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6 May 2008 : Column 740W—continued
Housing: Derelict Land
Greg Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the figures referred to in the answer of 22 May 2006, Official Report, columns 1387-88W, on brownfield development are for the most recent year available, broken down by (a) region, (b) county and (c) local authority. [201823]
Mr. Iain Wright [holding answer 25 April 2008]: Information on the percentage of new dwellings on previously-developed land (also referred to as ‘brownfield’ land) as a proportion of all new dwellings including conversions, the percentage of new dwellings on previously-residential land as a proportion of all dwellings on previously-developed land and the percentage of new dwellings on previously-residential land as a proportion of all new dwellings for 2006 has been deposited in the Library of the House.
Development on previously-residential land includes conversions, sites where dwellings are demolished and replaced as well as building on back gardens and other types of development. Local authorities have always had the power to turn down applications for inappropriate housing development in back gardens and new planning rules that came into force in April have strengthened those powers further.
In particular, councils have now been given the ability to set local policies that specifically protect gardens and to separate gardens out from their wider brownfield development targets.
Land Use: Databases
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Wirral South of 3 April 2008, Official Report, column 1274W, on allotments, whether the Green Space Database will include information on (a) land with green belt designation, (b) green field land, (c) playing fields and (d) gardens; [202467]
(2) what the planned expenditure is on the Green Space Database; and when it is expected to go live. [202483]
Mr. Iain Wright: The contract for the first phase of the green space database was awarded, following an open competition, for £66,163. It is expected to go live in summer 2008. The database's focus is on green spaces. It will not identify whether these are designated as green belt or green field land. It will include data on playing fiends and gardens as well as allotments, public parks and recreational woodlands.
Local Authorities: Assets
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many local authority assets have been transferred to community control since the publication of the Communities in Control pamphlet. [202557]
Mr. Dhanda: The information requested is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Local Authorities: Closed Circuit Television
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what (a) guidance has been produced and (b) amendments are planned on the use of CCTV by local authorities. [202623]
Mr. Coaker: I have been asked to reply.
No guidance has been produced, nor have any amendments been planned to local authorities on the use of closed-circuit television (CCTV). The Home Office published the National CCTV Strategy last year, and a National CCTV Strategy Programme Board has been established. The programme board is reviewing the recommendations of the strategy and Ministers will have the opportunity to approve the work of the board later this year.
Members: Correspondence
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when her Department will respond to the letter of 21 December 2007 from South Cambridgeshire district council on the Formula Grant Distribution for 2008-09 and 2010-11. [203886]
Mr. Dhanda: A response to South Cambridgeshire district council's letter of 21 December 2007 on the Formula Grant Distribution was sent to Councillor Ray Manning on 18 February 2008.
Property: Databases
Sir Paul Beresford: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) how frequently the National Land and Property Gazetteer is updated; [203431]
(2) what the cost to (a) the public purse and (b) local authorities has been of creating the National Land and Property Gazetteer. [203432]
Mr. Iain Wright: The National Land and Property Gazetteer is maintained by the Improvement and Development Agency. It is not for Communities and Local Government to comment on it. Further information can be found on the internet at:
Thames Gateway Delivery Corporation: Olympic Games 2012
Robert Neill: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether the remit of the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation has been amended following the award of the 2012 Olympic Games to London. [192311]
Caroline Flint: The remit of the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation, set up in 2004, is to drive forward the regeneration of the largest concentrations of brownfield land in the capital, in the Lower Lea Valley and Barking Riverside. This area now includes the main Olympic Park site at Stratford. Because of the unique nature of the Olympic Park, a specific organisation, the Olympic Delivery Authority, has been set up to deliver it, and the legacy transformation of the Olympic site is being co-ordinated by the London Development Agency, who own the land. This however is a small part of the overall London Thames Gateway Development Corporation designated area. The Olympic site is anticipated to deliver in the region of 9,000 new homes. The substantial task of regenerating the remainder of the Lea Valley, which is anticipated to deliver some 25,000 new homes, remains with the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation and no change in their remit is necessary. The Development Corporation works closely with key stakeholders and it is anticipated that it will also work with the HCA, which will, once it is set up, have a leading role in bringing together the delivery of regeneration and housing.
Northern Ireland
Census
Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what changes in (a) presentation and (b) questions are planned for the 2011 census in Northern Ireland. [203434]
Paul Goggins: These are transferred matters and therefore the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Administration.
Departmental Freedom of Information
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many freedom of information requests made to his Department were (a) answered (i) within 20 days, (ii) within 40 days, (iii) within 60 days, (iv) after 60 days, (b) not answered and (c) answered citing an exemption in the Freedom of Information Act 2000 as a reason not to provide the requested information in each year since the Act came into force. [201731]
Paul Goggins: The Ministry of Justice has published two annual reports containing statistical information on freedom of information requests received by monitored bodies (including central Government Departments) in 2005 and 2006. These reports can be found at the following address:
The 2007 annual report is currently being drafted for publication in June 2008. However, statistics on requests received in each quarter of 2007 have been published and can be found via the MOJ website:
http://www .justice.gov.uk/publications/freedomofinformation quarterly.htm
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires public bodies to respond to written requests within 20 working days of receipt, but allows additional time for the consideration of the public interest in disclosing the requested information.
The published reports provide statistics on the number of “non-routine” requests received during each period where: an initial response was provided within 20 working days; an initial response was given outside this time but a public interest test extension had been applied; an initial response was given outside this time and no public interest test extension was applied; and where no initial response had been given at the time the statistics were collected.
The 2006 annual report provides statistics on the duration of the public interest test extensions in that year. Corresponding statistics for 2007 will be available when the 2007 annual report is published.
Information requests where deadlines were extended beyond 40 days is not collected in the form requested; however the proportion of resolvable requests the Department answered “in time” (i.e. meeting the deadline or with a permitted extension) in 2007 was 89 per cent.
For 2005 and 2006, the reports show the number of requests received by the Department which were withheld, either in full or in part, where an FOI
exemption or Environmental Information Regulation (EIR) exception was applied. For 2007, the number of such requests was 46, based on aggregated quarterly statistics from 2007. Requests withheld solely under the exemption applicable to “information available by other means” are not included; statistics on these are not collected centrally because they are dealt with as routine business.
Departmental Telephone Services
Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether any telephone numbers for use by the general public in Northern Ireland to contact offices under his Department's control are premium rate. [203436]
Mr. Woodward: There are no premium rate telephone numbers used by the general public to contact the Northern Ireland Office or its executive agencies.
Sexual Offences: Foreigners
Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many foreign nationals were (a) arrested and (b) convicted of sex-related crimes in Northern Ireland in the last year for which figures are available; and what percentage of the total number of those (i) arrested and (ii) convicted of such crimes foreign nationals represented. [201350]
Paul Goggins: The total number of persons arrested for sexual offences during the financial year 2007-08 in Northern Ireland was 855,110 (13 per cent.) of which were foreign nationals.
Of the 161 persons convicted for sexual offences during the calendar year 2006 (the latest year for which figures are available), six (4 per cent.) were foreign nationals.
Conviction data are collated on the principal offence rule; so only the most serious offence with which an offender is charged is included.
It is not possible routinely to reconcile arrest data from PSNI with conviction data as PSNI data denote each offence as it has been initially recorded and this may differ from the offence for which a suspect or suspects are subsequently proceeded against in the courts.
Stratagem
Greg Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what payments the (a) Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and (b) Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland made to Stratagem in each of the last five years; and on what date each payment was made. [202259]
Paul Goggins: The following tables give the amounts and dates of payments made to Stratagem by (a) the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and (b) Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland, over the last five years.
| (a) Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission | |
| Amount (£) | |
| (b) Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland | |
| Amount (£) | |
Health
Hepatitis C
13. Dr. Iddon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department is taking to improve diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C. [203371]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: We recognise the importance of hepatitis C as a public health issue. This is why we have set a clear national framework to improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C in the ‘Hepatitis C Action Plan for England’.
To support this, we are running a national hepatitis C awareness campaign for health care professionals and the public and funding improved epidemiological surveillance by the Health Protection Agency.
Infection Control
14. John Hemming: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to improve infection control in the NHS. [203372]
Ann Keen: The national health service have made significant reductions on infections, and are on track to halve the methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) rate by the end of March 2008. MRSA infections are down 30 per cent. and C. difficile infections, for 65s and over, are down 23 per cent. on the same quarter in the previous year.
However, we are not stopping there. The NHS will be expected to maintain improvements on MRSA and deliver a 30 per cent. reduction in C. difficile infections by 2010-11.
We have a strategy we know will reduce infection and equipped the NHS with a toolkit to deliver it. We have invested the money—over £270 million of additional investment per year by 2010-11. We have made proper infection control a legal requirement and are inspecting all trusts against this.
Premature Babies
15. Dr. Evan Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent changes there have been in the survival rate of premature babies born before 24 weeks. [203373]
Ann Keen: In 2005, 435 babies were born in England and Wales with a gestational age below 24 weeks. Of these, 383 (about 88 per cent.) died before their first birthday. No further information is currently available.
Primary Care
16. Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he next expects to meet GPs from East Anglia to discuss primary care. [203374]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Secretary of State regularly meets general practitioners (GPs) and their representatives.
The national health service in the east of England is committed to delivering the strategic health authority's ‘Improving Lives; Saving Lives’ programme, which aims to ensure GP practices improve access.
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