| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
8 Jan 2008 : Column 369W—continued
Basic Command Units
Bus Challenge and Kickstart
City Challenge
Contact Point(1)
Counter Terrorism
Crime Fighting Fund
Dedicated Schools Grant
Early Years: Increasing Flexibility of Entitlement for 3-4 year olds
eCommon Assessment Framework
Ethnic Minority Achievement
Extended Schools—Academic Focused Study Support
Extended Schools—Subsidy
Extended Schools—Sustainability
Initial Police Learning and Development Programme
Learning Disability Campus Closure Programme
Making Good Progress
Music Grant
Neighbourhood Policing Fund and Community Support Officers
Parenting Practitioner Grant
Playing for Success
School Development Grant
School Lunch Grant
Social Care Reform
Supporting People(2)
Sure Start, Early Years and Childcare
Targeted Mental Health in Schools Grant
Targeted Support for Primary and Secondary Strategy
Urban Congestion
Waste Management Pilots
Youth Opportunity Fund
(1 )The Department for Children, Schools and Families aim to include Contact Point in Area Based Grant from 2010-11. Area Based Grant is not ring fenced.
(2) Communities and Local Government aim to include Supporting People programme grant in Area Based Grant from 2009-10, dependent on pilots in 2008-09 not raising serious concerns.
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether councils with above-average collection rates for (a) council tax and (b) business rates receive additional revenue as a consequence. [176615]
John Healey: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 18 December 2007, Official Report, column 1332W.
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what proportion of the £5 billion of reduction in ring-fenced and specific grants by 2010-11 will be re-allocated to (a) Revenue Support Grant and (b) Area-Based Grant. [176623]
John Healey: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 13 December 2007, Official Report, column 899W.
Milton Keynes Partnerships: Public Appointments
Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the (a) procedures and (b) timetable are for the appointment of the new Chairman of Milton Keynes Partnerships. [175606]
Mr. Iain Wright [holding answer 7 January 2008]: The new independent chairman of the Milton Keynes Partnership will be appointed on merit following fair and open competition.
Although the chairman is not one of the appointments that the Commissioner for Public Appointments regulates, the appointments procedure will follow the principles set out in the Commissioner’s Code of Practice.
The timetable to recruit a successor to the current chairman, Sir Bob Reid, will commence shortly and the aim is to have a new chairman in post by June 2008.
Neighbourhood Wardens: Finance
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many of the 210 local authorities which received central Government funding for community/neighbourhood wardens are still funding the warden schemes. [176754]
John Healey: I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave on 12 December 2007, Official Report, column 685W.
Neighbourhood Wardens: Young People
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) how much funding is being provided to local authorities to run junior neighbourhood wardens in 2007-08; [176750]
(2) what guidance has been given to local authorities on setting up junior neighbourhood wardens schemes; [176748]
(3) what police and school records children must have in order to be eligible to become a junior neighbourhood warden; [176743]
(4) what the recommended minimum age is at which an individual can become a junior neighbourhood warden. [176741]
John Healey: Junior warden schemes have developed in some areas as part of existing neighbourhood warden initiatives.
Funding for warden schemes has now been pooled within area based grants. Local authorities now have flexibility to spend these resources in whatever way they see fit to deliver their local area agreement outcomes. Information is not collected at the centre about the number and type of schemes that are being supported through area based grants.
Communities and Local Government (CLG) has not issued specific guidance on how junior warden schemes should be set up and managed, however the action plan for community empowerment, which CLG published jointly with the Local Government Association in October 2007, included a case study of the Rochdale junior warden scheme, illustrating how young people can make a positive contribution to their communities.
Opinion Leader Research
Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many contracts were awarded by her Department to Opinion Leader Research in each year since 1997; and in respect of each what was (a) the title and purpose, (b) the cost to the public purse and (c) the date of (i) tender, (ii) award, (iii) operation and (iv) completion and report to the Department. [165262]
Hazel Blears: The Department's financial systems show that no contracts for projects have been entered into with Opinion Leader Research (OLR) since May 2002. Records prior to that could be recovered only at disproportionate cost.
My Department recently arranged through the Central Office of Information (COI) for OLR to organise two citizens' juries, which took place on 10 and 11 December 2007 in London and Hull. This was a joint project between the Department for Communities and Local Government, and the Department for Innovation Universities and Skills. The purpose of the citizens' juries was to explore how the provision of English for Speakers of Other Languages can be focused to reach those areas and people in the greatest need, and how it can support community cohesion. The final cost, to be shared between the two Departments, will be about £78,000. COI went out to tender on 8 November 2007. OLR was selected as the preferred contractor on 16 November and awarded the contract on 30 November. OLR is due to make a final report at the end of January 2008.
Planning Permission: Public Buildings
Mr. Pickles:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what planning applications her Department has submitted on requests for planning permission on its departmental properties
in the last 12 months; for what buildings; and for what purpose. [176587]
Mr. Dhanda: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 11 December 2007, Official Report, column 554W.
Public Bodies: Data Protection
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what research her Department has (a) undertaken and (b) commissioned on the development of XML Schema for the sharing of data between public authorities. [176591]
Mr. Dhanda: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 18 December 2007, Official Report, column 1342W.
Regional Government: Ministers
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether her Department is the lead department co-ordinating the work of regional Ministers. [176226]
Mr. Dhanda: The network of regional Ministers operates under the joint chairmanship of the Secretaries of State for Communities and Local Government, and Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform; with officials from these departments providing a secretariat. The Network has regular meetings to discuss their work.
Regional Planning and Development: Finance
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much funding her Department has provided to each of the Regional Centres of Excellence and Regional Improvement Partnerships. [176757]
John Healey: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 17 December 2007, Official Report, column 1158W.
Regional Planning and Development: Standards
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many (a) indicators and (b) targets will be contained within each local area agreement; and whether these will be in addition to national indicators. [176192]
John Healey: A local area agreement can include any number of targets. A maximum of 35 targets will be negotiated with Government and become ‘designated’ by the Secretary of State. Designated targets will be subject to separate reporting requirements and different procedures should they need to be revised during the life of the LAA. The national indicators are not themselves included as part of the local area agreement, but each designated target will be set against one of the 198 national indicators.
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Agricultural Products: Exports
Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what guidance is available to farmers on the rules on the export of agricultural products to (a) EU and (b) non-EU countries; and if he will make a statement; [174438]
(2) what guidance is available to farmers on the rules on the movement of livestock in restricted areas; and if he will make a statement. [174439]
Jonathan Shaw: A large amount of guidance for farmers on the export of agricultural products and livestock movements is available on the DEFRA website and from local animal health divisional offices.
Agriculture: Subsidies
Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what effect there was on the level of expenditure on single farm payments made by the Rural Payments Agency in 2006-07 from the resizing of fields. [173857]
Jonathan Shaw: Payments are determined by the entitlements held by a customer which were based on the land area established and claimed in 2005. Therefore any increase in the size of a field would not change the expenditure unless the customer had sufficient entitlements to activate any claim on the increased area. During 2005 and 2006 the Rural Land Register was subject to a process of validation which in some cases resulted in field sizes changing. Where this impacted on individual claims, a process of reworking is under way, designed, where appropriate, to correct the land area and the number of entitlements established. Increase in land area may result in individual farmers being able to activate more entitlements. Effects on the level of expenditure of single payment scheme payments in 2006-07 cannot be determined until the evaluation of reworked cases, currently under way, is completed.
Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what discussions he has had with the Rural Payments Agency on making faster single farm payments to farmers who have been affected by the recent flooding; and if he will make a statement. [174275]
Jonathan Shaw: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State and my noble and right hon. Friend Lord Rooker have regular meetings the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) chief executive, during which they confirmed then their support for the significant efforts being made by the Agency, in relation to the 2007 Single Payment Scheme, to make more full payments, to more farmers, earlier than under the 2006 scheme. The announcement by RPA on 10 December, that live testing of the payments system was under way, is an encouraging sign that the Agency is on track to meet its formal targets of making 75 per cent. of full 2007 scheme payments, by value, by the end of March and 90 per cent. by end of May 2008.
Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how the amounts paid to farmers under the single farm payment scheme have been calculated; and if he will make a statement. [174276]
Jonathan Shaw: The annual payments made to English farmers under the Single Payment Scheme (SPS) are based on the total value of the entitlements on which a valid claim is made, with adjustments then made to reflect the application of reductions such as modulation and penalties for breaches of eligibility or cross-compliance rules.
The number of entitlements allocated to English farmers is in turn based on the number of eligible hectares that they declared on their application form under the 2005 SPS. The value of those entitlements under the 2005 scheme was calculated in two parts. First a flat rate per entitlement was established by dividing the total number of entitlements created in each English area into a sum representing 10 per cent. of the available funds. The remaining 90 per cent. of the available funds was then used to fund an individual reference amount for each farmer based on historic subsidy receipts. The value of each entitlement will be adjusted each year until 2012 to allocate a higher percentage of available funds to calculate the flat rate value. By 2012, the entire value of each entitlement will be based on a common flat rate amount in each area. Farmers may use the '2007 Entitlements Calculator' on the RPA website (www.rpa.gov.uk) to assist in the calculation of an approximate value of their entitlements for the 2007 scheme.
Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much the Government have paid in fines to the EU as a result of late payments made under the single farm payment scheme for 2005; what fines he expects the Government to have to make for late payments arising from 2006; and if he will make a statement. [174277]
Jonathan Shaw: DEFRA has included accruals totalling £63 million in its 2006-07 resource accounts in respect of late payment penalties imposed for SPS 2005, which has now been paid. A further £7 million was noted as a contingent liability in those resource accounts but no further amounts have been paid.
There will be no late payment penalties for SPS2006 as the Rural Payments Agency met the EC target of making 96.154 per cent. of payments by 30 June 2007.
Richard Younger-Ross: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent progress the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) has made in administering the single farm payment scheme (SPS); and whether the RPA has cleared all the claims that needed to be revisited for SPS 2005 and 2006 where errors had been generated. [174287]
Jonathan Shaw: I refer the hon. Member to the statement made by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State on 18 December 2007, Official Report, column 107WS.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |