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17 Jun 2008 : Column 858W—continued
Departmental Standards
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment he has made of the Department’s performance against Public Service Agreement target 3 in the 2002 Spending Review during the period 2002 to 2008. [209406]
Andy Burnham [holding answer 6 June 2008]: The DCMS Annual Report for 2008 was published in May 2008 and gives details of our latest assessment The full report can be seen on the DCMS website:
A further assessment will be made in the autumn, when data for 2006 has been validated.
English Sports Council: Finance
Hugh Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport by what means he expects the £20 million administrative savings expected of Sport England over the next three years to be achieved. [211459]
Mr. Sutcliffe [holding answer 16 June 2008]: The reduction in Sport England's operating costs of £20 million over the next three years will be achieved by a range of measures, which include the centralisation of grant making; the creation of a single, streamlined grant application process; a tighter focus in regional activities; savings to information and communication technology services; and improvements in procurement and financial management.
Hugh Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what his Department's definition is of (a) direct delivery costs and (b) other operating costs, as used in paragraph 108 of the Sport England strategy for 2008 to 2011. [211460]
Mr. Sutcliffe [holding answer 16 June 2008]: Operating costs are defined as all the costs of the organisation, including its wider activities, other than the costs of grant awards.
(a) Sport England advises that direct delivery costs are a subset of operating costs which help deliver their outcomes and objectives. For example, to support grant applicants, the direct delivery costs include meetings, publicity and guidance materials which improve the quality and range of applications. The direct delivery costs also include funding for research used by the sector as a whole (for example the Active People Survey and Sport England's contribution to the Taking Part Survey).
(b) Other operating costs support the delivery of Sport England's wider activities, for example
statutory and non-statutory planning function;
technical advice service; and
national and regional advocacy.
Sport England emphasises that the percentages shown in the table in paragraph 108 of the Sport England strategy document are illustrative.
Equality
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will take steps to establish a strategy to tackle age discrimination and promote age equality in the provision of goods and services (a) by his Department and (b) within the sector for which he has policy responsibility; and if he will make a statement. [210459]
Mr. Sutcliffe: My Department will review our approach to age equality in the light of any proposals arising from the Government’s proposals for the Equality Bill, outlined in the consultation “A Framework for Fairness”. Our departmental guidance on equality impact assessment currently includes age equality as an issue for consideration in policy development.
Gaming Machines
Mr. Holloway: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when the conclusions of the triennial review of stakes and prizes for gaming machines will be published; and if he will make a statement. [212090]
Mr. Sutcliffe: A triennial review of stakes and prizes grew up by custom and practice under the previous gambling legislation, and has no statutory basis. The Government last increased stake and prize levels for certain categories of gaming machine in October 2006, earlier than planned and at the industry's request. We are committed to a further review no later than 2009.
Sportsmatch: Grants
Hugh Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what role Sportsmatch will have in the £10 million Small Grants Scheme under the Sport England strategy for 2008 to 2011. [211461]
Mr. Sutcliffe [holding answer 16 June 2008]: Sport England has signalled a continuing role—within its £10 million funding for small grants—for the highly successful Sportsmatch programme.
Swimming Pools
Mr. Evennett: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many public swimming pools have closed in (a) the Greater London area and (b) England since 1997. [210521]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Sport England has advised that information on local authority pool openings and closures across Greater London and England was not collected centrally prior to 2004, when the Active Places database of sports facilities across England was established. The most recent information from Sport England (November 2007) indicates the number of pools (not sites) opened and closed in each year since 2004.
| Opened | Closed | |
Swimming: Finance
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much (a) his Department and (b) the National Lottery are contributing to the £140 million fund announced on 6 June 2008 to encourage local authorities to offer free swimming. [211373]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is making a contribution to the capital fund of £9.75 million in 2008-09, £9.75 million in 2009-10 and £10 million in 2010-11.
As for the National Lottery contribution, as part of our work over the summer to design the delivery and implementation arrangements of the free swimming offer, we will be discussing with Sport England its contribution, including the potential of making swimming a growth sport, and how the free swimming initiative can have an impact on increasing sports participation.
Television: Licensing
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many (a) fines were issued and (b) prosecutions were brought for the offence of installing or using a television receiver to watch or record television shows without a valid licence in each London borough in each of the last five years. [210281]
Andy Burnham: The administration and enforcement of the television licensing system are the responsibility of the BBC, which operates independently of Government. The day to day administration and enforcement of the licence fee regulations are undertaken by TV Licensing, which acts as agent for the corporation. Fines are issued and collected by the courts, and information on the number of offenders fined in London for offences under the Wireless Telegraphy Acts, the majority of which relate to TV licence evasion, for 2002-06 is set out in the following table. This information has been provided by the Ministry of Justice and is not available by London borough.
| Number sentenced | Number fined | |
Television: Sight-Impaired People
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport whether he plans to change the specification of Freeview boxes under the Help Scheme to provide audio description and talking menus to help the visually impaired. [209725]
Andy Burnham: The Department set up the Emerging Technologies Group to keep the core receiver requirements of the scheme equipment under review and to recommend, where necessary, that new technologies be incorporated in this equipment. They will consider the case for talking menus for equipment supplied by the Help Scheme. Any recommendations must then be approved by me and by the BBC as the operators of the scheme. Audio description is already a core receiver requirement.
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what plans he has to encourage the development of digital teletext on digital platforms to assist the visually impaired. [209728]
Andy Burnham:
We welcome any developments to assist the visually impaired in this area. Blind and
partially sighted people can currently gain access to analogue terrestrial teletext services through ‘Talking Teletext’ equipment that translates written teletext into audible speech. The existing equipment is not suitable for receiving digital teletext services, however, as a different technology is used to broadcast those services. Portset, the manufacturer of ‘Talking Teletext’, has recently introduced a specially designed unit that, among other features, provides access to digital teletext for blind and partially sighted people.
Treasury
Departmental Aviation
Mr. Maude: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many individual domestic air flights were undertaken within mainland Britain by representatives of (a) his Department and (b) its agencies in the most recent year for which figures are available; and at what cost. [211004]
Angela Eagle: The individual domestic air flights undertaken within mainland Britain by representatives against the corporate contract and the associated costs are as follows.
| Number | Total cost 2007-08 (£) | |
| (1) Trips (2) Return flights. | ||
NS&I can provide this information only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Higher Civil Servants
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what civil service grade the Head of the Government Finance Profession is. [211779]
Angela Eagle: The civil service grade of the head of the Government Finance Profession is director-general, senior civil service pay band 3.
Departmental Planning Permission
Mr. Maude: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what (a) planning applications and (b) licensing applications his Department has submitted in the last 24 months. [210848]
Angela Eagle: Two applications were made in the last 24 months: the first was in respect of internal alterations to partitions within the building and the second, currently awaiting approval, was for netting to prevent birds from resting on the roofs over lightwells.
No licensing applications were made during this period.
Departmental Translation Services
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much was spent by his Department on translation and interpretation services in 2007-08, broken down by language. [205173]
Angela Eagle: Total spending on translation costs cannot be provided within the disproportionate costs threshold as the production price charged for certain documents may include a translation element that cannot be readily disaggregated. Where translation spending can be identified it amounted to £1,413 in 2007-08, subject to any necessary adjustments following the Comptroller and Auditor General's audit of the 2007-08 HM Treasury Resource Account. This spending represented the Treasury's share of the cost of the provision of interpreters at European Commission working group meetings in Brussels attended by Treasury officials and cannot therefore be broken down by language.
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