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DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

Airfields

Mark Hunter: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will make a statement on the status of airfields as previously developed land under the revised Planning Policy Statement 3. [59107]

Yvette Cooper: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for Southport on 20 March 2006, Official Report, column 67W.

Departmental Staff (Disciplinary Actions)

Bob Spink: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many disciplinary actions against civil servants employed in his Department (a) were commenced and (b) resulted in a sanction being applied in each of the last five years. [43497]

Jim Fitzpatrick: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister was established following the Machinery of Government changes in May 2002.

The ODPM's staff handbook sets out formal procedures for dealing with disciplinary actions involving staff. Disciplinary action can result from 'misconduct' which is broken down into three categories:

Minor misconduct—behaviour that is unacceptable and of sufficient concern that it cannot be dealt with informally, but not serious enough to fall into either of the two other categories;

Serious misconduct—behaviour which by its very nature damages the relationship between the individual and their employer; and

Gross misconduct—behaviour which by its very nature so damages the relationship it would normally be incompatible with continued employment.

Information on the number of disciplinary cases is not collected centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Fire and Rescue Service

Sarah Teather: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what was the average cost of a false alarm attended by the fire and rescue service (FRS) in each FRS area in the last year for which figures are available. [55765]

Jim Fitzpatrick: The latest estimate of the average cost of a false alarm attended by the fire and rescue service is £1,970. The cost of false fire alarms is estimated by calculating the proportion of fire service call-outs that are not related to an incident, and assuming that the proportion of total expenditure by the fire and rescue service on call-outs is attributable to false alarms. This is likely to be an overestimate, as less time and resource is generally used during false alarms than in tackling genuine incidents. Calculations produce a national average figure, but the methodology does not allow us to produce estimates for individual FRS areas.

Licensing

Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many (a) restaurants, (b) hotels and (c) guest houses will no longer receive rural rate relief as a result of the Licensing Act 2003 (Consequential Amendment) (Non-Domestic Rating) (Public Houses in England)
 
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Order 2006 (S.I. 2006/591); what the average value of the rate relief was in each category in the latest period for which figures are available; what assessment of the impact of the change on each category of business has been made; and if he will make a statement. [59841]

Mr. Woolas: Local authorities are not required to provide data on the number or breakdown of recipients of rural village shop rate relief, of which relief for public houses is one category. Mandatory and discretional rural village shop rate relief as a whole is estimated to amount to £8.2 million in 2005–05 across all billing authority areas. The Licensing Act 2003 (Consequential Amendment) (Non-Domestic Rating) (Public Houses in England) Order 2006 replaces the definition of public house" in the Non-Domestic Rating (Public Houses and Petrol Filling Stations)(England) Order 2001. The Licensing Act 2003 replaced the type of licence on which the 2001 definition was based with new arrangements that do not exactly correspond to the previous arrangements, but did not make the necessary consequential amendment.

Local Government Finance

Mr. Denham: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will adjust local authority funding to take account of increases in population arising from migrants from EU accession states. [59405]

Mr. Woolas: The Local Government Finance Settlements for 2006–07 and 2007–08 were laid before the House of Commons on the 31 January 2006 and the settlement for 2006–07 was agreed on the 6 February 2006.

For formula grant allocations, the ODPM can only use the best data available on a consistent basis for all authorities that are available at the time. For population, these are the 2003-based population projections and mid-2004 population estimates published by the Office for National Statistics.

Local Government Staff

Mr. Syms: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister (1) what proportion of local government staff are (a) male and (b) female; [60019]

(2) what percentage of staff in each local government pay band are (a) male and (b) female. [60018]

Mr. Woolas: The Employers' Organisation's 2005 survey states that local government staff comprises 74 per cent. female and 26 per cent. male staff.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister does not hold the information requested. This is because the national pay framework includes a series of pay points linked together in a spinal column". Each local authority has local responsibility for dividing this spinal

column into suitable pay grades.

Office Equipment

Mr. Weir: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many (a) personal computers, (b) laptops, (c) servers, (d) printers, (e) scanners, (f) photocopiers and (g) fax machines (i) his Department, (ii) each (A) non-departmental public body, (B) executive agency and (C)
 
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other public body for which his Department is responsible in (1) Scotland, (2) Wales, (3) each English region and (4) Northern Ireland owned in (x) 2003–04 and (y) 2004–05. [40104]

Jim Fitzpatrick: The information requested is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Ordnance Survey

Mr. Pickles: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister whether Ordnance Survey has held a contract with Getmapping in the last five years. [59131]

Jim Fitzpatrick: Ordnance Survey has held contracts with Getmapping in the last five years.

Planning Policy Guidelines

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister (1) or what reasons he has changed planning policy guidelines from PPG to PPS3; what representations he has received on these changes; and what reasons underlay the setting out of the proposed changes in an annex to the consultation document; [56817]

(2) what assessment he has made of the implications for general aviation of the change in planning policy for airfields in PPS3; [56816]

(3) what provisions will be made in PPGS3 to ensure that airfields will (a) continue to be used for aviation purposes and (b) are not classified as brownfield land for housing development. [56818]

Yvette Cooper: The intention to move from existing Planning Policy Guidance Note 3: Housing" (PPG3) to a shorter, clearer planning policy statement for housing was signalled in the planning statement given to the House on 18 July 2005, Official Report, column 44–46WS.

The Government's planning reform agenda includes work over time to review planning guidance, and to replace it with more outcome-based statement of national planning policy. Draft Planning Policy Statement 3: Housing" (PPS3) aims to ensure that the planning system is used to its maximum effect to ensure that everyone has the benefit of a decent home, which they can afford, within a community which is sustainable and in which they want to live and work. Draft PPS3 was duly published for consultation on 5 December 2005 alongside the Government's response to Kate Barker's review of housing supply.

The consultation period for responses to draft PPS3 closed on 27 February. Some 2,000 responses have been received to date. Responses to the consultation will be taken into account in finalising PPS3 and a summary of consultation responses will be published on the Office of the Deputy Prime Ministers website alongside final PPS3.

Annex A of draft PPS3 proposes some clarificatory changes to the definition of previously-developed land currently set out in Annex C of PPG3 and the footnotes to that Annex. I refer the hon. Member to the answers given to the hon. Member for Southport on 20 March 2006, Official Report, column 67W and the hon.
 
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Member for Brentwood and Ongar on 21 March 2006, Official Report, (question 56090) concerning the effect of these proposed changes.

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