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10 Jun 2008 : Column 137W—continued
Environment Protection: Industry
Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment he has made of the effect of his Department's targets on (a) energy efficiency, (b) renewable energy, (c) recycling and (d) resource efficiency on the types of skills required by environmental industries. [209331]
Joan Ruddock: DEFRA officials are working proactively with employers, Sector Skills Councils, the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, and expert bodies representing the environmental industries, as well as other Government Departments (DIUS and BERR) to develop our evidence and understanding for the skills implications of the transition to a low carbon, resource efficient and more sustainable economy and to ensure that these are at the heart of our skills system.
Farms: Waste Disposal
Mr. Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs for what reasons all farm waste plastics are required to be taken to Dumfries for disposal; and what estimate he has made of the level of carbon dioxide emissions arising from that requirement. [208965]
Joan Ruddock: There is no such requirement and therefore no estimate of the level of carbon dioxide emissions has been made.
Fisheries: Subsidies
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what schemes for (a) financial support and (b) fuel subsidy to national fishing industries were approved by the European Commission in each month since November 2007; and what representations the Government made in respect of each scheme. [208753]
Jonathan Shaw: Schemes for financial support under the European Fisheries Fund are set out in each member state's operational programme. Details of the operational programmes approved by the European Commission since November 2007 are available on the European Commission's website.
Details of those schemes for financial support that require clearance under EU state aid rules are also available on the European Commission's website.
I understand that the European Commission has not formally approved any schemes for fuel subsidy.
Fishing Catches
Mr. Austin Mitchell:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate he has made of the amount of discards made by the English fishing industry in the last 12 months; and
what assessment he has made of the relationship between the size of cod stocks fished by English vessels and the volume of discards. [209643]
Jonathan Shaw: Information on the full extent of discarding undertaken by English vessels in the last year is not available. However, the information provided by the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS) to the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) North Sea Working Group this year, estimates that of the total landings of 1,626 tonnes of cod observed, a further 309 tonnes or 16 per cent. were discarded in 2007.
Gangmasters
Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many gangmasters were (a) licensed and (b) found employing victims of trafficking in each of the last three years; and how much revenue has been generated from issuing licences. [209889]
Jonathan Shaw: The Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) began licensing in April 2006. As of 5 June 2008, there are 1,193 gangmasters currently licensed by the GLA.
Of licences issued, the GLA has revoked 59 licences, including seven with immediate effect. In six out of the seven licences revoked with immediate effect, the GLA found evidence of exploitation equivalent to the International Labour Organization’s indicators of forced labour. Out of these six cases, one licence revocation was in the financial year 2006-07 with the remaining five in 2007-08.
The income generated by the GLA through licence fees and charges for application inspections since it began operating is:
| £ | |
Pollution Control
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the answer of 12 May 2008, Official Report, column 1338W, on pollution control, how many IPPC permits were issued by (a) the Environment Agency and (b) local authorities in 2007-08; how many air pollution control permits were issued by local authorities in 2007-08; and what the total revenue in permit fees was. [209457]
Jonathan Shaw: The Environment Agency issued 1251 PPC permits, most of which were IPPC, in 2007-08. The associated permit fees amounted to approximately £9.3 million.
Information on numbers of permits issued by local authorities and fees paid in 2007-08 will not be available until December, when the results of the annual Local Pollution Control Statistical Survey are available.
Recycling
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps the Government plans to take to increase recycling in public areas. [209170]
Joan Ruddock: DEFRA launched ‘Recycle on the Go’ on 2 June which aims to put accessible recycling bins in public places. A good practice guide and a voluntary code of practice will help those responsible for public places to make recycling easy and accessible and includes new guidance on making good use of consistent signage. The materials are available on the DEFRA website, and copies of the publications have been placed in the Library of the House.
Rights of Way
Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many unrecorded historic rights of way were discovered by his Department's Discovering Lost Ways project; and if he will make a statement. [209177]
Jonathan Shaw: The Discovering Lost Ways project concentrated initially on parts of Cheshire, Shropshire and Nottinghamshire. Following the systematic examination of key historic documents, Natural England has compiled evidence relating to 219 possible unrecorded rights of way.
Communities and Local Government
Arms Length Management Organisations: Finance
Jim Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government which arm's-length management organisations (ALMOs) (a) have and (b) do not have powers to bid for Housing Corporation funding; and what processes need to be followed to allow ALMOs such powers. [209750]
Mr. Iain Wright: Under section 18 and 27a of the Housing Act 1996 the Housing Corporation has the power to provide social housing grants to registered social landlords (RSLs) and other bodies to deliver affordable housing. This includes arms length management organisations (ALMOs).
In order to bid for grant RSLs and other bodies, including ALMOs, must pre-qualify, which includes demonstrating capacity to deliver. The Housing Corporation has encouraged ALMOs categorised as two and three stars by the Audit Commission to seek pre-qualification this year as this assessment indicates that they are more likely to meet the pre-qualification criteria.
Council Tax: Tax Yields
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if she will rank each English local authority by the proportion of all expenditure raised by council tax receipts in 2007-08, showing the amount of council tax revenue in each case. [210019]
John Healey: I have placed in the Library of the House a table showing the requested ranked information on the percentage of budgeted revenue expenditure to be funded by council tax in 2007-08.
Departmental Vocational Training
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government for what proportion of its staff her Department has provided vocational training in the last three years. [209431]
Mr. Dhanda: Within the Department we are not aware that there are any staff who have undertaken vocational training (NVQs) in the last three years as these records are not held centrally.
Eco-Towns: Public Participation
Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many representations were received (a) for and (b) against each of the proposed eco-towns prior to the decision on which 15 sites would be shortlisted. [206093]
Caroline Flint: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 1 May 2008, Official Report, column 664W. As that answer sets out, we are currently consulting on preliminary views on eco-town benefits and the short listed locations. The consultation closes on 30 June and we will in due course provide a further statement on the responses received, together with an indication of how the process influenced the policy. Our aim will be to publish this within three months of the consultation closing on 30 June.
Floods: Hull
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) how much of the funding to aid reconstruction following the floods in (a) Hull and (b) Gloucestershire in 2007 has been (i) allocated and (ii) transferred to each relevant local authority; [208624]
(2) how many applications for assistance from the funds announced by the Government to aid reconstruction following the floods in (a) Hull and (b) Gloucestershire in 2007 have been approved and paid; and how much has been paid in total; [208629]
(3) which transport-related projects have received funding from her Department to aid reconstruction following the floods in (a) Hull and (b) Gloucestershire in 2007; [208630]
(4) how much funding her Department provided to aid transport-related reconstruction following the floods in (a) Hull and (b) Gloucestershire in 2007; and how much of that funding has been allocated and transferred to each relevant local authority. [208631]
John Healey: In response to the 2007 summer floods CLG has allocated and transferred flood recovery grant (FRG) of £2,762,000 to Hull and £2,763,000 to local authorities in Gloucestershire. Flood recovery grant is unringfenced so local authorities have had the flexibility to decide how to best to use the grant based on their own local circumstances. Allocations of FRG were made on the basis of the best available data held by local authorities at the time on the number of households affected by flooding.
Following the summer 2007 floods, DSCF made available £3,214,424 to Hull, and £1,007,900 to Gloucestershire. These sums, which could be used for a range of purposes relating to schools and children's services, have already been transferred to the local authorities. DCSF's payments to local authorities were calculated according to a formula based on the number of schools severely, significantly or slightly damaged by the floods, the number of flooded homes, and the number of pupils in flooded schools—the latter two indicators to act as a proxy for the impact on other services for children, young people and families.
DCSF is discussing with Hull an application for exceptional capital funding for costs arising from the floods; the amount of this application is currently under discussion, and nothing has yet been paid. There has been no claim from Gloucestershire for such funding.
An initial claim submitted by Gloucestershire county council under the Department for Transport's emergency capital highways maintenance scheme has been processed and the £10.048 million allocated has been transferred to the authority. The funding received by the authority covers mainly repairs to landslips, roads, footways, structures, drainage and traffic signals.
Gloucestershire has submitted evidence to support a further claim which the Department for Transport is considering. They expect the authority to submit additional evidence to support further repair works in due course.
Kingston Upon Hull city council has not submitted a claim under the Department for Transport's emergency capital highways maintenance scheme.
In addition Hull has received Bellwin payments amounting to £2,097,817 and Gloucestershire (this includes the county council, police authority and relevant district councils) has received £4,447,964 in Bellwin payments. Bellwin is a scheme of emergency financial assistance to help local authorities meet uninsurable costs they incur when dealing with the aftermath of an emergency in their area, rather than to fund recovery.
Housing: Construction
Mr. Spring: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many new homes were built in Suffolk in each of the last five years. [209389]
Mr. Iain Wright: The following numbers of new homes were built in Suffolk over the period 2002-03 to 2006-07:
| Number | |
These are the most recent, published figures provided by local authorities, taken from the East of England Regional Assembly’s Annual Monitoring Report.
Housing: Standards
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government which areas of London have been included in the New Commitment to Neighbourhood Renewal; and which of these are on course to meet the 20 year target to end postcode poverty. [208838]
John Healey: The Government's National Strategy Action Plan: ‘A New Commitment to Neighbourhood Renewal’ set out a radical vision that within 10 to 20 years no one should be seriously disadvantaged by where they live.
In terms of progress, the ‘Sub-National Economic Development and Regeneration Review’ showed that the strategy has had a significant effect in the most deprived areas and that, overall, the gap in performance has narrowed between deprived local authority areas and the rest. However concentrations of deprivation remain and, despite rapid improvement in some of the most deprived areas, worklessness in particular remains persistent in some local communities.
As part of a concerted drive to tackle this problem the Government have established a new Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF). This will focus on the most deprived areas and support local authorities and communities in their efforts to tackle worklessness and other elements of deprivation.
In London the boroughs receiving WNF are:
Barking and Dagenham;
Brent;
Greenwich;
Hackney;
Haringey;
Islington;
Lambeth;
Newham;
Southwark;
Tower Hamlets;
Waltham Forest,
All of these boroughs are also including worklessness-focused indicators in their local area agreements.
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