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22 Feb 2007 : Column 853W—continued
Departments: Theft
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what items valued at above £100 were reported as stolen from her Department’s buildings or premises in the last 12 months. [121984]
Mr. Lammy: The Department for Culture, Media and Sport had only one item valued at above £100, a laptop, reported as stolen in the last 12 months.
Executive Agencies
Mr. Hurd: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport which of the Executive agencies of her Department have regional offices outside London. [116728]
Mr. Lammy: The Royal Parks, which is the Department’s only Executive agency, does not have any regional offices outside London.
Mr. Hurd: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport which Executive agencies are the responsibility of her Department; what the function is of each agency; and what the annual budget was of each agency in the most recent year for which figures are available. [116776]
Mr. Lammy: The Royal Parks (TRP) is the only Executive agency of DCMS. It manages nine royal parks: St. James’ park (including Horse Guards Parade), Hyde park, Green park, Richmond park, Bushy park, Regent’s park and Primrose Hill, Greenwich park and Kensington Gardens, together with a small number of other public spaces in the capital. Information about the Royal Parks’ annual budget can be found in the Royal Parks annual report and accounts 2005-06. The annual report and accounts were laid in the House on 19 July 2006.
National Lottery: Chorley
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what the purpose was of each lottery grant to organisations in Chorley constituency in each of the last three years. [122348]
Mr. Caborn: 183 awards worth over £3.8 million were made by lottery distributing bodies in the Chorley constituency during the calendar years 2004, 2005 and 2006. The total value and number of awards is shown in the following table.
| Calendar year | Award amount (£) | Number of awards |
To describe the purpose of each of these 183 grants individually could only be done at a disproportionate cost.
This information in the table is derived from the Department's grants database, searchable at www.lottery.culture.gov.uk, which uses information supplied by the lottery distributors, and gives details of individual awards.
Non-departmental Public Bodies
Mr. Hurd: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport which non-departmental public bodies are sponsored by her Department; what the function is of each body; and what the budget was of each body in the most recent year for which figures are available. [116768]
Mr. Lammy: Details of the remit, Government funding and gross expenditure of public bodies sponsored by DCMS can be found in the Cabinet Office publication “Public Bodies 2006”, copies of which are in the Library and which is also available online at:
http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/other/agencies/publications/pdf/public-bodies/publicbodies2006.pdf
Olympic Games
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what estimate she has made of the economic benefit which will be derived from providing spectator accommodation for the Olympic Games, broken down by London borough; and if she will make a statement. [121010]
Mr. Caborn: The quality of accommodation in London will be crucial to the success of the Government’s forthcoming strategy to maximise the success of the 2012 Games. The London boroughs have not projected the likely tourism benefits to accommodation providers of hosting the Games. However, the London Business Board estimates the total benefit to the London economy at £1.5 billion. A high proportion of this is likely to accrue to businesses offering accommodation in the capital.
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what representations she has received on the draft Transport Plan for the 2012 Olympic Games in relation to enhancing public transport provision to outer London boroughs, broken down by London borough; and if she will make a statement. [121011]
Mr. Caborn: The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) has received almost 200 written responses to the consultation on its Transport Plan for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The ODA is currently considering those responses, including those made on behalf of outer London boroughs.
Playing Fields
Mr. Andy Reed:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many new playing fields have been established since 2005-06; and how many
existing playing fields were converted to other uses in the same period. [122990]
Mr. Caborn: Information relating to changes in playing field provision for 2005-06 is not yet available. My Department published in October 2006 statistics on planning applications made in relation to playing fields during 2004-05. These show that in that year 62 new playing fields were created against 47 which suffered a detrimental impact and of which two were wholly converted to other uses.
Swimming Pools: Kent
Derek Wyatt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what discussions (a) she and (b) Sport England have had with Kent county council on the funding of 50 metre swimming pools at (i) Ashford and (ii) the University of Kent. [122120]
Mr. Caborn: Neither I nor Sport England has had any discussions with Kent county council about funding for 50 metre swimming pools at either of these sites.
However, Sport England was involved in a PFI bid by Ashford borough council that included a 50 metre pool and has had a preliminary discussion direct with the University of Kent on the provision of a 50 metre pool on their campus.
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Agriculture: Animal Welfare
David Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what role the Public Sector Food Procurement Initiative plays in delivering the animal welfare dimensions of the Government’s Sustainable Farming and Food Strategy; and if he will make a statement. [122266]
Mr. Bradshaw: DEFRA is encouraging public sector bodies to specify higher animal welfare standards and, for that reason, has developed a new model specification clause. This promotes farm assurance standards, including those of higher level schemes such as Freedom Foods or equivalent. The model clause allows buyers to give a higher weighting for produce that meets higher level standards when awarding contracts. It is included in DEFRA’s Catering Services and Food Procurement Toolkit.
Departmental Expenditure
Mr. Newmark: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much was spent by his Department on buying, operating and supporting (a) all commercial software products and (b) software products produced by Microsoft was in each of the last three years. [112598]
Barry Gardiner: In October 2004 DEFRA outsourced its IT capabilities, forming a strategic partnership with IBM. IBM now provides Defra with end-to-end IT and business change services, this includes the provision of software.
It is therefore not possible to separately identify the cost of buying, operating and supporting software from the cost of providing desktop services as a whole.
The total cost of desktop services provided to core-DEFRA for the financial years 2004-05, 2005-06 and 2006-07 is approximately £7.4 million, £13.6 million and £11.9 million respectively.
The level of information requested is not available prior to October 2004 as the necessary accounting codes needed to identify this expenditure were not in place.
Departments: Equal Opportunities
Lorely Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps his Department is taking to implement the gender equality duty due to come into force on 6 April. [120620]
Barry Gardiner: The Department has developed a joint equality scheme to address the requirements of equalities legislation. In order to take steps to meet the requirements of the forthcoming duty, DEFRA's joint scheme which currently addresses both disability and race legislation, will now be focused on the new gender equality duties.
In addressing the forthcoming gender equality duties, DEFRA will continue to place a requirement upon all its business areas to carry out initial equality impact assessments on all its policies, processes and services. Where gender impacts are identified through the initial screening process, a full assessment will then be undertaken and the actions to be put in place monitored.
DEFRA already has established policies to address unlawful discrimination, bullying and harassment within the Department together with an equal opportunities policy that covers actions to promote equality between men and women.
The steps that DEFRA is taking will conform with those set out in the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 (Public Authorities) (Statutory Duties) Order 2006 and work arising from this new legislation will be incorporated into the Department's joint equality scheme for publication by 30 April 2007.
Departments: Incentives
Stephen Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the total sum of bonuses paid to civil servants in his Department was in (a) 2005 and (b) 2006. [121564]
Barry Gardiner: I refer my right hon. Friend to the answer given on 7 December 2006, Official Report, column 578W.
Departments: Orders and Regulations
Mr. Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many regulations brought forward by his Department came into force in 2006. [121157]
Barry Gardiner: To the best of our knowledge, 128 statutory instruments came into force in 2006.
Energy: Conservation
Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether the Government’s consultation on the third phase of the Energy Efficiency Commitment covering 2008-11 will include a section on smart metering with two way communications systems. [122530]
Ian Pearson: I refer the hon. Member to the reply of 1 February 2007, Official Report, column 448W.
Responses from the consultation, which ended on 6 February 2007, will help to formulate our position on billing and metering issues to be published in the forthcoming Energy White Paper.
Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what research his Department plans to carry out on the impact of smart metering with two way communication systems on consumer domestic usage; [122531]
(2) what future impact the Government estimates smart metering will have on consumer domestic usage. [122532]
Ian Pearson: The Energy Services Directive and the 2006 Energy Review included measures relating to the metering of energy consumption. We will report on these in the forthcoming Energy White Paper.
Freedom of Information
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs on the application of Freedom of Information regulations to private companies performing public services. [120356]
Barry Gardiner: In the course of official business I have regular discussions with ministerial colleagues on a wide range of issues.
Genetically Modified Organisms
Mr. Peter Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) when he expects copies of the individual responses to the consultation on proposals for managing the co-existence of GM and non-GM crops in England to be publicly available; [121916]
(2) how many responses his Department received during the consultation on proposals for managing the co-existence of GM and non-GM crops in England from (a) members of the public, (b) non-government organisations, (c) farming organisations, (d) farmers, (e) local authorities, (f) food companies, (g) biotechnology companies and their representatives, (h) the organic industry and (i) research institutions; [121917]
(3) when his Department expects to make a summary of the responses to the consultation on proposals for managing the co-existence of GM and non-GM crops in England available on the Department's website. [121918]
Ian Pearson [holding answer 21 February 2007]: We are still analysing and categorising the responses to the coexistence consultation. Approximately 11,200 responses were received in total (counting each signature on a petition as an individual response). A provisional breakdown indicates that approximately 11,000 responses were received from members of the public, five from farming organisations, 18 from local authorities, five from biotechnology companies and their representative body, eight from organic groups (not including companies), three from research providers and 161 from other organisations, including non-governmental organisations and companies.
We intend to publish a summary of the responses on the DEFRA website within the next few months. At that stage copies of the individual responses will be made available publicly via the DEFRA library, except where they are of a standard or pro-forma type, in which case one example will be made available along with confirmation of the total number of that type received.
Radioactive Wastes: Waste Management
Mr. Chaytor: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if he will make a statement on his plans for an underground nuclear waste repository. [122141]
Ian Pearson: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State responded to the report by the Committee on the Management of Radioactive Waste (CoRWM) on 25 October 2006. In his response he accepted CoRWM's recommendation that the UK's higher activity waste should be managed, in the long term, through geological disposal. His response also accepted the continuing need for safe and secure interim storage until geological disposal is available.
The UK Government and devolved Administrations are working together to prepare a public consultation document on the Government's framework for the implementation of geological disposal. This document, which we aim to publish later this year, will include an outline geological disposal delivery programme and proposals for a voluntarist/partnership approach to site selection.
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