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14 July 2006 : Column 2098W—continued
In 2002 the Department published and distributed guidance on flexible transport services, setting out the options available under current legislation.
Regulations on bus service registration were amended in February 2004 to allow “flexibly routed” and “demand responsive” bus services to be registered. At the same time these services were made eligible to receive BSOG.
Between 1998 and 2003, the rural and urban bus challenge grant schemes supported many new, innovative services aimed at improving social inclusion and accessibility.
A good practice guide to assist local authorities and operators engaged in the tendering of local bus services in England was published by the Department in February 2005.
The local concessionary bus fare scheme has been extended to around one million men aged 60-64; from April 2006, off-peak local bus travel became free for older and disabled people in England; and from April 2008, a national concessionary fares scheme will be introduced for older and disabled people in England, to offer free off-peak travel on buses anywhere in the country.
The Neighbourhood Road Safety Initiative is funding 15 councils with high child pedestrian casualty rates to deliver improvements across their deprived communities; and a research project implementing 103 child pedestrian training schemes (‘Kerbcraft’) in 64 English local authorities in areas of deprivation is currently being funded.
Guidance on ‘Tackling the road safety implications of disadvantage’ was issued at the beginning of April 2003, to all English local highway authorities.
Speed Limits
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport when he will publish revised guidance on Quiet Lanes following the consultation exercises conducted by his Department. [84371]
Gillian Merron: It is intended to publish the guidance as a Department for Transport circular this summer, following the publication of regulations.
Duchy of Lancaster
Contingency Planning
Mark Pritchard: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what legal measures the Government have in place to intervene in (a) private and (b) public sectors should a catastrophic breakdown of computer systems occur. [83461]
Mr. McFadden:
Part 2 of the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 provides the Government with a last resort mechanism for making rapid temporary legislation (emergency regulations) for dealing with the effects of the most serious emergencies where existing legislation
is not sufficient. This could include measures to intervene in the event of a catastrophic breakdown of private or public sector computer systems.
The Government expect all organisations forming part of the Critical National Infrastructure to have in place effective business continuity management arrangements.
Ministerial Meetings
Norman Baker: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what meetings were held between (a) the Minister for the Cabinet Office and (b) Cabinet Office officials and the Oxfordshire Coroner between 17 July 2003 and 31 March 2004. [85521]
Hilary Armstrong: No meetings were held between the Minister for the Cabinet Office or Cabinet Office officials and the Oxfordshire Coroner between 17 July 2003 and 31 March 2004.
Education and Skills
Veterinary Science (Hungary)
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what support is available in the form of student loans for UK students studying veterinary science degrees in Hungary. [85451]
Bill Rammell: Student support is not available to higher education students who are studying courses provided wholly by overseas institutions. However, support is available to eligible students who spend a year studying abroad as part of a course offered by an institution in the United Kingdom.
As a European Union national studying in another member state, a United Kingdom national who chooses to study at a Hungarian University should pay the same fees, and be entitled to the same financial assistance towards them, as a Hungarian student. Any support for living costs would be a matter for the Hungarian authorities.
Culture, Media and Sport
Casinos
Mr. Moss: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport who the members are of the Casino Advisory Panel; and with which towns and cities they are associated through their employment. [84131]
Mr. Caborn:
The members of the Casino Advisory Panel have all completed a register of interests, copies of which are available on request from the panel secretary. The panel has in place a robust system for managing any real or perceived conflicts of interest. Panel members have taken no part in the assessment of proposals from any areas with which they have a
particular connection. The areas with which panel members have declared interests—whether personal or through employment—are set out in the table.
Mr. Moss: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what measures have been taken to ensure that the decision-making process of the Casino Advisory Panel is transparent and objective. [84132]
Mr. Caborn: The Casino Advisory Panel is required to operate within a Framework Document and Code of Practice, which have been agreed with the Secretary of State and copies of which are available on the Casino Advisory Panel website www.culture.gov.uk/CAP.
The panel is required to provide reports to the Secretary of State at key points as it develops its recommendations. The purpose of these reports is for the panel to keep the Secretary of State in touch with its progress, and to assure the Secretary of State that the work methods the panel is adopting will result in robust and legally sustainable recommendations.
The first two such progress reports have been published on the panel’s website.
Mr. Moss: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport why the Casino Advisory Panel has not kept minutes of its meetings since it was formed. [84133]
Mr. Caborn: The panel has kept minutes of all of its meetings.
Once the minutes have been agreed by the panel, copies are published on its website www.culture.gov.uk/CAP.
John Hemming: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if the Government will instruct the Casino Advisory Panel to reopen the shortlisting process for the allocation of casino licences. [84357]
Mr. Caborn: No. The Casino Advisory Panel operates entirely independently of Government, and it is due to make its final recommendations to Ministers by the end of 2006.
Mr. Moss: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what previous connections there have been between members of the Casino Advisory Panel and the Department. [84484]
Mr. Caborn:
Professor Stephen Crow had no connections with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport prior to his appointment as Chair of the
Casino Advisory Panel. I met Professor Crow on one occasion when I was a Minister at the Department for the Environment, Transport and the Regions.
Chris Collison had no previous connections with the Department prior to his appointment as a member of the panel. However, as a consultant with the London borough of Waltham Forest he represented that council on the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics Joint Planning Advisory Team.
James Froomberg made submissions to the gambling review body, which reported to the Department, on behalf of the greyhound racing industry. As a Director of Business in Sport and Leisure (BISL) and a member of BISL’s gambling sub-group, until 2003 he was a member of a DCMS industry liaison group on behalf of the broader gambling industry. As Commercial Director of British Waterways, he has had a minor involvement in that company’s Olympics related activities.
As director of finance and subsequently chief executive at Tyne and Wear Development Corporation up to 1998, Neil Mundy was involved in a project funded by the Millennium Commission.
Deep Sagar had no previous connections with DCMS prior to his appointment as a member of the panel.
Command Papers
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will list the unnumbered Command Papers produced by her Department in each session since 1976; by what means (a) hon. Members and (b) members of the public can (i) inspect and (ii) obtain copies; and if she will make a statement. [81275]
Mr. Lammy: Documents which are laid before Parliament as unnumbered Command Papers are generally restricted to Explanatory Notes to Treaties, Explanatory Memorandum to Statutory Instruments and some Treasury Minutes. All other documents are published in the numbered Command Papers series.
I have deposited in the Library a list of those unnumbered Command Papers published since 1998—the date at which the Department’s searchable records begin. To go back further would entail disproportionate cost.
Copies of all unnumbered Command Papers are made available via the Vote Office.
Communities and Local Government
City Regions Programme
Bill Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether any funding for the city regions programme will be redirected from rural projects. [80189]
Mr. Woolas: The Government have no plans or intention to do so.
Council Tax
Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what steps she is taking to increase council tax collection rates; and if she will make a statement. [85584]
Mr. Woolas: Council tax collection rates improved for the sixth successive year in 2005-06 with 96.8 per cent. of tax due collected in-year. Local authorities also collected another £380 million of tax owing from previous years in 2005-06.
This improvement follows an earlier joint initiative between Government and the Local Government Association to help councils improve their collection rates. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister funded, through the local government e-innovations programme, a service for the exchange of data on council tax payers who move between authorities and an interactive council tax collection best practice guide
Councillors (Vexatious Complaints)
Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) what consideration has been given to providing councillors subjected to vexatious and malicious reporting to the Standards Board for England with means of redress; [84099]
(2) if she will bring forward measures to tackle the abuse of the procedures of the Standards Board for England by vexatious complainants; and if she will make a statement. [84310]
Mr. Woolas: The procedure whereby, before any investigation begins, the Standards Board seeks to filter out allegations without merit is the principal guard against vexatious and malicious reporting. The Board's current performance target is to filter out any such cases within 10 working days of receiving an allegation, and the Board's current track record on this is nine working days.
Following its review of the code of conduct, the Standards Board proposed that the current requirement in the code to report to the Board any breach of the code by other members should be deleted. This amendment would reduce the encouragement some feel this provision gives to the reporting of trivial or vexatious complaints by members. We intend to consult on a draft revised code of conduct for local authority members later this year, to include this proposal.
Local Government Finance
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much block grant was paid to each local authority in England in the most recent year for which figures are available, expressed as (a) a total amount and (b) per capita. [85508]
Mr. Woolas: A table has been placed in the Libraries of the House showing the amount of formula grant allocated to each authority in 2006-07, its mid-2006 population projection and its formula grant per head, i.e. its formula grant divided by its mid-2006 population projection. Formula grant comprises Revenue Support Grant, redistributed business rates and principal formula Police Grant.
Small Businesses
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if she will make small business rate relief automatic for all eligible small firms. [85652]
Mr. Woolas: We have recently published a consultation paper seeking views on proposals to relax the requirement for ratepayers to make an application for small business rate relief every year. The aim is to enable ratepayers to make just one application for relief between the five-year revaluations of non-domestic rateable values, provided the circumstances relating to the initial application remain unchanged. Comments are invited on the proposals in the consultation paper by 28 July.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the Government’s budget was for publicising small business rate relief in (a) 2004-05 and (b) 2005-06. [85653]
Mr. Woolas: There was no specific budget to publicise the small business rate relief scheme as it was included in the general publicity campaign for the revaluation of non-domestic properties that took effect from April 2005.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate she has made of the take-up rate of small business rate relief in each year since its introduction; and what the estimated cost is in each year. [85655]
Mr. Woolas: On the basis of returns completed by local authorities before the start of each financial year, an estimated £390 million is expected to be claimed in small business rate relief for 2005-06 and £224 million for 2006-07. Applications for small business rate relief may be made up to six months after the end of the financial year to which the application relates, or six months from notification of an alteration to a rateable value that makes the hereditament eligible for relief. Details of the amount actually claimed for 2005-06 are not yet available.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much has been raised by the larger business rate multiplier on medium and large firms to fund small business rate relief in each year since its introduction. [85706]
Mr. Woolas: On the basis of returns completed by local authorities before the start of each financial year, an estimated £355 million is expected to be raised from those businesses not eligible for the relief for 2005-06 and an estimated £316 million for 2006-07. Details of the amount actually raised from those businesses for 2005-06 are not yet available.
The annual adjustment of the non-domestic rating multipliers provides the opportunity to address any difference between the amount of small business rate relief granted to qualifying properties and the amount raised from those businesses not eligible for the relief.
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