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7 Feb 2008 : Column 1303W—continued
“a sporting event or fixture where pupils from two or more schools compete against each other. Pupils are usually selected by their school to compete as individuals or as part of a team. Common examples include matches in sports such as basketball, hockey and cricket; district athletics championships; cross country championships; area swimming/aquatic galas; and 5-a-side football tournaments.”
A copy of the guide ‘High Quality PE and Sport for Young People’ has been placed in the House Libraries.
Sports: Learning Disability
Helen Southworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will take steps to improve opportunities for adults and children with a learning disability to (a) participate in sport and (b) develop their skills to enable them to achieve their sporting potential. [184332]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Sport England is currently developing a new strategy to focus on how it can build a world class community sports infrastructure through excellent clubs, coaches and volunteers for all. The new strategy will consider how participation of under-represented groups, including those with disabilities can be increased.
By developing an excellent community sports infrastructure Sport England will be better able to sustain and increase participation in all age groups and across a wide range of sports, and allow everyone to develop their sporting talents and fulfil their potential.
DCMS and DCSF are investing an additional £100 million into PE and school sport over the next three years to offer children aged 5-16 five hours of PE and sport each week; and three hours to young people aged 16-19. Part of this will fund the establishment of a network of multi-skills clubs for children with disabilities across all of the School Sport Partnerships.
Water Sports: Finance
Dr. Richard Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much has been spent on the sport of canoeing in the last five years. [184245]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Funding allocated to the sport of canoeing through Sport England and UK Sport in the last five years totalled £17,822,013 and is detailed in the table:
| £ | ||
| Sport England | UK Sport | |
Communities and Local Government
Bedfordshire
Margaret Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much funding her Department allocated to (a) Luton, (b) Caddington parish, (c) Slip End parish and (d) East Hyde parish in each year since 1997; and what the purpose of the funding was in each case. [184224]
John Healey: The following table sets out the funding made available by the Department to Luton borough council since 2002-03.
| £ million | |||||||
| 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | Total | |
| (1) Total allocation for the Growth Area Programme since 2003-04 is £26.924 million. This cannot be easily split by year. The allocation is for pump-priming housing projects for local areas. (2) From 2006-07 Revenue Support Grants were reduced due to the transfer of funding to the Department for Children, Schools and Families for Dedicated School Grant. | |||||||
The majority of the funding in each year comprises Revenue Support Grant and National Non Domestic Rates payments which accounted for £814 million in total (90 per cent.). Since 1989, business rates collected by local authorities have been pooled nationally and redistributed by the Department to individual local authorities. Non Domestic Rates and Revenue Support Grant provide the main source of revenue funding for local authorities, neither is hypothecated (designated) for a particular service—they support all core services.
For the parishes of Caddington, Slip End and East Hyde, no direct payments by this Department have been identified since 2002-03.
Information on funding prior to 2002-03 could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Coastal Erosion
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) how much she (a) has given in the last three financial years and (b) plans to give in the next three financial years to local authorities in (i) Essex and (ii) England to restore cliff slippages that threaten (A) rail and (B) road links; what recent representations she has received on this issue; and if she will make a statement; [174072]
(2) under what legislation she has power to fund local authorities to restore cliff slippages that threaten (a) rail and (b) road links; and if she will make a statement; [174073]
(3) what recent (a) meetings she has had with and (b) representations she has received from Southend borough council on cliff slippages that threaten (i) rail and (ii) road links; what the (A) location and (B) duration was of each meeting; whether a record of each meeting was kept; who attended each meeting; and if she will make a statement; [174074]
(4) what research has been (a) commissioned and (b) evaluated by her Department on cliff slippages that threaten (i) rail and (ii) road links; and if she will make a statement; [174075]
(5) what discussions she (a) has had in the last 12 months and (b) plans to have in the next 12 months with other Departments to discuss cliff slippage in Southend; and if she will make a statement. [174076]
Ms Rosie Winterton: I have been asked to reply.
The Department for Transport provided £1 million funding to Southend borough council in January 2008 for highway repairs to prevent damage occurring to rail and road links from a cliff slippage. The Department of Transport met with officials from the authority and their consultant prior to the submission of a business case by the authority seeking this funding. No record was made of the meeting which took place in Southend.
The funding for this highway maintenance scheme will be provided under Section 31 of Local Government Act 2003.
The Department has not conducted any specific research on cliff slippages that threaten rail and road links. The Highway Agency have supported research on chalk cliff stability and are aware of current research on this subject being conducted by Brighton University through
the INTERREG ‘Inform’ project. This knowledge is being used to assist trunk road maintenance plans and the development of road schemes.
Southend borough council has raised cliff stabilisation issues in the borough with the Department for Communities and Local Government in the context of the Thames Gateway programme and in respect of the regeneration plans for the area. Government resilience policy for events which result from incidents of instability are a matter for the Department for Communities and Local Government.
We have not had any other discussions on cliff slippages in Southend with other Departments in the last 12 months and none are planned in the next 12 months.
Council Housing: Eligibility
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what changes there have been to the eligibility requirements for local authority social housing since May 1997. [171570]
Mr. Iain Wright: Eligibility requirements for social housing allocated by local authorities were first introduced in the Housing Act 1996 and amended by the Homelessness Act 2002. These provide that:
Local authorities may treat an applicant as ineligible for an allocation of social housing if satisfied that the applicant, or a member of his/her household, has been guilty of unacceptable behaviour serious enough to make him/her unsuitable to be a tenant of the authority.
Persons subject to immigration control are not eligible for social housing unless they come within a class of persons prescribed in regulations by the Secretary of State.
The Secretary of State may make regulations to prescribe other classes of persons from abroad as ineligible for an allocation.
To coincide with accession to the European Union of the 10 Accession States in May 2004, the eligibility rules in respect of persons from abroad not subject to immigration control (European Economic Area (EEA) nationals(1)) were tightened up by regulations(2).
Consolidating regulations made in 2006(3) made further changes to the eligibility of EEA nationals. These changes principally reflect the implementation of EU Directive 2004/38/EC by the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006. In particular, as a result of these changes EEA nationals are not eligible for an allocation of housing or homelessness assistance if their only right to reside:
is an initial right to reside for up to three months from arrival; or
is for the period during which a jobseeker has a genuine prospect of finding employment.
These regulations were further amended in 2006(4) to take account of the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the EU in January 2007 and introduce additional eligibility restrictions for nationals of Bulgaria and Romania.
(1) Under special agreements, EU Treaty rights are extended to nationals of the three countries within the European Economic Area which are not members of the EU (Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein), and to Switzerland.
(2) The Allocation of Housing and Homelessness (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2004 (SI 2004/1235).
(3) The Allocation of Housing and Homelessness (Eligibility) (England) Regulations (SI 2006/1294).
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