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2 Apr 2009 : Column 1373W—continued
Culture, Media and Sport
Departmental Computers
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many laptop computers have been provided to (a) Ministers, (b) special advisers and (c) civil servants in his Department in each year since 2005; and at what cost. [268268]
Mr. Sutcliffe: My Department only holds information for the current year. My Department has 89 laptops in use. One is allocated to a Minister, 88 are with civil servants and none are allocated to the special advisers. The cost to the public purse is approximately £1,500 per laptop.
Departmental Conferences
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport pursuant to the answer of 3 March 2009, Official Report, column 1406W, on the economic situation, what expenditure his Department incurred under each budget heading in respect of its Creative Economy Programme Ministerial Steering Board meeting held in December 2008. [267998]
Andy Burnham: The only cost for the Creative Economy Programme’s Ministerial Steering Board in December 2008 was for refreshments. This cost was £88.
Departmental Mobile Phones
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much has been spent on (a) the purchase of and (b) bills for (i) BlackBerrys and (ii) other mobile telephones for (A) Ministers, (B) special advisers and (C) civil servants in his Department in each year since 2005. [268251]
Mr. Sutcliffe: My Department has incurred costs as follows:
| £ | ||||
| 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | |
We do not hold the information regarding the amount spent on individuals.
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many (a) BlackBerrys and (b) other mobile telephones have been provided to (i) Ministers, (ii) special advisers and (iii) civil servants in his Department in each year since 2005. [268300]
Mr. Sutcliffe: My Department only holds information for the current year. My Department has 116 BlackBerrys and 60 mobile telephones. A breakdown of allocation is as follows:
| Ministers | Special advisers | Civil servants | |
Gambling
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many people have been (a) extradited and (b) prosecuted as a result of the Gambling Commission’s mystery shopping pilots in those countries which appear on his Department’s White List of countries permitted to advertise gambling services in the UK in the last three years. [267162]
Mr. Sutcliffe: There have been no extraditions or prosecutions in the last three years as a result of the Gambling Commission’s mystery shopping pilots in those countries which appear on my Department’s White List of countries permitted to advertise gambling services in the UK. The pilots took place before the Gambling Act 2005 came fully into effect. In the event of the Commission’s rolling mystery shopping programme revealing any weaknesses in operators from such jurisdictions, the Commission would work with the regulator there to investigate and take the appropriate action.
Licensing Laws: Public Consultation
Mr. Betts: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what guidance his Department plans to issue to unitary authorities created under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 on consulting on licensing policies. [268093]
Mr. Sutcliffe:
DCMS has no plans to lay revised guidance under section 182 of the Licensing Act 2003 before Parliament in connection with this issue. However,
the Department has provided a steer to councils moving to unitary status, on the amalgamation of licensing policies. Where the affected councils have already consulted on and adopted identical policies in preparation for the move to a unitary authority, and these existing, identical policies will be consolidated into a single document, without any material changes, then DCMS advises that there will be no need to consult. However, councils are free to decide to inform relevant stakeholders.
Where substantial changes are made to identical policies before amalgamation or where existing policies are not identical, consultation would be required on the proposed single policy. In such instances, the Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services (LACORS) would encourage councils to undertake a full consultation, in line with the Government's code of practice on consultation. DCMS will continue to work with LACORS to respond to any licensing authority queries that may arise.
Parks: Greater London
Justine Greening:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport pursuant to the answer of 10 March 2009, Official Report, column 254W, on parks: Greater London, if he will place in the Library a copy of the Royal Parks Agency's (a) most recent research
on visitor profiles and (b) 2006 in-depth study on park usage; and if he will make a statement. [268652]
Barbara Follett: The Royal Parks (TRP) advise that these reports are available on their website at:
Copies of these reports will be deposited in the Libraries.
Public Expenditure
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much his Department (a) allocated and (b) spent on (i) sport, (ii) the arts and (iii) heritage in each year since 1997, expressed in 2008-09 prices. [263453]
Andy Burnham [holding answer 13 March 2009]: It is my Department's policy to publish details of funding spent, as opposed to funding allocated, to avoid confusion or potential double counting where end year flexibility has been applied or where funds have been transferred in year. The amount of Exchequer funding spent by DCMS and its NDPBs on arts, sport and heritage since 1997, at 2007-08 prices, is as follows:
| £ million in 2007-08 prices | |||
| Arts spend including central DCMS spend | Sports spend including central DCMS spend | Heritage spend including Royal Parks and central DCMS spend | |
| (1) In 2006-07, Arts spend received an additional £5 million allocated in the 2004 spending review. Without applying the deflator or the additional allocation, the figures for 2006-07 and 2007-08 are £425.4 million and £425.9 million respectively. (2) In 2006-07, English Heritage drew down £7.8 million capital end year flexibility for its relocation expenses compared with £1.8 million in 2007-08. | |||
HM Treasury issues the deflator tables and does not publish 2008-09 figures until the tables are issued by the Office for National Statistics, usually in August. Therefore, the most up to date expression of DCMS’s spend is in 2007-08 prices.
Sports
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what professional sporting events with (a) male and (b) female participants he has attended in an official capacity in the last 12 months. [267683]
Andy Burnham: The information is shown in the table.
| Professional sporting events with male participants | Professional sporting events with female participants | |
Swimming: Elderly
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (1) what estimate he has made of the number of those over the age of 60 years who have participated in his Department’s free swimming initiative to date; [267028]
(2) what steps his Department is taking to increase the levels of exercise undertaken by those over the age of 60; [267029]
(3) what steps his Department is taking to increase public awareness of his Department’s free swimming initiatives. [267033]
Andy Burnham: From 1 April this year the Government’s Free Swimming programme launched, enabling around 10 million people in England aged 60 or over will be able to swim for free in participating pools. We will be closely monitoring the impact of the scheme on levels of participation.
Free swimming will be delivered by nearly 300 local authorities in England. We have therefore provided participating local authorities with a branding and marketing toolkit to help them promote the programme locally. We will also continue to work with other Government Departments and stakeholders to promote the programme and help get more people swimming more often.
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