| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
8 May 2008 : Column 1086W—continued
The first call for INTERREG IVC ended on 15 January 2008. There were over 480 applications and the IVC Secretariat is currently assessing them. We expect to receive project and partner details from the Secretariat during summer 2008.
For the European Social Fund, two project specifications relating specifically to Essex have been appraised and await award of contract. A further 16 tenders for regional contracts that are likely to include Essex and Castle Point are under negotiation.
INTERREG Programme: Finance
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much funding the Government will be providing in co-payments towards the EU INTERREG (a) IVA, (b) IVB and (c) IVC programmes over the next three years. [203043]
John Healey: The Government will not be providing match funding for projects in the new programmes. But we will be contributing towards their technical assistance budgets which are used for funding the programme secretariats. These secretariats deal with the day to day management of the programmes including arranging project applications, project monitoring and providing general advice. The UK contribution for April 2008 to March 2010 will be:
| Euro | |
Local Authorities: Cost Effectiveness
Joan Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) what procurement advice her Department has given to best value authorities on the application of the Best Value Code of Practice in Work Force Matters; [203354]
(2) how many times the alternative dispute resolution procedure has been invoked for best value authority contracts; [203353]
(3) what steps her Department has taken to assess the effect the Best Value Code of Practice in Work Force Matters in best value authority contracts; [203352]
(4) what steps her Department has taken to monitor (a) the application of and (b) compliance with the Best Value Code of Practice in Work Force Matters in best value authority contracts. [203351]
John Healey: The code of practice on work force matters in local authority service contracts (ODPM, 2003) is guidance based on the Secretary of State's view that a ‘two-tier work force’ does not achieve ‘best value’. Local authorities should have regard to the code when considering individual contracts.
The alternative dispute resolution (ADR) procedure was developed by the TUC, CBI, the LGA—Local Government Association—and the Employers' Association for Local Government. Use of the ADR is not monitored centrally.
Communities and Local Government is carrying out a programme of ongoing research that will evaluate the impact of the local government procurement agenda as a whole. A specific strand has been to attempt to isolate the impact of the code of practice. Initial results were published in the ‘Evaluation of the Local Government Procurement Agenda—Baseline Survey Report’ (ODPM, August 2005). Just over two-thirds of authorities had included work force matters as a standard issue in contracts for services.
Currently, local authorities are required to certify in their best value performance plans (BVPPs) that individual contracts comply with best value requirements, including the work force requirements in the two-tier code. As part of the package of de-regulatory measures, announced in the Local Government White Paper 2006, the Department signalled the intention to remove the requirement for
authorities to prepare BVPPs; provisions to do so were secured in the ‘Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007’. We will be consulting on proposed arrangements for monitoring compliance with the code in future.
Local Government
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many parish and town councils there are in England; and what estimate her Department has made of the number which levy a precept on council tax bills in their area. [203063]
John Healey: There are approximately 8,900 parish and town councils in England. Details of the number of parish and town councils which levy a precept on council tax bills in their area is not recorded centrally.
Local Government Finance: Enfield
Joan Ryan: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the ratio between central Government funding and council tax revenue received by the London borough of Enfield was in each of the last 10 years. [202862]
John Healey: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer given to the hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam (Mr. Burstow) on 17 September 2007, Official Report, column 2181W.
Local Government Finance Funding Changes Independent Inquiry
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government which recommendations of the Lyons Inquiry into local government finance the Government (a) has implemented and (b) plans to implement. [203055]
John Healey: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to him by my hon. Friend the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury on 9 January 2008, Official Report, column 631W.
Local Government: Electronic Government
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what citizen identification types are included in the Valuebill XML Schema. [203059]
Local Government: Pensions
Joan Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) which private contractors have been given admitted body status to the local government pension scheme; [203355]
(2) how many third sector organisations have been given admitted body status to the local government pension scheme. [203319]
John Healey: The information is not held centrally in the form requested.
The regulations governing the scheme in England and Wales require administering authorities to inform the Secretary of State of all admission agreements which they make. A list of admission bodies which have been notified to the Secretary of State has been deposited in the Library of the House. These lists do not specifically distinguish between contractors, third sector and other bodies.
Mobile Homes: Multiple Occupation
Mr. Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate her Department has made of the number of park homes which are used as houses of multiple occupation. [204009]
Mr. Iain Wright: A park home cannot be a ‘house in multiple occupation’ because it is not a building for the purpose of applying one or more of the tests in section 254 of the Housing Act 2004.
Non-Domestic Rates
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the equivalent percentage rise in average business rate bills will be in a local authority area which levies the maximum supplementary business rate. [203042]
John Healey: It is not possible to calculate the equivalent percentage increase in average business rate bills in a local authority area which levies the maximum business rate supplement, as it will depend on a number of factors, some of which can not be predicted. These include the level of the non-domestic rating multipliers before and at the time the supplement is levied and whether the property is in receipt of any rate relief. In addition, as announced in “Business rate supplements: a White Paper”, all properties with a rateable value of £50,000 or less will not have to pay the supplement, thus excluding the vast majority of business properties in England. Those authorities levying supplements will also be able to decide whether there should be an offset for ratepayers contributing to BIDs.
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what restrictions there are on how revenue from supplementary business rates can be spent by local authorities. [203044]
John Healey: ‘Business rate supplements: a White Paper’, published in October 2007, made clear that the power to raise supplements is not intended to provide general purpose revenues. The revenue from business rate supplements will only be available for initiatives that will promote the economic development of an area and which otherwise would not have taken place.
Official Hospitality: Office of the Deputy Prime Minister
Mr. Pickles:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the cost to the public purse was of the visit by the Chinese Ambassador and the right hon. Member for Kingston
upon Hull to Mr. Chu’s China Palace in Kingston upon Hull in April 2004 according to records created during the existence of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. [204493]
Mr. Dhanda: All expenditure on official entertainment in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister was made in accordance with the guidance set out in the “Ministerial Code” and with published departmental guidance on financial procedures and propriety, based on the principles set out in “Government Accounting”.
Ordnance Survey
Sir Paul Beresford: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether she has (a) received representations and (b) commissioned advice on whether separating raw data from value-added products is consistent with Ordnance Survey’s new public task definition. [203439]
Mr. Iain Wright: Since Ministers approved the revised Ordnance Survey Public Task in July 2007 representations have been made specifically on the separation of raw data from value added products. Ordnance Survey continues in discussions with the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and the Office for Public Sector Information in response to recommendations raised by OFT in the report on its study of the Commercial Reuse of Public Information.
Sir Paul Beresford: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what representations she has received on the effects of applications of the Re-use of Public Sector Information Directive on Ordnance Survey’s new public task definition. [203465]
Mr. Iain Wright: Since Ministers approved the revised Ordnance Survey Public Task in July 2007, representations have been received from one trade association representing a number of private sector commercial organisations who commercially exploit public sector information. These representations included an unsubstantiated claim that the revised Public Task has implications for the applicability of the Re-use of Public Sector Information Directive.
Planning Permission
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether the Infrastructure Planning Commission will consider planning applications for (a) incinerators, (b) airports, (c) motorways, (d) housing developments and (e) sewage plants. [203064]
John Healey: Under the proposals set out in the Planning Bill, the Infrastructure Planning Commission would consider applications for development consent for nationally significant infrastructure projects, which could include motorway, airport, sewage treatment plant, and waste incinerator projects, where they met the specified thresholds. It would not deal with housing developments.
Planning Permission: Prosecutions
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many successful prosecutions for breaches of the Building Control Regulations there have been since 2000. [203706]
Mr. Iain Wright: Building control bodies initially try to deal with enforcement in an informal manner by seeking to resolve the issues so as to reach a satisfactory conclusion without reverting to formal enforcement through the courts.
Information on the number of prosecutions (whether or not successful) is not collected centrally. However, a recent survey of building control bodies, carried out by the Building Control Alliance, indicated that in 2006-07, less than 0.1 per cent. of applications resulted in formal enforcement action.
The survey may be accessed at:
Planning Permission: Strip Clubs
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many planning appeals the Planning Inspectorate has considered in relation to lap dancing clubs in the last 36 months. [204487]
Mr. Iain Wright: The Planning Inspectorate does not capture data to enable identification of planning appeals relating specifically to lap dancing clubs.
Property: Databases
Sir Paul Beresford: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate she has made of the cost to (a) her Department and (b) the public purse of meeting requests for private sector organisations for master address lists in the last 12 months. [203430]
Mr. Iain Wright: The Department has created no master address list of its own, so has incurred no costs itself. No estimate of costs to the wider public purse has been made.
Property: Valuation
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 21 April 2008, Official Report, column 1410W, on property: valuation, how many dwellings are recorded on the Valuation Office Agency’s computers as being assigned with an OS value significant code. [202994]
John Healey: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 21 April 2008, Official Report, column 1410W.
Mr. Pickles:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) pursuant to the Answer of 21 April 2008, Official Report,
column 1410W, on property: valuation, how many dwellings are recorded on the Valuation Office Agency’s computers as being assigned a FC value significant code;. [202999]
(2) how many dwellings in England are currently recorded by the Valuation Office Agency as having the value significant code of (a) TQ and (b) UP. [203048]
John Healey: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 21 April 2008, Official Report, column 1410W.
Social Rented Housing: Waiting Lists
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) how many households in England were on local authority waiting lists for social housing in 2007; [204499]
(2) what the average period of time a household spent on local authority waiting lists before obtaining social housing was in the latest period for which figures are available. [204516]
Mr. Iain Wright: For information on the number of households on local authority waiting lists I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 19 March 2008, Official Report, columns 1198-99W.
Information on the average wait for households on local authority waiting lists is not collected centrally.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |