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23 Feb 2009 : Column 426W—continued
Fines
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport whether any administrative financial penalties may be levied by his Department and its agency. [253598]
Barbara Follett: I am not aware that there are any administrative financial penalties that may be levied by my Department or its agency, the Royal Parks.
Hotels: Fire Prevention
Mr. Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (1) whether he has made an assessment of the effects of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 on the bed and breakfast industry; and if he will make a statement; [258179]
(2) whether he has made an assessment of the effects of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 on the tourism industry; and if he will make a statement. [258180]
Barbara Follett: Since the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 took effect in October 2006 there has been no specific assessment made of the impact on the sustainability of either bed and breakfast businesses or the tourism industry. However, Communities and Local Government (CLG), in consultation with both the industry and this Department, recently published a guide for small accommodation providers to help them comply with the new regulations. CLG will be monitoring the effects of the booklet and will be sharing this information with my Department in due course.
Legacy Trust UK: Grants
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport pursuant to the answer of 10 February 2009, Official Report, column 1889W, on Legacy Trust UK, if he will place in the Library a copy of the list of the grants Legacy Trust UK has made to date. [257513]
Andy Burnham: I am arranging for copies of the list of grants Legacy Trust UK has made to date to be placed in the House Libraries.
Leisure: Urban Areas
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what funding his Department is providing for recreational activity for inner-city children in 2008-09. [253120]
Mr. Sutcliffe: DCMS channels its funding mainly via our family of non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs). NDPBs are tasked with delivery of our overall strategies, including delivery of many bespoke programmes and projects.
At headline level DCMS does not target inner-city areas for special funding arrangements although NDPBs occasionally do target similar demographics via particular programmes or work streams.
Some of the key DCMS initiatives schemes, aimed at providing access and opportunity for all, will have particular beneficial effects on inner-city children. This list is certainly not exhaustive and further details of individual work strands can be found on the website of the DCMS family at
Through our PE and Sport Strategy for Young People, delivered jointly with DCSF, the Government are investing at least £783 million over 2008-11 to offer five hours of quality PE and sport to all pupils in England. This includes £22.8 million from my Department in 2008-09.
The strategy reaches into every maintained school, and so provides a wide range of recreational sporting opportunities for children living in inner-city areas.
Our key delivery partners, the Youth Sport Trust and Sport England, work with a wide range of national, regional and local partners including schools, sports clubs and youth and community organisations to attract more young people into sport across the country, including inner-city areas.
Sport England which is an NDPB and National Lottery distributor, focuses on ensuring quality sporting opportunities exist beyond the school gates, enabling children and young people to migrate from the school environment to community sport. Reaching out to diverse communities is a vital part of their work.
Local authorities across the country have signed up to the Government's initiative to offer free swimming to both those aged 16 and under and over 60. The local authorities that have opted in to offer the scheme to both age groups have also received a share of a £10 million capital fund to spend on modernising or improving pool provision in time for the start of the two-year scheme in 2009. Those local authorities that will offer free swimming to both age groups also stand to benefit from a further £25 million capital challenge fund in both 2009-10 and 2010-11 to spend on improving pool provision. Many inner-city local authorities have taken up this opportunity. Details of participating authorities can be found at:
Through Arts Council England DCMS provided funding of almost £8.5 million between January 2008 and December 2008. This provided recreational activity for inner city children aged 0-15 years in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield, Liverpool, Leeds, Bristol, Nottingham, and Portsmouth. These cities are top ten (by population) primary urban areas as defined by DCLG State of the Cities database 2007.
In February last year the Government announced the new £25 million Find Your Talent (FYT) Pathfinder programme to trial different ways of delivering a five hour cultural offer for children and young people aged 0-19. The Pathfinders, running for three years were launched in September last year.
Our ambition is to offer all children high quality cultural experiences no matter where they live or what their background and the Find Your Talent programme is part of the Government's drive to unlock the creative talent of all young people.
This is on top of the investment the Government already put into cultural education programme. This means we fund cultural opportunities on a national scale and these funds are distributed to regions and localities via our funded bodies who fund projects in inner city areas and beyond.
The ten Find Your Talent Pathfinder projects are listed and include inner-city areas:
Bolton Borough Council
The Creative Foundation (serving Shepway District and including Folkestone,
Hythe and Romney Marsh)
Customs House (North and South Tyneside)
Hampshire County Council
Leeds Children's Services
Leicestershire County Council
'Liverpool City Region' Partnership (serving three Merseyside neighbourhoods)
North Somerset
Telford and Wrekin Council
Tower Hamlets
In addition to the above initiatives and schemes, inner-city areas are well serviced by Museums offering free admission. A list of museums that form part of the DCMS family of NDPBs can be found at the above link. In 2007-08 there were eight million visits by children (aged 15 and under) to the DCMS sponsored museums.
Licensed Premises
Dr. Blackman-Woods: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many alcohol licence applications have been rejected on grounds of (a) protection of children from harm, (b) public safety, (c) prevention of public nuisance and (d) prevention of crime and disorder since the Licensing Act 2003 came into force. [257986]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The Department's statistical data do not identify the reasons for rejected applications for premises licences and club premises certificates, nor do they show which of the rejected applications relate to the sale of alcohol. In some cases, applications will relate solely to the provision of regulated entertainment or late night refreshment. The first published statistical bulletin since the implementation of the Act, which covers the period April 2006 to March 2007, reported the number of Premises Licence and Club Premises Certificate applications that went to a committee hearing was 6,408 (based on 81 per cent. of Licensing Authority responses).
In the second published statistical bulletin since the implementation of the Act, which covers the period April 2007 to March 2008, there were 5,194 Premises Licence and Club Premises Certificate applications that went to a committee hearing (based on 95 per cent. of Licensing Authority responses). This statistical bulletin also reports reasons for completed reviews based upon each of the four licensing objectives, for this same period; these can be found in Tables 8a and 8b online:
Dr. Blackman-Woods: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what information his Department holds on the number of complaints received by local authorities from residents about noise and nuisance in areas (a) with and (b) without premises with late alcohol licences. [257993]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The requested information is not held centrally.
Dr. Blackman-Woods: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what monitoring his Department is undertaking of the number of late alcohol licences granted in or near residential areas. [257994]
Mr. Sutcliffe: We do not centrally hold information on the proximity of licensed premises to residential areas. Parliament has delegated responsibility for licensing decisions to local authorities who are best placed to consider licensing issues in relation to residential and other areas.
Dr. Blackman-Woods: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what proportion of alcohol licence applications were (a) granted and (b) refused by local authorities in England in each year since 2000. [257996]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Since the implementation of the Licensing Act 2003, DCMS has been collecting alcohol, entertainment and late night refreshment statistics for England and Wales on an annual basis by financial year from licensing authorities. The first bulletin covers the period April 2006 to March 2007; the second bulletin covers the period April 2007 to March 2008.
For the period ending March 2008, 94 per cent. of new premises licence applications were granted, 2 per cent. were refused and 3 per cent. were unknown or undecided at the time the data were collected. For the same period, 95 per cent. of new club premises certificates were granted, 2 per cent. refused and 3 per cent. unknown or undecided (based on around 95 per cent. of Licensing Authority responses). We do not know how many of the rejected applications were for the sale of alcohol as licences and certificates also cover the provision of regulated entertainment and late night refreshment. However, generally we can say that 84 per cent. of premises licences and 98 per cent. of club premises certificates permitted the sale of alcohol.
For the period ending March 2007, 96 per cent. of new premises licences were granted, 1 per cent. were refused and 3 per cent. were unknown or undecided at the time the data were collected. For the same period,
92 per cent. of new club premises certificates were granted, 2 per cent. were refused and 6 per cent. were unknown or undecided (based on around 82 per cent. of Licensing Authority responses).
Prior to the implementation of the Licensing Act 2003, data on the number of alcohol licences revoked in England and Wales were collected by petty sessional division (magistrates court areas), on a triennial basis. In the year to 30 June 2004, 97 per cent. of new on- and off-licensed premises were granted, and 3 per cent. were refused/undecided. Also 79 per cent. of applications for registered clubs were granted with 21 per cent. refused/undecided.
In the year to 30 June 2001, 88 per cent. of new on- and off-licensed premises were granted, and 12 per cent. were refused/undecided. Also 93 per cent. of applications for registered clubs were granted with seven per cent. refused/undecided.
Dr. Blackman-Woods: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many complaints his Department has received from (a) members of the public, (b) police authorities and (c) local authorities on the operation of the Licensing Act 2003. [257997]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The Department's first evaluation of the impact of the Licensing Act 2003 in March 2008 showed that the police have welcomed their new powers and provided evidence that local people are much better engaged than they were under the old licensing regime. Also, information and case studies we gathered from scrutiny councils as part of the review suggested that initial benefits were developing into longer term trends and that the Act is having a real impact on key issues such as crime and disorder and sales of alcohol to children. The Department does receive a number of letters, mainly from the public, where concerns are raised but it is not possible to state categorically which of these could be classified as complaints. We have always maintained that licensing is not the only solution to problems related to crime and disorder and nuisance and we continue to liaise with local authority representatives, police representatives, and other Government Departments (notably, the Home Office and the Department of Health, which have overall responsibility for the Government's renewed alcohol strategy) to develop new measures for combating these social problems.
Dr. Blackman-Woods: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many 24-hour late licences have been granted by local authorities in England and Wales since the Licensing Act 2003 came into force. [257998]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The latest Alcohol Entertainment and Late Night Refreshment Licensing Bulletin reports that as of 31 March 2008 there were an estimated 6,700 premises licences with 24 hour alcohol permissions under the Licensing Act 2003. This figure is comprised of 700 pubs, bars and nightclubs; 1,300 supermarkets and stores; 4,100 hotel bars; and 600 other types of premises. Together they account for under 4 per cent. of all premises licensed for the sale of alcohol. Most 24 hour licences are held by hotels, making alcohol available to guests round the clock, which would have existed under the previous regime.
Dr. Blackman-Woods: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many late licences to open until (a) midnight, (b) 1.00 am, (c) 2.00 am, (d) 3.00 am and (e) 4.00 am have been granted by local authorities in England and Wales since the Licensing Act 2003 came into force. [257999]
Mr. Sutcliffe: We do not hold the requested information centrally. It should be noted that the times on a licence do not show the actual opening hours which will often be less as the licence provides flexibility. However, we did commission work for the evaluation of the impact of the Licensing Act 2003 (available from the House Library) which shows actual closing times on a Saturday night, provided by licensees. The summary shows, for example, that pub closures have increased by up to 27 minutes to a 11.30 pm average closing time and that bar closures are up 28 minutes to a midnight average closing time.
Music: Licensing
Mr. Whittingdale: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when he plans to undertake a public consultation on exemptions from licensing requirements for low-risk live music performances. [256545]
Andy Burnham: The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is currently exploring options to exempt low impact licensing activities, including small scale live music, from the scope of the Licensing Act 2003. No decision has yet been taken on timing of the consultation that would be necessary in respect of any proposals.
New Opportunities Physical Education and Sports Fund
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will place in the Library a copy of the policy directions issued by his Department for the administration of the New Opportunities Physical Education and Sports Fund. [257795]
Mr. Sutcliffe: We understood that a copy of these policy directions had been deposited in the Library of the House on 25 April 2001, but I believe that the Library does not hold a copy of these directions. I shall arrange for a further copy to be redeposited in the Library of the House.
Non-Departmental Public Bodies
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport pursuant to the Answer of 26 January 2009, Official Report, column 57W, on non-departmental public bodies, what the 19 requests were received by his Department for approval to incur expenditure over the delegated limits set out in the financial memoranda of his Department’s non-departmental public bodies; and whether each request was accepted. [254337]
Andy Burnham: The 19 requests mentioned in my reply of 26 January are listed as follows:
British Museum: request for approval of North-West Development project—currently under consideration;
English Heritage: request to make grant—currently under consideration;
English Heritage: request to grant compensation following a refusal of Scheduled Ancient Monument Consent—approved;
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