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20 Apr 2009 : Column 424W—continued
Councillors
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst of 19 January 2009, Official Report, columns 1072-3W, on councillors: Arun, whether the Audit Commission plans to obtain bank account information from councillors in other local authorities during its next National Fraud Initiative national data matching exercise. [268732]
John Healey: This is an operational matter for the Audit Commission and I will ask the chief executive of the Audit Commission to write to the hon. Member direct.
Letter from Steve Bundred, dated 20 April 2009:
Your Parliamentary question on whether the Audit Commission plans to obtain bank account information from councillors in other local authorities during its next National Fraud Initiative national data matching exercise has been passed to me to reply.
All local authorities will be required to provide payroll data relating to a salary, members' allowance or other remuneration for the next scheduled exercise, NFI 2010/11. The fields required for data matching are set out in a 'data specification'. The bank account and sort code are included on the payroll data specification. This information is required under powers in Part 2A of the Audit Commission Act 1998.
A copy of this letter will be placed in Hansard.
Departmental Carbon Emissions
Greg Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government for how long her Department has followed the Carbon Trust’s Carbon Management programme. [269287]
Mr. Khan: Communities and Local Government signed up to the Carbon Trust’s Carbon Management Programme in April 2006. Since then, the Department has continued to work with the Carbon Trust to identify opportunities to reduce further carbon emissions.
In 2007-08, the Department reduced its electricity and gas consumption in its main headquarter building by 22 per cent. and 37 per cent., respectively, compared to 2006-07.
Departmental Computers
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many laptop computers have been provided to (a) Ministers, (b) special advisers and (c) civil servants in her Department in each year since 2005; and at what cost. [268271]
Mr. Khan: The information is as follows.
The costs of laptops in 2005 to 2007 are not recorded separately and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
| Number | Cost (£) | |
| n/a = Not available. | ||
The cost and numbers of any laptops provided to special advisers in 2005 and 2006 are not recorded separately and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
| Number | Cost (£) | |
| n/a = Not available. (1) Plus one laptop reused. | ||
The Department as a whole (figures include those above). Cost information for 2005 and 2006 is not centrally held and can be provided only at disproportionate cost. A further 31 laptops were purchased during 2007 as part of a wider project to upgrade the CLG network and costs cannot be disaggregated from the overall project costs.
| Number | Cost (£) | |
| n/a = Not available. | ||
Departmental Manpower
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many of her Department's staff were employed to work on housing-related matters in each of the last five years. [265004]
Mr. Khan: The following table shows the numbers of staff employed in Housing Directorates in each of the last five years. There may be other staff engaged in housing-related matters, though it is not possible to ascertain this without incurring disproportionate cost.
| Number | |||||
| Current Directorate Title | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 |
Departmental Mobile Phones
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government 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 her Department in each year since 2005. [268254]
Mr. Khan: This information is not held centrally and could be supplied only at disproportionate cost. However, details of our total spend on mobile devices (hardware and running costs) for the last five years are in the following table:
| Total (£) | |
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many (a) BlackBerrys and (b) other mobile telephones have been provided to (i) Ministers, (ii) special advisers and (iii) civil servants in her Department in each year since 2005. [268298]
Mr. Khan: This information is not held centrally and could be supplied only at disproportionate cost.
However, the Department currently has 684 mobile devices on contract from our supplier; 284 of these devices are BlackBerrys.
Departmental Pay
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether the system for the remuneration of (a) board members and (b) special advisers in her Department includes an incentive or bonus element. [268835]
Mr. Khan: The Communities and Local Government board consists of eight executive board members and five non-executive board members (although one non-executive board member post is vacant at present). There is no system of incentives or bonuses for the non-executive board members.
The eight executive board members are all senior civil servants and therefore eligible to be considered for annual performance bonuses under senior civil service pay arrangements. Our senior civil service staff members are assessed against a range of factors, such as:
The achievement of their Prime Objective which focuses on the way in which they lead, manage and develop their staff;
Degree to which business objectives are met;
Delivery for Ministers;
Demonstration of skills such as judgment, leadership and the PSG skills;
Effective resource management
There is no system of incentives or bonuses for special advisers in the Department.
Eco-Towns: Publicity
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the cost was of producing the eco-town video on the directgov website; and which organisation produced the video. [268830]
Margaret Beckett: The cost of producing the video ‘Animated eco-town walkthrough—what might an eco-town look like?’ on the Directgov website was £21,500 excluding VAT. It was produced by Smoothe, a design agency procured through the COI.
Empty Property: Essex
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many residential dwellings were vacant in (a) Essex and (b) Castle Point in each of the last five years. [268429]
John Healey: The number of empty residential dwellings in Castle Point and Essex in each of the last five years are shown in the following table.
| Castle Point | Essex | |
Data for Essex are the sum of all vacant dwellings in the individual billing authorities including Castle Point but excluding figures for Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock unitary authorities.
The data are as reported annually to Communities and Local Government on the CTB and CTB (Supplementary) forms that are completed by all billing authorities in England. The data relate to particular dates in the autumn of each year.
Faith Communities Capacity Building Fund
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Peterborough of 11 March 2009, Official Report, column 483W, on the Faith Communities Capacity Building Fund, for what reasons the British Humanist Association was funded from the fund. [268692]
Mr. Khan: The British Humanist Association received £25,000 in order to establish and support a network of grassroots humanists to work and build relationships with statutory bodies and participate in groups that advise local authorities on matters of religion or belief, or encourage dialogue between people with different beliefs. The project aimed to enable local humanists to network with faith and ‘interfaith’ groups and participate in groups convened by local authorities, and thus contribute towards good relations and community cohesion.
The Faith Communities Capacity Building Fund was designed to increase the capacity of all religion and belief communities to engage with each other and with wider society. The guidance notes for the fund included the following definition:
“For the purpose of this fund, a faith organisation is defined as one where the majority of its members adhere to the same faith. They share a world view or ‘life stance’ that involves a set of moral and spiritual values and beliefs about the nature of life and the world. They will usually, but not always, believe in a god or gods.”
The application was made under the “relationships with local, regional or national Government” category—one of the capacity building categories of the fund. In its application, the BHA described their faith tradition as: “Humanist (though we do not think of ourselves as a ‘faith’, we meet the definition of ‘faith’ given in the guidance)”.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Peterborough of 11 March 2009, Official Report, column 483W, on the Faith Communities Capacity Building Fund, what funding her Department and its agencies have allocated to the British Humanist Association other than through the Faith Communities Capacity Building Fund; and for what purposes. [268693]
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