Written Answers to Questions
Tuesday 12 May 2009
Church Commissioners
Churches: Repairs and Maintenance
Miss McIntosh: To ask the hon. Member for Middlesbrough, representing the Church Commissioners what recent discussions the Church Commissioners have had with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on heritage grant funding for church repairs. [274612]
Sir Stuart Bell: Representatives of the Church of England have regularly met with a number of Government Departments, namely HM Treasury, DCLG, DEFRA, Office of the Third Sector in the Cabinet Office and DCMS.
These discussions have culminated in the joint publication of guidance entitled ‘Churches and Faith Buildings: Realising the Potential’. The guidance seeks to help faith groups access existing resources and help funders understand the important role of faith groups in delivering public services. Specifically, it identifies funding for the physical alteration and modification of churches and other faith buildings to ensure they are fit for community use.
House of Commons Commission
Hamas
Mr. Amess: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission whether the organisers of the meeting held on the Parliamentary estate on 22 April 2009 involving a video link with a senior leader of Hamas sought the approval of the House of Commons Commission beforehand; what representations the Commission received from hon. Members opposing the video link from taking place; what response the Commission gave; and if he will make a statement. [274025]
Nick Harvey: The House of Commons Commission has no role in approving Members’ choice of participants in video-linked meetings.
Northern Ireland
Departmental ICT
John Thurso: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what steps he has taken to reduce the level of carbon dioxide emissions arising from the operation of ICT systems in his Department under the Greening Government ICT Strategy. [273563]
Paul Goggins: The Northern Ireland Office has a Green ICT strategy in place, derived from the Cabinet Office “Greening Government ICT” strategy. The Northern Ireland Office Board is committed to implementing the strategy's 51 recommendations, where practicable. To date, 29 recommendations have already been addressed or are under active consideration, including a commitment that new ICT equipment will comply with at least one of the green energy standards. This is now incorporated into all centralised procurement framework agreements.
Culture, Media and Sport
Arts Council England: Grants
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much Arts Council England awarded in grants in (a) 2007-08 and (b) 2008-09. [273983]
Barbara Follett [holding answer 8 May 2009]: Arts Council England has advised that the following has been awarded in grants in 2007-08. Figures for 2008-09 are currently being prepared and are not yet available.
| £ | |
Casinos
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many licensed casinos were in operation in each local authority area under the provisions of (a) the Gambling Act 1968 and (b) the Gambling Act 2005 in each year since 1997. [274083]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The Gambling Commission have advised that to date there have been no premises licences issued under the provisions of the Gambling Act 2005 in relation to casinos.
The Gambling Act1968 has seen casinos located in 53 distinct ‘permitted areas' in which the licensing of clubs for gaming other than bingo is permitted.
Details of the number of casinos operating in each permitted area for each year can be found in the annual reports of the Gambling Commission and its predecessor,
the Gaming Board. Copies of these reports are laid in the Library and are also available on the Gambling Commission's website at:
Departmental Contracts
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport which services his Department has outsourced in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [274451]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The Department has not outsourced any new services within the last five years. A number of services have been outsourced prior to this period such as:
Facilities Management,
Information Technology,
Catering Services,
Records Management, and
Mailroom Services.
Departmental Dismissal
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many members of staff in his Department and its agency were dismissed (a) for under-performance and (b) in total in each of the last 10 years. [274301]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The information is as follows.
| Underperformance | Total dismissals | |||
| DCMS | Royal Parks Agency | DCMS | Royal Parks Agency | |
Departmental ICT
John Thurso: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps he has taken to reduce the level of carbon dioxide emissions arising from the operation of ICT systems in his Department under the Greening Government ICT Strategy. [273561]
Mr. Sutcliffe: My Department, in line with all other Chief Information Officers (CIOs) on the CIO Council, has produced a “CIO Green ICT Roadmap” which we will be following to deliver against the 18 target improvement areas outlined in the Greening Government ICT Strategy.
My Department has identified Green ICT as one of our key priorities for the coming year. As part of this, we have led a cross-Government exercise to procure a standard tool to allow departments to safely shut down desktop PCs overnight and out of hours. This software
has now been installed on all machines in my Department to ensure that all unused machines are shut down outside working hours.
Departmental Work Experience
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many work placements his Department offered to (a) school pupils, (b) university students and (c) graduates in each of the last five years. [274489]
Mr. Sutcliffe: DCMS do not offer work placements to school pupils. However, DCMS has taken part in the Cabinet Office Summer Work Placement scheme for university students and graduates from under-represented groups. In the last five years we have taken five placements per year.
English Heritage: Educational Visits
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much has been spent on the (a) administration, (b) staffing and (c) advertisement and promotion of the English Heritage free educational visits scheme in each year since the introduction of the scheme. [272321]
Barbara Follett [holding answer 5 May 2009]: English Heritage introduced free entry for educational groups to its sites as one of its first acts after its creation in 1984. However, the figures requested are only available for the years from 1996-97 and these represent the total spend on education in each year. It is not possible to separate out how much is spent on free educational visits alone, or to break down the total as requested. The available figures are set out in the following table:
| £ | |||
| Of which : | |||
| Total expenditure on education | Payroll | Marketing and promotion | |
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