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24 Jan 2007 : Column 1893Wcontinued
Margaret Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what checks councils are required to make on the immigration status of temporary and agency staff employed via an agency. [116710]
Mr. Byrne: I have been asked to reply.
Section 8 of the Asylum and Immigration Act 1996 is the primary measure for combating illegal working. It provides employers with a statutory defence from conviction if they check and record certain specified documents belonging to potential employees. All employers in the UK, including councils, have a responsibility to ensure that they do not employ anyone who does not have leave to be in the UK and undertake the work in question.
Where an employment agency employs people and provides their services to a user, then it is the
responsibility of the employment agency to carry out proper document checks. Where an employment agency is simply recruiting people to be employed by a client, then it is the clients responsibility to carry out checks. Where there is any doubt about the employment relationship, we advise that both the employment agency and client should carry out checks.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the timetable is for (a) a white paper, (b) primary legislation and (c) secondary legislation on planning reform following the publication of the Barker report. [114577]
Yvette Cooper: The White Paper will be published in spring 2007. It will set out the Government's detailed proposals, including in relation to primary and secondary legislation.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when the Government will publish its response to the Barker report on land use planning. [114580]
Yvette Cooper: The Government will set out in a White Paper, in spring 2007, their proposals in response to Kate Barker's recommendations for improving the speed, responsiveness and efficiency in land use planning, and for taking forward Kate Barker's and Rod Eddington's proposals for reform of major infrastructure planning.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) whether the property attribute of area used in the Valuation Office Agencys Multiple Regional Analysis models relates to (a) the floor area of the domestic building, (b) the area of the footprint of the building and (c) the total area of the property and surrounding land; [114759]
(2) whether the property attribute of ratio of plot size to area used in the Valuation Office Agencys Multiple Regional Analysis models measures (a) the plot size of the footprint of the domestic building and (b) the total floor space of the domestic building in relation to the area. [114758]
Mr. Woolas: The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) does not have Multiple Regional Analysis models.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what her Departments most recent estimate is of (a) the number of domestic dwellings located in conservation areas in England and (b) the number of conservation areas in England. [115045]
Yvette Cooper: Information on the number of dwellings within conservation areas is not held centrally.
Conservation areas are designated by local planning authorities to English Heritage. The number of conservation areas was 9,374 at 30 September 2006 as published by English Heritage in Heritage Counts 2006.
Mr. Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when she will reply to the letter to her dated 18 December 2006 from the hon. Member for Reigate on planning policy statement 3. [110651]
Yvette Cooper: I have now replied to the hon. Members letter.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what changes the Valuation Office Agency has made to the (a) number and (b) type of individual (i) value significant codes and (ii) dwelling house codes since the decision to delay the council tax revaluation in England. [115051]
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the (a) titles and (b) dates of publication were of the council tax instructions and advice notes and associated documents issued by the Valuation Office Agency to assist staff since January 2005. [115052]
Mr. Woolas: Since January 2005 the Valuation Office Agency has issued two council tax instructions and advice (IAs):
CT IA 010905Council tax completion notice. This was issued on 1 September 2005.
CT IA 241005Recording and inputting property details as part of council tax maintenance and appeals work. This was issued on the 24 October 2005.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether the valuation tribunal service made an estimate in England of the number of council tax valuation appeals that would arise as a consequence of the council tax revaluation in England prior to its postponement. [114742]
Mr. Woolas: The VTS estimated that there might be 1 million appeals from the revaluation, of which it was estimated 50,000 would require a hearing before a formal valuation tribunal panel.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the anticipated cost was to the Valuation Tribunal Service of the council tax revaluation in England, prior to its postponement. [114746]
Mr. Woolas: The Valuation Tribunal Service estimated at around £l million the cost of developing their systems to handle appeals arising from the revaluation and for additional training for valuation tribunal members on the revaluation.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many of the (a) recommendations and (b) targets in the Egan Review of Skills (i) have yet to be met and (ii) are no longer being pursued. [115047]
Angela E. Smith: The Government gave a full response to the 24 recommendations of the Egan Review in August 2004, setting out how each would be taken forward and to what time scale. The Government have taken the actions to which it committed in respect of all the recommendations.
Where target dates were set these have been met, with the exception of guidance for planning councillors (recommendation 12), which was published in 2005 rather than 2004, and the recommendation that Government and the Local Government Association review during 2006 the need for compulsory training of elected members (recommendation 20). This issue will be taken forward as part of the preparation of a national strategy for local improvement, as set out in the Local Government White Paper Strong and Prosperous Communities.
The Egan Reviews major recommendation was to establish a National Centre for Sustainable Community Skills. In response to this, the Government have established the Academy for Sustainable Communities (ASC), which is currently delivering a number of key Egan recommendations, including promoting generic skills, cross sector working and encouraging entrants into the core occupations. In December, the ASC launched a set of joint commitments with major national institutions, influencing the learning and professional development of 100,000 core professionals.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if she will place in the Library a copy of the latest accounts produced by the English regional chambers that were produced under the Accountable Body arrangements. [115043]
Yvette Cooper: I have arranged for copies of the latest regional assembly accounts to be placed in the Library of the House.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer of 6 December 2006, Official Report, columns 463-64W, on EU Directive 2002/91/EC, whether the (a) European Commission and (b) European Parliament produced an impact assessment for the directive. [114457]
Yvette Cooper: This question is a matter for the European Commission and the European Parliament.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the total expected public expenditure is on payments to (a) PA Consulting Group and (b) Xansa UK Ltd in relation to home information packs. [103884]
Yvette Cooper: PA Consulting Group have been used across a wide range of activities associated with the delivery of HIPs, primarily on the design and procurement of the HCR Register, the Certification Scheme, the Dry Run and the area trials. We anticipate that a total of £2.5 million will be paid to PA Consulting.
The payment to Xansa has been £69,000. No further payments are anticipated.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what criteria must be met for a potential home inspector to be classified as in training under her Departments definition. [114531]
Yvette Cooper: Figures on the number and status of candidates are reported regularly by the individual assessment centres on a voluntary basis.
The definition of in training is taken from the information they provide. These are candidates who are reported by the assessment centre as having been registered with them to undertake the qualification and have not yet been assessed successfully against all the required modules of their course.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what guidance she has issued to arms length management organisations in the last six months on meeting Decent Homes Standard targets. [115039]
Yvette Cooper: The most recent guidance we have issued on meeting Decent Homes standard targets is the written statement that my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, made to the House on 7 June 2006, Official Report, columns 27-29WS. On the same day we also published The Decent Home : Definition and guidance for implementation to update guidance published in February 2004; a Supplement to Guidance on Arms Length Management, supplementing guidance published in October 2004 for local authorities wishing to apply for places on the ALMO programme; and a discussion paper entitled From Decent Homes to Sustainable Communities. Ministers and officials also correspond frequently with individual or groups of ALMOs about their Decent Homes plans and have continued to do so over the last six months.
Philip Davies:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what recent
estimate she has made of the amount of money spent on interpreters by local authorities; and if she will make a statement. [114227]
Mr. Woolas: The Department for Communities and Local Government has not made a recent estimate of the amount of money spent on interpreters by local authorities. Local authorities are accountable for this spend, but the Secretary of State is committed to working with them to look at the issue and consider balancing this to give a greater focus on promoting community cohesion. My right hon. Friend has therefore asked the Commission on Integration and Cohesion to consider this issue as part of its report due in June 2007.
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what recent estimate she has made of the amount of money spent by local authorities on providing information in foreign languages; and if she will make a statement. [114228]
Mr. Woolas: The Department for Communities and Local Government has not made any recent estimate of the amount spent by local authorities on providing information in foreign languages. Local authorities are accountable for this spend, but the Secretary of State is committed to working with them to look at the issue and consider balancing this to give a greater focus on promoting community cohesion. My right hon. Friend has therefore asked the Commission on Integration and Cohesion to consider this issue as part of its report due in June 2007.
Mr. Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much money her Department provided to local authorities to translate documents into languages other than English in each of the last five years. [113895]
Mr. Woolas: This information is not available as the Departments statistical data collections from local authorities do not separately identify expenditure on translation services and therefore the information could be collated only at disproportionate cost. The Secretary of State has asked the Commission on Integration and Cohesion to consider this issue as part of its report that is due in June 2007.
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government which London local authorities do not participate in the notify scheme. [105216]
Mr. Woolas:
Notify is a voluntary scheme unique to London developed by the GLA and London councils. 23 London boroughs are loading information about their homeless households in temporary accommodation onto the notify system. This accounts for 72 per cent. of the households placed in temporary accommodation. The remaining 10 boroughs Bromley, City of London, Enfield, Greenwich, Havering, Kingston upon Thames, Newham, Redbridge, Sutton and Wandsworth have formally signed up to participating in notifyand are providing
sample information for testing and are using the system to view information about homeless households placed in temporary accommodation in their area by other London local authorities, or intend to load information once their boroughs new IT systems are fully operational.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether Sir Michael Lyons will receive additional remuneration following the decision to postpone his report's publication to March 2007. [114495]
Mr. Woolas: Yes. He will receive an additional fee of £40,000 (plus VAT).
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much was spent on foreign travel by each Minister in her Department other than the Secretary of State in 2005-06; and what the (a) purpose and (b) destination was of each journey. [114736]
Angela E. Smith: All ministerial visits are conducted in accordance with the Ministerial Code and Travel by Ministers. Since 1999, the Government have published on an annual basis, a list of overseas travel by Cabinet Ministers costing in excess of £500 and the total cost of all ministerial travel. Information for 2005-06 was published on 24 July 2006. Information for 2006-07 will be published as soon as possible after the end of the financial year in the Library of the House.
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