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2 Nov 2006 : Column 572W—continued
Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Permits
Mr. Bailey: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment was made of the likely length of time needed to process applications for integrated pollution prevention and control permits. [98760]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Pollution Prevention and Control (England and Wales) Regulations 2000, which were made in the light of consultation with regulators and industry, require permit applications to be determined within four months unless the applicant and the regulator agree that a longer period will be acceptable.
Poultry (Control Permits)
Mr. Bailey:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what services will be provided by the Environment Agency to those companies in the poultry industry that pay an annual
subscription fee following their applications for integrated pollution prevention and control permits. [98926]
Mr. Bradshaw: The annual subsistence fee covers the Environment Agency’s costs for inspections, providing guidance, scheme infrastructure and permit maintenance.
Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what research he has carried out into the extent to which the integrated pollution prevention and control regulations as they affect poultry farmers have been implemented in England as compared to other EU countries. [99014]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Directive is required to be implemented in its entirety in all member states by 2007. In the UK, the farming sector is among the last to be regulated by the national transposing regulations (with the exception of new installations). Most other industrial sectors have had to apply for an IPPC permit and comply with the provisions of the IPPC regime sooner than intensive livestock.
Some EU member states may not charge for IPPC permit applications, but may recover varying proportions of their costs from the regulated industry, while others bear the cost in general taxation. This is a political decision for each national Government. The differing practices which are in place make it difficult to make comparisons of the costs to producers across the EU.
Single Farm Payments
Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many farmers have not received single farm payments to which they are entitled. [98817]
Mr. Bradshaw: As at 25 October, approximately 5,087 claimants were awaiting a top-up payment after receiving a partial payment and approximately 2,333 claimants had not received any payment. Of those 2,333 customers, the majority of claims were valued under €1,000 (£682) but there were an estimated 58 claims above €1000.
These are complex cases involving issues such as probate, liquidation and business partnership disputes. The RPA is working to resolve all claims as soon as possible.
State Veterinary Service
Mr. Gale: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment his Department has made of the possible effect of the reduction in the funding of the state veterinary service on (a) farm animal welfare and (b) disease control; and if he will make a statement. [98447]
Mr. Bradshaw [holding answer 31 October 2006]: The operational budget for the state veterinary service (SVS) has not been reduced, and its capacity and capability to enforce on-farm welfare and disease control has not been affected.
Whaling
Mr. Flello: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what action he plans to take in response to the decision by Iceland to resume commercial whaling. [98820]
Mr. Bradshaw: The United Kingdom Government have led the international condemnation of Iceland’s inexplicable and inexcusable decision. I called in the Icelandic ambassador, our ambassador in Rekyavik yesterday led a multi national demarche of 25 countries together with the European Commission and I supported a declaration drafted by Austria at a meeting of EU environment ministers in Luxemburg last week.
I am pleased that following the UK calls the EU Commission has now requested those EU countries that are not yet members of the International Whaling Commission to join. I have also urged UK Government colleagues to reassess contacts with the Icelandic Government in order to make our displeasure absolutely plain.
Culture, Media and Sport
Age Discrimination
Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if her Department will (a) carry out an age audit of its staff to establish an age profile of its work force, (b) negotiate an age management policy with trade unions and employees to eliminate age discrimination and retain older workers, (c) identify and support training needs and offer older staff flexible working to downshift towards retirement and (d) extend to over-fifties the right to request to work flexibly and the right to training with paid time off; and if she will make a statement. [96489]
Mr. Lammy: The information is as follows.
(a) DCMS has been monitoring age for a number of years and figures show that the Department has a relatively even spread of ages across the Department.
(b) The Department has already carried out a recent audit of its employment policies to ensure that it is not discriminating on grounds of age. We will continue to review these policies in partnership with the trade unions and other, interested stakeholders.
(c) Training is available to all staff, regardless of age and the Department continues to review its training policies to ensure we are not discriminating on the grounds of age. The Department also offers a range of flexible working patterns, including flexi-time, compressed hours, annualised hours, part-time working and job-sharing which is available to all staff working in the Department.
(d) As in (c) all DCMS staff are given the opportunity to work flexibly. Staff going on training courses, provided by the Department, are paid while taking time off to attend.
Arts Funding
Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what additional costs to the Arts Council have resulted from the arts project The Public going into administration. [97498]
Mr. Lammy: The board of The Public decided to appoint administrators for The Public Ltd. and The Public Building Ltd. in March 2006 in spite of efforts by Arts Council England, Sandwell MBC, Advantage West Midlands and the GOWM to stabilise the project after cost overruns were identified in January 2006. The only additional costs incurred as a result of the administration have been fees paid to the administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers, which have been shared equally between the funders. The fees paid to the administrators are commercially sensitive and cannot be released at this time.
Departmental Mail
Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what percentage of the Department’s mail is shipped using private companies; and what the cost was over the last 12 months. [95156]
Mr. Lammy: Of the 19 companies licensed to provide such services under the Postal Services Act 2000, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport uses only the Royal Mail.
The percentage of the Department’s mail delivered by Royal Mail is estimated to be 70 per cent. The remainder is delivered by hand or by the Government’s Internal Delivery Services (IDS) provider. Over the past 12 months costs of Royal Mail services amounted to £38,111.
Panathlon Challenge
Kate Hoey: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what Government funding is being provided for the Panathlon Challenge. [98865]
Mr. Caborn: No Government funding is currently being provided.
School Sport Partnerships
Kate Hoey: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will allocate money from the School Sport Partnerships to the Panathlon. [98866]
Mr. Caborn: School Sport Partnerships are funded by the Department for Education and Skills to deliver the PSA target for the National School Sport Strategy. This funding cannot be diverted.
Sport England
Hugh Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much Sport England spent on consultancy fees in each of the last five years. [99070]
Mr. Caborn: The consultancy fees paid by Sport England in each of the last five years are:
| Total cost (£) | |
Hugh Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many staff left Sport England in each of the last five years; and how much Sport England spent on payments for staff leaving the organisation in each year. [99071]
Mr. Caborn: The number of staff who left Sport England, and payments made in respect of redundancy in each of the last five years are as follows:
| As at April each year | Normal turnover | Restructure | Total leavers | Redundancy and payment in lieu (£)( 1) |
| (1) Payment in lieu was paid to staff in respect of three months notice. (2 )Due to the installation of a new Human Resources system Sport England are unable to provide historical data on staff numbers before 2004. | ||||
Hugh Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what customer satisfaction surveys have been undertaken to assess the performance of Sport England over the last five years; and what the results were of each. [99072]
Mr. Caborn: Sport England commissioned a customer satisfaction survey in 2001 to be carried out at the end of each year based around criteria that were of most importance to their customers including, for example; knowledge of staff, ability of Sport England staff to make decisions, proactive approach, quality of services and products delivered. The annual overall Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) figures for that survey are:
| Customer Satisfaction Index | |
| Percentage | |
In 2005 Sport England commissioned a new survey that reflected a more competitive test of the market. This was carried out in early 2006. The overall Customer Satisfaction Index figure for 2006 was 65.6 from a scale of 50-80.
As a new baseline has been set the 2006 figure is not comparable to the Customer Satisfaction Index figures of 2001-04.
International Development
Afghanistan
Mr. Andrew Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what (a) extra pay and (b) enhancement of conditions has been provided to his Department’s staff deployed to Afghanistan. [98183]
Hilary Benn: UK Staff deployed to Afghanistan are entitled to cost of living allowance (COLA) and hardship allowance in addition to their regular salary payments.
COLA is paid to compensate staff for the additional cost of living in Afghanistan compared to working and living in the UK. Hardship allowance is paid to compensate staff for the problems faced with working and living in extremely difficult locations. Both allowances are variable.
DFID also provides staff with regular breather breaks from Afghanistan. Each member of staff is provided with a return flight to the UK every six weeks in order that they are reunited with family and friends for two weeks in every eight given that Afghanistan is deemed an unaccompanied posting.
Development Assistance
Mr. Vaizey: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what conflict risk assessment mechanisms his Department uses when making decisions on development assistance. [98096]
Hilary Benn: DFID’s standard conflict assessment methodology is the Strategic Conflict Assessment (SCA). The SCA is a framework to analyse the implications of conflict for development policy and programming, and vice versa. It is a flexible tool, adaptable to the country context and can be used in conjunction with a range of other assessment tools. The SCA has been in use in its current form since 2001. The framework is outlined in “Conducting Conflict Assessments: Guidance Notes”, which can be found on the DFID website at http://www.dfid.gov.uk/pubs/files/conflict-assess-guidance.pdf
As set out in the White Paper published in July 2006, conflict will be analysed as part of DFID’s new, mandatory governance assessment framework that will be used to shape UK development policy and programmes.
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