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29 Oct 2007 : Column 627Wcontinued
18. Mr. Hands: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what measures he plans to introduce to preserve national heritage. [161016]
Margaret Hodge: The White Paper, Heritage Protection for the 21(st) Century, published in March, set out our proposals for reforming the heritage protection system to ensure we continue to preserve our national heritage. Legislation is required to enact these proposals and we are aiming to publish a draft bill for pre-legislative scrutiny in the Third Session.
19. Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment he has made of trends in the value of funding provided by the Big Lottery Fund in Wirral, South in the last five years. [161017]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The nature of awards made under the Big Lottery Fund means that the amount awarded to individual constituencies can fluctuate markedly from year-to-year. The Big Lottery Fund would be happy to meet my hon. Friend or his constituents to identify ways of generating more successful applications from Wirral, South.
Kelvin Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps he is taking to protect intellectual property rights; and if he will make a statement. [161006]
Margaret Hodge: Policy responsibility for intellectual property rests with the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills. We recognise the importance of a strong and balanced IP system and my Department is working closely with DIUS and stakeholders across Whitehall on a range of issues in relation to intellectual property, including those arising in the development of our Creative Economy Programme and the implementation of the Cowers Reviews recommendations.
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many officials from his Department have attended meetings of the cross-departmental working group on tackling anti-Semitism. [161224]
Mr. Sutcliffe: My Department contributed fully to consideration of the recommendations of the All-Party Inquiry into Anti-Semitism, including attendance by one official at one of the two meetings of the officials working group convened to consider the Governments response, which was published on 29 March 2007 (Cm 7059).
Mr. Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what plans he has to review the allocation and ownership of pitch positions for on course bookmakers. [161397]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The Government have no plans to undertake such a review. The system for allocating pitch list positions is a private matter for racecourses and on-course bookmakers to agree between themselves. The Racecourse Association has indicated that the present pitch lists will be recognised until 2012. Racecourses and bookmakers therefore have five years to negotiate new arrangements, and my Department is playing an active role in facilitating negotiations. The present Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee inquiry into this issue is also allowing all interested parties an opportunity to explain their positions.
Bill Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what discussions he has had with (a) the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and (b) British Waterways on (i) the National Waterways Museum entry fees and (ii) the funding of the Waterways Trust and National Waterways Museum; and if he will make a statement. [160717]
Margaret Hodge: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has had no discussions to date with either my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs or British Waterways on these issues.
My Department will however, be working closely with DEFRA on those elements of the recent Select Committee inquiry on British Waterways which have a bearing on the operations of the National Waterways Museums.
Bill Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what grants (a) his Department, (b) the National Lottery and (c) other public bodies for which his Department is responsible provided to British Waterways in each year since 1997; and if he will make a statement. [161568]
Margaret Hodge: The information requested is as follows:
(a) My Department has not paid any grants to British Waterways
(b) 35 grants with a total award value of £103,310,000 have been awarded by Lottery distributors where the project title or recipient is recorded on the Department's Lottery Grants Database as British Waterways. The Database is searchable at www.lottery.culture.gov.uk and uses information supplied by the Lottery distributors.
(c) Information on grants paid by the non-departmental public bodies for which my Department is responsible is not held centrally.
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many regional creative programmers have been appointed. [161460]
Margaret Hodge: Eight regional creative programmers have been appointed, one for each of the English regions outside of London. London is looking to put in place a framework for developing the Cultural Olympiad on a city-wide basis.
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what departmental assets are planned to be sold in each financial year from 2007-08 to 2010-11; what the (a) description and (b) book value of each such asset is; and what the expected revenue from each such sale is. [160350]
Margaret Hodge:
The Department intends to dispose of one asset in financial year 2007-08. This is described on our asset register as land to the north of
the British Library, Camden, London. It has a net book value of £26.6 million. Anticipated receipts are commercially sensitive. No further asset disposals are planned in financial years 2008-09 to 2010-11.
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what departmental budget items have been reclassified, under consolidated budgeting guidance, following Comprehensive Spending Review 2007 decisions; and what the (a) former and (b) new (i) classification and (ii) sum budgeted is in each case. [160416]
Margaret Hodge: The Department had no budget classification changes following CSR 07.
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what guidance his Department follows on the maximum time taken to respond to hon. Members' correspondence; and what performance against that target was in the most recent period for which figures are available. [158598]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The Cabinet Office publishes guidance for Departments on handling correspondence from Members of Parliament, Members of the House of Lords, MEPs, and Members of devolved Assemblies. Copies are available in the Libraries of the House and it is also available on the Cabinet Office Website at:
The Cabinet Office also publishes, on an annual basis, a report on Departments' and agencies performance on handling Members and Peers correspondence. This includes the target set by each department to reply to hon. Members, the number of letters received and the percentage of replies within target. The last report for 2006 was published by the then Minister for the Cabinet Office my right hon. Friend the Member for North-West Durham (Hilary Armstrong) on 28 March 2007, Official Report, columns 101-04WS.
DCMS takes replies to correspondence very seriously. For the period 1 January 2007 to 30 June 2007, 80.46 per cent. of MPs' and Peers' letters requiring a response were answered to target dates of 20 working days, although we answer more quickly than this wherever possible. In addition, 91 per cent. of our responses to members of the public (6,141 of 6,710 cases) were answered within 20 working days for the same time period.
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport which buildings occupied by his Department (a) are and (b) are not fully accessible to disabled people; and if he will make a statement. [161177]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The Department for Culture, Media and Sport occupies three buildings Cockspur Street, Oceanic House and Queen's Yard. All three buildings are fully accessible to disabled people.
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many websites his Department operates; how many it operated at 1 January 2005; and what the estimated annual cost has been of running his Department's websites in the last five years. [157889]
Margaret Hodge: My Department currently operates 15 websites. On 1 January 2005 it operated eight. In common with other Government Departments, we are involved in rationalising our websites. So far we have closed one site with another scheduled to close on 1 November 2007.
Annual costs summary for the last five years are as follows:
£ | |||
DCMS | Start-up costs | Maintenance costs | Total |
More statistical information about DCMS websites is provided in the National Audit Office publication Government on the internet: progress in delivering information and services online (http://www.nao. org.uk/publications/nao_reports/06-07/0607529.pdf) pp 19,20,24.
Site details of websites 2002-07 are as follows:
Website | URL | Status at 1 September 2007 |
(1) Agora website closed in August 2007. (2) Better Public Building was transferred to CABE in August 2003. (3) Culture Online became self-managing in 2003 and was transferred back to DCMS in 2007. (4) Costs of the Golden Jubilee website were met by the Home Office and later transferred to DCMS. |
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport whether any of his Department's special advisers have declared a conflict of interest. [160785]
Margaret Hodge: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to him by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State on 25 October 2007, Official Report, column 484W.
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