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12 Jan 2009 : Column 236W—continued
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when the Government plans to set up the centre of excellence to improve understanding between Muslim communities and cultural and sporting bodies referred to on page 33 of the report The Prevent Strategy: A Guide for Local Partners in England; what the centre's remit will be; how many people it will employ; what its annual budget will be in the three years from 2008-09; and if she will make a statement. [245561]
Mr. Khan: The reference in The Prevent Strategy: A Guide for Local Partners in England is to work to bring together expertise across the culture and sport sectors in one central place under the leadership of the strategic delivery bodies. It does not refer to a physical “centre of excellence”. This work is being taken forward by Creative Partnerships, a sector body of the Arts Council England, and began in August 2008.
The remit of this work is to improve the general understanding nationally and locally between Muslim communities and cultural and sporting bodies, and to work with a wide range of partners to help raise understanding of how cultural and sporting opportunities can be used to build resilience to violent extremism.
Two members of staff at Creative Partnerships are currently engaged on this work.
In 2008-09 CLG provided funding of £140,000 for this work. At this present time, no future funding has been allocated.
Community Relations: Religion
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what progress has been made in the development of the Continuous Professional Development Programme for Faith Leaders referred to on page 18 of the report, The Prevent Strategy: A Guide for Local Partners in England; when this will be rolled out nationally; and how this project will be funded. [245567]
Mr. Khan: The Faith Community Development qualification is now available for higher education organisations to deliver. In addition to this, we have contracted the National Institute for Adult Continual Education (NIACE) to run a second round of pilots over the 2008/09 academic year. These pilots are being run in London, Bradford, Sheffield, Manchester, Birmingham and Leicester and will report in spring 2009.
DIUS and CLG jointly funded the development of the qualification and CLG are funding the 2008-09 pilots.
Council Tax
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with reference to the answer of 13 November 2008, Official Report, column 1312W, on council tax: Wales; if she will publish details of council tax list alterations by local authority area in England in (a) 2006-07 and (b) 2007-08 on the same basis, based on data held by the Valuation Office Agency. [245896]
John Healey: This information is not currently available.
Departmental Accountancy
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with reference to the answer to the hon. Member for Beckenham of 13 October 2008, Official Report, column 971W, on Departmental accountancy, to which firms the sum of £3.1 million for the provision of furniture and fittings in 2007-08 was paid. [245938]
Mr. Khan: The firms to which the sum of £3.1 million was paid were Como Interiors Ltd., Steria Ltd., and MITIE Managed Services Ltd.
Departmental Data Protection
Mr. Vara: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when her Department appointed a senior information risk owner in accordance with the report, “Data Handling Procedures in Government” and the accompanying document “Cross Government Actions: Mandatory Minimum Measures”; and what grade the person holds within the Department. [245357]
Mr. Khan: The Department already had a senior information risk owner in place at director level. The role was upgraded to board level in March 2008 and is undertaken at director general level.
Departmental Finance
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the cost of running her Department's Cohesion Directorate is expected to be in (a) 2008-09 and (b) each of the following two years; and what the costs are expected to be for the (i) Cohesion and Faiths Preventing Violent Extremism, Race Equality and Diversity divisions and (ii) Gypsy and Traveller unit. [245526]
Mr. Khan: The administrative budget for the Cohesion Directorate is £5,043,606 in 2008-09.
The administrative budget for 2009-10 and 2010-11 are yet to be agreed.
The administrative budget for the Cohesion and Faiths and Preventing Violent Extremism divisions is expected to be £4,093,607 in 2008-09. The administrative budget for the Race Equality and Diversity division (which is now a part of the Empowerment Directorate) is £1,172,415.
The administrative budget for the Gypsy and Traveller Unit (which is also now a part of the Empowerment Directorate) is £417,979 in 2008-09.
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what funding has been agreed for each of her Department's executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies for the period 2008-09 to 2010-11. [245908]
Mr. Khan: For NDPBs, I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 21 October 2008, Official Report, column 228W. The Department currently sponsors three executive agencies, as follows:
The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre
I refer the hon. Member to the agencies' websites via the links above. Available information on funding may be found in documents such as the agencies' corporate or business plans.
Departmental Furniture
Mrs. Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much was spent by her Department on furniture made by (a) British firms, (b) Remploy and (c) overseas firms in each year since 2000. [244360]
Mr. Khan: The Department for Communities and Local Government’s furniture procurement strategy is to use the Office of Government Commerce Buying Solutions’ framework contracts. There is no mechanism within the framework to capture the country of origin of these goods or details about specific firms.
Departmental ICT
Robert Neill: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many embedded communicators have been installed in her Department's information and communications systems. [246372]
Mr. Khan: The hon. Member may wish to refer to The White Book, published by COI. This is available in the Library of the House and contains a listing for members of the Department's Communications Directorate. The book is updated twice yearly.
Departmental Manpower
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many staff work in her Department's (a) Migration Directorate and (b) Cohesion Directorate, broken down by unit. [245527]
Mr. Khan: 81 staff work in the Department's Cohesion and Migration Directorate. The breakdown of numbers by unit is as follows:
| Staff | |
In addition there are twp Muslim advisers who are not civil servants.
There are also six Communities and Local Government staff in the Research, Information and Communications Unit (RICU). This is a cross-governmental strategic communications resource on counter-terrorism. It is owned jointly by Communities and Local Government, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Home Office.
Departmental Marketing
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many complaints about advertisements sponsored or funded by her Department were made to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in each year from 1997 to 2008; and how many of these were upheld by the ASA in each year. [246644]
Mr. Khan: This information is held by the Advertising Standards Authority and is in the public domain. I therefore refer the hon. Member to the ASA, and to the archive of their adjudications maintained at:
For broadcast advertising complaints prior to 2004, I refer the hon. Member to the public affairs unit at Ofcom.
Departmental Ministerial Policy Advisers
Mr. Tyrie: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what expert advisers have been commissioned by her Department and its agencies since 1997; on what topic each was commissioned; and whether the advisers so appointed made a declaration of political activity in each case. [246662]
Mr. Khan: The information requested is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Contractors are not asked to declare political activity as a matter of course. Contract terms and conditions task contractors with clarifying that no conflict of interest arises in connection with the services they are to deliver under contract.
Departmental Training
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with reference to the answer to the hon. Member for Hammersmith and Fulham (Mr. Hands) of 13 November 2008, Official Report, column 1326W, on departmental training, what foreign language or languages she has undertaken training in to assist her in her ministerial capacity; and how much the training has cost. [245928]
Mr. Khan: My right hon. Friend received Spanish lessons in advance of an international ministerial conference on citizen participation in Valencia which took place in October 2007. The cost was £183.
Derelict Land
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment she has made of levels of brownfield development in (a) England, (b) the North East, (c) Tees Valley district and (d) Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency. [244901]
Mr. Iain Wright: Information on development on previously-developed or brownfield land is taken from the Land Use Change Statistics, which is only available for England.
(a) 58 per cent. of the land changing to a developed use in England was previously-developed;
(b) 60 per cent. of the land changing to a developed use in the North East was previously-developed;
(c) 65 per cent. of the land changing to a developed use in the Tees Valley was previously-developed;
(d) 60 per cent. of the land changing to a developed use in the Middlesbrough, South and East Cleveland constituency was previously-developed.
Tees Valley is defined as the Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland, Stockton-on-Tees and Darlington local authorities.
“Brown field development” has been interpreted as all development on previously-developed land, not just residential development. Information on residential development can be found on the CLG website at:
Fire Services: Airwave Service
Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many Airwave handsets issued to fire and rescue services have been lost in each year since their introduction; and how many handsets issued to fire and rescue services have been disabled by the service provider following (a) loss, (b) breakages and (c) other reasons in each year since the service’s introduction. [246153]
Mr. Khan: In November 2008 the Firelink project commenced the main roll-out of Airwave equipment to the Fire and Rescue Service vehicle fleet. There have been no losses of Airwave handsets delivered by Firelink and no requests have been made to disable equipment.
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