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19 Jan 2009 : Column 1015W—continued
Waste Disposal: Gloucestershire
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when he expects Gloucestershire County Council to provide its full business case for its waste strategy. [248209]
Jane Kennedy: Gloucestershire county council submitted their outline business case to DEFRA at the end of April 2008 and private finance initiative (PFI) credit support for their project was provisionally approved by the Under-Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, my hon. Friend the Member for Lewisham, Deptford (Joan Ruddock), in August 2008. The project was considered by the cross-departmental Project Review Group (PRG) at its meeting on 21 October 2008 and provisionally approved subject to certain conditions. DEFRA made an announcement on this PFI application on 12 November 2008.
It is standard practice for PFI projects to submit final business cases to the sponsor Department, before the appointment of preferred bidder. In this case, this is expected to be in late 2010.
Water Charges
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent representations he has had seeking an exemption for churches, charities and community groups from surface area water charges; and if he will make a statement. [247769]
Huw Irranca-Davies: The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has received a range of representations from various groups regarding surface water drainage charges. The Government are aware of the problem of affordability faced by some customers as a result of the switch to site area charging for surface water drainage and is looking at what can be done.
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many hon. Members have written to (a) his Department and (b) Ofwat to complain about water companies charging schools, places of worship and community buildings based upon the surface water drainage use, compared to the previous system of flexible charges. [248149]
Huw Irranca-Davies: From 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2008, DEFRA received correspondence from approximately 60 Members of Parliament on behalf of either schools, places of worship or community buildings regarding changes to charging for surface water drainage.
For the same period, Ofwat received correspondence from 33 Members of Parliament on the subject.
Mr. Drew:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what discussions
has he has had with Ofwat on its decision to encourage water companies to charge schools, places of worship and community buildings according to site area. [248151]
Huw Irranca-Davies: The Secretary of State meets Ofwat regularly to discuss a range of issues. The Government are aware of the problem of affordability faced by some customers as a result of the switch to site area charging for surface water drainage and is looking at what can be done.
Olympics
Total Costs
4. Sir Nicholas Winterton: To ask the Minister for the Olympics what recent estimate she has made of the total cost of staging the London 2012 Olympics. [248294]
Tessa Jowell: The cost of staging the games will be met from LOCOG's £2 billion budget.
It is intended that this budget will be self-financed—with the exception of a contribution from public funds towards the staging the Paralympic games. For this there is a provision of £66 million in the £9.325 billion public sector funding package.
7. Mr. Robathan: To ask the Minister for the Olympics what her most recent estimate is of the total cost of the London 2012 Olympics. [248297]
Tessa Jowell: The estimate of public expenditure on the London 2012 games remains within the £9.325 billion package that I announced in March 2007.
I provided further details of the budget in my statement of December 2007; and my progress updates of January and July 2008. My next progress report will be in early February.
Economic Downturn
5. Mr. Swire: To ask the Minister for the Olympics what assessment she has made of the effect of the economic downturn on the budget for the London 2012 Olympics. [248295]
Tessa Jowell: The recent economic climate has affected the financing of the Olympic Village and the International Broadcasting Centre/Main Press Centre (IBC/MPC) projects.
However the venues and infrastructure for the games—including the Olympic Village and the IBC/MPC—are still on track to be delivered within the £9.325 billion public sector funding package.
King George’s Fields Legacy
6. John Mann: To ask the Minister for the Olympics what assessment she has made of the relevance of the King George's Fields legacy to the planning of the legacy for the London 2012 Olympics. [248296]
Tessa Jowell: As part of the legacy of the 2012 games we are aiming to have two million more physically active people and to get more young people into sport.
Playing fields can play a vital role in enabling people to be more active and I will be working with other departments to see what role playing fields can have in delivering this legacy.
Ticketing Policy
8. Simon Hughes: To ask the Minister for the Olympics what ticketing policy has been developed for the London 2012 Olympics; and if she will make a statement. [248298]
Tessa Jowell: The London Organising Committee (LOCOG) is responsible for developing its ticketing strategy for the London 2012 games.
I have held detailed discussions with the chairman and Director of Ticketing at LOCOG about the developing strategy, which will be published in 2010. Tickets will go on sale in 2011.
Olympic Games 2012: Digital Broadcasting
Tom Brake: To ask the Minister for the Olympics what discussions she has had with (a) the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games and (b) other partners on coverage of the London 2012 Olympics on digital radio. [247046]
Tessa Jowell: The broadcasting rights to the Olympic games, which include digital radio rights, are managed by the IOC as part of their intellectual property rights. The UK broadcasting rights to the 2012 Olympic games were awarded to the BBC, as a member of the European Broadcasting Union. The broadcasting rights to the 2012 Paralympic games are yet to be awarded.
Olympic Games 2012: North East
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Minister for the Olympics how many (a) schools and (b) students are making use of the pre-games training camps set up in the North East region in preparation for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games. [248128]
Tessa Jowell: The North East region has identified 20 Olympic and eight Paralympic venues to be used by the athletes of visiting National Olympic and Paralympic Committees preparing for London 2012. The full range of the sporting facilities and services they can offer are contained in the Pre Games Training Camp Guide produced by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
In the majority of cases the pre games training camps are existing facilities with established community use programmes and as a consequence they are available for school and student organisations to utilise.
Work and Pensions
Benefits
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many and what proportion of income support claims have taken more than the target processing time in each month of the last two years, broken down by benefit delivery centre; [242208]
(2) how many and what proportion of jobseeker's allowance claims have taken more than 12 days to process from when the application was first received in each month of the last two years, broken down by (a) benefit delivery centre and (b) number of days to process. [242212]
Mr. McNulty: The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the chief executive of Jobcentre Plus. I have asked the acting chief executive, Mel Groves to provide the hon. Member with the information requested.
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your questions - "how many and what proportion of Income Support claims have taken more than the target processing time in each month of the last two years, broken down by Benefit Delivery Centre", and "how many and what proportion of Jobseekers Allowance claims have taken more than 12 days to process from when the application was first received in each month of the last two years, broken down by (a) Benefit Delivery Centre and (b) number of days to process". This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Acting Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
The target for Income Support (IS) Average Actual Clearance Time is 10 days. This is calculated from the date all the evidence requirements are met by the customer to the date a decision is made on their claim.
For Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) the Average Actual Clearance Time (AACT) target is 11.5 days. This was reduced from a 12 day target in 0708 to 11.5 days for 08-09. The AACT is calculated from the date of the initial contact made by the customer to the date a decision is made on the claim.
Our benefit processing systems calculate the AACT for both IS and JSA by taking each claim clearances time using the dates as described and calculates an average across the volume of claims processed. The Management Information system in support of these targets generates reports around percentages and volumes cleared within set time bands. While this provides the business with additional management information it is not in direct correlation with the AACT data as they are calculated in different ways.
For IS the time bands recorded are claims processed in 0-5 days, 0-13 days and all claims processed. The JSA time bands recorded are claims processed in 0-5 days, 0-10 days, 0-16 days, 0 -21 days and all claims processed.
The information for October 2006 to October 2008 broken down by Benefit Delivery Centre has been placed in the House Library. The data recorded is to two decimal places as this is how we receive the raw data, when we formally report our targets we round those figures up to one decimal place.
Departmental Air Travel
Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions with reference to the answer to the hon. Member for Rochford and Southend, East of 6 October 2008, Official Report, column 58W, on departmental air travel, whether figures for 2007-08 have now been calculated. [242014]
Jonathan Shaw: The air travel figures for the Department for 2007-08, and which are due to be paid imminently to the ‘GCO2F Government Carbon Offsetting Fund’, are provided in the following table.
All departmental official travel is undertaken in accordance with civil service management code.
| April 2007 to March 2008 | ||||
| KMs travelled | Miles travelled | tCO 2 e (CO 2 emissions) | Offsetting cost( 1) (£) | |
| (1) To be paid by DWP to GCO2F. | ||||
Departmental ICT
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions with reference to page 36 of the Departmental Framework 2008, if he will place in the Library a copy of the future work programme for the Customer Information System. [240331]
Mr. McNulty: To place the work programme for the Customer Information System in the Library would make public information that may jeopardise the security of the Customer Information System and the personal information it holds. Its disclosure would not be in the public interest. I refer the hon. Member to the answer of 17 December 2008, Official Report, column 826W, which sets out the Department's approach to data and information security.
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what computer systems his Department uses to store (a) financial and (b) non-financial data, broken down by (i) version number, (ii) supplier, (iii) system name, (iv) underlying database and (v) operating system. [241313]
Jonathan Shaw: The Department has 149 major application systems currently supported by its existing hosting contract(s) as listed in the following table. They store and/or access a wide range of financial or non-financial data.
It is not in the public interest to provide the information requested for each system and I refer the hon. Member to the answer on 17 December 2008, Official Report, column 826W, which sets out the Department's approach to data and information security.
Software versions are governed by the Department's Enterprise Architecture which specifies that they should be no more than one version older than the current baseline version, so that systems are up to date and support is available.
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