Written Answers to Questions
Monday 12 November 2007
Culture, Media and Sport
Archaeology: Finance
Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what plans he has for funding of the Portable Antiquities Scheme in the period 2008 to 2012; what plans he has to provide support for finds liaison officers; and if he will make a statement. [162101]
Margaret Hodge: The Portable Antiquities Scheme is funded by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA). Therefore, any decisions on its future funding will be taken by the MLA.
David Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much has been allocated to the Portable Antiquities Scheme in each of the financial years to 2011-12; and if he will make a statement. [163593]
Margaret Hodge: The funding for the Portable Antiquities Scheme is a matter for the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. No final decisions have yet been made by the MLA on future funding of the scheme.
David Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent assessment he has made of the performance of the Portable Antiquities Scheme in recording archaeological finds made by members of the public; and if he will make a statement. [163595]
Margaret Hodge: An assessment of MLA’s effectiveness against all the targets set in its Funding Agreement, including those for the Portable Antiquities Scheme, was carried out earlier this year.
The Portable Antiquities Scheme has made a significant contribution to encouraging the reporting of archaeological finds by members of the public.
David Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent discussions he has had with the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council on the future funding of the Portable Antiquities Scheme; and if he will make a statement. [163596]
Margaret Hodge: An assessment of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council's (MLA) effectiveness against all the targets set in its Funding Agreement, including those for the Portable Antiquities Scheme, was carried out earlier this year.
Decisions regarding future funding for the Portable Antiquities Scheme are the responsibility of the MLA.
Community Development
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when the next meeting of the organisations taking part in the Where We Live programme will take place; and whether a representative from his Department will attend. [163517]
Margaret Hodge: The Where We Live programme is now known as Living Places. The programme is delivered through a partnership between the five leading national cultural agencies, the DCMS, the Department for Committee and Local Government and the regional cultural consortiums.
The Living Places Officers Group will meet on Monday 19 November 2007. The Living Places Chief Executives meeting will take place in January 2008 (date to be confirmed). A representative from DCMS is expected to attend both.
Departmental Expenditure
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport at which functions during the last 12 months his Department incurred hospitality expenses and how much has been incurred on each occasion. [162796]
Margaret Hodge: Expenditure on official hospitality is made in accordance with the principles of Government Accounting, the Treasury handbook Regularity and Propriety and the Department's internal guidance on hospitality. The Department's expenditure on official functions during the last year (to October 2007) was £5,970. Details of individual functions are not held centrally and can be identified only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Public Appointments
Mr. Whittingdale: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when he plans to publish the report by Mike Dixon on the appointment of a departmental chief scientific adviser; and if he will make a statement. [163084]
James Purnell: I am due to meet the Government Chief Scientist to discuss Dr. Dixon's report and consider what approach is most appropriate for my Department. I expect to publish the report, alongside our response, in the new year.
Digital Broadcasting: East of England
Mr. Spring: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what the take-up of digital television in (a) Suffolk and (b) the east of England was at the most recent date for which figures are available. [162598]
James Purnell: We do not collect statistics based on Government regions or counties. According to Digital UK/Ofcom figures, take-up for the Anglia region is 77 per cent.
Digital Switchover Help Scheme: East of England
Mr. Spring: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many and what percentage of households he estimates will qualify for assistance in switching over to digital television in (a) Suffolk and (b) the east of England. [162599]
James Purnell: The information is not available in the format requested. We estimate that around 615,000 households in the east of England area will be eligible for assistance from the digital switchover help scheme. Of these, 85,000 eligible households are in Suffolk.
Notes:
1. Eligibility for help from the digital switchover help scheme will be by benefit unit rather than the whole household definition used by the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) the Scottish Executive, the Welsh Assembly Government and the Northern Ireland Office to forecast future household growth. The scheme definition of eligible households mirrors Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) definition of a benefit unit: a couple (which from December 2005 includes gay couples) and any dependent children. It excludes adults deemed to be non-dependents who, if eligible, will be able to claim assistance from the help scheme in their own right.
2. The estimates use data from the Department for Work and Pensions Client Group Analysis for November 2005 adjusted by changes in future household and benefits growth for the period from 2005 until the date switchover takes place in the relevant area.
3. The figures do not include households where the person qualifying for help under the scheme is registered blind or registered partially sighted who qualify on grounds of registration rather than on grounds of age or entitlement to disability benefits.
Television: Licensing
Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (1) how much the TV Licensing authority has taken in fines in (a) 2006, (b) 2005 and (c) 2004; [162691]
(2) how many fines the TV Licensing Authority issued in (a) 2006, (b) 2005 and (c) 2004. [162693]
James Purnell: Fines are issued and collected by the courts, not TV Licensing. According to information reported to the Ministry of Justice (formerly Home Office) court proceedings database, 96,192 persons were fined in 2004 for offences under the Wireless Telegraphy Acts 1949 and 1967 and the Communications Act 2003, the majority of which relate to TV licence evasion. The figure for 2005 was 118,029. The total amount of fines collected is not recorded centrally.
Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport whether the TV Licensing authority is able to estimate the number of people who own a television but do not have a licence. [162692]
James Purnell: The BBC estimates the evasion rate across the UK to be 5.1 per cent. The estimated number of evaders is 1.32 million.
Mr. Gregory Campbell:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many households in each constituency in Northern Ireland were in receipt
of the free television licence for over 75s at the latest date for which figures are available. [163530]
James Purnell: TV Licensing, which administers free television licences for people aged 75 or over as an agent for the BBC, and provide geographical breakdowns of the number of free licences issued. However, the estimated number of households in each constituency in Northern Ireland with at least one person aged 75 or over claiming the winter fuel payment in 2005-06, based on records held by the Northern Ireland Department for Social Development, was as follows:
| Parliamentary constituency | Estimated number of households with at least one person aged 75 or over claiming the winter fuel payment, 2005-06( 1) |
| (1)( )In producing this analysis, individual records were attributed to parliamentary constituencies (PC's) on the basis of their postcode. Not all records can be correctly allocated to a PC using this method. | |
Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many people in Northern Ireland were penalised for not having a valid television licence in (a) 2004, (b) 2005 and (c) 2006. [163531]
James Purnell: The Northern Ireland Court Service only began collecting such data in November 2006 and so the information requested is not available.
Tourism
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what estimate has been made of the value of tourism to the UK economy. [163514]
Margaret Hodge: The UK's tourism industry was worth £85 billion in 2005, representing nearly 3.5 per cent. of the total economy in terms of gross value added. The industry's turnover was made up as follows:
| £ billion | |
VisitBritain: Finance
Mr. Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what the marketing budget for VisitBritain is in 2007-08. [163078]
Margaret Hodge: VisitBritain’s allocation of DCMS grant in aid for 2007-08 is £49.9 million. VisitBritain has told us that it will spend £35.5 million on overseas marketing and the remaining £14.4 million on domestic marketing.
In addition, a further grant of £750,000 was made to VisitBritain in August 2007 for additional marketing support for the domestic tourism industry, following the flooding in July.
Home Department
Community Support Officers: Wales
Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many police community support officers there were in each Welsh police force in each year since they were introduced; [162844]
(2) how many police officers there were in each Welsh police force in each year since 1997. [162845]
Mr. McNulty: The information is shown in the following tables.
| Police officer strength( 1) (FTE)( 2) by police force as at 31 March 1997 to 31 March 2007 | |||||||||||
| 31 March | |||||||||||
| Police force | 1997( 3) | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001( 4) | 2002 | 2003( 5) | 2004( 5) | 2005( 5) | 2006( 5) | 2007( 5) |
| (1) This table contains full-time equivalent figures that have been rounded to the nearest whole number. Because of rounding, there may be an apparent discrepancy between totals and the sums of the constituent items. (2) Full-time equivalent excludes those on career breaks or maternity/paternity leave. (3) Boundary changes on 1 April 1996 transferred resources for the policing of the Rhymney Valley from South Wales Police to Gwent Police. (4) Boundary changes on 1 April 2000 transferred some resources from the Metropolitan Police to Essex, Hertfordshire and Surrey police forces. (5) Comparable strength (excludes those on career breaks, or maternity/paternity leave). The Police Numbers Task Force (2001) recommended that a clear presentation was made of the numbers of staff employed by police forces including those seconded into the force and those on any type of long or short term absence. These new calculations were first used in 2003, and are not comparable with data prior to March 2003. The data from 2003 onwards used here are termed comparable because they have been calculated on the old basis to allow comparison. | |||||||||||
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