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8 Jan 2008 : Column 363W—continued
Council Tax: Lee Valley
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether council tax precepts issued by the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority are subject to the capping regime. [176189]
John Healey: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 11 December 2007, Official Report, column 540W.
Departmental Data Protection
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what exchanges of personal data have taken place between her Department and local authorities in the last 12 months; and what physical or electronic media were used in each such exchange. [174546]
Mr. Dhanda: Communities and Local Government holds some anonymous and aggregated personal data relating to particular policy areas which is collected by local authorities. These are used to support the monitoring implementation and success of these policies. The data consist of information about individuals' personal attributes and circumstances and reasons for service provision but the individual cannot be identified.
These data are transferred to the Department either using a secure portal or via encrypted discs which are signed for on delivery. Like other Departments, we are currently carrying out a review of arrangements in relation to the sharing and holding of personal data and these specific arrangements will be reviewed as part of that process.
Departmental Standards
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when the strategic objectives for her Department will be published, further to the publication of the Public Service Agreement delivery agreement for her Department. [176176]
Mr. Dhanda: The Department's Departmental Strategic Objectives (DSOS) were published as part of the CSR07 settlement announced on 9 October 2007. They are available via the CLG external website at:
Empty Property: Fires
John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many unoccupied domestic properties in England and Wales were damaged or affected by fire in each of the last five years for which figures are available. [176903]
Mr. Dhanda [holding answer 7 January 2008]: The information requested is in the following table.
| Fires in unoccupied dwellings, England and Wales, 2002-06 | |
| Number | |
| Note: Data for 2006 are provisional. Excludes incidents not recorded during periods of industrial action in 2002 and 03. | |
EU Grants and Loans
Mr. Heathcoat-Amory: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many people employed in her Department work on administering EU structural funds; and what the cost of such staff was in 2006-07. [176044]
Mr. Dhanda: Communities and Local Government employed a division of 28 people in 2006-07 to administer England’s European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) grant programmes. The staff cost for that year was £1.2 million.
The division has been reorganised during 2007-08 and the number of staff employed is currently being reduced.
Fire Services
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many people were (a) on duty and (b) recalled in each fire and rescue service in the 72 hour period commencing 00:00 on 20 July 2007. [176808]
Mr. Dhanda: The information requested is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Fire Services: Contracts
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what minimum contractual periods are contained within the contracts for the (a) FireControl and (b) Firelink projects; and whether the contracts allow for early termination of the agreements. [176602]
Mr. Dhanda: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 12 December 2007, Official Report, columns 683-84W.
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the timetable is for contracts to be finalised for the (a) FireControl and (b) Firelink projects. [176609]
Mr. Dhanda: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 12 December 2007, Official Report, column 683W.
Fire Services: Risk Assessment
John McDonnell:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many project risks are listed for the (a) FireLink and (b)
FireControl project; how many of these risks are rated as high or above; and what the risks rated as high or above are. [175564]
Mr. Dhanda [holding answer 7 January 2008]: There are 76 project risks on the Firelink Risk Register, of which some 20 per cent. are rated high or above. These risks are actively managed and mitigated in order to reduce their impact ratings. They fall into the following broad areas:
Contractor performance;
User acceptance;
Technical integration with other projects;
The ability of emergency services to develop joint procedures to maximise the potential of the network;
Sufficiency of network capacity;
Operational continuity of legacy systems until rollout of the whole programme is complete, and
continuity in consultancy support and capabilities.
There are 130 project risks on the FiReControl Risk Register, of which some 6 per cent. are rated high or above. These risks are actively managed and mitigated in order to reduce their impact ratings. They fall into the following broad areas:
Local/regional resource capacity/capability
Strategic change/impacts
Technical integration with other projects
Contractor performance
User acceptance.
Fires: Chemicals
Mr. Jenkin: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when her Department decided to consider whether to amend its guidance on the handling of fires involving oxyacetylene; what consultants have been employed on the matter; and when revised guidance will be published. [175986]
Mr. Dhanda: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given today (PQ175548).
Mr. Jenkin: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether she plans to amend guidance to fire authorities on the handling of fires involving oxyacetylene; and if she will make a statement. [175548]
Mr. Dhanda: There are no plans to amend the current guidance to fire authorities on the handling of fires involving acetylene.
Mr. Jenkin: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when her Department began recording fires involving oxyacetylene as fires of special interest; and how many such fires have been recorded. [175555]
Mr. Dhanda: Communities and Local Government started to record reported incidents involving acetylene during March 2007, 30 incidents have been recorded to date.
Mr. Jenkin: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what research her Department has commissioned on the most effective ways of handling fires involving oxyacetylene. [175556]
Mr. Dhanda: In February 2007, Communities and Local Government published a review of research carried out in investigating how acetylene cylinders involved in a fire are dealt with by fire services around the world and in identifying gaps in existing knowledge. This review is published on the Department's website at:
Greater London Authority: Buildings
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate she has made of the financial liability the public purse will bear for the cost of City Hall at the end of the 25 year lease signed by the then Secretary of State for Environment, Transport and the Regions. [176737]
Mr. Dhanda: The Government have not made any estimate of the financial liability the public purse will have for the cost of City Hall at the end of the 25 year lease. Responsibility for the City Hall lease was transferred from the Secretary of State to the Greater London Authority in 2004.
Green Belt: South East Region
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what recommendations on (a) review and (b) removal of green belt designations have been made in the panel reports on the regional spatial strategies for the (a) South East and (b) East Midlands. [174539]
Mr. Dhanda: A summary of the policies in the draft South East and East Midlands RSSs and Panel Reports relating to the reviews of green belts are as follows:
Policy CCl0a, states that the existing green belt in the region will be retained and supported and the opportunity should be taken to improve their land-use management and access as part of initiatives to improve urban rural fringe. If there are any cases for small scale local review, these can be pursued through LDF process.
The panel report into the East Midlands regional spatial strategy, published on 28 November 2007 stated that the existing green belt which currently encircles Nottingham should be recast to protect only the area between Nottingham and Derby and therefore to remove areas north, east and south of Nottingham from the green belt. In reaching this conclusion the panel took into account the purposes and objectives of green belt in PPG2 and also the pressures for growth in and around the Nottingham conurbation.
Housing: Carbon Emissions
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what records her Department keeps of the number and location of zero carbon homes. [176171]
Mr. Iain Wright: The Government do not currently keep records of individual homes built to a zero carbon standard.
However, the Government are committed to making it mandatory for all new homes to have a rating against the Code for Sustainable Homes. Once this comes into force all code certificates which are issued will be logged on a central database and will indicate where homes have achieved the zero carbon standards and the location of those homes. Access to and use of this data is subject to existing data protection safeguards.
Local Authorities: Standards
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what changes have been made to best value performance indicators in the last three years in relation to recording and measuring user satisfaction with local authorities. [176165]
John Healey: Within the set of best value performance indicators, there are currently 12 indicators that are used to measure resident and user satisfaction. There were no changes to these best value performance indicators between 2003 and 2006.
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether the Electoral Commission's proposed 13 performance indicators for local authority electoral registration departments will be in addition to the new 198 performance indicators for local authorities. [176200]
John Healey: The 198 national indicators announced on 11 October will be the only ones against which central Government will require local government, working on its own or in partnership, to report. The Electoral Commission is independent of central Government and has statutory powers to set performance standards for electoral registration officers and has consulted on a number of possible indicators on electoral registration which would be in addition to the Government's 198 national indicators.
The Government are committed to reducing the performance reporting and data collection burdens faced by local authorities. We will be working with the Electoral Commission as their proposals are developed and implemented to see how the exercise of the Commission's statutory powers could best be aligned with the Government's wider aims in this respect.
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the timetable is for publishing (a) draft and (b) final best value performance indicator data for each local authority for 2006-07. [176746]
John Healey: Each local authority is required to publish data on its performance against best value performance indicators (BVPIs) as part of its best value performance plan (BVPP). Outturn data for 2006-07 were included in 2007-08 BVPPs, which authorities were required to publish by 30 June 2007. BVPI data published in BVPPs are audited by the Audit Commission, which makes the final audited data available on its website. Audited data for 2006-07 were published at http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/performance/dataprovision.asp on 11 December 2007.
Local Government Finance
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what proportion of local government revenue expenditure will be locally financed in (a) 2007-08 and (b) 2008-09. [176228]
John Healey: In 2007-08, local authorities in England have planned to finance 25 per cent. of their revenue expenditure through council tax. Data for 2008-09 are not yet available.
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government which specific grants to local government will (a) no longer be and (b) remain ring fenced. [176241]
John Healey: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 18 December 2007, Official Report, columns 1331-32W.
The following specific revenue grants will remain ring fenced:
AIDS Support
Aiming High for Disabled Children
Animal Health and Welfare Enforcement
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