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6 Nov 2006 : Column 867W—continued
The summit, hosted by the Deputy Prime Minister, was the biggest event of its kind ever held in this country. Some 2,000 delegates from over 150 organisations in the public, private and voluntary and
community sectors took part, showing how they are working together to create sustainable communities and sharing in the expertise and experience of a range of international speakers.
The Summit House helped elicit over 200 expressions of interest in English Partnerships’ Design for Manufacture Competition, which showed how we can develop high quality housing for a construction cost of £60,000 or less per home, while also placing sustainable communities on the international agenda during the UK European presidency.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government who her Department funded to attend the conference on the internet and democracy in Budapest in July; and what criteria were used to select those delegates. [94827]
Angela E. Smith: The Department did not directly fund any delegates to attend the event, the International eDemocracy symposium in Budapest on 26-28 July. However, sponsored delegates were invited and paid for by the International Centre for Local eDemocracy (ICELE), which will largely be funded by DCLG until March 2008. ICELE is the successor to the former Local eDemocracy National Project which was established and funded by the Department's Local eGovernment Programme.
Most of the symposium costs were covered by delegate fees and sponsorship by a number of organisations including the Council of Europe, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, Serco, Tata Consultancy Services and the Department.
Delegates invited to attend the event at ICELE’s expense were either conference speakers/workshop leaders (for example, a delegation from the UK Youth Parliament) or opinion formers within local government (for example, councillors who are active bloggers). These delegates were chosen by the conference organisers.
Departmental IT
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government which databases operated by her Department are located (a) wholly and (b) partly outside the UK; and where each of those databases and parts of databases is located. [97752]
Angela E. Smith: The Planning Portal and the Public Enquiry Service (PES) use modules from a Customer Relationship Management package; the application and associated data are hosted in the USA under “Safe Harbor” status. The PES data will be migrated to a UK-based repository in the first quarter of 2007.
Departmental Staff
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many staff in her Department received bonus payments in each of the last five years for which information is available; what proportion of the total work force they represented; what the total amount of bonuses paid has been; what the largest single payment was in each year; and if she will make a statement. [98529]
Angela E. Smith: The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) was not created until 5 May 2006. Available information, for the most recent year, is as follows:
92 or 61 per cent. of permanent senior civil servants (SCS) received an award in respect of overall performance, totalling £630,000. Performance awards are an intrinsic part of the SCS pay system. The largest award was £12,500.
503 or 28 per cent. of non-SCS staff received an award in respect of overall performance, totalling £170,000. Awards were subject to a maximum payment of between £150 to £600, depending on grade.
301 or 17 per cent. of staff received an award in respect of exceptional performance on a specific task or at a specific time, totalling £105,000. These awards are subject to a general maximum payment of £600.
DCLG is committed to rewarding good performance and aims to increase performance awards available to non-SCS staff.
Empty Dwellings
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many full-time equivalent staff in her Department work on policy relating to empty dwelling management orders. [86784]
Yvette Cooper: Work that arises on policy in relation to empty dwelling management orders is dealt with as part of the work of one full-time equivalent post within the Department.
Empty Homes Agency
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what funding the Empty Homes Agency received from (a) central Government and (b) the Housing Corporation in 2005-06. [94854]
Yvette Cooper: In 2005-06, the Empty Homes Agency received £100,000 from the Department to support local authorities in bringing empty homes back into use and to promote good practice. The Agency received £13,156 from the Housing Corporation to run a conference addressing lessons learnt from research on how Registered Social Landlords can work with local authorities in tackling empty homes.
Energy Performance Certificates
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate she has made of the average cost of requiring energy performance certificates to be produced when a property is rented (a) in the private rented sector, (b) by registered social landlords and (c) by local authorities. [94644]
Yvette Cooper:
The price of an energy performance certificate will be set by the market and not by Government. We expect these costs to vary according to the size, type and location of the property. Trials are planned to take place shortly to assess the indicative time and costs of producing energy performance
certificates. This will also look at properties in the private, registered social landlord and local authority rented sectors.
Facilities for Disabled People
Sir John Stanley: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the total amount available from her Department to local authorities in the south-east for disabled facilities grants was in 2006-07; how much was bid for by each local authority; how much has been allocated to each local authority; and what use will be made by her Department of any underspend. [98882]
Yvette Cooper: The total allocation of grant to local authorities in the south-east for the disabled facilities grant programme (DFG) in 2006-07 was £19.962 million. This compares with a total bid for resources from those authorities of £21.093 million. The table gives the details for each authority.
There is provision in the DFG financial management system for local authorities to carry over any underspend from one year to another if this is due to programme slippage and they can satisfy their auditors that this slippage can be made good in future years. There is also provision for a local authority that cannot meet this condition to refund the grant to the Department. As the DFG programme is ring-fenced any such refund will be reallocated to other authorities who can demonstrate a need for additional resource for their DFG programme. Any such reallocation will be made in close consultation with the Government offices.
| LA name | 2006-07 DFG bid (£000) | DFG 2006-07 allocations (£000) |
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