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10 Dec 2007 : Column 101W—continued

Data Protection

Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what steps have been taken to establish dark tunnel transfer of sensitive data between Government Departments, agencies and non-departmental public bodies. [168612]

Gillian Merron: Government Departments and a number of their agencies and non-departmental public bodies have access to the Government Secure Intranet (Gsi); x-Gsi and the Intelligence Management Network for electronic communication among themselves.

Iraq Conflict

Mr. Keith Simpson: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how many studies by the Cabinet Office have been (a) started and (b) completed into the Iraq war and lessons learnt; and if he will place copies of each in the Library. [169783]

Edward Miliband: This is a matter for the Ministry of Defence. I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to him on 19 November 2007, Official Report, column 480W, by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence.

Millennium Volunteers Programme

Greg Clark: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster pursuant to the answer of 5 December 2007, Official Report, column 849W, on the Millennium
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Volunteers programme, which of the first 18 organisations listed (a) did not make an application and (b) were unsuccessful at the expression of interest stage. [172645]

Phil Hope: The organisations that did not submit an application are:

The following organisations were unsuccessful in applying for funding at expression of interest stage:

Culture, Media and Sport

Licensing Act: Town Centres

10. Anne Milton: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment he has made of the effect of the Licensing Act 2003 on town centres. [172206]

James Purnell: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave earlier.

15. Mr. Mackay: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment he has made of the effect of the Licensing Act 2003 on town centres. [172211]

James Purnell: I refer the right hon. Member to the answer I gave earlier.

Access to the Arts

11. Christine Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps he is taking to improve access for young people to arts and culture. [172207]

James Purnell: We are committed to giving young people access to high quality cultural activities.

We continue to make significant investment in this area. For example, the Government recently announced a total investment of £332 million in school music over the next three years.


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Building on this, in the forthcoming Children's Plan we will set out the steps we will take to give all young people access to five hours of culture a week, in and out of the curriculum.

Licensing Act 2003

12. Mr. Robathan: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment he has made of the effects of the Licensing Act 2003. [172208]

James Purnell: As the Prime Minister reiterated in July, we are monitoring and reviewing the impact of the Act and have been since it came into force. We expect to complete an evaluation of the impact of the Act in the new year.

Gambling

13. Mr. David Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment his Department has made of the effects of internet gaming on problem gambling. [172209]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The British Gambling Prevalence Survey 2007 found that 6 per cent. of the adult population has used the internet to gamble in the last year and the total level of problem gambling remains at 0.6 per cent. The Gambling Commission is commissioning further analysis of these findings. I have also asked it to undertake a review of the level of funding and structures for problem gambling research, education and treatment.

Seaside Towns

14. Mr. Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will make a statement on Government policy on heritage and regeneration in seaside towns. [172210]

Margaret Hodge: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced a new funding programme for coastal resorts last week.

This will see £45 million of investment over three years to help regeneration through heritage and culture.

Commonwealth Games: Glasgow

16. John Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what support he will provide for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. [172212]

Mr. Sutcliffe: We are committed to working with the organising company and the Scottish Executive to ensure a successful Commonwealth games in 2014. The UK Government have already provided a number of guarantees to the bid team including agreement in principle to a ban on unauthorised ticket resale for the games to extend to England and Wales.

The Secretary of State has also proposed a regular quadripartite meeting between representatives of the UK Government and the bid partners with a view to determining how the UK Government can offer support to the Glasgow games in reserved policy areas included in the bid document.


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Live Music

17. Mr. Whittingdale: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment he has made of the effects of the Licensing Act 2003 on the performance of live music. [172213]

Mr. Sutcliffe: My Department established the Live Music Forum in 2004 to assess, among other things, the impact of the Licensing Act 2003 on the performance of live music. In its report and recommendations, published in July 2007, the forum concluded that the impact of the Act had been broadly neutral. The results of the second stage of our own research study into the current provision of live music will be published on the Department's website later this month.

Community Regeneration

18. Mr. Allen: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what discussions he has had with Sport England on the contribution of sport to community regeneration; and if he will make a statement. [172214]

Mr. Sutcliffe: I have had no specific discussions with Sport England on this subject.

However I have recently discussed with them how they will develop a new strategy to become more focused on building a world class community sports infrastructure through excellent clubs, coaches and volunteers for all.

Sport is a key player in a number of areas of community social regeneration. Sports projects can have a significant impact by breaking down barriers and providing positive opportunities for people to mix with others. Sport can also help reduce crime and antisocial behaviour; and increase peoples' levels of trust and community involvement.

Mountaineering

19. John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what financial and other support his Department provides to British mountaineering. [172215]

Mr. Sutcliffe: Between 2005-08, Sport England will have invested almost £635,000 of Lottery and Exchequer funding in the British Mountaineering Council, the national governing body for mountaineering.

In addition, Sport England provides over £1 million per annum towards the Plas-y-Brenin National Mountain Centre in Wales, one of its five national sports centres across the UK; and over £20,000 per annum to the British Mountaineering Council as a management fee for the operation of Harrisons Rocks in Kent.

UK Sport has also given over £145,000 in funding to British mountaineering during 2005-08 to contribute to expeditions and the Mountain Leaders Training UK.


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Video Games

20. Paul Rowen: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will review the classification system of video games with a view to bringing forward proposals for its improvement. [172216]

Margaret Hodge: Dr. Tanya Byron is currently conducting a review into children's access to potentially harmful or inappropriate content on the internet and in video games.

This review will assess the effectiveness and adequacy of existing measures in place and make recommendations for improvements or additional action.

Consideration of any need to review the existing classification system will await Dr. Byron's recommendations, which are expected in March next year. We would not want to prejudge those recommendations.

Anti-Semitism

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport which Ministers from his Department attended the cross-Government working group on anti-Semitism on 11 October; and if he will make a statement. [172410]

Mr. Sutcliffe: No Ministers attended the meeting on 11 October 2007.

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many officials from his Department attended the cross-government working group on anti-Semitism on 11 October, broken down by grade; and if he will make a statement. [172409]

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 Government’s response, which was published on 29 March 2007 (Cm 7059). No officials attended the meeting on 11 October 2007.

Arts: Finance

Mr. Vaizey: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport with reference to his answer to the hon. Member for South-West Surrey (Mr. Hunt) of 23 October 2007, Official Report, columns 204-06W, on arts: finance, how the total figures allocated for spending on (a) the arts and (b) heritage by his Department are calculated. [171784]

Margaret Hodge: The figures provided in answer to the hon. Member for South-West Surrey’s (Mr. Hunt) parliamentary question were extracted from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Audited Appropriation Accounts and Resource Accounts for
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the years in question. Using the Voted Parliamentary Estimate lines we consolidated the data under the specific headings and then adjusted them to 2007-08 prices using the GDP deflators provided by HM Treasury.

Departmental Manpower

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many and what proportion of posts in his Department were recategorised from back office to frontline posts as classified by the Gershon efficiency review in each year since 2004. [172250]

Mr. Sutcliffe: DCMS is committed to achieving work force reductions of 27 posts by the end of 2007-08. This is a net target and no posts will be reallocated to the frontline as part of it.

Departmental Marketing

Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will place in the Library a copy of the guidelines issued to staff maintaining his Department’s and its agencies’ corporate identity; and what the estimated annual cost is of (a) producing and (b) complying with such guidelines. [170237]

Mr. Sutcliffe: DCMS does not produce new editions of its guidelines annually so there are no such costs.

The Department has 0.5 full-time equivalent staff responsible for brand management and marketing at an annual cost of £13,000.

The Department will deposit a copy of its guidelines in the Library.

Departmental Procurement

Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport whether the standard terms and conditions of purchase used by his Department in procurement of goods and services from the private sector prohibit the assignment of debt. [172322]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The DCMS when using standard terms and conditions in the procurement of goods and services from the private sector includes a standard clause that prohibits the assignment of debt.

Departmental Reviews

Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what (a) reviews, (b) consultations and (c) taskforces his Department is (i) responsible for and (ii) scheduled to undertake; on what date each (A) started and (B) is expected to be completed; and what the purpose is of each. [169500]

Margaret Hodge: Details of current and scheduled consultations, reviews and taskforces in my Department are summarised in the following table.

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