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20 Oct 2009 : Column 1401W—continued
Regional Development Agencies
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government on what date regional development agencies will commence their roles as regional planning bodies. [293345]
Mr. Ian Austin: There are no proposals for regional development agencies to become regional planning bodies.
Social Rented Housing: Standards
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what recent representations he has received on the decision to reduce Decent Homes funding; and if he will make a statement. [293101]
Mr. Ian Austin: Following the Housing Pledge announcement of 17 July 2009 the Department has thus far received around 34 representations. The representations were from Members of this House and representatives of local authorities.
Starbucks: Planning Permission
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many planning appeals relating to the establishment of Starbucks coffee shops have been considered by the Planning Inspectorate in the last 24 months. [293254]
Mr. Ian Austin: The Planning Inspectorate has considered eight planning appeals by the Starbucks Coffee company in the two-year period from 1 October 2007 to 30 September 2009. Of these, five appeals were allowed and three dismissed.
Tony Clements
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether Mr Tony Clements played a role in drafting the letter sent by the Minister for Housing and Planning to the Leader of Her Majesty's Opposition dated 28 July 2009. [293248]
Barbara Follett: Tony Clements had no role in drafting the letter sent by the Minister for Housing and Planning to the Leader of Her Majesty's Opposition dated 28 July 2009.
Town and Country Planning Act 1990
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many times the power contained in section 79, paragraph 3 of Schedule 6 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 has been used since 1997; on how many of those occasions his Department and its predecessors has not accepted in full the Planning Inspector's report and recommendations; and if he will place in the Library a copy of the guidance issued by his Department on the exercise of such discretion. [293531]
Mr. Ian Austin: Since April 1997, the Secretary of State has used the power mentioned (to recover planning appeals for determination by Secretary of State) on a total of 1,301 occasions. Since April 2002, the Secretary of State has disagreed with the Inspector's recommendation on a total of 76 planning appeals. This information was not routinely collected before 2002.
A written ministerial statement setting out the revised criteria for the recovery of appeals was made on 30 June 2008, Official Report, columns 43-44WS.
Travelling People: Caravan Sites
Ms Keeble: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what level of grant aid was provided to each local authority for improving Gypsy and Traveller sites in each of the last five years; and what the relevant outturn expenditure was by each authority in each year. [293490]
Mr. Malik: Grant for refurbishing existing and building new Gypsy and Traveller sites was paid through the Gypsy Site Refurbishment Grant up to and including financial year 2005-06 and since 2006-07 has been paid through the Gypsy and Traveller Site Grant.
The level of grant paid to each local authority by the Department for Communities and Local Government in financial years 2005-06 to 2008-09 has been placed in the Library. The Department does not hold records of the outturn expenditure by local authorities following these grant awards in financial years 2005-06 to 2008-09.
The Homes and Communities Agency is responsible for paying the Gypsy and Traveller Site Grant in the current financial year 2009-10. The agency has received bids for grant funding, but no payments have yet been made to local authorities.
Ms Keeble: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the spending of grants provided to local authorities to improve Gypsy and Traveller sites in the last three years. [293491]
Mr. Malik: The Department has not carried out any formal review of effectiveness of the Gypsy and Traveller site grant in the last three years. From 2006-07 The process through which successful schemes were recommended was changed. Gypsy and Traveller site grant from this point formed part of the regional housing pot, with recommendations for successful schemes being made by Regional Assemblies. This helped to ensure that local knowledge about the ability of authorities to deliver schemes of this nature was better taken into account.
Bids were assessed, in a competitive process, against published bidding guidance centrally and analysed by independent consultants to assist Regional Assemblies in assessing schemes. The evaluation assessed bids against the following key criteria:
Does the scheme meet a clearly assessed need
Does the scheme offer value for money
Is the site sustainable
Can the scheme be delivered to time and to budget
Since April 2009, administration of the Gypsy and Traveller site grant has transferred to the Homes and Communities Agency who will be paying grant under their own new powers and monitoring regime.
Mr. Malins: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether he has received any (a) letters and (b) other communication requesting anonymity of representation in planning application cases for Gypsy and Traveller pitches or sites in the last six months; and if he will make a statement. [294369]
Mr. Malik: The Department has not received any letters or other communications in the last six months requesting anonymity of representations in planning application cases for Gypsy and Traveller pitches or sites.
Valuation Office: ICT
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what proportion of the Valuation Office Agency's domestic property attribute data has been digitised; what the targets for full digitisation are; and what the total cost of the digitisation project is. [293256]
Barbara Follett: All of the Valuation Office Agency's (VOA) domestic property attribute data are digitised.
For the cost for digitising the VOAs property attribute data, I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 9 January 2006, Official Report, column 268W.
Children, Schools and Families
Children: Databases
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families which Minister has responsibility for the security of data held on the ContactPoint database. [293545]
Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 16 October 2009]: Baroness Morgan of Drefelin is responsible for ContactPoint at a ministerial level.
Children: Social Services
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) with reference to page 14 of the Ofsted report Learning lessons from serious case reviews: year 2, how many of the 38 deaths arising from homicides were (a) reported in serious case reviews that were inadequate in each local authority and (b) of children known to social services at the time of the incident; [294637]
(2) what the executive summary titles are of the 173 serious case reviews examined in preparation of the Ofsted report entitled Learning lessons from serious case reviews: year 2. [294638]
Dawn Primarolo: These are matters for Ofsted. HM Chief Inspector, Christine Gilbert, has written to the hon. Member and copies of her replies can be found as follows.
Letter from Christine Gilbert, dated 19 October 2009 :
Your recent parliamentary question has been passed to me, as Her Majesty's Chief Inspector, for response. (UIN 294637)
In the recently published report "Learning lessons, taking action: Year 2", Ofsted reported that between 1 April 2008 and 31 March 2009, Ofsted received 174 notifications of deaths of children where abuse was or was suspected to have been a factor. This figure included 38 deaths arising from homicide. Interrogation of data relating to these 38 deaths of children has identified that, to date, 10 of these notifications have resulted in serious case reviews that have been received and evaluated by Ofsted. The 10 reviews relate to 15 children. Four reviews were judged good, four adequate and two were inadequate.
Of the 15 children concerned, three were on the child protection register at the time of the incident, two were previously referred to social care services prior to the incident but were not receiving services and ten were not known to children's services. Ofsted has not yet received the remaining serious case reviews. The majority of serious case reviews take between 4 and 12 months to complete as, in some cases, the requirements of judicial proceedings can lead to delays in the review process,
A copy of this reply has been sent to Rt Hon Dawn Primarolo MP, Minister of State for Children, Young People and Families, and will be placed in the library of both Houses.
Letter from Christine Gilbert, dated 19 October 2009:
Your recent parliamentary question has been passed to me, as Her Majesty's Chief Inspector, for response. (UIN 294638)
To protect families and especially vulnerable siblings, the executive summaries of all serious case reviews are anonymised prior to publication by Local Safeguarding Children Boards.
To enable inspectors to link each serious case review accurately with the notification of the specific incident, Ofsted records all serious case reviews under children's actual names or initials and not the pseudonym which may be used for the executive summary when it is published. It is not possible therefore for Ofsted to provide details of the executive summary titles later used by the Local Safeguarding Children Boards.
Ofsted does provide details of the date of its evaluations by local authority and has included a full list of the 173 serious case reviews as an annex to the report.
Using this information, it is possible to access each of the executive summaries through a helpful web link hosted by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children:
http://www.nspcc.org.uk/inform/factsandfigures/readinglists/serious_case_reviews_2009_wda62916,.html
A copy of this reply has been sent to Rt Hon Dawn Primarolo MP, Minister of State for Children, Young People and Families, and will be placed in the library of both Houses.
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families with reference to the Ofsted report entitled Learning lessons from serious case reviews: year 2, what steps he is taking in respect of those serious case reviews which were found to be inadequate. [294639]
Dawn Primarolo: Since 1 December 2008 all Local Safeguarding Children Boards responsible for serious case reviews which have been judged inadequate convene an independently chaired panel to reconsider the review before sending a report to the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, and copied to Ofsted, which addresses the review's inadequacies. This process was applied retrospectively to all serious case reviews which Ofsted had evaluated as inadequate, as well as to those receiving an inadequate judgment after 1 December. Ofsted reported that 62 out of the 63 reports received by 31 March 2009 following inadequate SCRs were judged to be satisfactory. A further report was requested in respect of the one inadequate report; the revised version was judged by Ofsted as satisfactory. Ofsted noted in their report that the reconsiderations had resulted in greatly strengthened reviews and valuable lessons learnt with regard to safeguarding practice. These arrangements are reflected in new draft guidance currently subject to public consultation (chapter 8 of "Working Together to Safeguard Children").
Departmental Advertising
Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much his Department spent on newspaper advertising carried in each newspaper in the most recent year for which figures are available. [289511]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: Expenditure on newspaper advertising by the Department for Children, Schools and Families for the period April 2008 to March 2009 is outlined in the following table.
| DCSF: 2008/09 | |
| Publication | Expenditure (£) |
Departmental Consultants
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what his latest estimate is of expenditure by his Department and its predecessor on all forms of consultancy for each (a) year and (b) quarter from 31 March 1997; and if he will make a statement. [293396]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: Figures for the former Department for Education and Skills show that it spent the following sums from administration costs (the Department's internal running costs) on consultancy from 1997.
| £ million | |
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