| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
23 Feb 2009 : Column 432W—continued
English Heritage: request to grant compensation following a refusal of Scheduled Ancient Monument Consent—approved;
English Heritage: request for approval of contract at Chiswick House—approved;
English Heritage: request for approval of a contract at Chapter House, Westminster Abbey—approved;
Sir John Soane’s Museum: request for approval of Soane Masterplan project—approved;
Tate: request for approval of National Art Collections Centre project—currently under consideration;
Visit Britain: request for approval of a contract—currently under consideration.
In addition to these, my reply included 10 requests from the Olympic Delivery Authority to incur expenditure. These were made under the standard procedure whereby the Olympic Projects Review Group examines and makes recommendations on the budget of each Olympic project where the value is in excess of £20 million. These requests were as follows:
Security Project III—currently under consideration;
Landscape and Public Realm—approved;
Olympic Route Network—approved;
Olympic Village—approved;
Security Project II—approved;
International Broadcast Centre/Media Press Centre—approved;
Velodrome—approved;
Gas, Water and Duct Networks—approved;
Primary Sewer and Pumping Station—approved;
Security Project I—approved.
Ofcom: Public Appointments
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport whether Colette Bowe’s role in the Westland affair was taken into account in the procedure for appointing her as Chair of Ofcom. [255996]
Andy Burnham: The appointment of Colette Bowe was made following a process regulated by the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments (OCPA) and was also subject to pre-appointment scrutiny by a joint session of the Business and Culture Select Committees. All applicants were considered against published selection criteria which set out the qualities, skills and experience required for the position and the decision on who to appoint was based on merit. While it is not appropriate to comment on specific details of selection processes or individual applications, appointments are always made following proper consideration of matters such as conflict of interest and probity.
Olympic Games 2012
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent discussions he has had on the promotion of (a) handball and (b) boccia to coincide with the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. [256575]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Sport England have advised that they recently awarded £645,300 to the British Handball Association and £812,041 to CP Sport to develop the sport of boccia, during the period 2009-13. Sport England will shortly be holding discussions with the two bodies regarding how they will utilise this funding but will be looking to the sports to strengthen the governance arrangements (including the formation of a new English governing body for boccia), develop the club and coaching structures at grass roots level and to develop talent support systems to ensure more talented players can move on to elite programmes and achieve international success.
CP Sport is also in receipt of an award of £56,532 as part of the Playground to Podium programme to develop disability talent pathways in boccia for one year up to October 2009. Sport England will review further Playground to Podium funding to boccia following the formation of the new governing body.
Olympic Games 2012: Gun Sports
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent discussions he has had on the promotion of shooting as a sport to coincide with the London 2012 Olympic Games. [256576]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Sport England have advised that they recently awarded £750,000 to the Great Britain Target Shooting Federation for the period 2009-13. Sport England will shortly be holding discussions with the federation regarding how it will utilise this funding but will be looking to the sport to develop a talent support system to ensure more talented shooters can move on to the sport's elite programmes and achieve international success.
Shooting will also be expected to further develop its club and coaching structure, as well as continuing its work forming a single, unified governing body for the sport.
Sport England is also providing £343,000 of funding for the English Target Shooting Federation over 2007-10 to support the English target shooting team's preparations for the Commonwealth Games to be held in Delhi, India, in October 2010.
Olympic Games 2012: Tourism
Mr. Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many staff in his Department deal with tourism issues related to the Olympic legacy. [256879]
Barbara Follett: The Department currently employs 7.6 full-time equivalent (FTE) members of staff on these issues. This figure excludes staff in Press Office, Private Office, Corporate Services, Public Engagement and Communications.
Public Houses: Rural Areas
Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will commission research into the number of rural public houses which are due to close; whether he has made an estimate of the number of rural public houses which closed in 2008; and if he will make a statement. [257307]
Andy Burnham: DCMS does not collect statistics specifically on public house closures. The Department's Statistical Bulletin on Alcohol, Entertainment and Late Night Refreshment counts the number of premises authorising the sale or supply of alcohol by means of a premises licence or a club premises certificate. These figures apply not only to public houses, but also to other licensed premises such as hotels, off licences and convenience stores. Figures on closures of licensed premises relate to the specific exercise of powers under the Licensing Act 2003 and not to closures for other reasons.
Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will commission research into the social benefits provided by rural public houses. [257310]
Andy Burnham: There are currently no plans to undertake research into the social benefits provided by rural pubs. However the Government are fully aware of the valuable role pubs can play at the heart of rural communities and my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, announced on 5 February a number of new initiatives to support rural businesses, including pubs. These new schemes will complement existing initiatives such as ‘Pub is the Hub’ which was set up in 2001, through the Rural Action Programme of Business in the Community, to encourage breweries, pub owners, licensees and local communities to work together to help retain and enhance rural services in isolated rural areas.
Regional Cultural Consortia
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport with reference to the answer to the hon. Member for South West Surrey of 16 October 2008, Official Report, columns 1390-91W, on regional cultural consortia: finance, what assessment has been made of the extent to which regional cultural consortia have provided value for money since their establishment. [256468]
Barbara Follett: Since their establishment, the performance of the Regional Cultural Consortiums (RCCs) has been monitored on an ongoing basis through regular feedback to my officials, and reported on each year through their annual reports and accounts.
In early 2002, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport conducted a review of the consortiums to assess the effectiveness of their operations. The review found that the consortiums were performing a key role in the regions.
Following further consideration of the collaborative working of the Department’s regional agencies, the Secretary of State decided in July 2008 that the consortiums should be replaced with new regional arrangements led jointly by Arts Council England, English Heritage, Museums, Libraries and Archives Council and Sport England.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport with reference to the answer to the hon. Member for South West Surrey of 16 October 2008, Official Report, column 1391W, on regional cultural consortiums: finance, what the administrative cost of each consortium was in each year from its establishment to its dissolution. [256497]
Barbara Follett: My Department has provided the following grant in aid to each of the Regional Cultural Consortiums, in each financial year since 2003-04.
| Regional cultural consortiums outturn | |||||
| £000 | |||||
| Outturn | |||||
| Regional Cultural Consortium | 2003 - 04 | 2004 - 05 | 2005 - 06 | 2006 - 07 | 2007 - 08 |
We expect all the consortiums to be wound up by the end of 2008-09, at which point accounts for this period will be prepared.
Sports: Training
Mr. Rob Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many (a) registered and (b) active sports coaches there were in each of the last five years. [258151]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Currently National Governing Bodies (NGBs) control their own sports coach data which are based on various recruitment measures. Collated NGB data could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
However, a report done in 2006 by sportscoach UK (scUK) indicated there were 1.7 million active coaches in the UK. We are currently working with scUK to look at how we can improve the routine collation of information in this area.
Swimming Teachers' Association
Mr. Keetch: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will consult the Swimming Teachers Association when drawing up the new Whole Sport Plans; and if he will make a statement. [256192]
Andy Burnham: The Amateur Swimming Association (ASA), as the National Governing Body of swimming, has been responsible for drawing up a plan in the best interests of swimming as a whole. Sport England have worked in close conjunction with the ASA throughout this process to ensure the plan serves the whole sport.
My officials recently met the Swimming Teachers’ Association to discuss future work and policy initiatives concerning the Free Swimming programme, and took this opportunity to discuss their role more widely.
Television
Mr. Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what guidance his Department provides for television broadcasters on the use of bad language after the nine o'clock watershed. [255366]
Andy Burnham: Responsibility for what is broadcast on television and radio rests with the broadcasters and the organisations which regulate broadcasting—the Office of Communications (Ofcom), the BBC Trust and the Welsh Fourth Channel Authority (S4C)—within the overall framework set by the Communications Act 2003 and the BBC Charter and Agreement.
In relation to broadcasting, Parliament has charged Ofcom with maintaining standards, notably to protect children and to protect the general public from harmful and offensive material, including bad language. The Ofcom Broadcasting Code therefore sets out the rules with which broadcasters must comply. Ofcom also produces guidance notes to assist broadcasters in interpreting and applying the Broadcasting Code. In addition, the BBC’s editorial guidelines, under the sovereignty of the BBC Trust, provide clear advice on the standards expected of all BBC content on television and radio. The S4C Compliance Guidelines also provide guidance on the standards expected of all content broadcast on S4C.
Within this framework, it is the broadcasters’ job to make judgements about what individual programmes should contain and the time at which they are broadcast.
John Battle: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform on arrangements to increase the consistency of regulation of content on television and on the internet; and if he will make a statement. [255478]
Andy Burnham: The Departments for Culture, Media and Sport and Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform considered the issue jointly when negotiating the Audio-Visual Media Services Directive, which maintains a distinction between the regulation of linear television and television on demand. I believe that such distinctions remain valid for the present, but we recognise that this may not always be the case and keep the matter under review.
Concerns about internet content were considered as part of Tanya Byron’s review of Child Safety on the Internet and fall within the remit of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety which we have established and are also being considered as part of the Digital Britain Report.
Television: Licensing
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what estimate he has made of the number of people (a) evading payment of the television licence fee and (b) discovered with a television but without a television licence in each of the last five years. [257026]
Andy Burnham: This is a matter for the BBC. I have, therefore, asked the BBC’s Head of Revenue Management to consider the question raised by the hon. Member and to write to him direct. Copies of the reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |