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11 Nov 2009 : Column 389W—continued
Departmental Travel
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many miles (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department travelled by (i) car, (ii) rail and (iii) air on Government business in each year since 1997. [298551]
Margaret Hodge: The Department does not hold or record any information on miles travelled by car for either ministers or officials centrally. This information could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost. The Department also does not hold any records with reference to mileage on rail and air travel prior to October 2007. However the following information collected since October 2007 can be provided:
October 2007 to March 2008: Ministers travelled 3,102 miles by rail and Officials travelled 74,196 miles by rail.
April 2008 to March 2009: Ministers travelled 7,997 miles by rail and Officials travelled 199,416 miles by rail.
October 2007 to March 2008: A total of 168,544 miles by air was travelled by both Ministers and Officials. We do not have separate figures for Ministers and Officials.
April 2008 to March 2009: A total of 743,851 miles by air was travelled by both Ministers and Officials. We do not have separate figures for Ministers and Officials.
Government Art Collection: Lost Property
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent attempts his Department has made to reclaim works of art lost from the Government art collection. [298221]
Margaret Hodge: The Government art collection is currently involved in two legal claims on works of art previously registered as lost from its holdings. These are subject to ongoing legal processes and negotiations, which would be prejudiced (and possibly aborted altogether) by the disclosure of any further details at this stage.
Government: Assets
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what discussions he has had with local authorities on the Government's proposed sale of public assets. [298932]
Mr. Sutcliffe: I have had no direct discussions with local authorities on this issue.
The £11 billion of UK local authority asset sales assumed, at Budget 2009, over the period 2011-12 to 2013-14 are a Treasury forecast based on historic performance by the sector and forecast recovery in prices and transactions following the downturn. Outturn and budget data collected from the local authority sector by Communities and Local Government and the devolved Administrations inform the forecasting process.
Internet: Counterfeit Manufacturing
Willie Rennie: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport whether he plans to take steps to encourage digital distribution in the entertainment industry as a means of tackling internet piracy. [299533]
Mr. Simon: As part of our strategy to tackle Online Copyright Infringement, the Government have consistently encouraged the creative (entertainment) industries to develop new digital business models that offer consumers legitimate sources of digital content in a form and at a price that they find attractive.
Olympic Games 2012: Gun Sports
Mr. Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what plans he has for the legacy for pistol shooting of the London 2012 Olympic games. [297373]
Tessa Jowell [holding answer 2 November 200 9]: I have been asked to reply.
Possessing a pistol is illegal in the UK under the Firearms Act 1968, therefore, no legacy specifically for pistol shooting is being planned. However, the 2012 games will provide the opportunity to showcase shooting as a sport more widely, in an iconic London location and provide a legacy for other shooting disciplines.
After the London games, there is the potential to relocate temporary ranges and assets from the shooting venue at Woolwich. The London Organising Committee of the Olympic games and Paralympic games, the Olympic Delivery Authority and Government are working with British Shooting to deliver the best possible legacy for the sport.
Through using the inspiration of London 2012 Sport England has recently invested £750,000 in the development of grassroots target shooting as part of the Whole Sports Plans 2009-13. The plan will harness the interest in the sport created by the 2012 games and aims to increase participation levels.
Public Buildings: Finance
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much the (a) Tate, (b) British Museum, (c) British Library and (d) British Film Institute will be expected to release from their reserves to fund their building extension plans. [298933]
Margaret Hodge: The amount released from these bodies' reserves to pay for their extensions is dependent upon a range of factors including the final cost of the project and the amount of funding that can be raised in other ways; for instance, through donations. The Department approves the plans that these bodies produce and monitors the funding sources used throughout the life of the project to ensure that they remain affordable and provide good value for money.
Television: Advertising
Dr. Blackman-Woods: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when he expects to publish the outcome of his Department's consultation on product placement on television programmes. [299487]
Mr. Bradshaw: My Department published a consultation document about television product placement on Monday 9 November, and this is available on my Department's website at:
I welcome responses to this consultation, which should be sent to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport by January 8 2010. I will announce the outcome of the consultation after we have given full consideration to all the responses.
Television: Licensing
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many convictions there have been of Bassetlaw residents for non-payment of a television licence in the last five years. [299302]
Claire Ward: I have been asked to reply.
Information showing the number of persons found guilty at all courts for television licence evasion in the Nottinghamshire police force area from 2003 to 2007 (latest available) is shown in the following table. Information is not available at constituency level nor can the Ministry of Justice separately provide data for Bassetlaw residents; therefore police force area level data have been provided in lieu.
Data for 2008 are planned for publication on 28 January 2010.
| Number of defendants found guilty at all courts for television licence evasion, Nottinghamshire police force area, 2003 - 07( 1, 2) | |
| Number | |
| (1) The statistics relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences the principal offence is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe. (2) Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services-Ministry of Justice. | |
VisitBritain: Internet
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many page hits the (a) Visit Britain and (b) Enjoy England website has recorded in each year since its creation. [299214]
Margaret Hodge [holding answer 10 November 2009]: VisitBritain has advised that they recorded the following number of page hits to their website for the following years as outlined in the following table.
| Number of page hits (million) | |
VisitBritain do not hold data on page hits prior to 2003.
VisitEngland only hold data on page hits to the EnjoyEngland/VisitEngland website from July 2008 to October 2009. Total page hits for this period are as follows:
| Number of page hits | |
World Heritage Sites
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what visits in an official capacity (a) he and (b) his predecessor made to each UK world heritage site in the last 12 months. [297249]
Margaret Hodge: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State will be visiting UK Heritage Sites as part of a series of regional visits. His predecessor visited the Tower of London World Heritage Site in November last year.
May I remind the hon. Member that the House of Commons itself is part of the Palace of Westminster, St Margaret's Church and Westminster Abbey World Heritage Site, one of the United Kingdom's 28 World Heritage Sites.
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Departmental Air Travel
Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many domestic flights within Great Britain officials from his Department made in 2008-09; and at what cost. [298252]
Dan Norris [holding answer 10 November 2009]: From information held centrally, core-DEFRA officials made 368 domestic flights within Great Britain in 2008-09 at a cost of £59,556.21. Travel by civil servants is undertaken in accordance with the guidelines set out in the Civil Service Management Code.
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many first-class flights were taken by each Minister in his Department in 2008-09; and what the (a) origin, (b) destination and (c) cost was of each such flight. [298753]
Dan Norris: Travel by Ministers is undertaken in accordance with the Ministerial Code. The Cabinet Office produces an annual list of overseas travel over £500 undertaken by Ministers. The 2008-09 list was published on 16 July and can be viewed at:
Departmental Freedom of Information
Mrs. Laing: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many staff in his Department were employed on the management of freedom of information requests submitted to his Department in each year since 2005; and how much his Department spent on the management of such requests in each such year. [299141]
Dan Norris:
The Department has a small team providing advice, guidance and training to members of staff who respond to requests for information. Some members of the team also spend part of their time advising on other legislation, such as the Data Protection Act (DPA) and the environmental information regulations (EIRs). In particular, the environmental information unit within
the team provides guidance to members of the public and other public authorities. The team is flexible in how it handles its day-to-day work load across all its information rights duties, and the percentages of time spent on the various functions can vary considerably over time. The approximate staffing levels in full-time equivalents are therefore as follows:
| Full-time equivalent | |
Because of this flexibility, it is not possible to give a figure that relates only to the management of freedom of information requests. The approximate figures, as follows, cover staff working on FOI, DPA and EIR requests as well as providing guidance to outside bodies and members of the public on the EIRs. These figures include salary, superannuation and ERNIC payments.
| £ | |
An assessment of the cost of freedom of information within Government can be found in the Frontier Economics 2006 report "Independent Review of the Freedom of Information Act". A copy of this report is available in the House of Commons Library.
Departmental Information and Communications Technology
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs with which organisations his Department has had exclusivity agreements relating to information technology (a) hardware and (b) software in each of the last five years. [298328]
Dan Norris: The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has not entered into any exclusivity agreements for either hardware or software in the past five years.
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