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18 Mar 2008 : Column 1059W—continued
On funding arising from the comprehensive spending review, Sport England has been allocated the following Exchequer funding:
| £ million | |
On lottery funding, it is estimated that Sport England will receive the following
| £ million | |
All of this funding will be committed primarily on community and grassroots sports projects.
Swimming Pools
Hugh Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many swimming pool complexes in England there are; and how many of them have a diving pool. [192803]
Mr. Sutcliffe [holding answer 10 March 2008]: Sport England collects and publishes details of sports facilities in England on the Active Places database. There are currently over 70,000 sports facilities recorded on the database and the data are reviewed and updated on a regular basis. To ensure that robust year on year data comparisons about sports facilities can be made, Sport England records formally the overall position each year in November.
The Active Places database records that, as at November 2007, there were 4,614 swimming pools on 3,461 sites in England. Of these, 168 pools have diving facilities. Their status is recorded as follows:
Open—143;
Under construction—one;
Temporarily closed for refurbishment or seasonal reasons—24.
Of the 168 pools, 58 have purpose-built diving pools, sometimes referred to as diving ‘tanks’ or ‘pits’.
I understand that Sport England has written to the hon. Member for Faversham and Mid Kent recently providing a detailed breakdown of all the diving facilities recorded on the Active Places database.
Hugh Robertson:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport whether his Department has produced guidelines on (a) the provision of public
swimming pools per head of population and (b) the size of new public swimming pools. [194512]
Mr. Sutcliffe [holding answer 14 March 2008]: The information is as follows:
(a) This Department does not produce a national standard for public swimming per head of population. Government planning advice (planning policy guidance note 17 (PPG 17)—Open Space, Sport and Recreation) has moved away from a national standards approach in planning for community facilities. Local authorities are now encouraged to develop local standards to meet their locally identified needs through the production of local sport and recreation strategies. Assessing Needs and Opportunities: a companion guide to PPG 17 provides further guidance to local authorities in undertaking local needs assessments.
(b) This Department does not suggest a standard for the size of new public swimming pools. General details on pool design can be found on Sport England’s website at:
Further guidelines are available from the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA) and Fédération Internationale de Natation (Fina) dependent on level of performance.
Television: Licences
Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many monochrome television licences were issued in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [194937]
Andy Burnham: The figures for each year are as follows:
| Number of monochrome television licences | |
Tourism
Geraldine Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps his Department is taking to encourage overseas tourists to visit destinations outside London. [194251]
Margaret Hodge: My Department has provided VisitBritain with funding of £49.9 million in 2007-08 to promote Britain as a whole as an attractive place to visit. The Department’s funding agreement with VisitBritain includes a target that, of the additional expenditure by inbound visitors generated by VisitBritain, a specified percentage should be achieved outside London. For 2005-06, the target was 55 per cent. and VisitBritain exceeded this by achieving a regional spread of 61 per cent. For 2006-07, the target was 54 per cent. and VisitBritain achieved 57 per cent.
My Department also supports the Mayor of London in the delivery of the Greater London Authority’s statutory tourism duties. These include the duty to encourage people from outside the United Kingdom to visit the United Kingdom by way of Greater London.
Tourism: Coastal Areas
Geraldine Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps he is taking to market seaside resorts as holiday destinations. [194048]
Margaret Hodge: The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has provided VisitBritain with funding of £49.9 million in 2007-08 to promote Britain as an attractive place to visit. Within VisitBritain, VisitEngland promotes England to the domestic market. VisitBritain and VisitEngland are aware of the importance of the coast and seaside resorts to British tourism: for example, the ‘English Rose’ TV campaign featured coastal scenes. Other campaigns (which are themed, rather than geographical) feature seaside resorts, such as ‘Family Fun!’, ‘Rural Escapes’ and ‘TasteEngland’. A recent promotional supplement in The Times featured Holiday Parks on the coast. VisitBritain’s websites, such as visitbritain.com and enjoyengland.com, feature seaside towns extensively and provide destination guides, and VisitBritain works with seaside resorts to encourage positive press coverage.
The promotion of seaside resorts is not limited to VisitBritain. Regional Development Agencies and local authorities also promote seaside resorts within their areas.
Work and Pensions
Dawn McFeeley
Andrew Selous: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if the Chief Executive of the Child Support Agency (CSA) and the Minister responsible for the CSA will examine the handling of the case of the hon. Member for South West Bedfordshire's constituent, Mrs. Dawn McFeeley. [193227]
Mr. Plaskitt [holding answer 11 March 2008]: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the chief executive. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Stephen Geraghty, dated 18 March 2008:
In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if the Chief Executive of the Child Support Agency (CSA) and the Minister responsible for the CSA will examine the handling of the case of the hon. Member for South West Bedfordshire's constituent Mrs Dawn McFeeley. [193227]
As details about individual cases are confidential, I have written to you separately about this case.
Child Support Agency
Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many cases being dealt with by the Child Support Agency were classed as pending at the latest date for which figures are available. [192635]
Mr. Plaskitt [holding answer 7 March 2008]: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the chief executive. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Stephen Geraghty, dated 18 March 2008:
In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the chief executive.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many cases being dealt with by the Child Support Agency were classed as pending at the latest date for which figures are available. [192635]
The Agency does not have a classification of cases ‘pending’ we have interpreted your question as relating to uncleared applications.
The number of uncleared applications across the two schemes has almost halved since the Agency’s Operational Improvement Plan was launched in April 2006. In December 2007 there were a total of 151,200 uncleared cases; this is the lowest number of uncleared cases since records began.
Additional information on uncleared cases can be found in table 2.1 of the December 2007 Child Support Agency Quarterly Summary of Statistics (QSS), available in the House of Commons Library or online at:
I hope you find this answer helpful.
Child Support Agency: Staff
Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many full-time equivalent staff the Child Support Agency employed in each of the last five years. [192634]
Mr. Plaskitt [holding answer 7 March 2008]: The administration of the Child Support Agency is the matter for the chief executive. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the chief executive.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many full-time equivalent staff the Child Support Agency employed in each o the last five years. [192634]
The table below shows the average number employed by the Agency in each of the last five years as published in the Child Support Agency Annual Reports and Accounts.
| Financial year | Average number of full-time equivalents employed |
I hope you find this answer helpful.
Departmental Cost Effectiveness
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what progress his Department has made in its zero-based budget review under the comprehensive spending review. [191475]
Mrs. McGuire: I refer the hon. Gentleman to the Annex pertaining to my Department in meeting the aspirations of the British people: the 2007 pre-Budget report and comprehensive spending review (CM 7227).
Details of how the Department plans to live within its comprehensive spending review settlement is contained within its three-year business plan 2008-11, published on 28 February 2008.
Copies of the plan have been placed in the Library of the House, or can be viewed electronically at the following address:
Departmental Home Working
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in his Department have been able to work from home in the last 12 months. [189770]
Mrs. McGuire: Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has a home working policy that enables employees to work from home when it is appropriate to do so. Employees are able to work from home either permanently on a contractual basis, or occasionally on an ad hoc basis.
The Department introduced a new resource management (RM) personnel computer system incrementally from November 2006, being fully implemented by April 2007. Since roll-out of the RM system in April 2007 no data have been collated on the volumes of employees who are classed as contractual home workers.
Managers may exercise discretion to authorise employees to work from home, on an ad hoc basis, and may do so for a variety of reasons. By their nature the numbers cannot be quantified and statistical data have never been collected about ad hoc home working arrangements.
Departmental ICT
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many of his Department's personal digital assistants have been (a) lost and (b) stolen in each of the last five years; and what the value of those items was. [185268]
Mr. Timms: The following table shows the numbers of personal digital assistants (PDAs) issued to departmental staff and were reported as stolen, lost, or missing (presumed to be stolen) in each of the last five years. The records do not differentiate between those items which were reported as lost, stolen or missing, respectively.
| PDAs | |
The Department does not own any personal digital assistants; these are leased from a service provider and the value of the items is not recorded by the Department.
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