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11 May 2006 : Column 418W—continued
Mr. Graham Stuart: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many single farm payments awards in (a) Beverley and Holderness and (b) England have been terminated following the return of (i) an incomplete and (ii) a late application; and if he will make a statement. [66527]
Barry Gardiner: 1,171 applications to the Single Payment Scheme 2005 were rejected due to (a) an incomplete application or (b) being received after the final deadline of 10 June 2005.
The Single Payment Scheme is not administered on a regional basis; therefore the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) does not hold information specific to the Beverley and Holdnerness constituency.
James Duddridge: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many small businesses his Department estimates will be declared bankrupt as a result of the late payment of claims under the 2005 Single Payment Scheme. [66710]
Barry Gardiner: My noble Friend Lord Bach, met the British Bankers' Association and other representatives of the major lending banks on 30 March 2006 to discuss the situation of farmers awaiting payment under the Single Payment Scheme. The banks re-emphasised on that occasion that
"no viable business is being refused additional financial support and, as a result, no viable businesses are failing because of uncertainty about the payments timetable".
James Duddridge: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment his Department has made of the impact that delays within the 2005 Single Payment Scheme will have on the ability of the Rural Payments Agency to deliver the 2006 Single Payment Scheme. [66744]
Barry Gardiner [holding answer 27 April 2006]: The full impact of the timing of 2005 Single Payment Scheme on the timetable for the 2006 scheme will not become clear until the vast majority of payments have been made and any corrective action identified. However, preparation for the 2006 scheme is well under way, with the vast majority of 2005 scheme claimants having received a claim form for this year's scheme. Business processes and IT systems required to process 2006 scheme claims are being developed and deployed on an iterative basis, and data capture of 2006 scheme claims will commence shortly.
Mr. Wallace: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many farmers in (a) Lancaster and Wyre constituency and (b) Lancashire have received a single farm payment. [68096]
Barry Gardiner [holding answer 3 May 2006]: 120,367 applications were received for the single payment scheme. By the end of Wednesday 26 April 52,922 claims (44.10 per cent.) had been paid.
The Rural Payments Agency does not have data available on a regional basis, as the scheme is not administered in this way.
Telephone Advice Lines
Mr. Love: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many telephone advice lines his Department and its non-departmental public bodies support; how many telephone advisers each employs; and how much funding is provided to each by (a) his Department and its non-departmental public bodies, (b) other Government Departments, (c) the private sector and (d) the voluntary sector. [66588]
Barry Gardiner: Defra and its non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) currently provide 33 telephone advice lines. No funding is provided by other Government Departments, the private sector or the voluntary sector. The number of telephone advisers employed varies according to the level of business demand. It is not possible to ascertain the amount of funding Defra and its NDPBs provide without disproportionate cost.
Water Metering
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what research the Department has undertaken on intelligent water metering. [67895]
Ian Pearson: The Department has not undertaken research into intelligent water metering, but research has been carried out by the industry and the Department has taken a keen interest in this. The Water Saving Group is considering a broad range of topics relating to metering.
Wales
Departmental Staff
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many (a) EU foreign nationals and (b) non-EU foreign nationals have been employed in his Department in each of the last five years; what vetting procedures are in place for each category of staff; and whether these include liaison with foreign law enforcement agencies. [68015]
Mr. Hain: The Wales Office draws its staff from other bodies, namely the National Assembly for Wales and Department of Constitutional Affairs. Staff have already been vetted by their employing bodies before moving to the Wales Office. The Wales Office does not hold information about the nationality of its employees centrally, and obtaining this information could only be achieved at disproportionate cost.
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what opportunities exist for people to work beyond retirement age in his Department. [68979]
Mr. Hain: Staff serving in the Wales Office are either on loan from the National Assembly for Wales or employed by the Department for Constitutional Affairs. Their retirement age is agreed with their home departments rather than by the Wales Office. The Wales Office has a number of staff who have opted to work beyond normal retirement age.
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what percentage of the staff in his Department is (a) male, (b) female and (c) disabled, broken down by grade. [68981]
Mr. Hain: The Wales Office publishes information about the gender and grading of staff in its annual departmental report, which is available in the House Library.
The Wales Office has a small number of staff with disabilities. For privacy reasons the numbers are confidential, in line with guidance issued by the Cabinet Office, which states that Departments are not required to provide figures on the number of disabled staff where it is less than five in the department.
Private Office Staff
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what percentage of his private office staff is (a) male, (b) female and (c) disabled. [68980]
Mr. Hain: The gender split of my private office staff is as follows:
(a) 42.9 per cent. of the staff are male
(b) 57.1 per cent. of the staff are female
The Wales Office has a small number of staff with disabilities. For privacy reason the numbers are confidential, in line with guidance issued by the Cabinet Office, which states that Departments are not required to provide figures on the number of disabled staff where it is less than five in the department.
Transport
Aircraft Noise
Adam Afriyie: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport pursuant to the commitment in the White Paper on the future of aviation to bear down on aircraft noise, what target decibel level his Department has set for aircraft noise. [69852]
Gillian Merron: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to him by my hon. Friend the Member for Halton (Derek Twigg) on 8 May 2006, Official Report, column 15W about the steps we are taking to bear down on aircraft noise.
Bus Journeys (Doncaster, North)
Edward Miliband: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many passenger bus journeys were taken by residents of Doncaster, North in (a) 1984, (b) 1994 and (c) 2004. [68406]
Gillian Merron: The information requested is not available for Doncaster, North. The number of passenger bus journeys per person per year in Yorkshire and Humberside are listed in the following table for (a)1985-06, (b)1994 and (c) 2004.
| Average number of passenger bus journeys per person per year for Yorkshire and Humberside | |
Buses
Graham Stringer: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the total public spending (a) per head of the population and (b) per passenger was on bus services (i) including and (ii) excluding funding for concessionary travel in (A) London, (B) each of the English Passenger Transport Executive areas and (C) the rest of England in each of the last 10 years. [68660]
Gillian Merron [holding answer 8 May 2006]: The information requested is shown in the following tables (figures are not available for 1995-96).
| Total spending on bus services including concessionary fare funding | |||||||||
| £ per head of population | |||||||||
| Area | 1996-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-99 | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 |
| Total spending on bus services excluding concessionary fare funding | |||||||||
| £ per head of population | |||||||||
| Area | 1996-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-99 | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 |
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