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7 Jan 2010 : Column 510W—continued
The data are taken from National non-domestic rates (NNDR) returns submitted by all billing authorities in England. Figures for 2009-10 are estimates.
Average business rate is calculated by dividing the net rate yield from local authority's lists by the number of hereditaments on the local list as at 31 December of the previous year.
Comparisons between years may not be valid as the rateable values for individual properties, and hence the actual rates bills, vary greatly. In addition, the figures for 1998-99 to 2000-01 are affected by transfers of properties from the central list to local ones; transfers of crown properties to local lists and adjustments made to the multiplier at the time of the 2000 revaluation. Changes in the figures for the years around 2005-06 are also affected by adjustments made to the multiplier at the time of the 2005 revaluation.
Non-Domestic Rates: Valuation
Justine Greening: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with reference to the answer of 12 November 2009, Official Report, column 884W, on non-domestic rates: valuation, if he will place in the Library a table showing the rateable values for (a) all properties, (b) small properties and (c) large properties in each local authority area according to the (i) 2005 Ratings List and (ii) draft 2010 Ratings List. [309530]
Barbara Follett: A table showing the precise rateable values could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Ordnance Survey: Photography
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what aerial photographs are contained in the Ordnance Survey Mastermap Address Layer 2 product; and to what scale such photographs are produced. [308259]
Mr. Ian Austin: There are no aerial photographs within OS MasterMap((r)) Address Layer 2.
Planning Permission
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what his Department's policy is on the number of statutory notices placed by local authorities in local newspapers; and what guidance his Department has provided to local authorities on whether their job advertisements should be published in local newspapers. [309001]
Ms Rosie Winterton: We have no policy about the number of statutory notices which local authorities may place in local newspapers.
The Code of Recommended Practice on Local Authority Publicity, to which local authorities must have regard in coming to any decision on publicity, including their job advertisements, states that the media chosen for job vacancies should be in keeping with the objective of maintaining the politically independent status of local authority staff.
Rates and Rating
Justine Greening: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many (a) small and (b) large properties in each local authority area there are on the (i) 2005 and (ii) 2010 Ratings List. [309531]
Barbara Follett: I have placed in the Library of the House a table showing the number of small and large hereditaments in England broken down by billing authority on the 2005 and the draft 2010 Rating Lists as at 2 November 2009. A hereditament is classified as small in the 2005 Rating Lists if it has a rateable value of less than £21,500 in London or £15,000 elsewhere. A hereditament is classified as small in the draft 2010 Rating Lists if it has a rateable value of less than £25,500 in London or £18,000 elsewhere. These data are consistent with the statistical release titled: "Non-domestic rateable values: 2010 Local Rating Lists-England and Wales", published on 18 December 2009. A copy of this statistical release is available at the following:
The number of hereditaments has been rounded to the nearest 10.
Social Rented Housing: Waiting Lists
Robert Neill: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many households were on local authority waiting lists for social housing in England in April 2009. [308808]
Mr. Ian Austin:
Figures on the number of households registered on social housing waiting lists were published
on 26 November in the Statistical Release, "Local Authority Housing Statistics, England: 2008-09". This release can be found at:
Tenant Services Authority
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what role the Tenant Services Authority will have in (a) determining policy on rent controls, (b) inspecting local authorities and (c) the Audit Commission's Comprehensive Area Assessment regime. [309033]
John Healey: Policy on rent controls is a matter for Government.
Our intention is that the Tenant Services Authority (TSA) should have the role of deciding when an inspection of a local authority's landlord services is needed, and that the TSA should then commission the Audit Commission to carry out such an inspection. This policy was set out in our consultation document "The Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 (Registration of Local Authorities) Order 2009", published in August 2009, and confirmed in our response to that consultation, which we published in November 2009.
The TSA will participate with the Comprehensive Area Assessment regime alongside the other participating public service inspectorates.
Tenant Services Authority: Manpower
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many full-time equivalent staff the Tenant Services Authority employs in its regulation team. [309824]
John Healey: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 30 November 2009, Official Report, column 514W.
Home Department
Asylum
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department with reference to pages 80 and 81 of his Department's Resource Accounts 2008-09, for what reasons the UK Border Agency made overpayments of £9.6 million in respect of accommodation and direct support to asylum seekers whose eligibility for the support had ceased. [309309]
Mr. Woolas: The reasons for the overpayment of £9.6 million were set out in the notes to the Home Office Resource Accounts.
The notes also set out the actions taken by UK Border Agency to improve controls, these actions have been subject to continual review during the current financial year to ensure they have been effective.
Asylum: Housing
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many asylum seekers were supported in accommodation in each parliamentary constituency in (a) England and (b) Wales on the latest date for which figures are available. [309169]
Mr. Woolas: A table showing asylum seekers supported in accommodation, by UK Government office region and parliamentary constituency, as at the end of September 2009, was made available in the Commons Library on 26 November 2009 as part of the quarterly publications.
Information on immigration and asylum are published annually and quarterly. Annual statistics and the latest statistics for Q3 2009 are available from the Library of the House and from the Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate web-site at:
Control Orders
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people who have been but are no longer subject to a control order are resident in the UK. [308402]
Mr. Hanson [holding answer 6 January 2010]: As of 10 December 2009, the last date covered by the most recent written ministerial statement on control orders, 33 individuals had previously been but were no longer subject to a control order.
The Government are not willing to comment on the residential status of individuals who may or may not be of current interest to the intelligence agencies and the police beyond the information that has already appeared in the public domain in ministerial statements and answers to both Houses, and in open court judgments on control orders.
Counter-terrorism
Robert Neill: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the (a) objectives and (b) terms of reference are of the Association of Chief Police Officers' Prevent Channel project for which his Department has provided funding. [308548]
Mr. Hanson: The Channel Project provides a mechanism for ensuring that individuals identified as vulnerable to violent extremism are referred to and assessed by a multi-agency panel. The panel decides on the most appropriate action or intervention required to reduce this vulnerability. It therefore has a key role to play in driving delivery of Objective three of the Prevent Strategy: "Supporting vulnerable individuals who are being targeted and recruited to the cause of violent extremism".
The Association of Chief Police Officers is responsible for national delivery of Channel, which is currently operating across 12 police forces.
Crime: Computers
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many (a) investigations, (b) prosecutions and (c) convictions were made for offences related to phishing attacks in each of the last three years; [306540]
(2) how many (a) investigations, (b) prosecutions and (c) convictions were made for offences related to spamming in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement; [306541]
(3) how many (a) investigations, (b) prosecutions and (c) convictions there were for offences involving the deceptive installation of adware on to computer systems in each of the last three years. [306545]
Alan Johnson: Information on the number of investigations undertaken by the police is not collected centrally. The Home Office do collect data on the number of offences that are recorded by the police.
Phishing attacks, spamming and deceptive installation of adware are general terms. Specific offences, as defined in law, would be classified under the appropriate section of Computer Misuse Act 1990 dependent upon the circumstances of the individual offences. Such offences would then be recorded under Home Office classification 53B 'Preserved other fraud and repealed fraud offences (Pre Fraud Act 2006)'. Offences recorded under individual sections of the Computer Misuse Act cannot be separately identified from the other offences recorded within this offence classification.
Prosecutions and convictions data are collected by the Ministry of Justice and are also related to offences as defined by legislation.
Departmental Fines
Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what powers (a) his Department and (b) each of its agencies has to impose administrative penalties; what the statutory basis is for each such power; and how much (i) his Department and (ii) each of its agencies has recovered in administrative penalties in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available. [309293]
Mr. Woolas: The Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 has provided a series of new sanctions for employers who employ illegal migrant workers. This includes a system of civil penalties, under which an employer can be fined up to £10,000 per person he/she is found to be employing illegally.
Additionally, Bulgarian and Romanian nationals who work illegally commit a criminal offence and may be served with a fixed penalty fine of £1,000 under criminal law.
Part II of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 enables the Secretary of State to impose a £2,000 fixed charge on any air or sea carrier for each non-European Economic Area passenger they bring to the UK who fails to produce, on request, a valid travel document satisfactorily establishing their identity and nationality and, if required, a valid visa.
The Department can also impose a civil penalty on those responsible for carrying clandestine entrants, concealed in a vehicle. The maximum penalty which can be imposed upon the owner/hirer of such a vehicle is £2,000 per clandestine and upon the driver £2,000 per clandestine, the aggregated maximum per clandestine (applied where more than one person is responsible) is £4,000.
The UK Borders Act 2007 enables the Secretary of State to make regulations requiring foreign nationals who are subject to immigration control apply for an Identity Card for Foreign Nationals. Failure to comply with such a requirement may result in the imposition of a sanction, which may include a civil financial penalty up to a maximum of £1,000.
The value of penalties recovered is set out in the table.
| £000 | |
The police forces in England and Wales have the power to issue fixed penalty notices as a sanction against a specified list of offences, mainly related to public order (Penalty Notices for Disorder) and motoring.
For the Department's agencies, no penalties are levied.
Departmental Information and Communications Technology
Adam Afriyie: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on what pay band his Department's chief information officer (CIO) is employed; whether the CIO is employed on a fixed-term or permanent contract; and what the size is of the budget for which the CIO is responsible in the period 2009-10. [307563]
Mr. Woolas: The chief information officer of the Home Office is employed in a substantive senior civil service pay band two post. The CIO is responsible for a delegated budget of £5,109,000 for 2009-10.
Departmental Manpower
Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many officials work in the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism; how many flights (a) within Great Britain and (b) overseas officials in the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism took in 2008-09; and at what cost to the public purse. [301938]
Mr. Hanson: As of 31 October, 397 civil servants worked in the Office for Security and Counter Terrorism (OSCT).
We estimate that during 2008-09, the OSCT spent some £22,000 on flights within Great Britain and some £264,000 on flights overseas. We do not keep a central record of the number of flights taken by officials and this cannot be provided without incurring disproportionate cost.
All travel by civil servants is undertaken in accordance with the guidelines set out in the Civil Service Management Code and any other guidance as applicable contained within Managing Public Money and the Treasury handbook on Regularity and Propriety.
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