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6 July 2009 : Column 591W—continued
Green Belt: Hemel Hempstead
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what steps his Department is taking to protect (a) the green belt and (b) open green spaces in Hemel Hempstead. [283680]
Mr. Ian Austin: National and regional planning policy (Planning Policy Guidance Note 2 and the East of England Plan) both contain policy to protect green belt land and there remains a strong presumption against development.
The East of England Plan, published in May 2008 required a possible strategic review of green belt land around Hemel Hempstead to meet regional development needs. A recent successful judicial review of this policy and its associated housing figures now require the Secretary of State to reconsider options for growth around Hemel Hempstead.
Government planning policy (Policy Guidance Note 17) sets out the Government's approach to the provision of open space. The East of England Plan (Policy ENV1) also includes policy on creation and maintenance and creation of networks of green infrastructure. Dacorum borough council's local development plans will then make provision for open green space, including the setting of open space standards.
Housing: Energy
Bob Spink:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many people had obtained a diploma in (a) domestic energy
assessment and (b) home inspection in (i) England, (ii) Essex and (iii) Castle Point on the latest date for which figures are available. [284467]
John Healey: Training courses to gain diplomas to become either domestic energy assessors and home inspectors are provided by independent, commercial training providers, and so the Government do not collect centrally statistics about the numbers of people undertaking such training and the information requested could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many accredited energy assessors there are on the Landmark database; how many people have undertaken training courses to gain this accreditation; and what expenditure his Department has incurred in the provision of such training to date. [284593]
John Healey: A total of 11,967 accredited energy assessors are currently registered on the domestic Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) Register and 3,027 accredited energy assessors are registered on the non-domestic EPC Register. Training courses to gain accreditation are provided by commercial training providers. No data are collected centrally on the numbers of people that have undertaken training courses and to do so would involve disproportionate cost. No expenditure has been incurred by the Department in the provision of training.
Mortgages: Government Assistance
Mr. Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many households have received assistance under the (a) Mortgage Rescue Scheme, (b) Homeowner Mortgage Support Scheme and (c) HomeBuy Direct scheme in Kettering since the inception of each scheme. [284415]
John Healey: The Mortgage Rescue Scheme has been operational across England since January 2009. As part of the monitoring arrangements for the scheme headline data for January-May 2009, provided by local authorities and broken down by Government Office Region, are available on the Department's website:
Figures reported by local authorities from January-May 2009 are provided in a table, which has been placed in the Library.
Official figures on the number of households entering the Homeowner Mortgage Support scheme will be published later this year.
As of end June 2009 there have been no sales under Home-Buy Direct in Kettering.
Multiple Occupation: Licensing
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many houses in multiple occupation were registered under (a) mandatory, (b) additional and (c) selective licensing schemes in each local authority area in England in each year since licensing was introduced. [284435]
Mr. Ian Austin: The total number of applications for mandatory licences for houses in multiple occupation and the numbers of these issued by each local authority in England up to 17 June 2009 are shown in Table 1, which has been placed in the Library of the House.
To date only 11 local authorities have designated areas for selective licensing.
The numbers of selective licences issued by each up to 6 July 2009 are shown in Table 2, which has been placed in the Library of the House.
To date only Peterborough has an additional licensing scheme. This only came into effect on 1 July 2009 and so, to date, no additional licences have been issued.
Property Development: Floods
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what timetable has been set for completion of the research commissioned by his Department into the effects of paving on back gardens on levels of flood risk; how much that research has cost; and which organisation has been commissioned to undertake that research. [283842]
Mr. Ian Austin: The contract for this research was awarded to CIRIA—the Construction Industry Research and Information Association—at a cost of £49,964 excluding VAT. The research is nearing completion and the final report will be published shortly, alongside a package of proposals taking forward a number of recommendations from the Killian Pretty review of the planning process.
Retail Trade: Urban Areas
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many complaints his Department has received on the balance of retail and non-retail outlets in town centres in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [283490]
Mr. Ian Austin: We do not hold statistics on how many complaints have been received on the balance of retail and non-retail outlets in town centres. This could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Social Rented Housing: Freedom of Information
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what recent representations he has received on the application of freedom of information legislation to information held by registered social landlords; and if he will make a statement. [284493]
Mr. Ian Austin: Communities and Local Government has received one representation on the application of the freedom of information legislation to registered social landlords.
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 only applies to those public authorities listed in the Act. Local authorities are listed, but registered social landlords are not, and are therefore not subject to the Act.
Temporary Accommodation: Hemel Hempstead
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many households were in temporary accommodation in Hemel Hempstead in each of the last five years; and what the average time a household spent in such accommodation was. [283674]
Mr. Ian Austin: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Castle Point (Bob Spink) on 23 June 2009, Official Report, column 843W.
Children, Schools and Families
Integrated Children’s System
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what discussions he had with local authorities on the Integrated Children's System prior to its introduction. [284584]
Dawn Primarolo: The original Integrated Children's System (ICS) requirements were developed between 2001 and 2003, while children's social care services were the responsibility of the Secretary of State for Health. Ten consultation events were held in 2000 with over 500 representatives from organisations responsible for child welfare in England and Wales, including local authority social services departments, private and voluntary agencies, the then Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work, pilot post-qualifying child care courses, software houses, and a number of other interested individuals. Following the Department's assumption of responsibility for ICS, my officials have maintained regular contact with local authority officers involved in implementation. Additional consultative events were held with local authorities in May 2008 to inform my Department's preparation of the specification of ICS Phase 1C.
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what expenditure his Department has incurred on the Integrated Children’s System to date. [284592]
Dawn Primarolo: Expenditure incurred on the Integrated Children’s System (ICS) project from 2004-05 until 31 March 2009 was £72.6 million, including £63.2 million paid in capital grant to local authorities and £9.4 million on project costs.
National Safeguarding Delivery Unit
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) whether the National Safeguarding Delivery Unit has become operational; [284580]
(2) what appointments have been made to the National Safeguarding Delivery Unit to date. [284581]
Dawn Primarolo: The National Safeguarding Delivery Unit became operational on 1 July 2009. The unit will be publishing a detailed work programme in September 2009.
16 staff are already in post including staff from the Department of Children Schools and Families, Ministry of Justice, Department of Health and the Home Office. In addition, existing staff in Government Offices working on safeguarding issues form part of the unit. Further recruitment is planned, including secondments into the unit from regional and local partners and the voluntary sector. A Head of Unit, responsible for the day-to-day running of the Unit will be recruited through open competition; this post will be advertised shortly.
Outdoor Education: Safety
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families with reference to the answer of 27 October 2008, Official Report, column 706W, on outdoor education: safety, for what reason his Department's revised guidance on health and safety of pupils on educational visits was not published in the first quarter of 2009; and when he plans to publish the revised guidance. [279408]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: The Out and About website for Learning Outside the Classroom, which went live in autumn 2008, includes brief guidelines on the safety of learners on activities outside the classroom.
A more detailed toolkit for local authorities, including model forms, will supplement this later this year, completing the Department's revision of the operational aspects of the guidance we published in 1998 and 2002.
We will consult shortly on a high level document, provisionally entitled “Health and Safety of Learners Outside the Classroom”, which will underpin the material on the Learning Outside the Classroom website at:
We had hoped to start consultation on this document earlier this year, but put this back to allow more time to ensure coherence between it and the toolkit.
Pupil Referral Units
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the budget for pupil referral units in each local authority area was in each year since 1997. [282026]
Mr. Coaker [holding answer 6 July 2009]: The available information has been placed in the House Libraries.
Teachers: Pensions
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what recent estimate he has made of the number of teachers at (a) primary, (b) secondary and (c) special schools who are registered with the Teachers Pension Scheme online service. [284461]
Mr. Coaker: There are 100,296 members registered with the Teachers Pension Scheme online service. Members do not provide information about their employment when they register and therefore the information split into sectors is not available.
Teaching Methods: Tyne and Wear
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families if he will make an assessment of the results of the spaced learning experiment on accelerated learning in Monkseaton school in Tyneside; and if he will make a statement. [284436]
Mr. Coaker: The Department is aware of the ‘spaced learning’ teaching method used at Monkseaton school. There do not appear to have been a sufficiently robust or peer-reviewed evaluation of the approach which would allow any clear link between the teaching method and pupils’ learning to be established.
Youth Citizenship Commission
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) whether (a) he and (b) officials in his Department made any representations to the Youth Citizenship Commission in respect of the drafting of its final report, “Making the connection: building youth citizenship in the UK”; [284462]
(2) whether his Department has any power to direct the work of the Youth Citizenship Commission. [284470]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: The Youth Citizenship Commission was independent of Government. Secretariat support was provided by the Ministry of Justice. DCSF officials along with those from other Government Departments were asked to comment on the accuracy of statements. The Government will respond to the report's recommendations in due course.
Business, Innovation and Skills
Enterprise Champion
Peter Luff: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what the responsibilities are of the Enterprise Champion in his Department; what the relationship between the Enterprise Champion and (a) Ministers and (b) civil servants is; what resources his Department will make available to the Enterprise Champion in his official capacity; and if he will make a statement. [278968]
Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 11 June 2009]: The Enterprise Champion will offer independent advice to Government from a business perspective drawing on his own experience and on consultations around the country. He will raise awareness among entrepreneurs and businesses about the practical help that is available from Government and other sources. He will also champion the cause of viable small companies with banks, encouraging lending to continue during the recession.
The Enterprise Champion will have the use of a physical office for meetings if required but will not have a dedicated staff. Support for his work will be provided by civil servants responsible for enterprise who will provide him with briefing and arrange visits relevant to their areas as part of their normal responsibilities.
Higher Education: Admissions
Mr. Gale: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what estimate he has made of the number of students who will be seeking full-time university courses in England following the publication of relevant examinations results in August 2009. [283097]
Mr. Lammy [holding answer 2 July 2009]: The information is not held centrally. The latest figures published by UCAS show that as at 24 March, 474,306 students from the UK and overseas had submitted one or more applications for entry to a full-time undergraduate course at an institution in England, an increase of 8.9 per cent. compared to the same point in 2008. The total number of applicants to English institutions in 2008 was 485,936.
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