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Written Answers to Questions

Thursday 3 April 2008

Culture, Media and Sport

Betting Shops

Mr. Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many fixed-odds betting terminals were located in Tote betting shops at the latest date for which figures are available. [198765]

Mr. Sutcliffe: I understand from the Tote that there were 1,988 such terminals on 1 April 2008.

National Lottery: Play

Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what proportion of the funding available under the Big Lottery Fund Children’s Play initiative has been (a) committed and (b) spent. [198335]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The figures reflect the proportion of money which has been committed and spent under the Big Lottery Fund’s children’s play initiative in England.

£
Programme name	Current value (committed)	Total paid to date (spent)
Play Infrastructure	14,494,368	5,972,696
Playful Ideas	8,706,612	1,610,325
Children’s Play	113,889,266	9,135,853
Total	137,090,246	16,718,874

The total money available for the Children’s Play initiative is £155 million. The Big Lottery Fund has committed 88 per cent. of the total available and expect to commit all funds under the play initiative by September 2008.

Rackspace

Mr. Hands: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what the value was of each contract awarded to Rackspace by (a) his Department (b) its agencies in each of the last nine years. [197508]

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Mr. Sutcliffe: My Department uses the services of Rackspace via a framework agreement with its main IT suppliers, Atos Origin. My Department does not have a direct contract with Rackspace.

Charges made by Atos Origin for the Rackspace service are from January 2005 to date and amount to £52,782.

The Royal Parks Agency has never awarded a contract to Rackspace.

Sports: Voluntary Organisations

Bill Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what estimate he has made of the number of charities running local authority sports and leisure centres which provide access to spas or saunas for those who pay for access to swimming pools. [199293]

Mr. Sutcliffe: Specific information on the delivery of leisure services by local authorities and the number providing access to spas or saunas for those who pay for access to swimming pools is not centrally collated. However, the Audit Commission report of June 2006, “Public sports and recreation services: making them fit for the future”, suggests that some 22 per cent. of public leisure facilities in England are provided through trusts.

Duchy of Lancaster

Bone Diseases: Death

Andrew George: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how many people died from ankylosing spondylitis in each year since 1997 in (a) England and (b) each region. [198692]

Edward Miliband: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated April 2008:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many people died from ankylosing spondylitis in each year since 1997 in (a) England and (b) each region. (198692)

The table attached provides the number of deaths where ankylosing spondylitis was the underlying cause of death in (a) England and (b) each government office region, from 1997 to 2006 (the latest year available).

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Table 1 . Number of deaths where ankylosing spondylitis was the underlying cause of death( 1) , Government Office Regions and England, 1997 to 2006( 2,3)
Deaths (persons)
Region	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
North East	1	2	0	1	0	0	1	1	1	0
North West	1	1	2	4	2	0	1	1	2	1
Yorkshire and The Humber	1	3	2	1	2	2	0	1	3	2
East Midlands	3	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	2
West Midlands	2	1	3	0	1	2	1	2	0	2
East of England	2	2	2	1	1	1	4	6	3	3
London	0	5	1	2	1	1	0	2	0	2
South East	3	4	6	2	1	1	2	2	5	2
South West	3	4	4	1	2	1	3	0	1	4
England	16	23	20	12	10	8	13	15	15	18
(1) Cause of death for ankylosing spondylitis was defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) code 720.0 and Tenth Revision (ICD-10) code M45. The introduction of ICD-10 in 2001 means that the numbers of deaths from this cause before 2001 are not completely comparable with later years. (2) Based on boundaries as of 2008. (3) Figures are for deaths registered in each calendar year.

Charities: Fraud

Jo Swinson: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how many of his Department’s leaflets raising public awareness of the problem of bogus charity clothing collections have been distributed to date; and what plans he has for wider distribution. [198547]

Phil Hope: The Office of the Third Sector has teamed up with stakeholders including representatives from the charity sector to produce a leaflet for householders with top tips to help check clothing collection leaflets. We have printed 500,000 copies of this leaflet which was distributed by Clothes Aid to households in particular areas where problems have been reported across England and Wales.

This leaflet has been published on stakeholder websites to raise public awareness. Stakeholders are free to print and distribute further copies of this leaflet if they feel it is necessary. I am aware for example, that British Heart Foundation have printed at least 50,000 copies of this leaflet for door to door distribution.

Employment: Houghton and Washington East

Mr. Kemp: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how many people were in employment in Houghton and Washington East constituency in each of the last 10 years. [198485]

Edward Miliband: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated April 2008:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking how many people were in employment in Houghton and Washington East constituency in each of the last 10 years. (198485)

The Office for National Statistics compiles employment statistics for local areas from the Annual Population Survey (APS) and its predecessor the annual Labour Force Survey (LFS) following International Labour Organisation definitions.

Table 1, attached, shows the number of people aged 16 and over, resident in the Houghton and Washington East constituency, who were in employment in each of the last 10 years. Estimates are obtained from the annual LFS for each 12 month period from 1997 to 2004 ending in February. For time series comparisons, the APS estimates from 2005 to 2007 are provided covering the 12 month periods ending in March, but the most recently released estimate is also included, which covers the 12 month period ending in September 2007.

As these estimates are for a subset of the population in a small geographical area, they are based on small sample sizes, and are therefore subject to large margins of uncertainty.

In order to produce estimates for small geographical areas, APS and annual LFS estimates are provided based on survey microdata. These are consistent with the UK

population estimates published in February and March 2003, whereas the regional and national estimates published in the Labour Market Statistics First Release are based on more up-to-date population figures, so the two are not directly comparable.

Table 1: People aged 16+ in employment in Houghton and Washington East c onstituency
Thousand
12 months ending	In employment
February 1997(1)	38
February 1998(1)	42
February 1999(1)	34
February 2000(1)	37
February 2001(1)	41
February 2002(1)	38
February 2003(1)	38
February 2004(1)	36
March 2005(2)	38
March 2006(2)	40
March 2007(2)	39
September 2007(2)	41
(1) Source: Annual Labour Force Survey (2) Source: Annual Population Survey

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