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28 Jan 2010 : Column 1048W—continued
Religious Buildings: Registration
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst of 7 January 2010, Official Report, column 524W, on religious buildings: registration, if he will make an assessment of the likely effect on the Registrar General's power to refuse applications for registration as a place of worship of the provisions proposed in the Equality Bill. [313088]
Meg Hillier: The Secretary of State does not believe that the Equality Bill will affect the way in which the Registrar General considers the certification of a building as a place of meeting for religious worship under The Places of Religious Worship Act 1855. As detailed in the answer to the hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Robert Neill) of 7 January 2010, Official Report, column 524W, in his assessment of such certifications, the Registrar General considers the judgment in the 1970 Segerdal case which defines a place of which the principal use is a place where people come together as a congregation or assembly to worship God or do reverence to a deity. The Secretary of State does not believe that the definition of religion or belief in the Equality Bill (which replicates the existing definition) will impact on existing case-law such as Segerdal.
Surveillance
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the compatibility of (a) his Department's programme of intercepting communications data and (b) the proposed Interception Modernisation Programme with the requirements of the Data Retention (EC Directive) Regulations 2009. [313534]
Alan Johnson: The Data Retention (EC Directive) Regulations 2009 completed the transposition of Directive 2006/24/EC on the retention of communications data. Since 2005, when the directive was negotiated, there has been continuous and innovative development of communications services and applications, many of which are not covered by current data retention legislation. This has already started to undermine the capabilities of our law enforcement and national security agencies to protect the public.
Last year a public consultation, "Protecting the public in a changing communications environment", sought views on proposals to maintain investigative capabilities in the face of these challenges. In response to that consultation the Government are developing its proposed approach, continuing to work closely with communications service providers to minimise as far as possible any impact on them, and ensuring that any new proposals include strong safeguards to minimise the potential for abuse, and to maintain the security and integrity of the data.
Terrorism: Internet
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have been (a) arrested and (b) convicted for offences relating to comments posted on social networking websites under counter-terrorism legislation. [313338]
Alan Johnson: The Home Office does not hold statistics which are recorded in this way. However, the Home Office does collate statistics on the number of terrorism arrests and convictions and these are included in a bulletin published for the first time on 13 May 2009 (Statistics on Terrorism Arrests and Outcomes Great Britain 11 September 2001 to 31 March 2008). The first edition of the bulletin is available at:
The second issue of the bulletin was published on 26 November 2009 and is available via the following link:
Communities and Local Government
Affordable Housing
Jim Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with reference to the answer of 20 July 2009, Official Report, columns 816-18W, on housing: low incomes, if he will publish the figures for takeup of Open Market Homebuy from the second quarter of 2009-10 to the date of closure of the scheme to new applicants. [313284]
John Healey: Open Market HomeBuy was a scheme with two separate products, MyChoice HomeBuy and Ownhome. The latest dates for which new applications were taken for MyChoice HomeBuy were in mid May 2009, and in early July 2009 for Ownhome.
Provisional data from April to September 2009 for Open Market HomeBuy published by the Homes and Communities Agency show 3,194 completions in that period.
Affordable Housing: Construction
Jim Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many affordable homes had been built as a result of each Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder at 1 April 2009; how many were planned to be built in each Pathfinder area in 2009-10; and how many additional affordable homes he now expects to be built as a result of the release of additional resources in July 2009. [313696]
Mr. Ian Austin: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer given to him on 21 October 2009, Official Report, column 1503-1504W. Data differentiating affordable and private new build as a result of HMR funding are not yet held in a readily available format. The HMR programme particularly focuses on the refurbishment and renewal of existing stock and attracting developer interest to their areas, and it is for individual Pathfinders to decide on which activities to focus taking into account the stage of the regeneration process in their areas.
Construction: Company Liquidations
Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many construction firms have gone into liquidation or ceased trading for other reasons in each of the last 10 years, broken down by local authority area or the lowest geographical area for which data are available. [313978]
Ian Lucas: I have been asked to reply.
The available statistics for insolvencies in the "construction" industry are shown in Table 1. The smallest geographical area for which these statistics are available is England and Wales as a whole. We do not have information relating to firms which have ceased trading for other reasons.
Responsibility for statistics relating to business start-ups and closures ("births" and "deaths") giving numbers of companies that have ceased trading (liquidations form part of these) has moved from the Department for Business to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
| Table 1: Company liquidations in England and Wales in the construction sector 1999-2008( 1,2) | |
| Liquidations | |
| (1) Including compulsory liquidations and creditors' voluntary liquidations. (2) From July 2007, construction is defined within the SIC2003; up to September 2006 it is defined within the Insolvency Trade Classification. No statistics by sector are available from Q4 2006 to Q2 2007 inclusive due to the change in industry classification. (3) January to September only. (4) July to December only. | |
Council Housing: Finance
Jim Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with reference to the written ministerial statement of 30 June 2009, Official Report, columns 7-10WS, on housing, what the (a) housing debt and (b) servicing costs were in each of the 202 local authorities referred to in each of the last three years; and when he expects to conclude his review of council housing finance and the future of local council housing. [313118]
John Healey: I have arranged for a table showing the level of notional housing debt, and associated assumed interest costs, for each local authority with housing stock for each of the three years 2007-08 to 2009-10, to be placed in the Library.
On 16 December 2009, I announced that the responses to the consultation on proposals for the reform of council housing finance showed overwhelming support for the principle of self-financing. I intend to make a further announcement in February which will confirm the progress we have made on self-financing and set out more details of the proposals. I also intend to publish a summary of responses to the consultation in due course.
Homes and Communities Agency: Finance
Mr. Todd: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment he has made of the reason for the cost of the finance function of the Homes and Communities Agency referred to in the publication Benchmarking the Back Office: Central Government; and if he will make a statement. [312685]
John Healey: The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) is the Department's largest delivery agency, responsible for a range of investment activity which requires professional financial input to appraisal and decision making. As such, HCA's corporate services are designed to support delivery of capital programme spend, which was excluded from the calculation of total operating costs for this exercise. It should be noted that the cost of finance function data published includes data from HCA's predecessor bodies.
Housing: Construction
Mr. Cash: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment he has made of progress towards his Department's target of three million new homes by 2026; and what estimate he has made of the sum to be contributed by the Government towards such building. [313446]
John Healey: The Department does not publish estimates of future levels of house building.
Shared Ownership Schemes: Staffordshire
Mr. Cash: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many people resident in Staffordshire have successfully applied for each of his Department's shared equity housing schemes. [313445]
John Healey: The Department does not itself directly take steps to match demand for shared ownership products with prospective clients. CLG works in partnership with the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) to deliver its "HomeBuy" products.
The following list gives details of the number of households in Staffordshire who have applied for HCA's "HomeBuy" products.
| Number | |
Stress
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if he will place in the Library a copy of the advice issued to departmental staff on stress recognition and management. [313984]
Barbara Follett: A copy of the advice issued to departmental staff on stress recognition and management has been placed in the Library.
Tenancy Deposit Schemes
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many (a) representations and (b) complaints his Department has received in relation to tenancy deposit schemes in each of the last three years; and how many have been received in 2009-10 to date. [313981]
Mr. Ian Austin: We do not hold this information.
Cabinet Office
Breast Cancer
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many people were diagnosed with breast cancer in (a) Torbay constituency, (b) Torbay local authority area, (c) the South West and (d) England in each year since 1997. [313884]
Angela E. Smith: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Stephen Penneck, dated January 2010:
As Director General for Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many people were diagnosed with breast cancer in (a) Torbay constituency, (b) Torbay local authority area, (c) the South West and (d) England in each year since 1997. [313884]
The latest available figures for newly diagnosed cases of breast cancer (incidence) are for the year 2007. Please note that these numbers may not be the same as the number of people diagnosed with cancer, because one person may be diagnosed with more than one cancer.
Table 1 provides the numbers of newly diagnosed cases of breast cancer for (a) Torbay parliamentary constituency, (b) Torbay unitary authority, (c) South West government office region and (d) England, for each year from 1997 to 2007.
| Table 1. Registrations of newly diagnosed cases of breast cancer,( 1) persons,( 2) (a) Torbay parliamentary constituency, (b) Torbay unitary authority, (c) South West government office region and (d) England,( 3 ) 1997 to 2007( 4) | ||||
| Persons | ||||
| Torbay constituency | Torbay local authority | South West | England | |
| (1) Breast cancer is coded as C50 in the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10). (2) Around 99 per cent. of breast cancers cases are in women. (3) Based on boundaries as of 2009. (4 )Newly diagnosed cases registered in each calendar year. | ||||
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