| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
9 July 2008 : Column 1671W—continued
Sport Action Zone Sub-Committee
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on how many occasions the Sport Action Zone Sub-Committee has met since its establishment; and if he will place in the Library a copy of the minutes of each of its last three meetings. [213784]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The Sport Action Zone Sub-Committee is a matter for Sport England.
Sports: Finance
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many projects aimed at (a) ethnic communities, (b) disabled communities and (c) women and girls have received funding from Sport England’s Community Projects Revenue Fund since 1999. [212992]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Sport England has advised that from 2005-06 to 2007-08 the public service agreement for sport was to increase participation in sport by 3 per cent. by priority groups including ethnic minorities, disabled people and women.
To support increases in participation by ethnic minorities Sport England has, in the last three years provided a total of £1,014,829 funding for Sporting Equals.
To support increases in participation by disabled people, Sport England provided £4,111,399 to the English Federation of Disability Sport between 2005 and 2008, and have invested approximately £8,000,000 in the Inclusive Fitness Initiative (IFI) which is a gym based project to ensure disabled people can take part in gym based exercise.
To support increases in participation by women and girls Sport England will provide £1.6 million funding for the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation between 2005 and 2009.
In order to receive funding from 2009-11, national governing bodies of sport will be required to develop plans for increasing participation by ethnic communities, disabled communities and, women and girls’ participation in sport.
Swimming: London
Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport pursuant to the answer of 1 July 2008, Official Report, column 884W, on swimming: London, with which London boroughs his Department’s proposals for free swimming were discussed before the policy was announced. [217030]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Prior to the announcement, my Department had individual discussions on the proposals for the free swimming offer with the London borough of Newham.
Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
Departmental Buildings
Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform on which buildings occupied by his Department’s agencies and non-departmental public bodies the lease will be due for renewal in the next four years. [214696]
Mr. Thomas: I have approached the chief executives of the Insolvency Service and Companies House and they will respond to the hon. Member directly.
Information requested for non-departmental public bodies is not held centrally and to obtain such information would lead to disproportionate costs.
Letter from Gareth Jones, dated 7 July 2008:
I am responding on behalf of Companies House to your recently tabled Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.
The lease of the building in which Companies House's Edinburgh office is based is due for renewal in March 2009.
Letter from Stephen Speed, dated 7 July 2008:
The Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform has asked me to reply to you directly on behalf of the Insolvency Services in respect of your question (2007/3199) on which buildings occupied by his Department's agencies and non-departmental public bodies the lease will be due for renewal in the next four years.
Please see table below for the leases due for renewal in the next four years.
Energy: Prices
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what assessment he has made of the scale of regional price differentials in domestic gas and electricity prices; and if he will make a statement. [216943]
Malcolm Wicks: Regional price differentials in domestic electricity and gas prices are published quarterly in tables 2.2.3 and 2.3.3 respectively of Quarterly Energy Prices, available online at:
A copy of this is also available from the Libraries of the House.
Export Credits Guarantee Department
Mr. Hurd: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what data the Export Credits Guarantee Department collects on greenhouse gas emissions arising from high and medium impact projects which it supports. [214569]
Malcolm Wicks: ECGD’s policy is to require an environmental impact assessment (EIA) for each project for which it receives an application for support and which its initial screening has identified as having high potential impacts. For any such project with significant greenhouse gas emissions, ECGD expects the EIA to contain details of the direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions from the project. This includes details of emissions relating to the generation of heat and power used by the project.
Where ECGD’s initial screening has judged the project to have medium potential impacts, applicants are required to complete an impact questionnaire, which asks for quantification of emissions of greenhouse gases.
Where an application relates to export insurance or where the value of the goods or services to be exported is very low in comparison to the total project cost, this information may not be available to the applicant. In these circumstances, for projects that it expects to have significant greenhouse gas emissions, ECGD estimates the emission quantities based on other sources of data.
Flexible Working
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (1) what estimate he has made of the (a) number and (b) proportion of employees taking flexible working in the 15 per cent. of local authorities with the highest unemployment; [213480]
(2) what estimate he has made of the (a) number and (b) proportion of employees taking flexible working in each Government Office region; [213483]
(3) what estimate he has made of the (a) number and (b) proportion of businesses offering flexible working in the 15 per cent. of local authorities with the highest unemployment; [213484]
(4) what estimate he has made of the (a) number and (b) proportion of businesses offering flexible working in each Government Office region. [213485]
Mr. McFadden: Data gathered to assess the impact of the right to request flexible working legislation show that nationally 91 per cent. of workplaces who received requests in the last year approved all requests(1) and that 94 per cent. of all requests from working parents are agreed(2).
Furthermore evidence also shows that 92 per cent. of employers consider requests from any employee(3) and 56 per cent. of employees (14 million employees) work flexibly, or have done so within the last 12 months(4).
The Department does not hold the specific information requested but the Third Work Life Balance Employers’ Survey (2007) provides the following data at Government office regional level:
| GO-region | Percentage of workplaces receiving requests to work flexibly |
The Department does not hold information on the right to request flexible working at below regional level.
Currently over 6 million employees have the right to request flexible working. This will increase to over 10 million employees once the right to request is extended to parents of children aged 16 and under.
(1) Third Work Life Balance Employers’ Survey—2007
(2) CBI Employment Trends Survey—2007
(3) Third Work Life Balance Employers’ Survey—2007
(4) Third Work Life Balance Employees’ Survey—2006
Internet: Standards
Dr. Starkey: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform on how many occasions Ofcom has required a broadband provider to issue a Migration Authorisation Code and not secured compliance in the last 12 months. [214443]
Malcolm Wicks: The matter raised is the responsibility of the independent regulator, the Office of Communications (Ofcom), which is accountable to Parliament rather than Ministers.
Accordingly, I have asked the chief executive of Ofcom to reply directly to the hon. Member. Copies of the chief executive’s letter will be placed in the Libraries of the House.
Manufacturing Industries: Furniture
Mrs. Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what recent discussions his Department has had with the European Commission on support for the UK furniture industry. [215675]
Malcolm Wicks: There have been no recent discussions between the Department and the European Commission on support for the UK furniture industry.
Mrs. Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what recent discussions he has had with the EU Trade Commissioner on support for the UK furniture industry. [215677]
Malcolm Wicks: There have been no recent discussions between the Department and the EU Trade Commissioner on support for the UK furniture industry.
Mrs. Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what support his Department has provided to the furniture industry which meets the criteria of the EU Structural Funds Priority Status in the last three years. [215723]
Malcolm Wicks: Under the rules that govern the structural funds there is no such concept as priority status so it is not a criteria that can be met. In addition, the Department does not provide support through the structural funds. The funds are delivered by the Department for Work and Pensions and Communities and Local Government in England and by the devolved administrations on their territories.
Microgeneration
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what his Department's assessment is of the effect of banding of the renewables obligation on the take-up of (a) micro wind and (b) solar photovoltaics from April 2009. [212349]
Malcolm Wicks: Element Energy produced a report on 2 June 2008, which was jointly commissioned by my Department and others. The report predicted growth in (a) micro wind from 1,100 installations in 2007 to 7,400 in 2020 and (b) solar photovoltaics from 2,300 installations to 6,100 in 2020, on a baseline of two ROCs per MWH. We will be consulting on what more can be done to encourage micro-generation as part of the Renewable Energy Strategy we will be publishing shortly.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |