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11 Dec 2006 : Column 816W—continued
Digital Switchover
Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what estimate she has made of the number of households in (a) Orkney and Shetland, (b) the Highlands and Islands and (c) Scotland which will not be able to access digital terrestrial television after digital switchover. [105494]
Mr. Woodward: Ofcom are currently researching reception prospects across the UK at switchover. At this time coverage of digital terrestrial television will be increased to substantially match the 98.5 per cent. households that currently receive analogue services.
IT Projects
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many information technology projects within the responsibility of her Department, its agencies and their predecessors have been cancelled since 1997; what the total cost was of each project at cancellation; and if she will make a statement. [105478]
Mr. Lammy: My Department has not cancelled any information technology projects since 1997.
Local Government
Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many targets her Department sets for local authorities; and what they are. [105127]
Mr. Lammy: The Department for Culture, Media and Sport does not impose targets on local authorities.
National Lottery
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will place in the Library copies of the applications for membership of each lottery board of each of their members. [107873]
Tessa Jowell: One of the fundamental principlesof the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments (OCPA) is openness and transparency. The OCPA Code states that information relating to the appointments process and its workings should be transparent, and information should be provided about appointments made, but it also protects the rightof individuals’ privacy in relation to personal information. It would not therefore be appropriate to place copies of application forms in the Libraries of the House.
Official Cars
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many cars run by her Department were manufactured (a) in the UK and (b) abroad. [104823]
Mr. Lammy: DCMS runs five cars and these are all operated by the Government Car and Despatch Agency.
Information on cars operated by the Government Car and Despatch Agency is available on page 14 of its annual report and accounts 2005-06, copies of which are available in the Library for the reference of Members.
Olympic Games
Mark Pritchard: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what plans she has to use Lilleshall National Sports Academy in Shropshire as a regional training facility for the 2012 Olympics. [105303]
Mr. Caborn: The London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) will produce a Pre Games Training Camp Guide which provides the National Olympic Committees (NOC) and National Paralympic Committees (NOP) with details of facilities across the UK which they could use for pre Games training. All facilities across the UK, including Lilleshall National Sports Academy, are invited to apply for inclusion within this Guide. Details of how to apply can be found at:
www.london2012.com/trainingcamps
Applications will initially be assessed locally with selection co-ordinated by the Nations and Regions Group Co-ordinator. A proposed list of facilities will then be submitted to LOCOG for final selection. The guide will be distributed to NOCs and NPCs inJuly 2008.
Retirement Age
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport pursuant to the answer from the Parliamentary Secretary in the Cabinet Office to the hon. Member for Blackpool, South of 4 December 2006, Official Report, columns 189-90W, on the retirement age, what her Department’s policy is for the setting of retirement ages for staff below the senior civil service under the Civil Service (Management Functions) Act 1992. [108008]
Mr. Lammy: In the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the retirement policy as delegated under the Civil Service (Management Functions) Act 1992 is a normal retirement age of 65, effective from 1 October 2006, for all permanent staff below the Senior Civil Service. This is in line with the Employment Equality (Age) Regulation 2006 default retirement age.
Sevso Treasure
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what research she has conducted into the provenance of the Sevso Roman treasure. [107877]
Mr. Lammy: My Department has conducted no research into the provenance of the Sevso Roman treasure.
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what discussions her Department has held with the custodian of the Sevso Roman treasure; and if she will make a statement. [107878]
Mr. Lammy: My Department has held no discussions with the custodian of the Sevso Roman treasure.
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport whether her Department has conducted research into the legal ownership of the Sevso Roman treasure. [107879]
Mr. Lammy: My Department has conducted no research into the legal ownership of the Sevso Roman treasure.
Statistics
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much her Department spent on statistics relating to the work of her Department in each of the last five years. [107268]
Mr. Lammy:
There is no definition of the term “statistics relating to the work of the Department” and
no centrally held information on either the volume or costs of statistics published each year on this basis.
Estimates for the annual costs of National Statistics are contained in the relevant National Statistics annual report and accounts, which are available on the National Statistics website at:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=1051.
Copies are also available in the Library for the reference of Members. The last year these were produced was 2004-05.
The Tote
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when she expects to be able to make a definitive statement on the future of the Tote. [108034]
Mr. Caborn: I expect to be able to announce soon how the Government intend to proceed with their objectives of removing the Tote from public ownership, promoting horserace pool betting and benefit racing.
TV and Radio Energy Consumption
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what estimate she has made of the average energy consumption per annum of an (a) (i) digital and (ii) analogue television and (b) (A) digital and (B) analogue radio; and if she will make a statement. [106642]
Margaret Hodge: I have been asked to reply.
The Government have analysed the performances of over 630 televisions sold in 2004, 2005 and 2006 and has concluded that the difference in energy consumption between analogue and integrated digital televisions is negligible.
The annual energy consumption of a television varies significantly with screen size and television type, and defining what constitutes a ‘typical’ television is difficult. However, for a 32 in widescreen cathode-ray television, the estimates are that the annual consumption will be 292 kWh, and 310 kWh for a liquid crystal display (LCD) screen of the same size. A 42 in (a typical size for this technology) plasma TV will consume 746 kWh per year.
The total energy consumption of all UK televisions has risen in recent years. However this is not a result of the development of integrated digital tuners but a function of increased TV ownership, the trend towards larger screen sizes, and the migration away from cathode ray tube (CRT) televisions to other technologies.
In many cases the use of an integrated digital tuner will negate the need to purchase a separate set-top digital TV adapter at digital switchover. The average consumption of a typical terrestrial set-top adapter is 60 kWh per year. Public communications about digital television switchover reinforce this point by advising consumers to purchase digital, rather than analogue, if they are upgrading a television.
We do not currently have sufficient information to provide a comparison between the performance of analogue and digital (DAB) radios. However, we have
identified that many portable DAB radios are supplied with external power supply units which are less efficient—and therefore consume more energy—than those sold with comparable analogue products. We will work with retailers and manufacturers to seek to address this issue. As these are relatively new products, there are likely to be efficiency gains as the products mature.
Victims of Terrorism
Mr. Hague: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (1) what the criteria will be for determining the (a) definition of a terrorism incident and (b) eligibility for funds in relation to the new charitable fund to help the British victims of terrorism; [105421]
(2) what proportion of the budget of the new charitable fund to help the British victims of terrorism will be available to British victims of terrorism overseas; and if she will make a statement; [105422]
(3) when she expects the details of the charitable fund to help the British victims of terrorism to be finalised; and when the fund will begin operation; [105426]
(4) how much Government funding will be available for the new charitable fund to help British victims of terrorism; and if she will make a statement. [105546]
Dr. Tony Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what the reason is for the time taken to announce details of the charitable fund to help British citizens affected by terrorism abroad that was announced in the March 2006 Budget. [105605]
Mr. Woodward: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State continues to work with the voluntary sector and victims groups to finalise details of exactly how the charitable fund will operate and she hopes to make an announcement in the coming months.
While the details are being finalised, interim arrangements have been put in place.
Immediate financial assistance from the £1 million we assigned to the fund has been paid to UK families bereaved and most seriously injured by those attacks since March 2006, that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has classified as terrorist acts.
Home Department
Alexander Litvinenko
Mr. Mark Field: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what considerations were taken into account in granting political asylum to the late Alexander Litvinenko; and if he will make a statement. [107484]
Mr. Byrne: It is not our practice to comment on individual cases.
Arrests
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have been arrested and subsequently not cautioned or charged with any offence in each police authority area in each of the last five years, broken down by ethnicity. [106908]
Mr. McNulty
[holding answer 4 December 2006]: Numbers of arrests and cautions by police force area and ethnicity have been published in associationwith successive annual editions of the section 95 publication, “Statistics on Race and the Criminal
Justice System”, and are available on the Home Office website at: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/section951.html, along with a table of the percentage of arrests which lead to a caution (tables 5.1, 5.6 and 5.7). Recently revised tables for arrests and the percentage of arrests which lead to a caution for 2003-04 are given in the table.
Also included in the publication are available data for prosecutions by ethnicity in magistrates courtsfor the period requested (table 6.1), and available data for the total number tried in Crown courts by ethnicity, for 2003 (table 6.4) and 2004 (table 6.3). available data for the total number tried in Crown Courts by ethnicity, for 2003 (table 6.4) and 2004 (table 6.3).
| Table 5.1: Total arrests for Notifiable Offences, 2003-04( 1) | ||||||
| Ethnic appearance of person arrested | ||||||
| Police force area | White | Black | Asian | Other | Unknown | Total |
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