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19 Oct 2006 : Column 1422W—continued
Planning Gain Supplement
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answers to the hon. Member for Brentwood and Ongar of 6 March 2006, Official Report, column 1105W and 16 March 2006, Official Report, column 2417W, and the answer of 17 July 2006, Official Report, column 158W, on Planning Gain Supplement, when the summary of responses will be published. [94748]
John Healey: The Government will publish copies of the responses to the consultation alongside the summary of responses in due course. Further announcements on PGS’s implementation will be made by the end of the year.
Regeneration (Thames Gateway)
Mr. Gummer: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether English Partnerships in collaboration with regional development agencies plan to produce a brownfield land reclamation strategy specifically for the Thames Gateway. [94062]
Yvette Cooper: A National Brownfield Strategy is being developed by English Partnerships with the aim of increasing the reuse of brownfield land. Good progress is being made. As part of this work English Partnerships will publish a practitioner’s guide to brownfield development before the end of the year and will hold a stakeholder workshop to discuss the policy issues raised through earlier consultations on the strategy.
In the Thames Gateway strategies for the development of brownfield land are being developed by the local delivery bodies as part of the regeneration frameworks for their areas. The regeneration frameworks are being drawn up in consultation with English Partnerships and the relevant regional development agency. More than 80 per cent. of new development in the Thames Gateway is being delivered on brownfield land.
Small Business Rate Relief
Mr. Prisk: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many businesses qualified for the Small Business Rate Relief Scheme in (a) 2003-04, (b) 2004-05 and (c) 2005-06. [94091]
Mr. Woolas: The information requested is not available and could be collected only at disproportionate cost.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) how many firms (a) were eligible for and (b) claimed small business rate relief in England in the most recent year for which figures are available; [94565]
(2) what the average business rates bill was for firms (a) claiming and (b) not claiming small business rate relief in England in the most recent 12 months for which figures are available; [94632]
(3) what the estimated revenue was from business rates from small firms in England in the most recent year for which figures are available; [94633]
(4) how many properties on the ratings list qualified for empty business rates relief in the most recent year for which figures are available. [94813]
Mr. Woolas: The information requested is not available and could be collected only at disproportionate cost.
Suburban Development Research
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what funding within his responsibilities has been allocated to the Cambridge University Martin Centre for Architectural and Urban Studies on research into suburban development issues. [66301]
Yvette Cooper: I have been asked to reply.
The Department made a contribution of £35,000 in October 2004 to the EPSRC SOLUTIONS (Sustainability of Land Use and Transport in Outer Neighbourhoods) project being carried out by the Cambridge University Martin Centre for Architectural and Urban Studies. This is an independent research project which is mainly funded by the academic research body looking at design, transport systems and the built form in cities. It has not yet reached any conclusions or recommendations.
Treasury
Asset Freezing
Dr. Starkey: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether his Department has investigated how John Ware of BBC Panorama had sight of the draft report from the Treasury’s Asset Freezing Working Group; whether this report has been completed; and when it will be published. [94274]
Ed Balls: It has been the policy of successive Governments not to comment on matters pertaining to leaked and allegedly leaked documents or on specific security matters.
Council of Economic Advisers
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many of his Department's civil servants work full time to support members of his Council of Economic Advisers; and what the pay bands are of each civil servant. [94747]
John Healey: The Council of Economic Advisers to the Chancellor of the Exchequer is supported by four full-time staff: two at range D and two at range C.
Electoral Registration
Paddy Tipping: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the number of eligible voters missing from the electoral register of each Parliamentary constituency in Nottinghamshire. [94488]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 19 October 2006:
As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your question concerning the number of eligible voters missing from the Electoral Register of each Parliamentary Constituency in Nottinghamshire. (94488)
The Office for National Statistics does not provide estimates of the number of eligible voters missing from the Electoral Register. However, we can compare the estimated usual resident population aged 18 and over from the last Census with estimates of those who were registered to vote at the time. By dividing the
latter by the former, a “ratio” can be derived and this is shown in the attached table for the various parliamentary constituencies in Nottinghamshire.
These are the closest available figures to those you have requested. The resulting data are not reliable estimates of registration rates and should be treated with appropriate caution. At best, they might help to identify where there might be issues with registration rates but you should also take account of local factors, for example the presence of a prison in an area.
There are various limitations with this type of comparison. The UK parliamentary electorate excludes citizens of countries other than the UK, Ireland, and the Commonwealth and includes UK citizens resident abroad. In addition not everyone who is usually resident is entitled to vote (prisoners, members of the House of Lords, etc. are not eligible) and people who have
more than one address may register in more than one place. Also there is inevitably some double counting of the registered electorate as electoral registration officers vary in how quickly they remove people from the registers after they have moved away from an area or after they have died. The latter is the main reason why in some constituencies the population aged 18 and over will be less than those registered to vote. These factors may have a different impact from place to place.
Population data by Parliamentary Constituency are not available on an annual basis, consequently these tables have been prepared from 2001 Census data. In order to give an estimate of the number of electors on Census day (29 April 2001), a weighted average is taken of the 1 February 2001 and 1 December 2001 electoral data. The census database was subsequently revised and more details on these revisions can be found at: www.statistics.gov.uk/lastudies.
| Nottinghamshire parliamentary constituencies: those aged 18 and over in the 2001 Census, number of registered parliamentary electors, and ratio of those aged 18 and over in the Census( 1a) to the number of registered electors (in descending order of the size of the ratio) | |||||
| Parliamentary Electors | |||||
| Parliamentary constituency | 2001 Census People aged 1 8 years and over: (29 April 2001) | Registered electorate: 1 February 2001 | Registered electorate: 1 December 2001 | Weighted comparator( 2) | Ratio( 1b) |
| (1a )The UK resident population aged 18 and over is not the same as the number of people eligible to vote: Citizens of countries outside the UK and the Commonwealth are not eligible to vote in parliamentary elections. UK citizens abroad are eligible to vote in Parliamentary elections. Persons with more than one address may register more than once (for example students at term and home addresses). Other restrictions on voting eligibility also apply. (1b )A ratio of greater than 1 implies that the number of registered electors is greater than the number of people aged 18 and over in the Census. This is caused mainly by definitional differences between the two populations and double-counting in the electoral register. Therefore comparison between the Census population and registered electors and the implied ratios can only be regarded as a guide. (2 )This is an estimate of the number of electors at Census day (29 April 2001), It is calculated by taking a ‘weighted’ average of the number of electors registered prior to and following this point. The formula for this weighting is: Feb '01 + (. 87/303 x (Dec '01 - Feb '01)) Source: Office for National Statistics | |||||
EU Accession States
Keith Vaz: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many and what percentage of individuals that have arrived in the UK from the new European Union member states since 1 May 2004 are employed. [95006]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 19 October 2006:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question about the numbers and percentages of people who arrived from the new EU countries to the UK since 2004. (95006)
The attached table gives the numbers of people and employment rates for the 3 month period ending June 2006. The estimates in the table relate to people who were born in the 10 accession countries, and who gave their year of arrival in the United Kingdom as either 2004 or 2005. Comparable statistics are not yet available for 2006.
Estimates are taken from the Labour Force Survey (LFS). As with any sample survey, estimates from the LFS are subject to a margin of uncertainty.
| Number and percentage of people whose country of birth is from the ten countries which acceded to the EU in 2004, and whose year of arrival in the United Kingdom was 2004 and 2005( 1) United Kingdom, not seasonally adjusted , three months ending June 2006 | |
| Total A10 countries( 5) | |
| (1 )Year of arrival in the UK for the years 2004, 2005. (2) Population in private households, student halls of residence and NHS accommodation and includes people under aged 16 and those above working age. (3 )Men aged 16 to 64 and women aged 16 to 59. (4) Total in employment of working age as a percentage all of working age. (5) The ten EEC accession countries are: Malta, Cyprus, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Source: ONS Labour Force Survey (LFS) | |
Helplines
Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the answer of 5 June 2006, Official Report, column 188W, on tax credits, how many engaged calls to the tax credits helpline were not placed in a queue to speak to an adviser in each month. [83330]
Dawn Primarolo: It might be helpful if I expand on footnote (3) in my answer of 5 June 2006. A call attempt will be passed to an adviser where one is available, however if no adviser is available then the call attempt will be placed in a queue. When maximum queuing capacity has been reached then the caller will be played an engaged tone and not placed in a queue. Therefore in that answer, all those receiving an engaged tone from the tax credits helpline were not placed in a queue.
Improving Migration Population Statistics Programme
Adam Afriyie: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how much has been spent on the Improving Migration Population Statistics programme each year since the 2001 census, broken down by main budget heading; [94222]
(2) how much was spent on the Office for National Statistics’ Task Group to investigate migration using central data sources, broken down by main budget heading. [94223]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 19 October 2006:
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