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21 Nov 2007 : Column 880W—continued


Departmental Manpower

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) how many reports have been made to her Department's nominated officers under paragraph 16 of the revised Civil Service Code since its publication on 6 June 2006; [162474]

(2) how many allegations of victimisation for whistleblowing have been reported to her Department by departmental staff since 6 June 2006; [162475]

(3) when her Department’s whistleblowing procedures were reviewed to reflect the provisions in the revised Civil Service Code. [162476]

Mr. Dhanda: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my hon. Friend the Member for Lincoln (Gillian Merron) on 19 November 2007, Official Report, column 596W.

Mr. Walker: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the full-time equivalent headcount in her Department is; what the forecast full-time equivalent headcount for her Department is for (a) 2008-09 and (b) 2009-10; and if she will make a statement. [163986]

Mr. Dhanda: The full-time equivalent staffing levels for the Department for Communities and Local Government, are published by the Office of National Statistics at:

The Departmental business planning process is not yet complete and so future year forecasts are not yet available.

Fire Services: Freedom of Information

Andrew Stunell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many Freedom of Information requests her Department has received on fire control centres; from whom the requests came; and how many received responses. [165915]

Mr. Dhanda: We have received 15 Freedom of Information requests relating to the FiReControl project since 1 January 2005. Details of who made the requests is shown in the following table. This includes eight from FBU officials, two from Gloucestershire county council, one from an FRS employee, three from journalists and one person who did not specify their connection to any organisation.

The responses to all 15 requests are available on the FiReControl website and a copy of these will also be placed in the House Library.


21 Nov 2007 : Column 881W

21 Nov 2007 : Column 882W
FOI No. Date of letter From Organisation Subject Release date

F000135

30 December 2004

Nigel Roberts

Gloucestershire County Council

Gloucs Tri-Service

3 February 2005

F000132

4 January 2005

Name withheld (1)

Not specified

Decision making process for SW Region

2 February 2005

F001022

4 January 2005

Viv Horton

FRS

Location - YH RCC

11 January 2005

F001061

13 January 2005

Duncan Little

ITV1 West Country

Bids/Criteria/PFI/Staff/Costs-SW

9 February 2005

F001094

4 February 2005

Andrew Cooper

FBU

Costs

4 March 2005

F001103

6 February 2005

Jean Westwood

FBU

Sites/Costs

14 April 2005

F001122

10 February 2005

Mike Hill

Lancashire Evening Post

Risk Assessment

14 March 2005

F001163

7 March 2005

Andrew Cooper

FBU

Costs of PA consultants

7 April 2005

F001164

5 March 2005

Andrew Cooper

FBU

Forecast Expenditure

4 April 2005

F001168

7 March 2005

John Drake

FBU

Spend on Consultants

7 April 2005

F001194

16 March 2005

Nigel Roberts

Gloucestershire County Council

Gloucs Tri-Service

6 May 2005

F001314

24 June 2005

Paul Watts

FBU

Consultants Fees

5 August 2005

F001534

25 January 2006

Paul Watts

FBU

Costs breakdown

20 February 2006

F001772

18 July 2006

Ben Norman

Exeter Express and Echo

Costs - SW

16 August 2006

F001850

6 September 2006

Paul Watts

FBU

Costs

4 October 2006

(1 )Name withheld as this may well be a private person acting in his private capacity, and as such releasing his name is could breach one or more the data protection principles in the Data Protection Act 1998. This consideration does not apply with equal force to the other names in the table since they are asking on behalf of the organisations that they represent, and not as private individuals.

Fire Services: Pensions

Mr. Truswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what representations she has received on the effects on previously retired firefighters of the amended guidance on the ill health benefits of the Firefighters Pension scheme; and if she will review the guidance in the light of these representations. [164489]

Mr. Dhanda: Representations have been received from the Fire Brigades Union, the Fire Officers Association, the Retained Firefighters’ Union and the Association of Principal Fire Officers and several other representative organisations about the arrangements for ill-health retirements under the Firefighters’ Pension scheme. The issues raised are being considered so that we can be satisfied that the provisions and their associated informal guidance are operating effectively.

Housing: Carbon Emissions

Dr. Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment she has made of the impact on housing policy of Government proposals to move towards a lower carbon national grid. [162664]

Mr. Iain Wright: The Department works closely with the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform to ensure that the impacts on housing policy of proposals on energy policy, and vice versa, are identified and considered. For example, delivery of our ambitious and world leading policy for all new homes to be zero carbon from 2016 will depend on use of renewable and low carbon energy.

Housing: Construction

Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many house building starts there were in each of the last 24 months; and if she will make a statement. [165779]

Mr. Iain Wright: Figures on new build are only available centrally on a quarterly basis and are presented as follows:

New build starts by quarter, Oct ober 2005 to September 2007, England
Quarter Starts

2005

October-December

46,037

2006

January-March

47,236

April-June

44,114

July-September

40,940

October-December

46,202

2007

January-March

42,815

April-June

40,149

July-September

42,596

Source:
New build completions from P2 returns submitted by local authorities and National House Building Council (NHBC)

Housing: Energy

Mr. Whittingdale: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many qualified domestic energy assessors need to be in place in (a) England, (b) Essex and (c) the Maldon district to allow a full roll-out of the Energy Performance Certificate scheme. [163087]

Yvette Cooper: The implementation update published on 11 June set out the criteria for roll-out of further phases of home information packs.

Housing: Leeds

John Battle: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many new homes have been built within the Leeds, West constituency in each year since 1997. [166274]

Mr. Iain Wright: The Department does not have data on house building below local authority level. New build completions as reported by Leeds city council for the metropolitan district as a whole are provided in the following table:


21 Nov 2007 : Column 883W
Number

1997-98

1,454

1998-99

1,744

1999-2000

1,952

2000-01

1,984

2001-02

1,928

2002-03

2,002

2003-04

2,948

2004-05

3,123

2005-06

3,229

2006/07

2,685

Source:
P2 returns as reported by the National House-Building Council and Leeds City Council

John Battle: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment she has made of the levels of overcrowding in Leeds, West constituency; and if she will make a statement. [166275]

Mr. Iain Wright: The Department does not have information on the level of overcrowding for areas below Government office regions. The Department’s Survey of English Housing shows that in 2003-04 to 2005-06, there were 30,000 overcrowded households in Yorkshire and the Humber, representing a rate of overcrowding of 1.4 per cent., compared to 2.5 per cent. for England.

Overcrowding is a difficult issue that cannot be treated in isolation from other kinds of housing pressure. We recognise that it is unacceptable that children are growing up in overcrowded households and are committed to ensuring that we have a way to help these households that does not impact adversely on other issues of housing need.

We are committed to updating the current statutory standards for overcrowding and have already taken legislative powers in the Housing Act 2004 to enable us to do so.

Most of the 2006-08 National Affordable Housing Programme in Leeds was directed towards family homes rather than one and two person flats.

Housing: Low Incomes

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what public expenditure has been made on affordable housing in the West Midlands in the last 12 months. [162778]

Yvette Cooper [holding answer 12 November 2007]: Housing Corporation expenditure through their affordable housing programme in the West Midlands region for 2006-07 totalled £98 million.

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what her assessment is of the level of affordable housing which will need to be included overall in any planning applications to satisfy the level of assessed need in the South East over the next 10 years. [165951]


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