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13 Oct 2008 : Column 832W—continued
Departmental Land
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what valuations were made of the land to the north of the British Library in (a) 2004-05, (b) 2005-06, (c) 2006-07 and (d) 2007-08. [224767]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The land to the north of the British Library was professionally valued on 31 March 2005 at £18.98 million and on 31 March 2006 at £26.6 million. At 31 March 2008 the land was being held for resale at a revaluation of £85 million. The sale was completed on 13 June 2008.
Departmental NDPBs
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport pursuant to the written ministerial statement of 2 July 2008, Official Report, columns 51-52WS, on DCMS engagement, what changes are planned to the regional structures of (a) the Arts Council, (b) Sports England, (c) English Heritage and (d) Museum, Libraries and Archives Councils. [223004]
Barbara Follett: The right hon. Member for Barking (Margaret Hodge), explained in a written ministerial statement of 2 July 2008 that the precise nature of the new arrangements in each region will be negotiated regionally by the directors of the four key public bodies. She asked the four chief executives to present as soon as possible their proposals for how the new arrangements for culture will work in the regions following the wind up of the regional cultural consortiums on 31 March 2009.
My Department is committed to continuous improvement in delivery of public services to citizens and to providing value for money to taxpayers. To this end our NDPBs review their structures from time to time and as a result of such reviews, the following changes are proposed or being taken forward:
Sport England is proposing to replace Regional Sports Boards with a ministerial nominee in each of their 9 regions. The Nominee will act as an advocate for community sport. A decision on the London Regional Sports Board will be made following discussions with the Mayor.
The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) is reconfiguring as a single national agency with its head office functions in Birmingham. The unified MLA will then have the capacity to deploy up to 30 staff nationwide in flexible regional action teams.
Arts Council of England, as part of the review of support services, will move 60 staff from the London National Office to the North West Regional Office.
Gambling Act 2005
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when his Department completed the exercise measuring the cost of the Gambling Act 2005 as set out in the departmental Corporate Plan; what the estimated costs of the Act have been; and when he expects to publish the report in full. [224768]
Mr. Sutcliffe: My Department completed in June 2008 an administrative burdens measurement exercise of the Gambling Act 2005. This was carried out by using the better regulation executive's standard cost model method of assessment and by identifying each individual information obligation arising from the 2005 Act. The validity of the findings were tested by an expert panel, which included industry stakeholders, who challenged the assumptions, methodologies, outcomes of the assessment made by the Department and the Gambling Commission.
The work by the expert panel resulted in an agreed annual administrative burden of the 2005 Act of £17.4 million compared with an annual measurement of £74 million under the previous regulatory regime. Further details of the measurement exercise will be set out in the DCMS simplification plan 2008 to be published in December.
Minister for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many staff he expects to work in the Minister for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting's private office; and where the office will be located. [226000]
Andy Burnham: The Minister for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting will be supported by three members of staff in his private office, which will be co-located between the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what proportion of the working week he expects the Minister for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting to spend on his Department's business. [226001]
Andy Burnham: I expect the Minister for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (joint Minister with the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform) to spend approximately 50 per cent. of his working week on departmental business.
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport whether the Minister for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting has been assigned an office in his Department. [226002]
Andy Burnham: The Minister for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting has been assigned an office at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Olympic Delivery Authority: Finance
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much funding his Department will provide to the Olympic Delivery Authority in each of the next three years. [225676]
Tessa Jowell: I have been asked to reply.
Chapter 20 of the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) White Paper, published on 9 October 2007, announced total grant in aid from Government of £1,559/£1,104/£1,050 million in 2008-09 to 2010-11. Provision for 2011-12 to 2013-14 will be confirmed in the next CSR.
The balance of the funding requirement will be met, as announced in March 2007, by contributions from the Mayor of London (GLA and LDA); and from the lottery.
Olympic Games 2012: Standards
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on what date he expects to publish the first full report on Olympic and Paralympic public service agreements and physical education and school sport. [225692]
Tessa Jowell: I have been asked to reply.
Progress made against the PSA 22 indicators will be published in the autumn performance report published by DCMS. The report will be published no later than 15 December.
World Heritage Sites
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when he plans to publish guidelines for applicants for World Heritage status. [224832]
Barbara Follett: The Government will publish a consultation document on its UK World Heritage Review shortly. Should we decide, following the outcome of the Review, to revise the current UK Tentative List, appropriate guidelines on applications for inclusion on the List will be made available.
Olympics
Humanitarian Assistance Unit: Marketing
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Minister for the Olympics how much the humanitarian assistance unit spent on publicity in each year since its establishment. [225462]
Tessa Jowell: The Humanitarian Assistance Unit has not spent anything on publicity since it was set up in 2005.
Olympic Delivery Authority: Information Officers
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Minister for the Olympics how many press and communications officers are employed by the Olympic Delivery Authority. [224857]
Tessa Jowell: As of 30 September 2008 the ODA communications team employed 25 members of staff—five of which are specifically dedicated to dealing with the press.
The ODA communications team are responsible for a variety of communication and stakeholder engagement activities. These include dealing with local and national media, as well as public inquiries and community engagement, site visits, extensive stakeholder engagement, internal communications and ODA's external publications.
Olympic Games 2012: Construction
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Minister for the Olympics on what date she expects the construction of the Aquatics Centre for the London 2012 Olympics to begin. [225464]
Tessa Jowell: Construction of the foundations for the Aquatics Centre began in July 2008, two months ahead of schedule.
Olympic Games 2012: Finance
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Minister for the Olympics what the Government's contingency budget for the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games is; and how much of that has been (a) spent and (b) allocated. [224706]
Tessa Jowell: The £9.325 billion funding package for the games announced in March 2007 included a provision for contingency of £2.747 billion. As announced, £500 million of this was transferred to the Olympic Delivery Authority's (ODA) baseline funding, and £238 million was set aside as a contingency for wider policing and security. This left a balance of £2,009 million: £968 million of which is programme-wide contingency for ODA programme-wide risks, and £1,041 million of which is Funders' Group contingency for risks beyond the project and programme level.
To date £21.5 million of ODA programme-wide contingency has been allocated to cover the net contingency requirements of a number of programmes. In addition £95 million of Funder’s Group contingency has been allocated to the ODA as interim funding to enable work on the construction of the Olympic village to continue uninterrupted despite the current turmoil in the financial markets.
There is no direct spending from contingency, because once allocated it is incorporated into the ODA's programme expenditure. It is therefore only possible to provide information on the contingency allocated to the ODA and on ODA actual spend. Information on allocated contingency and actual spend are provided in the six- monthly progress updates. The next progress update will be published in the new year.
Solicitor-General
Departmental Correspondence
Mr. Harper: To ask the Solicitor-General how many letters her Department received from hon. Members and Peers in each session of Parliament since 1997. [174942]
The Solicitor-General: The Cabinet Office, on an annual basis, publishes a report to Parliament on the performance of Departments in replying to Members/Peers correspondence. These reports are available in the Library of the House.
Departmental Manpower
Mr. Harper: To ask the Solicitor-General how many staff work in her Office's parliamentary branch; and what proportion of their time is spent on dealing with (a) parliamentary questions and (b) correspondence from hon. Members and Peers. [174950]
The Solicitor-General: There is one person that deals with all my parliamentary business and there are three people in the correspondence team that deal with all correspondence from Members and Peers.
Departmental Written Questions
Mr. Harper: To ask the Solicitor-General how many and what proportion of written questions for answer on a named day she has answered on the due date in the current session of Parliament to date. [226886]
The Solicitor-General: 11 (73 per cent.) of the written for named day questions have been answered on the due date in the current session.
Disabled
Mr. Harper: To ask the Solicitor-General how many and what proportion of staff in the Attorney-General's Office are disabled; and what the average salary in the Office is of (a) full-time disabled staff, (b) full-time non-disabled staff, (c) part-time disabled staff and (d) part-time non-disabled staff. [220180]
The Solicitor-General: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by the Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office my hon. Friend the Member for West Bromwich, East (Mr. Watson) on 8 October 2008, Official Report, column 652W.
Powers of Entry
James Duddridge: To ask the Solicitor-General what (a) primary and (b) secondary legislation sponsored by the Attorney-General's Office has (i) amended and (ii) enhanced powers of entry since May 1997. [222346]
The Solicitor-General: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by the Minister for Security, Counter-Terrorism, Crime and Policing on 7 October 2008, Official Report, column 577W.
Energy and Climate Change
Climate Change and Energy Strategy Board
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what work the Climate Change and Energy Strategy Board has undertaken; what further work is planned; and if he will make a statement. [225366]
Joan Ruddock: The senior board which oversees the climate change and energy programme across Government is the Delivery and Strategy High Level Board (DASH Board). The board is made up of senior officials from all the contributing Departments (DECC, BERR, DEFRA, Cabinet Office, CLG, DfID, DfT, FCO and HMT) and is co-chaired by the heads of DECC's Climate Change Group (formerly in DEFRA) and the Energy Group (formerly in BERR). The board puts advice to the ED(EE) Cabinet Committee, and is also the Delivery Board for the Climate Change Public Service Agreement (PSA 27).
The board meets at least every six weeks, and takes regular reports from the programme boards which cover the three aspects of the overall programme: international energy and climate change; national energy and climate change mitigation; national climate change adaptation.
The board considers reports on progress from the programme boards, decides on any action to put progress on track and seeks to identify the key strategic issues and risks to the programme that need to be addressed.
Warm Front Scheme
Janet Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many complaints he has received from (a) local authorities and (b) others in relation to the management of the Warm Front 2 scheme; and what the subject of each complaint was. [224262]
Joan Ruddock [holding answer 17 September 2008]: Complaints received by the Secretary of State are not classified and recorded in the way requested. However, Eaga plc, who manage the scheme on DECC's behalf, do record and classify all complaints received about Warm Front, for which the Secretary of State is ultimately responsible.
Between 1 June 2005 (start of Warm Front 2) and 31 August 2008, there was a total of 3,508 upheld complaints in relation to the Warm Front Scheme, made by a variety of bodies. Over the same period, there were 834,269 successful applications to the scheme, giving a percentage of upheld complaints against successful applications of 0.42 per cent.
Warm Front does not specifically record the numbers of complaints received from local authorities. However, the following table shows the breakdown of upheld complaints received by source since the start of Warm Front 2(1). Local authority complaints are recorded in the stakeholder category.
(1) The total figure in the table comes to 3,506 rather than 3,508, as two complaints received that related to the HEES Scheme in Wales have been removed.
| Source | Number of upheld complaints |
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