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22 Jun 2009 : Column 613W—continued
Digital Technology: Mass Media
Adam Price: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much funding will be made available for the pilot independently financed news consortia announced in the Digital Britain White Paper. [281466]
Mr. Bradshaw: Funding for piloted news consortia will be determined following the consultation outlined in the Digital Britain Report and an examination of the scope of commercial revenue that could be achieved. The current cost of broadcast regional news in the nations ranges from £4 million to £7 million per nation per annum.
Adam Price: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport for how long the pilot independently financed news consortia announced in the Digital Britain White Paper are expected to last. [281467]
Mr. Bradshaw: Pilots are expected to commence in 2010 and run until the end of 2012. This timetable will be subject to review.
Adam Price: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when tenders will be invited for the pilot independently financed news consortia announced in the Digital Britain White Paper. [281469]
Mr. Bradshaw: Our intention is to begin the pilots in 2010. The process for tender and award is currently being developed.
Adam Price: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport who will take decisions on tenders for the pilot independently financed news consortia announced in the Digital Britain White Paper. [281448]
Mr. Bradshaw: The process for tender and award is currently being developed.
Film: Israel
Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (1) what recent progress has been made on the implementation of the UK-Israel Film Co-production Treaty; [281298]
(2) what recent discussions his Department has had with the Government of Israel on collaboration between the UK and Israeli film industries. [281299]
Mr. Simon: We have completed the substantive negotiations with Israel on a film co-production agreement. There are some minor elements to be finalised, but we expect to be able to announce arrangements for the signing of this treaty in the summer.
Mass Media: Wales
Adam Price: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment his Department has made of the merits of establishing a media commission for Wales. [281449]
Mr. Simon: The Government do not propose centrally to fund a new media commission for Wales as the costs have to be set against the other options and priorities for Government, especially as replicating media commissions in each of the UK's nations would substantially increase the overall costs. The Government are proposing to fund a piloted English language news provision in Wales.
Swimming
Robert Neill: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many representations he has received on the funding by his Department of estimated local authority costs of operating the free swimming programme. [279905]
Mr. Bradshaw: To date, my Department has recorded 112 written representations on the estimated local authority costs of operating the free swimming programme.
UK School Games: Finance
Hugh Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport by what means the UK School Games has been funded in each of its first three years; and how it will be funded in each year to 2012. [279840]
Mr. Sutcliffe: [holding answer 15 June 2009]: Since the inaugural UK School Games took place in 2006, funding for the annual event has come from a mixture of Exchequer, lottery, private sponsorship and host city money. The UK School Games runs until the end of the current spending period 2011, and we envisage that this funding arrangement will continue until then. Plans for the Games beyond 2011 have not been considered.
Energy and Climate Change
Climate Change: International Cooperation
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what recent discussions he has had with his EU counterparts on the development of international financing mechanisms for mitigation and adaptation actions in developing countries as part of a climate agreement to be reached at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009. [280353]
Joan Ruddock:
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State and I have been discussing the development of international finance mechanisms for mitigation and adaptation with our EU colleagues ahead of the EU Councils this year, as part of preparing the EU position in advance of Copenhagen. In particular, the UK is attracted to the Norwegian proposal (a market-based approach based on auctioning arrangements generating automatic revenues) as part of the solution. Spring Council conclusions directed future discussions towards such an approach among others. The UK is also attracted to the Mexican proposal which is based on all countries except the poorest contributing on the basis of an agreed scale. The latest ECOFIN conclusions endorsed this idea, with burden sharing based on the ability to pay and the responsibility for emissions. At Spring Council and again in ECOFIN the EU reaffirmed its
commitment to contribute its fair share of international support in the context of a global and comprehensive agreement.
Earth Hour
Greg Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change if he will take steps to support Earth Hour on 28 March 2009; and if he will make a statement. [266651]
Joan Ruddock [holding answer 26 March 2009]: I apologise for the delay in this response. The Government are committed to achieving a successful outcome to the negotiations in Copenhagen later in the year, and campaigns such as Earth Hour play an important part in sending a strong message to world leaders that firm public support for positive action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions comes from all parts of the globe. To show support for the campaign the lights were turned off in several Government buildings including the Department of Energy and Climate Change and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Energy: Meters
Mr. Roger Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what the Government's latest estimate is of the average cost of installing a smart meter. [281453]
Joan Ruddock: The Government published a consultation on smart metering on 11 May 2009 with an accompanying Impact Assessment (both documents are available from the Open Consultations section of the DECC website). The Impact Assessment contains estimates of smart meter installation costs.
The estimated asset costs are £43 for a smart electricity meter and £56 for a smart gas meter. Installation costs are estimated at £29 for a smart electricity meter and £49 for a smart gas meter, or £68 for a dual fuel smart meter installation (where both gas and electricity smart meters are installed simultaneously). The cost for the communications link from the meters is estimated at £15 per household. In addition, the Government's expectation is that a standalone display—to provide customers with consumption information from smart meters—will be provided for each household. The cost of the display is estimated at £15.
Fuel Poverty: Greater Manchester
Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what steps he plans to take to reduce levels of fuel poverty in Denton and Reddish constituency. [279769]
Joan Ruddock: The Government have a wide range of policies and programmes to tackle fuel poverty. The combination of Warm Front, CERT, Decent Homes and local programmes delivered through local government partnerships are all important in tackling fuel poverty in each local area.
The Warm Front Scheme continues to be the Government's main tool for tackling fuel poverty in the private sector in England. Since 2005 Warm Front has assisted over 2,600 vulnerable Denton and Reddish
households, spending approximately £5 million on a range of energy efficiency measures. It also worth noting that Warm Front has carried out nearly 500 benefit entitlement checks in the area, increasing the income of 200 Denton and Reddish constituents by a weekly average of £29.
The scheme aims to assist many more homes, both in this area and across the country, with the current budget set at £959 million nationally for this spending round (to 2011).
Warm Front Scheme
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many complaints have been received by his Department from customers alleging excessive charges for work undertaken under the Warm Front scheme in the last 12 months. [265991]
Joan Ruddock: The Department has not previously recorded the total number of complaints in this respect, though procedures have now been put in place to do so.
Presently, data are only available for April 2009, during which time the Department handled 21 complaints about excess charges. The Department will continue to monitor all complaints received.
In view of the difficulties that many applicants were facing in funding their excess payments I announced that the Warm Front grant levels would increase from £2,700 and £4,000 (where an oil system is recommended) to £3,500 and £6,000 (where an oil or new low carbon technology is recommended). This will remove the need for the vast majority of households to make a contribution to the cost of work.
Defence
Afghanistan: Peacekeeping Operations
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many contacts between British and Taliban forces there have been in Helmand Province in each of the last 12 months. [280816]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The numbers of troops in contact events (regardless of the instigator) involving the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and insurgents in Helmand province recorded by Task Force Helmand for each complete month from May 2008 to April 2009 are shown in the following table.
| Number of contacts( 1) | |
| (1) Rounded to 10 | |
ISAF forces operating in Helmand come from a number of different nations, which often operate closely alongside each other and alongside Afghan Army and Police units. The environment in which forces are operating makes it extremely difficult precisely to distinguish between incidents initiated by insurgent forces and those initiated by ISAF.
These data are based on information derived from a number of sources and can only be an estimate, not least because of the difficulties in ensuring a consistent interpretation of the basis for collating statistics in a complex fast-moving multinational operational environment. The Ministry of Defence has completed a review of the data required to answer questions such as this, and has revised the manner in which we classify and present data to ensure consistency.
Air Force
Mr. Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what his assessment is of the strategic purpose of the Royal Air Force. [281489]
Bill Rammell: As the Nation's specialists in the delivery of Air and Space Power, the strategic purpose of the RAF is to safeguard the UK and its interests through the expert delivery of its core roles of control of the air, mobility and lift, attack, and intelligence and situational awareness.
Aircraft Carriers
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the in-service dates are for the two new aircraft carriers. [280818]
Mr. Quentin Davies: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for New Forest, East (Dr. Lewis) on 17 December 2008, Official Report, column 766W.
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what estimate he has made of the cost of upgrading naval bases for the new carriers in each of the next five years. [280828]
Mr. Quentin Davies: The Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers will be base ported at Her Majesty’s Naval Base Portsmouth and project costs for tailoring the facilities there have yet to be fully determined. It is departmental policy not to publish such costs until they have been approved in the Main Gate Business Case which we currently expect to be around 2012 for infrastructure modification.
There are no plans to upgrade facilities at the other naval bases at Devonport or Faslane for the Queen Elizabeth Class.
Armed Forces: Deployment
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many UK service personnel are stationed at each location overseas. [280813]
Bill Rammell:
Figures for the number of service personnel stationed overseas can be found in Table 1.1 of Tri-Service Publication (TSP) 10: UK Regular Forces stationed location. TSP 10 is published quarterly and is available
in the Library of the House. The most recent publication shows figures at 1 April 2009 and can be found at the following link.
http://www.dasa.mod.uk/applications/newWeb/www/apps/publications/pubViewFile.php?content=1800.1&;date=2009-05-29&type=html&PublishTime=09:30:00
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many and what percentage of personnel in each army corps are exceeding their harmony guidelines for (a) tour intervals and (b) individual separated service. [280817]
Bill Rammell: The information on tour intervals is not held in the format requested.
The latest available data, as at December 2006, recorded separated service guideline breaches at an average of 10.3 per cent. across the Army. It is hoped that more detailed separated service data will, in future, be provided by the Joint Personnel Administration System.
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