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1 Apr 2008 : Column 798W—continued
The numbers quoted here relate to the percentage of 11 to 15-year-olds living in private households in England, both in and out school. The interviews were conducted between January and December 2006.
Departmental Domestic Visits
Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what visits he made to (a) Harrogate International Centre, (b) International Conference Centre, Birmingham, (c) Manchester Central, (d) Scottish Exhibitional and Conference Centre, Glasgow, (e) Edinburgh International Conference Centre, (f) Bournemouth International Conference Centre, (g) the Brighton Centre, Brighton, (h) the Riviera Centre, Torquay, (i) Queen Elizabeth Centre, London, (j) Excel Conference Centre, Docklands, London, and (k) Business Design Centre, Islington, London, in the period 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2007; and what events he attended at each. [197149]
Andy Burnham: I have not visited any of the listed venues in a ministerial capacity since my appointment.
My ministerial predecessor, my right hon. Friend the Member for Stalybridge and Hyde (James Purnell) visited Manchester Central on 6 and 7 July 2007 to attend the Manchester International Festival and on 19 October 2007 to speak at the Supporters Direct Annual Conference. He also visited the ExCel Conference Centre on 5 August 2007 for the London Triathlon.
My right hon. Friend the Member for Dulwich and West Norwood (Tessa Jowell) when Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport visited the Business Design Centre on 25 January 2005 to speak at a NESTA Conference, the Queen Elizabeth Centre on 5 March 2005 to speak at the Capital Woman 2005 Conference and on 16 March 2005 to speak at the Tourism UK 2005 Conference. On 27 and 28 August 2005, she attended the Edinburgh International Conference Centre for the Edinburgh TV Festival. She also visited the International Conference Centre, Birmingham on 8 November 2005 and spoke at the EU Gender Equality Conference. On 23 November 2005, she spoke at the Thames Gateway Conference at the Excel Conference Centre.
During 2006, on 23 October she spoke at the Museum Association Conference at the Bournemouth International Conference Centre and on 23 November at the Thames Gateway Forum at the Excel Conference Centre.
On 18 June 2007, she spoke at the Emergency Planning Society Annual Conference at the Riviera Centre, Torquay and on 25 June 2007 at the International Conference Centre, Birmingham with regional stakeholders about the 2012 Olympics.
Digital Broadcasting: North East
Mr. Kemp: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what progress has been made on preparations for digital television switchover in the North East region. [197260]
Andy Burnham:
Digital UK is the body charged with communicating with the public and co-ordinating the technical works to upgrade the terrestrial television network to digital. Digital UK operates both national and regional information campaigns. A communications
campaign dedicated to the Tyne Tees region, as well as work to upgrade the television transmitters serving the Tyne Tees region, will commence in 2010 to enable the switch to digital to be completed in 2012.
S4C
Mr. Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment he has made of trends in figures for S4C. [194858]
Andy Burnham: Given S4C's independence, it is not necessary for my Department to monitor S4Cs viewing figures closely or make assessments of this kind.
In the first two months of this year, 32 S4C programmes each attracted over 100,000 viewers. Weekly viewing figures for the most popular programmes on S4C are shown on the S4C website:
Sports
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many visits were organised as part of the Sporting Champions Mentoring programme in (a) 2006-07 and (b) 2007-08. [198228]
Mr. Sutcliffe: There were 509 Sporting Champions visits between April 2006 and March 2007, and 513 visits between April 2007 and March 2008.
Sports: Expenditure
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much his Department has spent on the (a) Sporting and (b) Cultural Champions initiatives since each was established. [198227]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Sport England’s current available records indicate that they have allocated the following amounts to the Sporting Champions programme since 2001-02.
| £ | |
DCMS does not fund a “Cultural Champions” programme but we do fund a mentoring programme, which use mentors from sport, music and the media to help young people that are at risk of social exclusion engage with positive activities and make positive life choices. DCMS has allocated £1 million per year to this programme since it was established in 2006-07.
Sports: Per Capita Costs
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport pursuant to the answer of 19 March 2008, Official Report, columns 1157-8W, on sports: per capita costs, if he will provide the figures in 2007-08 prices. [198347]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Using information from the Office for National Statistics website the estimated Population of England in each of the last three years is shown in the following table:
| Population England Millions | |
Based on the above information and Treasury GDP Deflators at Market Prices and Money GDP - Revalorised to baseline 2007-08, the following tables show spend on sport per capita in England for the last three years at 2007-08 prices from:
| (a) Public Funding | |
| Spend per capita (£) | |
It should be noted that the Exchequer figures (above) include funding from Department for Children Schools and Families and the Capital Modernisation Fund for School Sport and Space for Sports and Arts respectively.
| ( b) Lottery | |
| Spend per capita (£) | |
Tourism
Mr. Whittingdale: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport which recommendations of the Allnutt Review of Tourism Statistics have been implemented; which recommendations remain to be implemented; which recommendations he does not plan to implement; and if he will make a statement. [196759]
Andy Burnham: The Allnutt Review of Tourism Statistics, published in June 2004, made 14 major recommendations. The implementation of these has necessarily been framed against available resources, the evolution of needs and taking advantage of opportunities that have arisen.
A main recommendation of the review was to establish and resource an effective organisation to develop and maintain tourism statistics of appropriate quality. This ‘Tourism Statistics Unit’ was recommended to most appropriately be located in the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The recent formation of the English Tourism Intelligence Partnership (ETIP) has led to significant progress being made against this recommendation and planning is under way for the unit to be established, in the ONS, this summer. The work plan for a new ‘Tourism Intelligence Unit’ (TIU) is being drawn up, and will include fully reviewing the recommendations and preparing costed proposals for future development and implementation.
A brief summary of progress against each of the other recommendations is provided as follows:
Recommendation 1: UK Tourism Survey (UKTS) and Leisure Day Visits Survey (LDVS) should be subject to a major redesign
The UKTS was redesigned and recommissioned in 2005 to address serious concerns about the erosion of data quality. The LDVS was most recently conducted by Natural England in 2005 (England only). The ONS has identified a cost-benefit analysis of the possible future inclusion of these two surveys within the ONS’ new Integrated Household Survey as part of their provisional work plan for the TIU.
Recommendation 2: Some interim improvements should be made to the LDVS
Improvements were made to the methodology for the 2005 England Day Visits Survey. VisitBritain have been exploring possible options for a more regular, consistent, day visits survey.
Recommendation 3: The International Passenger Survey (IPS) should be improved as a source of tourism statistics
A recent change to the survey methodology has extended the weighting of the survey results to a regional basis, but other significant improvements—such as the regular inclusion of a detailed expenditure trailer—would require major financial investment. However, the IPS in its current format continues to provide credible and reliable data on inbound and outbound tourism.
Recommendation 4: The registers of accommodation and other tourism businesses should be improved
The provisional work plan for the TIU includes development and publication of a better statistical picture of the ‘supply side’ tourism data—drawing on ONS business data.
In 2007, VisitBritain commissioned a project aiming to measure the level of serviced and non-serviced accommodation stock across England, by region, using their own extensive database of accommodation data from regional partners and commercial organisations.
Recommendation 5: The UK Occupancy Survey (UKOS) should be improved to cover all types of commercial accommodation and provide viable statistics of occupancy and visitor nights
The methodology for the England part of the occupancy survey was changed in 2007, with a switch to an online-only approach to speed up reporting and improve response rates. The survey still covers serviced accommodation only.
Recommendation 6: The Survey of Visits to Visitor Attractions (SVVA) should be amended to focus more on the quality and completeness of its statistics of visitor numbers
The National Tourism Organisations continue to each conduct a separate annual Survey of Visits to Visitor Attractions. In addition, VisitBritain has addressed the call for timelier visitor data by launching the quarterly England Attractions Monitor in 2006.
Recommendation 7: Regional input-output tables of the best possible quality, and supplementary statistics from relevant businesses, should be produced as key input to the proposed development of Tourism Satellite Accounts
A pilot UK Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) was published in 2004, with a follow-up pilot TSA for the English regions published in 2005. Proposals for future development of TSA work will be scoped and costed by the TIU.
Recommendation 8: Panel surveys should be developed to provide timely short-term indicators of trends for a range of relevant indicators
VisitBritain launched a ‘Domestic Industry Panel’ in 2006 to help identify reasons behind the trends seen in the quantitative surveys. It is conducted three times a year and involves interviews with senior people in leading tourism businesses.
The England Attractions Monitor, launched by VisitBritain in 2006, is a quarterly panel of 500 visitor attractions across England.
A ‘Trip Tracker’ survey is also run by VisitBritain in advance of major holiday periods—Easter, Christmas and the August bank holiday—in order to monitor short-term trends. However, the survey is a random telephone survey rather than a panel survey.
Recommendation 9: Methods for producing local tourism statistics should be developed and piloted
The proposal for improved production of local area tourism statistics will be reviewed by the TIU.
Recommendation 10: Arrangements should be established for tourism interests to influence the development of employment and related statistics
The provisional work plan for the TIU includes the development and publication of a better statistical picture of the ‘supply side’ tourism data, drawing on ONS business data—this will include undertaking basic statistical analyses of employment and other economic data.
Recommendation 11: The dissemination of tourism statistics, and information about the basis and quality of those statistics, should be improved
VisitBritain have greatly improved the communication of research and market intelligence to the industry. They produce rich ‘Market Profiles’, quarterly round-ups of research and intelligence and have revamped their research web pages (to replace the Star UK website).
The provisional work plan for the TIU includes development of a series of guidance notes that will outline the basis and quality of all key tourism statistics.
Recommendation 12: Various steps should be taken to improve the quality of statistics of Business Tourism
No significant progress—in line with review’s recommendation to see as low priority.
Recommendation 13: The review also makes a number of other, relatively minor, recommendations
No significant progress—also low priority.
Wales
Brofiscin Quarry: Hazardous Substances
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales pursuant to his answer of 17 March 2008, Official Report, column 819W, on Brofiscin Quarry: hazardous substances, what the timetable was of action taken by the Environment Agency following the receipt of information relating to cattle mortality and deformed cattle foetuses in the vicinity of Brofiscin Quarry. [196355]
Mr. Paul Murphy: I am informed by the Environment Agency Wales that the information relating to cattle mortality and deformed cattle foetuses reported in the vicinity of the Brofiscin Quarry was received by the Environment Agency in the course of its investigations under Part 2A Environmental Protection Act 1990. The cattle mortality investigation took place in the 1960s, was not conducted by the Environment Agency but the information was reviewed and found not to be related to pollutant linkages included in the Record of Determination produced by the local authority.
Any information was passed to the local authority who retain responsibility for investigating other potential pollutant linkages, including livestock.
In accordance with Part 2A Environmental Protection Act 1990 and statutory guidance, regulatory authorities are not authorised to carry out any action that is not referable to a significant pollutant linkage.
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