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22 Jun 2009 : Column 660W—continued
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much funding from the Supporting People scheme his Department has allocated to Handyperson schemes in each of the last three years. [280483]
Mr. Ian Austin: The Supporting People programme is administered at the local level by the relevant administering authority. It is for the authority to decide which services to fund, informed by the local needs and priorities identified in their five year Supporting People Strategies.
The following table sets out how much local authorities spent from their Support People allocation, on Home Improvement Agencies, to deliver services including handypersons services at the local level.
| Spend reported Home Improvement Agencies | |
| £ million | |
A 2008 Survey of funding sources for HIA handyperson services by their national body, Foundations, estimated that the Supporting People contribution for Handyperson services only to be approximately £900,000.
Tenant Services Authority: Complaints
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many complaints the Tenant Services Authority has received about the quality of its service in each month since its establishment. [280296]
Mr. Ian Austin: The TSA has a three-stage complaints procedure. The first two stages are internal, following which the applicant may request an independent review with the Independent Complaints Reviewer(1) (stage 3).
The following table shows the number of cases that have been considered under the TSA's formal complaints procedures. The table shows the concluded cases in each
month from December to May. This includes the number of individual complainants who may have raised more than one complaint.
(1 )The Independent Complaints Reviewer (ICR) investigates complaints made by members of the public, businesses, professional advisers and others. Find further information at:
| Stage 1 | Stage 2 | Stage 3 | |
Tenant Services Authority: Pay
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the staffing budget of the Tenant Services Authority is for 2009-10. [280308]
Mr. Ian Austin: For 2009-10, the staffing budget for the Tenant Services Authority is £15.3 million.
Treasury
Banks: Finance
Bob Spink: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the effect on the economy of the Government guarantee scheme for asset-backed securities; and if he will make a statement. [280634]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: In the 2009 Budget, the Government announced that the asset-backed securities guarantee scheme is available for banks and building societies to use alongside the existing credit guarantee scheme, to support their lending to the economy:
The Government will keep the operation of the scheme under review, though it is too early to assess its impact.
Banks: Government Securities
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer for what reasons his Department determined that (a) bonds held by the Government in Bradford and Bingley would be ranked above Bradford and Bingley subordinated bondholders and (b) bonds held by the Government in Northern Rock would be ranked below Northern Rock subordinated bondholders; and if he will make a statement. [281639]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to my hon. Friend the Member for Mansfield (Mr. Meale) on 17 June 2009, Official Report, column 323W.
Bradford and Bingley
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer for what reasons Bradford and Bingley was taken into public ownership; when the plans for such action were drawn up; and on what date the decision was taken to put such plans into effect. [281640]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for Wyre Forest (Dr. Taylor) on 27 January 2009, Official Report, column 365W.
Child Benefit
Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the annual cost to his Department of the cost of child benefit if payment were restricted to households with an annual income of up to (a) £58,000 and (b) £50,000. [275141]
Mr. Timms: The estimated annual costs of child benefit payments restricted to annual household income up to £58,000 and £50,000 are £10.40 billion and £9.91 billion in 2009-10, respectively.
Coastal Change Fund
Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether the Coastal Change Fund will have a Barnett consequential. [281400]
Mr. Byrne: The Coastal Change Fund is being funded from within existing DEFRA provision on which the devolved Administrations have already received Barnett consequentials in the CSR.
Council Tax
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make it his policy to assess the effect on the expenditure from the public purse for administration of the collection of local taxation of the replacement of council tax with a local income tax. [281103]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The Government have no current plans to assess the cost of replacing council tax with a local income tax.
Council Tax: Valuation
Robert Neill: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when the Valuation Office Agency's council tax banding support tool became operational for the whole of England; what the cost of the project to develop the tool was; and which external organisations were engaged to support the development process. [280015]
Mr. Timms: The Valuation Office Agency's (VOA) council tax banding support tool was developed with assistance from CapGemini, SAS and Cole Layer Trumble/Tyler Technologies and delivered within budget, at £995,000. It was first made available within the VOA on 27 March 2008. After this date, it was brought into use on a phased basis, following appropriate training.
Debt Collection: Private Sector
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what steps he is taking to monitor the practices of private debt collection firms contracted by HM Revenue and Customs. [280892]
Mr. Timms:
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is currently undertaking a small scale six month pilot exercise involving the use of private sector debt collection
agencies at some stages in the pursuit and recovery of some debts. The contracts in place for the trial are being closely monitored. They require the debt collection agencies to maintain the same standards as HMRC with provision for the Department to audit and assure this.
Debts: NHS
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what methodology his Department uses to account for the (a) actual and (b) potential debt of NHS trusts and foundation trusts. [281108]
Mr. Byrne: I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer given by the Minister of State for Health on 15 June 2009, Official Report, column 118W.
Departmental Cleaning Services
Grant Shapps: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer which organisations provided cleaning services to his Department in each of the last three years; and what the cost of each such contract was in each such year. [280759]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Soft services are provided in 1 Horse Guards Road as part of a PFI contract with Exchequer Partnership (EP). OCS delivers the cleaning element of those services.
The soft services are currently being market tested by EP and it would be inappropriate to disclose details of pay rates at this time.
In Norwich, cleaning services are undertaken by Mitie Facilities Services Ltd. Cleaning cost for the past three years were:
| £ | |
Departmental Energy
Mr. Paice: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what estimate he has made of the water consumption on his Department's office estate in (a) 2005-06 and (b) 2006-07, (i) in total and (ii) per full-time equivalent member of staff; [280926]
(2) what estimate he has made of the volume of carbon dioxide emissions from offices in his
Department in (a) 2006-07 and (b) 2007-08 (i) in total and (ii) per full-time equivalent member of staff; [280927]
(3) what estimate he has made of the energy consumed per full-time equivalent member of staff in his Department in (a) 2006-07 and (b) 2007-08; [280928]
(4) what estimate he has made of the percentage of electricity used by his Department which was derived from renewable sources in (a) 2006-07 and (b) 2007-08. [280929]
(5) what estimate he has made of the amount of waste arising from his Department in (a) 2006-07 and (b) 2007-08 (i) in total and (ii) per full-time equivalent member of staff; [281026]
(6) what estimate he has made of the volume of carbon dioxide emissions arising from road-based transport used for administrative operations by his Department in (a) 2006-07 and (b) 2007-08 (i) in total and (ii) per full-time equivalent member of staff; [281027]
(7) what estimate he has made of the volume of carbon dioxide emissions arising from air travel by staff in his Department in (a) 2006-07 and (b) 2007-08 (i) in total and (ii) per full-time equivalent member of staff. [281028]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: HM Treasury is committed to improving its environmental performance in the use of resources and to reducing its energy use year on year.
Detailed information on the Treasury Group’s sustainable performance by building for the years in question were published in HM Treasury’s departmental report for 2007-08 (Cm 7408). Updates on progress will be provided annually.
Departmental Internet
Grant Shapps: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer of 28 January 2009, Official Report, column 585W, on the departmental internet, how many (a) unique visitors and (b) page impressions each website received in each of the last 12 months. [280768]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Figures for unique visitors and page impressions for each website maintained by the Department in each of the last 12 months are given in the following tables. Statistics for some of the sites are unavailable due to the migration of sites to centrally hosted servers in October 2008.
| March 2008 | April 2008 | May 2008 | ||||
| Visitors | Impressions | Visitors | Impressions | Visitors | Impressions | |
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