| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
27 Jan 2009 : Column 362W—continued
Negotiations are ongoing with various potential private sector partners and to release further information regarding those negotiations at this time would prejudice commercial interests.
Sports: Young People
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent estimate he has made of the number and proportion of young people who cease regular participation in sport upon leaving school. [250794]
Mr. Sutcliffe: During the ages of 16 to 19, the period when young people leave school, sport participation(1) drops by 7 percentage points, (or the equivalent of 42,000 participants) from a participation rate of 37.4 per cent. at age 16, to a participation rate of 30.4 per cent. at age 19.
(1) Participation is defined as the percentage of the adult population participating in at least 30 minutes of sport, to at least moderate intensity at least three times a week.
| Age | Percentage | Number of participants |
| Source: Sport England's Active People Survey 2 (Oct 2007-Oct 2008) | ||
St. George’s Day
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much his Department spent on (a) St. George's Day, (b) St. Patrick's Day, (c) St. David's Day and (d) St. Andrew's Day celebrations in each year since 1997. [247742]
Barbara Follett: The Department for Culture, Media and Sport flew the St. George's Flag on 23 April in 2007 and 2008; it did not fly the flag before 2007. The cost of flying the flag is set out in the table.
The Department has not spent anything on St. Patrick's Day, St. David's Day and St. Andrew's Day celebrations since 1997. It has ordered St. David’s and St. Andrew’s Flags, which it will fly on those saints’ days from 2009 onwards. There is no official St. Patrick’s Flag; the Union Flag is the official flag of Northern Ireland.
| Cost of flying the St. George’s Flag on St. George’s Day | |
| £ | |
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will hold discussions with (a) the Royal Society of St. George and (b) Celebrate England on marking St. George's Day. [248358]
Barbara Follett: I have no plans to hold discussions with the Royal Society of St. George and Celebrate England on marking St. George's Day.
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much his Department plans to spend to promote St. George’s Day 2009. [248359]
Barbara Follett: The Department for Culture, Media and Sport will promote St. George’s Day by flying the St. George’s flag on 23 April 2009. This will be at minimal cost.
Taking Part Survey
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment his Department has made of the statistically significant differences between the results of his Department’s most recent Taking Part survey and the previous such survey. [247352]
Barbara Follett: The Taking Part survey has been used to measure progress against the Department's SR04 PSA3 target.
Baselines for this target were published in December 2006 using data from the first year of the survey (2005-06). The final assessment was published on 11 December 2008, and compares the baseline estimates with final estimates collected during the third year of Taking Part (2007-08). Full details of the assessment can be found at:
VisitBritain: Property
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what non-heritage (a) buildings and (b) land is owned by VisitBritain; and what estimate has been made of the value of these assets. [250254]
Barbara Follett: VisitBritain have advised that they do not own any buildings or land and as such no valuation has been conducted.
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what non-heritage (a) buildings and (b) land are leased by VisitBritain; and what estimate has been made of the value of these assets. [250262]
Barbara Follett: VisitBritain have advised that they currently lease space to two third parties in their New York office. The annual rent received is £16,407 per annum (net of VAT).
VisitBritain also lease space to a number of partners at the Britain and London Visitor Centre in Regent Street. The total income from tenants is £356,000 per annum (net of VAT).
Treasury
Banks: Finance
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the effect of the Government's policy on bank recapitalisation on the stability of the pound. [248132]
Ian Pearson: The recapitalisation scheme was designed to ensure the stability of the financial system and to protect ordinary savers, depositors, businesses and borrowers. The action taken by the Government in October prevented the collapse of the banking system. Flexible exchange rates fluctuate, and respond to a wide variety of factors on a minute-by-minute basis. In today's economic climate, in the face of what the IMF describe as “the most dangerous shock in mature financial markets since the 1930s”, it is to be expected that the world's major currencies are prone to fluctuation.
Bradford and Bingley
Dr. Richard Taylor: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when his Department's plans to take Bradford and Bingley into temporary public ownership were first drawn up; when he took the decision to take Bradford and Bingley into temporary public ownership; and for what reason. [250809]
Ian Pearson: The Treasury, the Financial Services Authority, and the Bank of England monitor the financial system on an ongoing basis. There are regular discussions between the FSA, the Bank and the Treasury about individual institutions and contingency planning.
Following turbulence in global financial markets, Bradford and Bingley had found itself under increasing pressure as investors and lenders lost confidence in its ability to carry on as an independent institution. The FSA determined on 27 September 2008 that the firm no longer met its threshold conditions for operating as a deposit taker under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 and FSA rules.
The Government, on the advice of the FSA and the Bank of England, acted immediately to maintain financial stability and protect depositors, while minimising the exposure to taxpayers. It worked over the weekend to bring about the part public, part private solution which best met those objectives.
Children’s Tax Credit
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many awards of children's tax credit were made for 2001-02; and what estimate he has made of the number of families who were eligible for the credit in that year. [251939]
Mr. Timms: The number of families receiving children's tax credit for 2001-02 are not readily available.
It is estimated that for the financial years 2001-02 and 2002-03, 4.6 million families were eligible for children's tax credit. However a separate estimate of eligible families for the financial year 2001-02 is not readily available.
Cox Review
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many of his Department's staff provided support for the Cox Review of creativity in business. [248923]
Angela Eagle: The Cox Review of creativity in business was a DTI review, for which the Treasury provided two members of staff.
Departmental Languages
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many (a) Ministers and (b) civil servants in his Department received coaching in a foreign language in the last 12 months; what expenditure his Department incurred in providing such coaching; and in what languages such coaching was provided. [248072]
Angela Eagle: The total number of (a) Ministers that received coaching in a foreign language in the period April 2007 to March 2008 is zero.
The total number of (b) civil servants that received coaching in a foreign language in the period April 2007 to March 2008 was 26. This included:
16 French language students
Nine Spanish language students
One English language student
One Japanese language student
One Slovenian language student
Total expenditure for this coaching was £32,460.32.
Departmental Pay
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many non-pensionable bonuses have been awarded to staff in his Department in each year since 1997. [251659]
Angela Eagle: I refer the hon. Member to the answers given by the former Financial Secretary (John Healey) to the hon. Member for Twickenham (Dr. Cable) on 20 June 2007, Official Report, column 1879W and 7 November 2006, Official Report, column 1039W.
Economic Growth
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what forecast he has made of growth in the economy in each of the next 12 months. [251665]
Ian Pearson: The Government set out their latest assessment of UK economic developments and prospects in the 2008 pre-Budget report (Cm 7484). They will produce updated forecasts in the Budget as normal.
Intellectual Property Review
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many of his Department's staff provided support for the Gower Review of Intellectual Property. [248898]
Angela Eagle: Andrew Gower's Review of Intellectual Property was an independent review funded by the Treasury. The number of full-time staff provided to support the review was seven, during the course of 12 months.
Manufacturing Industries: Government Assistance
Mr. Drew: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans he has to increase lending to manufacturing industry through those banks he has capitalised. [250786]
Ian Pearson: On 8 October this year the Government announced a comprehensive package of measures to support stability of the financial system, protect ordinary savers, depositors, businesses and borrowers, and to safeguard the interests of the taxpayer.
As part of their investment, the Government have agreed with the banks supported by the recapitalisation scheme a range of commitments. Details are available at:
These include commitments to maintain, over the next three years, the availability and active marketing of competitively-priced lending to home owners and small businesses at 2007 levels.
Members: Correspondence
Steve Webb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he plans to reply to the letter from the hon. Member for Northavon of 5 December 2008 on late payment of tax, reference 1/64635/2008. [251940]
Angela Eagle: I have replied to the hon. Member.
Non-domestic Rates: Sports
Dr. Alasdair McDonnell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many and what proportion of community amateur sports clubs in (a) England, (b) Scotland and (c) Wales received relief from national non-domestic rate liability at 100 per cent. in 2007-08. [250749]
Mr. Timms: The information requested is not readily available.
By the end of 2008, over 5000 community amateur sports clubs were registered with HMRC, and entitled to receive 80 per cent. rates relief. It is not known, however, how many have taken up this relief, nor how many of these have received the additional 2 per cent. relief which local authorities have discretion to provide. There is no readily available breakdown of the clubs between the nations of the UK.
HMRC do have data on the number of payments that exceeded the £30,000 threshold and were reported through self-assessment for 2006-07—the most recent year available. They are set out in Table 1.
The limited information we have on payments below £30,000 suggests that a large majority of payments are covered by the tax-free threshold.
| Table 1: N umber of termination payments over £30,000 that were reported via self assessment in 2006-07 | |
| Number of payments | |
| Note: Figures rounded to the nearest thousand | |
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |