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14 May 2007 : Column 558W—continued
Sri Lanka
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent representations he has received from the Government of Sri Lanka; and what discussions have taken place following such representations. [135958]
Mr. McNulty: Any recent representations made by the Government of Sri Lanka would have been made on a confidential basis, and it is the Government’s policy to respect that confidentiality.
Tamils
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent representations he has received from Tamil community groups in the United Kingdom; and what discussions have taken place following such representations. [135957]
Mr. McNulty: Recent representations have been made by members of the British Tamil Forum, who wished to discuss the continued proscription of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and put the case that it would be in the interests of peace in Sri Lanka if that proscription was lifted. The Terrorism Act 2000 sets out the process by which a proscribed organisation or a person affected by such a proscription can apply for deproscription, and the Home Secretary outlined the process for them.
Until such time that an organisation is removed from the proscribed list, it is the position of the Government that the organisation remains concerned in terrorism. We would urge all parties involved in the conflict in Sri Lanka to renounce the use of violence as a means to resolve political differences.
Communities and Local Government
Bedfordshire County Council: Pensions
Alistair Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much central Government funding Bedfordshire County Council received in each year since 1997 towards its pension fund. [133371]
Mr. Woolas: Apart from a proportion of the indexed sum of £130 million added to the financial settlement for local government since 1998 to mitigate the effect on their pension funds of the abolition of tax relief on dividend income, Bedfordshire county council receives no central Government funding directly for this purpose. The Local Government Pension Scheme is a funded, statutory scheme, with employer, employee and investment income being the main sources of income. Data for the scheme are found on the Department's website at:
Departments: Energy
Mr. Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what (a) instructions are issued to staff in her Department and (b) technical procedures are in place to shut down computers at night. [136090]
Angela E. Smith: Communities and Local Government and its agencies issue instructions to their staff to shut down computers and other office equipment at night. Staff in HQ buildings are also encouraged to switch off their monitors during the day when they are away from their desks for more than five minutes. These messages are consolidated by posters in working areas and in photocopier rooms. Surveys are regularly conducted to monitor if these instructions are followed.
Depending on their configuration PCs used by the Department are set up so that the monitor and/or hard disk go into standby, or power down, after a predetermined period of inactivity.
Some networking equipment needs to run continuously and is shut down only for maintenance.
Energy: Conservation
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what plans she has to take account of the move to low carbon grid electricity in (a) the building regulations, (b) the code for sustainable homes and (c) specifications for electric heating systems. [136292]
Angela E. Smith: Building regulations and the code for sustainable homes set overall energy performance standards expressed in terms of annual carbon emissions. The emission factors for grid electricity used to establish compliance with these standards will be kept under review.
The energy performance standards are non-prescriptive and electric heating can be used provided the overall standards are met.
Local Government Finance
Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate she has made of how much local authority spending was (a) ring-fenced, (b) for statutory purposes and (c) discretionary in each year since 1997. [123154]
Mr. Woolas: The following table sets out the amount of local authority spending which was funded by ring-fenced grants as recorded in the revenue outturn returns which local authorities send to the Department:
| £ billion | |
| Source: Communities and Local Government Revenue Outturn returns. | |
The table sets out those ring-fenced grants inside Aggregate External Finance (AEF) (i.e. revenue grants paid for councils' core services). The figures exclude grants outside AEF such as housing benefit subsidy, capital grants, funding for local authorities' housing management responsibilities and those grant programmes (such as European funding) where authorities are simply one of the recipients of funding paid towards an area.
My right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced in the 2007 Budget that we will set out a clear target to reduce specific grants and ring-fenced funding.
It is for individual local authorities to determine how much of their spending is required to fulfil their statutory duties and how much is available for discretionary purposes. The Department does not compile information on local authority expenditure in a way which separates out spending on statutory and discretionary purposes.
Local Government: Equal Pay
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what steps she is taking to ensure that local authorities have equal pay policies for male and female staff. [130716]
Mr. Woolas: It is for individual local authorities, as employers, to determine pay policies for their staff, subject to the relevant statutory requirements.
Local authorities set their own pay policies and most place staff on a pay scale which is negotiated at a national level between the unions and local government.
Like any other employer, local authorities are subject to the provisions of the Equal Pay Act 1970 and the Sex Discrimination Act 1975.
In setting their pay policies, local authorities must also comply with the Gender Duty, which places a statutory obligation on all public authorities to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful sex discrimination and harassment and to promote equality of opportunity between women and men in carrying out their functions.
Members: Correspondence
Ian Stewart: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when she will reply to the letter from the hon. Member for Eccles of 26 January 2007 on home inspection arrangements, correspondence reference 2151. [137324]
Yvette Cooper: I have now replied to my hon. Friend's correspondence.
Roads: Newcastle upon Tyne
Mr. Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much was provided by central Government for the Shields Road regeneration programme in East Newcastle; and whether any payment was made into the redevelopment programme from the planning gain on the land used for the supermarket development at the west end of Shields Road. [135657]
Mr. Woolas: The Shields Road regeneration programme has received £25 million from the Single Regeneration Budget round 2, and ongoing development support of £147,000 from Neighbourhood Renewal Fund.
The Secretary of State holds no information about any planning gain arising from the new supermarket in Shields Road, Newcastle upon Tyne. Any such contributions would normally have been an arrangement between Newcastle upon Tyne city council, as local planning authority, and the supermarket developer. The city council would have been required to place a copy of any agreement of this kind on the public planning register, alongside the decision on the application.
Supporting People Programme
Mr. Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what discussions she has had with her colleagues in HM Treasury on the next three-year spending settlement for the supporting people programme. [136533]
Mr. Woolas: The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government has had and will continue to have wide ranging and regular discussions with the Chancellor and the Chief Secretary about preparations for the 2007 comprehensive spending review.
Mr. Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the measures introduced to deliver greater efficiency savings in the supporting people budget. [136534]
Mr. Woolas: Councils assess the efficiency gains they have achieved by service sector, including supporting people, which they report to the Department through their annual efficiency statements.
Valuation Office
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if she will place in the Library a copy of the Communications Action Plan produced by the Valuation Office Agency for the 2005 non-domestic rates revaluation. [128546]
Mr. Woolas: I refer the hon. Gentleman to the VOA website at:
I have placed in the Library a copy of the Valuation Office Agency's Communications Plan relating to the 2005 revaluation for non-domestic rates.
Wiltshire County Council: Pensions
Robert Key: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the current pension fund deficit is of (a) Wiltshire county council and (b) Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service. [136608]
Mr. Woolas: Wiltshire county council is the responsible local government pension scheme administering authority for its pension fund and for complying with the solvency requirements of the Local Government Pension Scheme Regulations 1997. Information on its current funding is not held centrally.
Pensions for operational firefighters employed by the Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service are provided on a pay-as-you-go basis and, as such, no actual pension fund arrangement exists.
Treasury
Alcoholic Drinks: Death
James Duddridge: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many alcohol-related deaths there were in (a) Southend, (b) Essex, (c) England and (d) the United Kingdom in each year since 1997. [136777]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 14 May 2007:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many alcohol-related deaths there were in (a) Southend, (b) Essex, (c) England and (d) the United Kingdom in each year since 1997. (136777)
The table attached provides the number of deaths with an alcohol-related underlying cause in (a) Southend-on-Sea unitary authority, (b) Essex county, (c) England and (d) the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2005 (the latest year available).
So that comparison over time is for consistent areas, deaths in Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock unitary authorities, which were part of the former County of Essex, have not been included in the figures for Essex for any year.
| Table 1: Number of deaths with an alcohol-related underlying cause of death( 1) , Southend-on-Sea unitary authority, Essex county, England and the United Kingdom( 2) , 1997 to 2005( 3) | |||||||||
| Deaths (persons) | |||||||||
| 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | |
| (1) Cause of death was defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) for the years 1996 to 2000, and Tenth Revision (ICD-10) for 2001 onwards. The specific causes of death categorised as alcohol-related, and their corresponding ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes, are shown in the following boxes. (2) Based on local authority boundaries as of 2007. (3) Figures are for deaths registered in each calendar year. | |||||||||
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