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22 July 2008 : Column 1152W—continued
Carbon Emissions
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the Answer to the hon. Member for Welwyn Hatfield (Grant Shapps) of 7 July 2008, Official Report, column 1347W, on carbon emissions, what the differences are between HM Treasury’s definition of zero carbon for stamp duty relief and that in the Level 6 Code for Sustainable Homes. [221156]
Mr. Iain Wright: There are no differences between the definition of zero carbon used by HM Treasury for the purposes of stamp duty relief and that used for the Code for Sustainable Homes. The Government have committed to keeping the definition under review and this will be the subject of a forthcoming consultation exercise.
Carers: Stroud
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many people resident in Stroud constituency are proscribed from working in the care and children’s sector under (a) the Protection of Vulnerable Adults list and (b) the Protection of Children Act 1999 lists. [220282]
Kevin Brennan: I have been asked to reply
The identification of the number of individuals registered on the Protection of Vulnerable Adults (PoVA) and the Protection of Children Act (PoCA) lists who have home addresses in Stroud would require each of the case records to be checked. This could be undertaken only at disproportionate cost and would only provide historical information correct at the time at which the individuals concerned were registered.
Once an individual is on either list, a standard or enhanced Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) disclosure will reveal the barred status of that individual to a relevant employer together with details of any criminal convictions. Information on an individual’s address at the time of listing is not necessary in order to check whether that person is barred.
The part of this question which relates to the PoVA list is answered on behalf of the Department of Health who have responsibility for PoVA.
Communities in Control White Paper
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with reference to the Communities in Control White Paper—Impact Assessments, what (a) methodology was used and (b) assumptions were made in calculating the estimated cost of voting incentives. [221533]
Mr. Dhanda:
The Impact Assessments for the White Paper “Communities in control: real people, real power”, which was published on 9 July 2008, were prepared according to guidance issued by the Better Regulation Executive. An estimate of the costs of voting incentives was calculated on the assumption that £1,000 would be
spent per authority, per election, with the incentive taking the form of a small reward, such as the opportunity to take part in a prize draw. The Ministry of Justice lead on voting incentives and are currently considering these proposals.
Construction: Materials
Andrew Stunell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate she has made of the percentage of the construction products market represented by (a) recycled and (b) re-used materials, expressed in (i) cash terms and (ii) mass, in each year since 2004. [219666]
Mr. Iain Wright: The Department's Report "Monitoring the Sustainability of Buildings", published in 2007 contained data about the value and mass of recycled and reusable materials used as of November 2004 only.
This can be viewed on the Department's website via the link:
Figures for later years are not currently available, but further data are currently being compiled for the next report on this subject which will be published in 2009.
Departmental Responsibilities
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government which projects her Department has commissioned from (a) think tanks and (b) charities in each of the last two years for which figures are available; what the aim of each project was; which think tank or charity was commissioned; and how much was paid. [221603]
Mr. Dhanda: Communities and Local Government commissions work from a range of organisations to support the development of evidenced based policy. We do not currently hold centrally a list of contractors for all projects commissioned in the Department and to compile one could only be done at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Alcoholic Drinks
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what purchasing process is used by her Department for the procurement of alcohol for hospitality purposes. [219949]
Mr. Dhanda: As with the majority of commodities procured by the Department, the purchasing process encompasses the generating of a purchase order on the departmental finance system and the subsequent paying against an associated and agreed invoice.
For more lower value commodities, the Department promotes the use of the Government Procurement Card (GPC) as an efficient and cost effective purchasing device.
Within the Department, the staff handbook gives guidance to staff on when it might be appropriate to offer hospitality and the financial limits that apply. The purchase of alcohol for hospitality reasons is expected to be rare and limited to small amounts.
Departmental Buildings
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government which organisations have received (a) free and (b) discounted room hire from (i) her Department and (ii) its agencies in each of the last five years; and what the commercial value of the discount was in each case. [221578]
Mr. Dhanda: Communities and Local Government does not hire out its conference facilities, and only allows use of them by its own staff, or the departments/non departmental public bodies with whom it shares its buildings. It does not charge for the use of rooms, but does charge for refreshments.
For the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre and the Fire Service College this information is not available. As a trading funds who hire conference space to all sectors, any such arrangements would be commercially confidential.
Departmental Internet
Mr. Davey: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what budget her Department has allocated to the Read My Day/BloginaBox platform for each of the next three financial years; and if she will make a statement. [220194]
Mr. Dhanda: The Department has agreed to provide funding of £10,590 to provide the required resources for the ReadmyDay/BloginaBox platform to operate until October 2011.
The Department will be communicating with all users on the platform to inform them of the decision and to encourage the establishment of a user group to seek how the platform can be made sustainable beyond this date. It is hoped that this seed funding will provide the opportunity for users to take control of this important asset and secure its future for them and other civic leaders.
Mr. Davey: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many visits have been made to the International Centre of Excellence for Local e-Democracy website since its launch; and if she will make a statement. [220195]
Mr. Dhanda: Since the launch of the ICELE website in October 2006 there have been over 750,000 visits. In the last six full months to 30 June 2008, approximately 300,000 visits have been recorded.
Mr. Davey: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what plans her Department has to maintain and promote the resources and toolkits developed by the International Centre for Excellence for Local e-Democracy; and if she will make a statement. [220196]
Mr. Dhanda:
A review is currently being conducted by the Department and the International Centre of Excellence for Local eDemocracy to establish the current content and web traffic to the site. We are keen to retain
the resources and toolkits developed by the International Centre of Excellence for Local eDemocracy and the previous Local e-Democracy National Project incorporated into it.
The Department is exploring the options currently available including the use existing web resources to promote the empowerment agenda.
Mr. Davey: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many community groups have created websites using the Voice platform sponsored by her Department since the platform was launched; and if she will make a statement. [220286]
Mr. Dhanda: There are currently 3,362 community groups who have created websites and are registered on the VOICE site or using its open source derivatives.
Mr. Davey: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much funding her Department has given to the International Centre for Excellence for Local e-Democracy to support the Voice platform; and if she will make a statement. [220287]
Mr. Dhanda: The Voice platform has been constructed from an amalgam of different national projects and partnerships within the Local e-Government Programme which ran from 2002 to 2006.
Funding directly attributable to the product was for £3,500,000 for the Environment and Community Online Residents e-Services (ENCORE) National Project, £350,000 for the Local Directgov Neighbourhoods and Parish Councils Project and £234,000 allocated to International Centre of Excellence for Local eDemocracy for further development and coding issues.
Mr. Davey: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what budget allocation her Department has made for the maintenance of the Voice platform for each of the next two financial years. [220288]
Mr. Dhanda: The Voice platform is fully funded up to April 2009 using existing resources allocated to the International centre of Excellence for Local eDemocracy (ICELE) and thus fulfilling current subscriptions to the service.
The Voice platform is almost self-sufficient via local authority and voluntary organisation subscriptions. Negotiations are being undertaken as part of a review with existing local authority users to determine whether it is viable to transfer the responsibility for maintaining hosting and license fees to a current user as a new host authority to enable taking this product forward. A small additional amount of seed funding will be offered to enable e-voice as a service to be transferred to the new host body and the services to continue.
Mr. Davey: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many blogs by councillors and local government officers are registered on the ReadMyDay/Blog-in-a-Box platform sponsored by her Department; and if she will make a statement. [220289]
Mr. Dhanda: There are currently 166 councillors and 50 local government officers registered on the ReadmyDay/BloginaBox platform from a total of 93 local authorities.
Departmental Overtime
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many hours of overtime were worked by staff in each pay grade in her Department in each of the last 12 months. [221242]
Mr. Dhanda: The following table shows how many hours overtime was claimed by staff in each pay grade in the Communities and Local Government Headquarters in each of the last 12 months. Data from our Agencies and NDPBs are not held centrally.
| Hours | ||||||||||||
| 2007 | 2008 | |||||||||||
| Grade | July | August | September | October | November | December | January | February | March | April | May | June |
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