only at disproportionate cost.
Solicitors (Sanctions)
John Mann: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs if she will seek to legislate to penalise solicitors who refuse to abide by Law Society adjudication decisions. [55101]
Bridget Prentice: The power to penalise a solicitor who refuses to abide by a Law Society adjudication decision is provided for under existing legislation. If a solicitor fails to comply with an Adjudication Panel decision the Law Society has the power to institute disciplinary proceedings before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) on that basis. Under the Solicitors Act 1974 the Tribunal has the power to:
ban a solicitor's employee from working in a law practice without the consent of the Law Society (under s43 Solicitors Act 1974); and
if the Law Society has awarded compensation, the SDT can make that award enforceable as a High Court order.
The question of enforcement of awards will be taken into account when consideration is given to the proposed complaints handling procedures set out in the Government's White Paper, The Future of Legal Services: Putting Consumers First": published October 2005.
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER
Casinos
Mr. Moss: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what plans he has to change the planning class order on casinos from D2 to sui generis; and over what time scale. [53892]
Jim Fitzpatrick:
The Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987" was amended by the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) (Amendment) (England) Order 2006" (S.I. 2006/220). The amending
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Order removes use as a casino from Class D2 of the 1987 Order, which relates to assembly and leisure. It also makes use as a casino sui generis. The amending order was made on 23 January 2006 and will come into force on 6 April 2006.
Domestic Violence
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what proportion of people gaining access to a service through Supporting People were at risk of domestic violence in each year since 2003. [54165]
Mr. Woolas: Information is collected by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister from service providers on the number of new clients accessing services through the Supporting People programme. The following table shows the total number of clients accessing services during 2003–04, 2004–05 and during the first six months of 2005–06, as identified through completed client record forms, together with the number and percentage of clients that were identified as women at risk of domestic violence.
(23) April to September.
No information is currently collected on men at risk of domestic violence.
Earnings Surveys
Mr. Tyrie: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of (a) the New Earnings Survey and (b) the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings in sampling low-paid workers who do not file tax returns; and what effect such data have on area cost adjustments. [54730]
Mr. Woolas: I am content that the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) sufficiently captures information on the low paid for the following reasons. Firstly, the ASHE contains information on all the employees surveyed who work in PAYE registered companies, including those who earn less than the PAYE threshold.
Secondly, in 2004 and 2005 the Office for National Statistics (ONS) conducted additional surveys of wage information from people working in companies which are not registered for PAYE to supplement the ASHE.
Analysis of the information from these supplementary surveys has shown that people working in small firms, which are not registered for PAYE have the same wage profile as those working in the same occupation in a PAYE registered firm.
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Finally, ONS calculate a weighting for every record in the ASHE. This means that the data we use to calculate the area cost adjustment has been weighted to match the national employment profile.
Mr. Tyrie: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of (a) the New Earnings Survey and (b) the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings in acquiring information on the qualifications of individuals. [54731]
Mr. Woolas: The New Earnings Survey and the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings contain no information on the qualifications of the individuals in the survey.
Mr. Tyrie: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what plans he has to replace the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings with the Labour Force Survey in calculating area cost adjustments. [54732]
Mr. Woolas: I have no plans to replace the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) with the Labour Force Survey (LFS).
I am content that the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings is the best data to use to calculate the Area Cost Adjustment (ACA). The ASHE is a comprehensive source of pay data. It provides a robust and objective basis to assess differences in pay between areas.
Most of the councils who commented on this issue in our summer consultation agreed that we should use the full ASHE to calculate the ACA.
Mr. Tyrie: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what assessment he has made of estimates of regional wage variations in West Sussex by (a) the New Earnings Survey and (b) the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings. [54733]
Mr. Woolas: The labour cost adjustment (LCA) is the element of the local government funding formula that takes account of differences in local wage costs. It is calculated using wage data from each area cost adjustment (ACA) area. The majority of West Sussex is contained in the 'West Sussex Non-Fringe' ACA area. Crawley is contained in the 'Surrey, Berkshire and West Sussex Fringe'.
The LCA was calculated using information from the New Earnings Survey (NES) panel dataset for the 2004–05 local government finance settlement. The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) replaced the NES in 2004, so the ASHE panel dataset was used to calculate the LCA in 2005–06. Following the formula review, we used the full ASHE dataset to calculate the LCA in 2006–07.
LCA factors for 2004–05, 2005–06 and 2006–07 are given in the following table.
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Mr. Tyrie: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what plans he has to undertake a review of the geographical rules used in area cost adjustments in the South of England. [54734]
Mr. Woolas: Having announced the 2006–07 settlement, I intend to take stock of my priorities for future formula changes. As part of this, I intend to look again at the geography of the area cost adjustment. However, I do not intend to make formula changes in 2007–08.
Mr. Tyrie: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what plans he has to abandon lower limits on labour cost adjustment figures. [54735]
Mr. Woolas: Having announced the 2006–07 and 2007–08 settlements, I intend to take stock of my priorities for future formula changes. However, it is unlikely that removing the lower limits on the area cost adjustment (ACA) will be a priority for review.
The ACA contains a lower limit because there is lower wage flexibility in the public sector. Occupations such as teachers, police and firefighters are on national pay
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scales, and they make up a higher proportion of local government employment than of the economy as a whole.
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