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12 July 2006 : Column 1885W—continued
Trade and Industry
Energy Efficiency
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the Government's strategy is for encouraging energy efficiency measures for those living in fuel poverty. [79695]
Ian Pearson: I have been asked to reply.
A range of schemes and policies are in place to help tackle fuel poverty. It was announced in the 2005 pre-Budget report that an additional £300 million would be made available to tackle fuel poverty across the UK over the 2005-08 period.
The main tool for eradicating fuel poverty in England is the Warm Front scheme which provides a range of energy efficiency measures and advice to
vulnerable households. Warm Front has already assisted more than one million vulnerable households. Similar schemes exist in each of the devolved administrations.
There are a range of other schemes and policies in place to improve the energy efficiency of domestic properties, such as the Energy Efficiency Commitment and the Decent Homes Standard. These have provision to target assistance at the most vulnerable low-income families and pensioner households.
Communities and Local Government
Departmental Costs
Mr. Rogerson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what costs arising from setting up her Department have been allocated to the corporate communications budgets. [79381]
Angela E. Smith: To date the total costs that have been allocated to the corporate communications budget come to £12,000. This has come from existing budgets.
Departmental Discussions
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what discussions she has had with (a) the Treasury and (b) the Cabinet Office regarding the pre-comprehensive spending review report; and if she will make a statement. [82848]
Angela E. Smith: The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government has had and will continue to have wide ranging and regular discussions with the chief secretary about preparations for the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review, as a matter of key importance to the Department for Communities and Local Government's medium and long term planning.
FIFA World Cup
Mr. Hands: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government which matches (a) she and (b) other Ministers in her Department attended at the FIFA World Cup 2006 in Germany in their ministerial capacity; at what cost to public funds; and with what contributions from third party organisations. [83618]
Angela E. Smith: No Minister from this Department has attended any of the FIFA World Cup 2006 matches in Germany, but we did watch them on T.V.
Fire Service
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if she will make a statement on the planned regionalisation of fire service control rooms. [80248]
Angela E. Smith:
Independent reviews have consistently shown that creating an integrated system of nine regional control centres will provide a more resilient, effective and efficient service. The current 46 fire control centres were not designed to deal in a
co-ordinated way with major, regional or national incidents. The new system will offer more reliable fallback in times of peak demand or external threats such as flooding, and more effective response to all incidents, particularly those of substantial scale or complexity.
Private Finance Initiative Projects
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government by what total amount Private Finance Initiative projects for which her Department is responsible which went over budget did so in each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement. [83652]
Angela E. Smith: Responsibility for the Department for Communities and Local Government's Private Finance Initiative (PFI) projects rest with individual local authorities taking forward PFI projects. To date the Department has not been informed of any PFI projects going over budget.
The risk of PFI projects going over budget is normally transferred to the private sector. If a cost overrun affects the delivery of the service being provided, the public sector has the right to make performance deductions from the unitary charge. Furthermore, unitary charge payments do not commence until the service is operational and meets agreed standards.
Swindon Borough Council
Mr. Wills: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government for what purposes funding was allocated to Swindon borough council under the category of building capacity in (a) 2004-05 and (b) 2005-06. [84730]
Angela E. Smith: The information requested is set out in the following table.
| 2004-05 | 2005-06 | ||
| Headline project and date approved | Grant approved (£) | Headline project and date approved | Grant approved (£) |
|
Communications and Information Technology Communications (August 2005) | |||
In addition, Swindon received approval for a grant of £1,000,000 in March 2005 to establish a partnership between Kent county council and Swindon borough council in order to improve the social services provided to the people of Swindon. The Department of Health met £180,000 of the £1,000,000.
Culture, Media and Sport
Clissold Road Swimming Pool
Kate Hoey: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when the Clissold Road swimming pool will re-open. [84165]
Mr. Caborn: I understand that Clissold Leisure Centre is now expected to re-open in July 2007. Sport England will continue to monitor the time scales and milestones towards the re-opening.
Football
Mrs. Dunwoody: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many football coaches have been funded from public funds in Crewe and Nantwich constituency in the last two years for (a) ethnic minorities, (b) women and girls and (c) children with learning difficulties; where these sessions were held; how many sessions were held for each group; how many primary and after school sessions have been arranged; where; by whom; and at what cost. [83359]
Mr. Caborn:
Through its Whole Sport Plan, the FA provides coaching in the Crewe and Nantwich area. Detailed information in the requested format is not available. However, I can confirm that 15 Community Sports Coaches are employed within the Cheshire and Warrington Sports Partnership to provide coaching sessions, including in primary schools and after school. Three of these coaches spend a proportion of their coaching time in Crewe and Nantwich. Two of the Community Sports Coaches coach football, although not in Crewe and Nantwich. However, the local
authority in Crewe and Nantwich has recruited a part-time football Community Sports Coach who will focus on females, ethnic minorities and people with disabilities.
According to Sport England figures, between April 2005 and March 2006, there were 108,209 attendances at coaching sessions provided by Community Sports Coaches in the Cheshire and Warrington Sports Partnership area. Of these, 36,428 were female, 2,632 had a disability and 2,306 were from black, Asian or other minority ethnic group.
London Olympics
Mr. Khabra: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps the Government is taking to extend the benefits of the 2012 London Olympics to (a) Ealing, Southall and (b) West London. [83825]
Mr. Caborn: The Government are determined that the whole of London and the UK will benefit from the games in 2012.
The Greater London Authority, which is the body responsible for co-ordinating the delivery of the legacy and benefits of the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympics Games for London, is working closely with the London Development Agency and local and sub-regional partnerships to ensure that people and businesses all over London have the information and skills they need to take advantage of the full range of opportunities arising from hosting the games.
Specifically, the London borough of Ealing has been working at a local level through the West London Alliance Olympic Officers Group, to develop an action plan to maximise benefits to Ealing and West London as a whole.
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much the 2012 London Olympic park is expected to cost. [84240]
Mr. Caborn: The Olympic Delivery Authority is currently procuring the delivery partner that will help the ODA to deliver the Olympic and legacy construction. One element of the delivery partner's role will be to examine the programme for the Olympic Park and costs associated with it. We expect this assessment to be completed within six to nine months of the appointment.
Lottery Funding (School Facilities)
Dr. Blackman-Woods: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much national lottery funding has been made available for local sports facilities over the past five years. [84643]
Mr. Caborn: Since the start of 2001, 17,689 lottery awards worth a total value of £1.3 billion have been made by the five sports lottery distributors.
Local sports facilities are not identified as a category on the Department’s lottery grants database. The information could therefore be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Information on all lottery awards is available from the database, searchable at www.lottery.culture.gov.uk, which uses information supplied by the lottery distributors.
Royal Parks Agency
Mr. Mark Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much was given in grants by her Department to the Royal Parks Agency in each of the past five financial years. [84121]
Mr. Lammy: The table shows the funding received by the Royal Parks from the Department for the periods shown.
| Amount of public funding given by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (£) | ||
| Financial year | Resource | Capital |
| (1) Budgeted figures rather than actual outturn. | ||
Constitutional Affairs
Comprehensive Spending Review
Dr. Cable: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what discussions the Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs has had with (a) the Treasury and (b) the Cabinet Office regarding the pre-comprehensive spending review report; and if she will make a statement. [82841]
Bridget Prentice: The Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs had a formal discussion (bi-lateral) on the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) with the Chief Secretary HM Treasury in June 2006. All other discussions between the Department of Constitutional Affairs and (a) HM Treasury and (b) Cabinet Office on the CSR have been at official level.
No discussions regarding the CSR have been had by the Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs with the Cabinet Office.
Electoral Registration
Keith Vaz: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what steps she plans to take to increase voter registration in inner city areas. [84552]
Bridget Prentice: The Government have embarked on a number of initiatives to increase voter registration and promote participation in democracy.
The 1824 collective campaign, promoted awareness of voter registration amongst London's urban youth in the run up to local London election in May this year.
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