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28 Jan 2009 : Column 643W—continued
Regional Planning and Development: South East
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government on what dates (a) the hon. Member for Eastleigh and (b) Eastleigh Borough Council made submissions to her Department in respect of each draft of the South East Plan. [251858]
Mr. Khan: The hon. Member for Eastleigh (Chris Huhne) submitted his response to the Secretary of State's proposed changes on 22 October 2008. Eastleigh borough council submitted their response on 23 October 2008.
Eastleigh borough council also submitted a further response to the Examination in Public Panel in June 2006.
Previous rounds of consultation were handled by the South East England Regional Assembly during the preparation of the draft plan. Eastleigh borough council are represented on the Assembly and would have been involved in the preparation of the draft.
Rented Housing: Private Sector
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment has been made of the effect of the use of credit scoring by the private rented sector on households who have had their property repossessed in obtaining alternative rented accommodation. [251805]
Mr. Iain Wright: Landlords are entitled to seek financial references from potential tenants and may use credit scoring in that context. Assuming that they have kept up to date with rent payments, we would not expect a tenant's credit score to be affected by the repossession of a home in which they were staying since, in those circumstances, it is the landlord, not the tenant, who is in default and whose credit rating might be affected.
Rented Housing: Repossession Orders
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate she has made of the number of buy-to-let landlords in each region who have had property repossessed in each of the last three years. [250196]
Mr. Iain Wright: The Council of Mortgage Lenders collects data on the number of buy-to-let mortgage possessions. However, these data are only available for the United Kingdom as a whole. Data are only available currently for 2006 and 2007.
| Buy-to-let mortgages taken into possession in period, UK | |
| Number | |
| Source: CML. | |
Supporting People Programme
Sir Nicholas Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what plans the Government has for the future of the Supporting People initiative. [250475]
Mr. Iain Wright: The Government's plans for the Supporting People programme were set out in a written ministerial statement on 26 November 2008, Official Report, column 90WS.
Urban Areas: Parking
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with reference to the Answer to the hon. Member for Brentwood and Ongar of 28 October 2008, Official Report, column 978W, on urban areas: parking, if she will make it her policy to undertake research into the effects on town centre economies of levels of car parking charges. [251896]
Mr. Iain Wright: Charges are a matter for individual car park owners and their impact on local economies will depend on many local factors.
The Government will continue to monitor and evaluate the impact and effectiveness of planning policy for town centres from a national perspective, drawing upon annual monitoring reports and other quantitative and
qualitative evidence. Local authorities should develop the evidence base for their parking policies in their development plans and local transport plans, undertaking what research they need.
Waste Disposal
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether consideration for compensation payments for householders whose bins are not collected on time falls within the scope of the Redress Review. [251721]
Mr. Khan: The Empowerment White Paper Communities in Control: Real people, real power announced that there would be a concise review of the current arrangements across public services, the private sector and in other countries to look at the feasibility and practicality of introducing and extending the idea of redress for citizens where their council services fail to meet agreed standards. The Secretary of State asked David Cook, Chief Executive of Kettering borough council to chair this independent review, which will consider a range of issues—including the potential role of compensation—and produce recommendations to ensure that local services are putting the consumer at the heart of everything they do. The review is expected to report in spring 2009.
Children, Schools and Families
Academies: Essex
Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families whether his Department carried out checks with Companies House before awarding Greensward Charitable Trust the sponsorship of academies in Essex. [251698]
Jim Knight: As a trust set up by a maintained school, Greensward Charitable Trust was not required to provide any financial sponsorship and no checks were carried out with Companies House before awarding them the sponsorship of academies in Essex.
Boosting Language Auditory Skills and Talking Programme
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Boosting Language Auditory Skills and Talking programme. [251333]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The Boosting Language and Auditory Skills and Training programme is a package designed to enhance and enrich the speech, language and communication skills of three to four-year-olds. The programme is being used in over 900 settings, mainly in nurseries as well as playgroups, crèches, parent toddler groups etc. It operates in a number of local authorities mainly in the North East and we understand it has been effective their early years settings.
BLAST is one of many programmes providing early years settings with training and resources to improve the quality of communication and language provision. These programmes have contributed to improving practitioners' knowledge and understanding of early language development as well as creating a rich language environment within settings.
Early language development is a key factor for a child's future success both academically and socially. Through Every Child A Talker we are providing support and funding for early years practitioners in young children's speaking and listening skills. Local authorities are able to use their Every Child a Talker funding flexibly, so that practitioners can take advantage of a range of professional development on early language including BLAST.
Building Schools for the Future Programme: Finance
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much has been spent by his Department on the Building Schools for the Future programme since its launch; and how much funding is allocated to the programme over the next five years. [252661]
Jim Knight: Over the spending period 2005-06 to 2007-08 the following conventional allocations were made for Building Schools for the Future projects: £824 million through supported borrowing allocations, and £514 million of capital grant. In addition, £3,750 million of PFI credits were allocated to the programme.
For the current spending period 2008-09 to 2010-11, the BSF and academies capital resources are being managed together. New resources for these programmes made available from the comprehensive spending review 2007 exercise are: £5,615 million of capital grant and some £3,700 million of PFI credits. In addition, £888 million of committed capital grant for BSF was carried forward from the previous spending period, which is available to be spent in the current period. The resources that will be available from 2011-12 for BSF and academies, and other capital programmes, will be decided as part of the next spending review exercise.
Care Proceedings
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what estimate he has made of the average cost of obtaining a care order. [244555]
Beverley Hughes [holding answer 16 December 2008 ]: Loughborough university has conducted research into the costs of providing children's services. The costs calculated for children's services of obtaining a court order at 2006/07 prices were £2,765.
The fees (in current prices) charged by the courts for obtaining a care order are shown as follows in relation to three stages:
Castle View School: Playing Fields
Bob Spink:
To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what information his Department holds on discussions which have taken place between
(a) officers, (b) Members and (c) actual or potential developers under the auspices of Castle Point Borough Council and Essex County Council on development of Castle View School playing fields; and if he will make a statement. [250949]
Jim Knight: As part of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme, the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), and its delivery agents—Partnerships for Schools (PfS), have not engaged in any discussions with Castle Point borough council and Essex county council regarding the development of Castle View School playing fields, and therefore do not hold any information on discussions between officers, Members and actual or potential developers.
Children In Care
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many and what proportion of children in each local authority area were (a) looked after and (b) adopted in (i) 2006, (ii) 2007 and (iii) 2008. [250307]
Beverley Hughes: Information on the number and proportion of children in each local authority who (a) were looked after and (b) adopted in the years 2006-08 can be found in tables LAA1 and table LAE1, taken from the Statistical First Release (SFR 23/2008) entitled “Children looked after in England (including adoption and care leavers) year ending 31 March 2008”. These show the number of looked after children at 31 March for 2004 to 2008 and also the number of looked after children who were adopted during the years ending 31 March 2004 to 31 March 2008.
and table LAA1 can be found within the excel link labelled first set of additional tables and table LAE1 can be found within the excel link labelled third set of additional tables.
Children in Care: Reading
Mr. Rob Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what programmes his Department has put in place to provide one-to-one reading tuition for looked-after children. [248870]
Beverley Hughes: Looked-after children will benefit from the Every Child a Reader programme, which was established by the KPMG Every Child a Chance Trust in 2005. From September 2008 this programme is being rolled out by the National Strategies on behalf of Government. By 2010/11 it aims to support the bottom 5 per cent. (approximately 30,000) of children aged five and six, some of whom may be looked after, who are struggling to read. Looked-after children who meet the criteria will also benefit from one-to-one tuition which is being introduced on a national basis and which will draw on the lessons learned from the Making Good Progress pilots.
In order to provide targeted support for looked-after children we have also introduced Personal Education Allowances of £500 per annum for looked-after children who are at risk of not reaching national levels of
achievement which can be used to provide a range of educational support to meet their needs. This may include one-to-one tuition out of school to help them with their reading.
Through the Children, Young People and Families Grant programme we are funding the Letterbox Club, a two year pilot programme managed by Booktrust, to work with over 1,500 looked after children and their foster carers across 52 local authorities. As part of the Letterbox Club initiative looked-after children aged seven to 11 in foster families receive a parcel of books and mathematics activities every month for six months to help their carers work with them to improve their literacy and numeracy.
Children: Abuse
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many children were abused whilst subject to a child protection plan in each of the last five years in (a) Hemel Hempstead and (b) Hertfordshire. [250600]
Beverley Hughes: The information requested is not collected centrally.
The available figures cover children who are subject to a Child Protection Plan and include information on category of abuse which let to the plan being put in place and re-referrals. These are available in the annual statistical first release “Referrals, Assessments and Children and Young People who are the subject of a Child Protection Plan, England”. The latest figures can be found at the following link:
Children: Cancer
Joan Ryan: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what recent discussions his Department has had with the Department of Health on the flexible education provision for childhood cancer survivors. [247217]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The Department is involved in ongoing discussions with the Department of Health looking at how we can work together to improve services for children and young people with, or recovering from, cancer as part of the Children and Young People Survivorship initiative.
Children: Databases
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) what guidance his Department has issued to local authorities on ContactPoint in the last two years; [248766]
(2) what the implementation timetable for ContactPoint is; [248767]
(3) in which local authorities ContactPoint will be first implemented; and what assessments his Department has carried out of their capability to use ContactPoint. [248768]
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