| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
27 Jan 2009 : Column 354W—continued
Cultural Heritage: Training
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment he has made of the adequacy of (a) the number of trainees and (b) training programmes for acquiring skills required for the preservation of the cultural heritage; and if he will make a statement. [248920]
Barbara Follett: English Heritage undertakes an annual programme of labour market research to assess the supply of historic environment skills. Support for trainees is addressed in several ways, including: English Heritage's Professional Placements in Conservation and Historic Environment Traineeships; the Heritage Lottery Fund’s investment of £7 million in training bursaries; and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council’s provision of £500,000 for apprenticeships.
All of these organisations work closely with a range of bodies to tailor training initiatives to market need and are involved in a number of programmes. These include the Heritage Lottery Fund’s awards of more than £446 million to over 1,300 projects that include elements of support for people to learn heritage skills. The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council advises that it is working closely with stakeholders in the development of the national occupation standards for the cultural heritage sector and in the introduction of foundation degrees to support skills and learning in the cultural heritage sector.
Cultural Heritage: World War II
Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what his policy is on the preservation of pillboxes and other defences from the Second World War; and if he will make a statement. [250575]
Barbara Follett:
Pillboxes and other Second World War defences form an important aspect of England's military history. English Heritage has undertaken a series of research projects to improve our understanding of them in the context of the many other sites that represent our defence heritage. Options for preservation include statutory designation, although it would not be appropriate to designate all of the many thousands of surviving pillboxes; careful selection is necessary.
Alternatively, many of these structures have local significance and their recording on historic environment records is another way of improving understanding and protection.
Culture East Midlands: Parking
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what arrangements Culture East Midlands is making for payment by its staff of the workplace parking levy to be introduced by Nottingham City Council in respect of offices located within the zone where the levy will apply. [252477]
Andy Burnham: On 2 July 2008 the Department for Culture, Media and Sport announced its decision to wind up the Regional Cultural Consortia. This process will have been completed well before 2010 when any workplace parking levy for Nottingham is expected to begin.
Culture: Liverpool
Mrs. Ellman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much financial support the Government provided to Liverpool's Capital of Culture year; and if he will make a statement. [251716]
Andy Burnham: DCMS and Arts Council England (ACE) committed £10 million over the period 2005 to 2009 to support Liverpool's European Capital of Culture year. In addition Liverpool received a grant of £1,200,000 from the Urban Cultural programme. In 2008 DCMS and ACE contributed an additional £509,000 to support delivery of the remaining arts programme. The Northwest Regional Development Agency has provided £3.4 million since 2005-06.
I am delighted that Liverpool's European Capital of Culture year was such a magnificent success generating an £800 million boost to the regional economy and one which leaves an exciting cultural and physical legacy.
Departmental Expenditure
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport with reference to the answer of 26 November 2008, what the status is of the funding announced by his Department’s press release of 1 April 2005 and referred to in his Department’s Five Year Plan as a £6 million Quality and Innovation Fund. [248603]
Barbara Follett: Money for the proposed Quality and Innovation Fund was re-allocated to other pressing priorities. However, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has continued to support a range of work originally identified with the fund, including new audiences, young talent and a cultural offer for children and young people through initiatives such as Free Theatre, Creative Partnerships and Find Your Talent.
Departmental Pay
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much has been spent by his Department on staff reward and recognition schemes in each of the last three years. [248714]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The Department for Culture, Media and Sport awards special bonuses to reward staff members who have made an outstanding contribution in a particularly demanding task or situation. The following table shows the total amount paid in special bonuses in each of the last three years.
| Total of special bonuses (£) | |
Departmental Public Expenditure
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much capital expenditure has been brought forward in response to the economic downturn by his Department, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies to (a) 2008-09, (b) 2009-10 and (c) 2010-11; from which years such expenditure has been brought forward; and if he will make a statement. [251397]
Andy Burnham: Currently no capital expenditure has been brought forward in response to the economic downturn by either the Department, its agencies or its non-departmental public bodies.
Departmental Public Service Agreements
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment he has made of his Department's progress in meeting the targets set by public service agreement 3 in the 2004 spending round; and if he will make a statement. [249808]
Andy Burnham: Four out of the 20 targets that make up the overall PSA3 target have been assessed as achieved.
We always knew these would be very challenging targets, and we remain committed to increasing participation in culture and sport across all sectors of the community. Our programme of research is helping us to better understand and address the barriers to participation. The results should help us in giving more people the opportunity to take part.
Departmental Surveys
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (1) if he will place in the Library a copy of each of the datasets from his Department's Taking Part survey in each year since 2005; [247333]
(2) if he will place in the Library a copy of each year's dataset from his Department's Taking Part survey. [249413]
Barbara Follett: Data from the Taking Part survey are made available via the UK Data Archive. The 2005-06 dataset has been deposited, and the 2006-07 and 2007-08 datasets are being processed for deposit and will be uploaded shortly. To access the 2005-06 dataset, visit:
and search using Study Number 5717
There are no plans to deposit the raw data in the Library. However, all National Statistics based on the survey outputs are published on the Department's website at:
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what percentage of people responding to his Department’s Taking Part survey said that they had (a) visited a museum or gallery, (b) visited a library, (c) attended an arts event and (d) visited an historic environment site event during the preceding 12 months in each year since 2005. [249358]
Barbara Follett: The ‘Taking Part’ survey is a continuous household survey providing national data on participation in culture, leisure and sport by adults aged 16 and over.
The following table shows annual adult engagement with museums and galleries, libraries, arts events and historic environment sites in the 12 months prior to interview.
| Attendance at cultural events by adults (16 and over) | |||
| Percentage | |||
| 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | |
These figures are survey estimates. For further information about the methodology and full definitions of attendance, see the latest published annual report at:
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what sampling method is used for his Department's Taking Part survey. [249416]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Between 2005-06 and 2007-08 the Taking Part survey was primarily designed to yield a representative annual sample of around 28,000 adults aged 16 and over who are normally resident in England. For practical purposes, residents of institutional accommodation (armed forces barracks, student halls of residence, hospitals, care homes, prisons etc.) were excluded.
The survey contractor used the small-user postal address file (PAF) as the sample frame. This provides a list of almost all private residential addresses in the UK and is the most comprehensive frame available. Because it lists addresses, not individuals, interviewers were required to randomly select one respondent from among those eligible.
Primary sampling units (PSUs) were designed to be equal to postal sectors except where these contained fewer than 500 delivery points (addresses) on the small-user postal address file (PAF). These sectors were combined with their nearest neighbour to form a ‘super-sector’. Before use, the list of PSUs was stratified using the following factors:
1. Region
2. Population density
3. Occupational distribution
This meant 160 strata in total. Each stratum was further sorted by the proportion of residents aged 65 plus.
PSUs were selected with a probability proportionate to size (number of delivery points/addresses) using the method of random start and fixed interval.
Further details on the sampling methodology for Taking Part are available in the technical report that accompanies the 2005-06 dataset, available from the UK Data Archive at
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what the average (a) standard and (b) probable error was in each year in which his Department has carried out its Taking Part survey. [249417]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The term ‘standard error’ refers to the standard deviation of the sampling distribution of a statistic—that is, it indicates how well a statistic reflects the population from which the sample was drawn. Standard errors can be calculated for individual estimates (statistics) from Taking Part, rather than the overall dataset.
Confidence intervals are derived from the variance and the sample design, and are published for all Taking Part estimates. All survey data contain a margin of error, and the confidence intervals indicate the range in which true percentages could fall.
To see an example, please refer to the latest report at:
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many people have responded to his Department's Taking Part survey in each year since 2005. [249422]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The following tables show the number of adults (aged 16 and over) and children (aged 11-15) that have responded to the Taking Part survey since it began:
| Table 1: Sample size for Taking Part adult survey (aged 16 and over) | |
| Survey year | Sample size |
| Note: Fieldwork for the main adult survey began in July 2005 and runs on a July to June cycle. | |
| Table 2: Sample size for Taking Part child survey (aged 11-15) | |
| Survey year | Sample size |
| Note: Fieldwork for the child element began in January 2006 to and runs on a January to December cycle. | |
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what percentage of people who responded to his Department’s Taking Part survey said that they had attended an arts event during the preceding 12 months in each year since 2005 expressed in terms of (a) a mean average and (b) a median average. [249792]
Barbara Follett: The ‘Taking Part’ survey is a continuous household survey providing national data on participation in culture, leisure and sport by adults aged 16 and over.
The following table shows annual adult attendance at arts events in the 12 months prior to interview. Respondents were asked whether they had attended various types of arts events in the previous year, to which they answered ‘yes’ or ‘no’. These responses were combined to produce an overall estimate of the percentage of adults who had been to at least one event.
The terms ‘mean’ and ‘median’ are both measures of central tendency; that is, they indicate a typical (or average) number in a set of data. A mean or median would normally be calculated from a range of numbers that can be summed and/or put in order. Variables such as attendance at arts events are classed as ‘categorical’ because the values that the variable can take are categories—in this case ‘yes’ or ‘no’, but other examples of categorical variables would be gender or eye colour. As these responses cannot be summed or put in any meaningful order, it is not appropriate to calculate an average.
| Attendance at arts events by adults (16 and over) | |
| Percentage | |
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |