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25 Feb 2009 : Column 821W—continued
I hope this is helpful.
Veterans Day: Plymouth
James Duddridge: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what plans he has for Plymouth to participate in Veterans Day on 27 June 2009. [258560]
Mr. Kevan Jones: We are greatly encouraged that, along with many other towns and cities across the country, Plymouth city council are planning to hold an Armed Forces Day event on 27 June 2009. Armed Forces Day builds on the success of previous Veterans Day events and is intended to provide an opportunity for the whole nation to celebrate our armed forces, past, present and future. We expect that the veterans community, which includes all those who have served in the armed forces, widows and bereaved relatives of those who served and Merchant Mariners who saw duty on military operations, will remain very much at the centre of events.
Plymouth city council applied to the Ministry of Defence for a grant of £10,000 to assist towards the cost of their armed forces and veterans week and this has been awarded, together with the provisional allocation of a military band and a fly past from a DC3 of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight to support an memorial event planned for 28 June on Plymouth Hoe.
Duchy of Lancaster
NGOs
7. Mr. Steen: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will make it his policy to introduce annual headquarter grants to non-governmental organisations which fall within his Department’s area of responsibility. [257854]
Kevin Brennan: Government support for the sector has never been stronger, which is why we have committed £60 million to support strategic partnerships with third sector organisations. Over 5 years from 2006-11 we will provide core funding to a range of national and regional organisations. This type of grant funding offers real financial stability to our strategic partners, whilst enabling the views of the sector on the development of Government policy to be heard.
Third Sector
10. Mr. Bailey: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what support his Department is providing to charities and voluntary organisations to assist them in mitigating the effects of the economic downturn. [257857]
Mr. Byrne: “Real help for communities: volunteers, charities and social enterprises” provides a £42.5 million package for the sector to support people through the downturn.
Social Mobility
11. Shona McIsaac: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what recent progress has been made in implementing the measures announced in the social mobility White Paper; and if he will make a statement. [257858]
Mr. Byrne: The measures announced in the New Opportunities White Paper are for implementation between January 2009 and spring 2011.
There were three measures announced that were for implementation prior to today, all of which have been implemented on time.
The Cabinet Office is monitoring ongoing delivery by departments.
Social Entrepreneurs
12. Rob Marris: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what steps he is taking to increase the number of social entrepreneurs. [257859]
13. John Mann: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, what steps he is taking to increase the number of social entrepreneurs. [257860]
Mr. Byrne: I refer my hon. Friends to the answer I gave earlier today.
Voluntary Sector
14. Mr. Flello: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what funding his Department is providing to voluntary sector organisations working to assist deprived communities in 2008-09. [257861]
Mr. Byrne: The Government are investing in deprived communities who need real help now. The third sector plays a vital role as a safety net and springboard for people in need and in recognition of this, investment by the Government in the third sector has doubled since 1997 to a total of £11 billion a year.
Two weeks ago, the Government launched the “Real Help for Communities Action Plan”, which provides a further £42.5 million from April 2009 to help volunteers, charities and social enterprises deliver more real help to those who need it most.
This included the £15.5 million community resilience fund, targeted at areas most at risk of increasing levels of deprivation due to the recession.
Transport Network Resilience
15. Norman Baker: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what his responsibilities are for coordination of action across Government to ensure the resilience of the transport network. [257862]
Mr. Watson: Responsibility for the provision of resilient transport services rests primarily with the owners and operators of those services. Within Government, the Department for Transport and, where appropriate, the devolved Administrations work with the regulators, owners and operators to ensure, as appropriate, that standards are in place and effective contingency arrangements exist.
The Cabinet Office has departmental responsibility for the generic local response framework within England and Wales, including responsibility for the Civil Contingencies Act 2004. The Cabinet Office will, where appropriate, also provide support to the lead department on cross-cutting issues in an emergency as part of the Cabinet Office’s wider role of supporting effective Government and collective ministerial responsibility.
Apprentices
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster with reference to the answer of 2 June 2008, Official Report, column 614W, on apprentices, what progress has been made in increasing the number of apprentices in the Cabinet Office; and how many apprentices his Department currently employs. [251964]
Mr. Watson: The Department now employs four apprentices as part of the Government's pathfinder project. As part of the Department's Skills Strategy, there is a firm commitment to increase the number of apprentices to 20 by March 2010.
Cabinet: Visits
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (1) what the cost of the Cabinet visit to Leeds was; and what the cost of (a) staff time, (b) staff travel, (c) staff accommodation, (d) ministerial travel, (e) ministerial accommodation, (f) hire and additional costs of venue, (g) publicity, (h) security and (i) associated ministerial visit was; [248039]
(2) what the cost of the Cabinet visit to Liverpool was; and what the cost of (a) staff time, (b) staff travel, (c) staff accommodation, (d) ministerial travel, (e) ministerial accommodation, (f) hire and additional costs of venue, (g) publicity, (h) security and (i) associated ministerial visits was. [248040]
Mr. Byrne: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister on 29 January 2009, Official Report, columns 738-39W .
Departmental Buildings
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster whether a display energy certificate has been produced for each building under his Department's administration in Whitehall. [258173]
Mr. Watson: Display Energy Certificates have been produced for all Cabinet Office buildings, and are displayed in receptions.
I also refer the hon. Member to the answer that I gave to the hon. Member for Tunbridge Wells (Greg Clark) on 23 February 2009, Official Report, columns 390-91W.
Departmental Lobbying
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster whether Ministers in his Department received representations from (a) Lord Moonie, (b) Lord Taylor of Blackburn, (c) Lord Snape and (d) Lord Truscott in the last seven months. [255225]
Mr. Byrne: We have no record of receiving any representations to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster or his Ministers from Lord Moonie, Lord Taylor of Blackburn, Lord Snape or Lord Truscott in the last seven months.
Departmental Public Relations
Mr. Hurd: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster with reference to the answer to the hon. Member for Rochford and Southend East (James Duddridge), of 6 October 2008, Official Report, columns 270-71W, on departmental public relations, in which areas of work or projects the external public relations firms were engaged; and for what reasons in-house communications staff were not used in each instance. [249380]
Mr. McFadden: I have been asked to reply.
This Department used companies from the Central Office of Information's Public Relations Framework for the following areas of work in the last three full financial years:
| Company | Area of work | Amount spent (£) |
| (1 )April to June 2007 as DTI and BERR from June 2007. (2 )Spend by the former DTI. Note: These costs are inclusive of COI fees. | ||
In all cases, PR agencies were employed to carry out work for which there was no available in-house resource. PR campaigns by their nature are time-limited and so it would not be cost-efficient to retain staff internally to run them. Contracting outside agencies also enables the Department to gain external specialist expertise as well as supporting the creative industries. PR contracts are placed taking account of Cabinet Office Propriety Guidance.
Public Sector: Pensions
Dr. Vis: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster pursuant to the written ministerial statement of 16 December 2008, Official Report, columns 111-12WS, on guaranteed minimum pension calculations, how the errors in payments in some public service pensions were discovered. [255756]
Mr. Byrne: As part of its management and control of the Civil Service pension arrangements the Cabinet Office commissioned an exercise to check data held by its pensioner payroll contractor with Guaranteed Minimum Pension (GMP) data. This exercise highlighted the fact that GMP information was missing for a small proportion of Civil Service pensioners. Other public service schemes have commissioned similar checks and have discovered that they are also affected by this issue.
Unemployment
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster pursuant to the answer of 12 January 2009, Official Report, columns 500-01W, on the unemployed, how many people aged 16 to 24 years were unemployed in each region (a) in each year since 1997 and (b) in each of the last eight quarters. [256672]
Kevin Brennan [h olding answer 12 February 2009]: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated February 200 9 :
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking pursuant to the answer of 12 January 2009, Official Report, columns 500-1W, on unemployed, how many people aged 16 to 24 years were unemployed in each region (a) each year since 1997 and (b) in each of the last eight quarters. (256672)
The requested information is shown in the attached table. Estimates for October-December 2008 have also been included as these have become available since the previous answer was provided.
The estimates are derived from the Labour Force Survey. As with any sample survey, estimates from the LFS are subject to a margin of uncertainty.
The figures in the table are derived from the LFS microdata which are weighted using the official population estimates published in autumn 2007. Consequently the estimates from Q3 2006 are not entirely consistent with the figures published in the monthly Labour Market Statistics First Release, which are weighted using more up-to- date population estimates.
| Unemployed people aged 16-24, by region, Quarter 3 1997 to 2006; all calendar quarters from quarter 4 2006 to quarter 4 2008, United Kingdom, not seasonally adjusted | ||||||||
| Thousand | ||||||||
| North East | North West | Yorkshire and Humberside | East Midlands | West Midlands | Eastern | London | ||
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