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19 Jan 2009 : Column 1094W—continued
Members: Correspondence
Margaret Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when he will reply to the hon. Member for Luton South’s letter of 10 July 2008 about Mr R. Fisk of Luton. [247675]
Mr. Sutcliffe: I apologise for the delay in replying to the hon. Member. The Department has no record of receiving the original correspondence. A duplicate copy was requested and received on 17 October 2008. I responded on 13 January 2009.
Playing Fields: Planning Permission
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport with reference to the answer of 1 November 2006, Official Report, column 421W, on playing fields, how many planning applications have been approved affecting sites which either were too small or of the wrong shape to accommodate a playing pitch as currently defined in each year since 2004-05. [245462]
Andy Burnham: Sport England has advised that, for the years in which figures are currently available, the following number of applications were approved where the land affected was either too small or the wrong shape to accommodate a playing pitch:
| Number of approved applications | |
Sport England does not hold any figures on applications where the playing field area may contain only a pitch less than 0.4 ha, as these would not be referred to them under the statutory instrument.
Public Libraries
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what proportion of households in each local authority area lived within (a) one mile and (b) two miles of a static library in each of the last three years. [247576]
Barbara Follett: The information requested is published annually by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) in Public Library Statistics. The House of Commons Library holds copies for the period in question.
Public Service Agreement
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when he plans to publish his final assessment of progress made towards meeting his Department's public service agreement performance targets since the Spending Review in 2004. [247588]
Andy Burnham: The latest assessment of progress made towards meeting my Department's outstanding public service agreement performance targets from the Spending Review 2004 was published in December 2008 in my Department's Autumn Performance Report 2008, which can be found at the following website address:
and in the Libraries of both Houses.
Sport England: Finance
Hugh Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what undertakings have been made to non-Olympic sports in respect of their Sport England funding over the period 2008 to 2012. [246123]
Mr. Sutcliffe [holding answer 12 January 2009]: Sport England recently announced its National Governing Body funding decisions for 2009-13. Awards have been made to 46 national governing bodies, with a total in excess of £155 million being made available to 15 non-Olympic sports as follows:
| £ | |
Sport England will also operate other funding streams to replace the existing Community Investment Fund and support the creation of a world leading community
sports system. These will be open to all recognised national governing bodies and other sports organisations, including clubs, and will include ‘themed’ funding rounds, a small grants scheme, a facilities fund and an innovation fund.
Sports Legacy Board
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when the first meeting of the Sports Legacy Board will take place. [247355]
Mr. Sutcliffe: We are currently finalising the date of the first meeting and anticipate that it will be held in the spring.
Television: North West
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many households are still operating on analogue television in the North West. [247020]
Andy Burnham: The Digital UK and Ofcom Switchover Tracker Survey for the Third Quarter of 2008 estimates that approximately 330,000 households in the Granada region are watching analogue television on their primary TV set.
Tourism
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent assessment he has made of progress made towards reaching his Department's target to improve productivity in the tourism, creative and leisure industries. [247587]
Andy Burnham: The most recent assessment of progress against the target to improve productivity in the tourism, creative and leisure industries was published in December 2008 in my Department's Autumn Performance Report 2008, which can be found at the following website address:
and in the Libraries of both Houses.
In summary, there has been a slight downturn in the productivity trend for the creative industries. For the leisure industries, there has been some reasonable productivity growth; however, this is counteracted by decreases in the productivity of travel agencies/tour operators caused by big reductions in employment.
VisitBritain: Finance
Mark Pritchard: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much funding the Government has provided directly to VisitBritain in each of the last three years. [247206]
Barbara Follett: The following table shows the grant in aid final outturn figures for VisitBritain in each of the last three years. These figures are published in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport Resource Accounts which are audited by the NAO.
| Visit Britain grant in aid | |
| Outturn (£000) | |
International Development
Afghanistan: Reconstruction
Mr. Holloway: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development which organisation has managed each project funded by his Department in Helmand province since 2005; what the budget of each was; how much has been spent in each case; what monitoring, impact assessments and evaluations have been undertaken; and if he will make a statement. [245773]
Mr. Douglas Alexander: The Department for International Development (DFID) began its programme of bilateral support to Helmand in 2006, committing to spend £30 million in the province from 2006-07 to 2008-09. DFID spent £23.7 million from 2006-07 to 2007-08, and will spend around £23 million in 2008-09, meaning a spend of around £46 million over the three-year period. Itemised details of spend are listed. For security reasons, a number of our implementing partners prefer to keep a discreet profile and therefore we maintain confidentiality about their identities.
The primary channel for DFID support is the Helmand Agriculture and Rural Development Programme (HARDP). The programme is implemented by the government of Afghanistan (both the Ministry for Rural Rehabilitation and Development and the Ministry for Agriculture Irrigation and Livestock). £14.8 million has so far been disbursed through this programme in 2006-08. The government of Afghanistan is responsible for the allocation of funds to, and evaluation of, the hundreds of individual projects under HARDP. Once complete, each phase of HARDP is subjected to a formal DFID Project Completion Report. An independent review published in September 2008 concluded that the programme's accomplishments had been significant.
DFID has been funding UN Habitat since early 2007 to undertake community and municipal development work in central Lashkar Gah. UN Habitat works directly with the government of Afghanistan's municipal authority and with locally-selected Community Development Councils: a two-year programme worth £2.4 million is being implemented until 2010, including the creation of community development councils and projects such as drainage ditches, gravelled roads and waste disposal.
Monitoring and evaluating activity in Helmand brings particular challenges. Many parts of the province remain insecure, and access by international staff to many areas is impossible. DFID has consequently developed a range of strategies to ensure programmes are properly monitored. These include working closely with military colleagues to access insecure areas, and identifying implementing partners from local communities, who can travel relatively freely within the regions where they
live. We are in the process of contracting a third-party organisation to provide independent evaluation of our work and its impact.
Mr. Holloway: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what the outcomes of each project undertaken by his Department in the areas of development and reconstruction in Helmand province were in each of the last three years. [245779]
Mr. Douglas Alexander: The Department for International Development (DFID) will spend around £46 million in Helmand over the three-year period 2006-09. Mainly channelled through the government of Afghanistan, this has supported many hundreds of individual projects at community level and helped the government of Afghanistan to establish a presence and a capability in the province. Given the number of projects involved, we assess our impact through broader programme outcomes.
Our support has resulted in the construction of 2,451 wells, benefiting over 400,000 people. Irrigation has been restored to 13,800 hectares of land, 5,800 hectares have been newly irrigated and 59 km of road completed. These government of Afghanistan-led programmes have delivered cleaner water and better sanitation for 1,500 families in Lashkar Gah. DFID's £1.5 million commitment to the Governor of Helmand's wheat seed distribution programme this year helped the government to offer over 30,000 families a viable alternative to poppy cultivation.
Mr. Holloway: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development which sectors in Afghanistan are covered by his Department's Helmand road map; how much is to be spent on the road map; how its effectiveness will be measured; and if he will make a statement. [245781]
Mr. Douglas Alexander: The Helmand Road Map contains eight strands of activity: politics and reconciliation; security; governance; rule of law; economic development; counter narcotics; strategic communications; and district reconstruction and development.
£28 million has been made available from the tri-Departmental Stabilisation Aid Fund in 2008-09 to support the Helmand Road Map. DFID has made available an additional £23 million to be spent in the province in 2008-09.
An internal review of progress towards meeting the conditions required to stabilise Helmand is made every six months, drawing in views from the Civil Military Mission and Task Force Helmand. The Mission is seeking to improve the quality of the measures of effect used to identify trends in progress against the Road Map, using a combination of hard data (for example, the use of basic state functions such as health and education services), proxy indicators (for example, the numbers of vehicles moving on specific roads as an indicator of improved security), polling data, and assessments of progress in building the capability of Afghan institutions.
Mr. Holloway: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what his Department's objectives in Helmand province are for the next two years. [245782]
Mr. Douglas Alexander: The Department for International Development's (DFID) Afghanistan country plan for 2009-13 is currently under development. All activity will be guided by the UK strategy for Afghanistan announced by the Prime Minister in December 2007. In Helmand, DFID is committed to playing a full part in the UK effort set out in the Helmand Roadmap. DFID's role in the province is to support stabilisation, to lay the foundations for long-term development and to influence other donors to focus their work in the province. Our goal is to manage the eventual transition of support in Helmand from short-term stabilisation funding to more sustainable, long-term provision of development assistance in line with the priorities of the government of Afghanistan.
Africa: Overseas Aid
Mr. Roger Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what aid the UK has provided to (a) Zimbabwe and (b) sub-Saharan Africa in each of the last five years; what he expects UK's aid commitment to his region to be in each of the next three years; what assessment he has made of the work undertaken by (i) the UK and (ii) the international community to further the United Nations Declaration on the New Partnership for Africa's Development; and if he will make a statement. [246808]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: Department for International Development (DFID) assistance to Zimbabwe and the sub-Saharan Africa over the last five and next three years is as follows:
| £ million | |||
| Financial year | Total aid to sub-Saharan Africa | Aid to Zimbabwe | Comments |
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