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13 Jan 2009 : Column 614W—continued
The Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA), which will be introduced from April 2009, is an important component of the performance framework for the Prevent agenda. CLG and other Government Departments have been working with the local public services inspectorates (including the Audit Commission and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary) so that the CAA helps to ensure the effective and efficient delivery of Prevent, including the most effective use of resources.
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) how she plans to ensure that local Prevent partnerships develop the appropriate narrative referred to in paragraph 27 of the Audit Commission report Preventing Violent Extremism: Learning and Development Exercise; [245519]
(2) what steps her Department plans to take to provide partnerships with more information identifying the factors that make some people vulnerable to becoming involved in violent extremism, as mentioned on page 23 of the Audit Commission report Preventing Violent Extremism: Learning and Development Exercise; and if she will make a statement; [245517]
(3) what steps her Department plans to take to ensure that the Security Service, the Association of Chief Police Officers and regional government offices will develop an agreed structure for information sharing at an appropriate level between police, councils and other partners, as referred to on page 22 of the Audit Commission report Preventing Violent Extremism: Learning and Development Exercise; [245516]
(4) what plans she has to develop a suite of information sources to enable Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships to have a clear process for mapping their communities and identifying vulnerability to violent extremism, as referred to in paragraph 60 of the Audit Commission report Preventing Violent Extremism: Learning and Development Exercise; [245515]
(5) how her Department plans to analyse and disseminate the learning of partnerships who have dealt with the direct impact of violent extremism in order to learn from their experience; [245513]
(6) how she plans to ensure that councils are providing the tailored support through targeted prevent approaches to people who are at risk of, or are moving towards extremism, referred to in paragraph 36 of the Audit Commission report Preventing Violent Extremism: Learning and Development Exercise; [245512]
(7) when her Department plans to publish its response to Lord Patel’s review of community approaches to preventing violent extremism; [245537]
(8) what plans she has to develop National Indicator 35 in response to the recommendation on page 52 of the Audit Commission’s November 2008 report Preventing Violent Extremism: Learning and Development Exercise; [246232]
(9) what plans she has to provide research on the causes of violent extremism to local partnerships, in response to paragraph 170 of the Audit Commission’s November 2008 report Preventing Violent Extremism: Learning and Development Exercise; [246231]
(10) whether she plans to promote the joint briefing of front line council staff and neighbourhood policing teams on the Prevent programme, in response to paragraph 160 of the Audit Commission’s report Preventing Violent Extremism: Learning and Development Exercise; [246230]
(11) whether she plans to ensure that briefing on the Prevent programme is extended to all frontline council staff, in response to paragraph 120 of the Audit Commission’s November 2008 report Preventing Violent Extremism: Learning and Development Exercise; [246229]
(12) whether she plans to review her Department’s policy on protective marking and vetting of documents, in response to paragraph 77 of the Audit Commission’s November 2008 report Preventing Violent Extremism: Learning and Development Exercise; and if she will make a statement; [246226]
(13) what response she plans to make to the recommendation on page 28 of the Audit Commission’s November 2008 report Preventing Violent Extremism: Learning and Development Exercise on sharing experience of counter-terrorism operations; [246212]
(14) what response she plans to make to the recommendation on page 31 of the Audit Commission’s November 2008 report Preventing Violent Extremism: Learning and Development Exercise on the capacity of councils in respect of activity in connection with the Prevent programme; [246196]
(15) what response she plans to make to the recommendation in paragraph 75 of the Audit Commission’s November 2008 report Preventing Violent Extremism: Learning and Development Exercise on the flow of information between councils and police forces; [246195]
(16) what response she plans to make to the recommendation in paragraph 73 of the Audit Commission’s November 2008 report Preventing Violent Extremism: Learning and Development Exercise on collection of information at local level; and if she will make a statement; [246194]
(17) what response she plans to make to the recommendation on page 32 of the Audit Commission’s November 2008 report Preventing Violent Extremism: Learning and Development Exercise on the composition of local partnerships; [246193]
(18) with respect to the Audit Commission report Preventing Violent Extremism: Learning and Development Exercise, how she plans to rectify the absence of relevant information to determine the extent of local vulnerability referred to in paragraph 27; [245518]
(19) whether she plans to assess information relating to international issues for their relevance to specific local communities as referred to in paragraph 125 of the Audit Commission’s November 2008 report Preventing Violent Extremism: Learning and Development Exercise; and if she will make a statement. [245694]
Mr. Khan:
A number of reviews took place over the summer which sought to draw out learning and emerging practice on the delivery of activity to prevent violent extremism, including the joint Audit Commission and
HMIC Learning and Development Exercise (LDE). Though each review had a different focus, together they provide a useful package of learning material upon which local partners can draw and which will inform the Government’s approach to Prevent.
There are a number of common themes which run through all these reviews. Some of these require action from national Government, some from local partners and many from both. We have ensured wide distribution of the LDE report to enable local partners to benefit directly from the important learning it contains in taking forward their local Prevent response. We published “Delivering Prevent—Responding to Learning” on 10 December, which sets out the key strands of learning from the reviews and work already underway to address these key themes. We will continue to develop our response to the reviews throughout the year.
I will place a copy of “Delivering Prevent—Responding to Learning” in the Library of the House.
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what her Department’s definition is of political extremism, as referred to on page 18 of the report, Guidance for local authorities on community cohesion, contingency planning and tension monitoring. [245552]
Mr. Khan: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 4 June 2008, Official Report, column 992W, to the hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Robert Neill).
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when the regional conferences with young people to debate extremism issues referred to on page 8 of the report Preventing Violent Extremism: A Strategy for Delivery will be held; where they will be held; and if she will make a statement. [245556]
Beverley Hughes: I have been asked to reply.
The Department for Children, Schools and Families and the Home Office are joint sponsors of nine Youth Conferences on Extremism being delivered by the UK Youth Parliament and the Association for Chief Police Officers. There will be one in each of the nine Government office regions in England. To date, two have been held, one in the North East on 8 August 2008 and one in Yorkshire and Humber on 22 November. The remaining seven conferences will be held between January and March 2009, confirmed dates are:
London: Thursday 19 February 2009
East Midlands: Thursday 19 February 2009
North West: Thursday 26 February 2009
South West: Saturday 21 March 2009
The purpose behind these conferences is to provide safe places for young people from diverse communities to meet and discuss terrorism and extremism around four key themes:
Terrorism and what it means to young people
Violent Extremism and what it means to young people
Youth Leadership
How the police should work with young people
Community Relations: Finance
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when she plans to publish an evaluation of the effectiveness of the Preventing Violent Extremism Pathfinder fund. [245534]
Mr. Khan: Evaluating a programme designed to prevent violent extremism can be challenging. However, there are several pieces work either already published or underway which focus on this issue.
A mapping of projects funded by the Preventing Violent Extremism Pathfinder Fund was published at the recent national Prevent conference, on 10 December. It estimates that the Pathfinder fund reached over 44,000 individuals. The report also collates locally focussed evaluation reports where they were available and provides a synthesis of their findings.
A number of reviews took place in 2008, including the Audit Commission and HMIC’s Learning and Development Exercise, which looked at how local partners and partnerships were responding to the challenge of preventing violent extremism. The document “Delivering Prevent—Responding to Learning” brings together the key themes from these reviews and is available on the CLG website.
Further work is under way to develop our approach to, and methodology for, evaluating work to prevent violent extremism locally.
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government on what basis funding in support of work to prevent violent extremism has been allocated to local authorities for (a) 2008-09, (b) 2009-10 and (c) 2010-11. [245535]
Mr. Khan: In order to build resilience to violent extremism where it is most needed, the eligibility for, and distribution of funding has been based on the size of local Muslim communities.
While every eligible local authority receives a minimum level of funding for prevent work, the overall funding level reflects the size of the Muslim population that the authority will be working with. The criteria for eligibility reduces from 2008-09 to 2010-11 to provide funding to an increasing number of authorities, with 94 funded by 2010-11. Details of funding amounts can be found on the CLG website.
Community Relations: Religion
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government which local authorities have mapped the denominational backgrounds of local communities as part of the programme to develop a deeper understanding of local communities referred to on page 12 of the report, The Prevent Strategy: A Guide for Local Partners in England. [245566]
Mr. Khan:
The Department does not routinely collect information on any mapping done by local authorities on the denominational backgrounds of local communities. However, every local authority will report progress on criteria linked to National Indicator 35—Building
Communities Resilient to Violent Extremism, including the understanding of, and engagement with, Muslim communities.
Council Housing: Construction
Mr. Betts: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many bids from local authorities to build new housing for rent have been (a) received and (b) approved by her Department; and which local authorities have made such bids. [246785]
Mr. Iain Wright: We have announced that local authorities would be invited to bid for social housing grant through the Homes and Communities Agency. This followed our proposal to make changes to the revenue and capital rules that apply to new council housing in order to remove some financial disincentives to council new build in the current system. We intend to set out our plans for implementing these changes very shortly.
Council Housing: Inspections
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what (a) inspections and (b) audits the Tenants Service Authority plans to undertake in respect of local authorities; and what data it plans to collect from such authorities. [246052]
Mr. Iain Wright: The Tenant Services Authority does not, at present, regulate local authority providers of social housing. We have made clear our intention that local authorities will be brought under its remit within two years of its establishment. An enabling power in the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 will allow us to make the necessary legislative provisions through regulations, subject to parliamentary approval.
Professor Ian Cole was appointed to chair an advisory panel tasked with producing recommendations on how to deliver a cross-domain approach to regulation. He submitted his report to Government in September 2008.
We are taking account of Professor Cole's recommendations as we work towards publishing draft regulations for public consultation in early 2009. The consultation will include proposals on how the regulatory framework should address inspection and provision of information. The Tenant Services Authority, through its national consultation with providers and tenants throughout 2009, will lead on developing the detail of how regulation will operate in practice.
Council Housing: North Yorkshire
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer of 10 December 2008, Official Report, column 141W, how much housing stock (a) North Yorkshire local authority districts and (b) the City of York hold. [245677]
Mr. Iain Wright: The following table shows local authority housing stock held by local authorities in the North Yorkshire area and the City of York authority on 1 April 2007.
| Stock within LA, owned by LA | |
| (1) Large Scale Voluntary Transfer authority. Source: Local authority stock from the Housing Strategy Statistical Appendix (HSSA) as reported by local authorities. | |
The figures shown are as reported by local authorities.
Four of the North Yorkshire local districts have transferred their housing stock to Registered Social Landlords. Hambleton and Ryedale transferred their stock before 1997-98, Craven in March 2003, and Scarborough in December 2003.
After March 2003 Craven discovered that they still own two units, unfit for occupation, above the town hall. These two units, listed in the table, have not been transferred to Registered Social Landlords.
Departmental Data Protection
Mr. Vara: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many contracts (a) her Department and (b) its agencies have which allow contractors to store personal data of UK citizens overseas; for which contracts this applies; in which countries the data for each contract is held; and how many people have their data stored overseas in the case of each such contract. [245340]
Mr. Khan: Communities and Local Government and its agencies has two systems where personal data of UK citizens is stored overseas. These are the contract for the Public Enquiry Service Database and the Fire Service College Learners Database. The Public Enquiry Service Database is hosted in the USA and stores approximately 4,000 records. The Fire Service Learners Database is in Germany and holds approximately 6,000 personal records.
Departmental Equality
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what information her Department holds on the (a) sex, (b) ethnicity, (c) age, (d) disability, (e) sexual orientation and (f) religion or belief of its staff; and what assessment she has made of her Department's performance against its targets relating to diversity in its workforce. [246025]
Mr. Khan: Through a combination of compulsory and voluntary processes, the Department collects data in relation to all these categories of its staff. This information is presented in the Department's annual Workforce Diversity Data report; the 2007-08 report is in the final stages of drafting.
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