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9 Mar 2010 : Column 180W—continued
The "A Night Less Ordinary" scheme plans to make available over 600,000 tickets over two years. Arts Council England cannot provide the number of tickets individual theatres have agreed to make available for reasons of commercial confidentiality.
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many young people have used theatre tickets provided under the A Night Less Ordinary scheme since the scheme was introduced. [320661]
Margaret Hodge: In the first nine months of the 'A Night Less Ordinary' Scheme 122,818 tickets were given away to young people under 26. There is no central monitoring of the scheme, but we are undertaking a comprehensive evaluation which will include assessment of how many young people took advantage of the scheme and the potential impact on long-term attendance.
Tourism
Mr. Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what incentives his Department provides to encourage local authorities to support local tourism initiatives. [319829]
Margaret Hodge [holding answer 1 March 2010]: Responsibility for tourism in the English regions was given to the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) in 2003. The RDAs have developed regional tourism strategies, taking into account the needs of, and opportunities for, localities and destinations within their regions.
The RDAs have invested substantially in tourism development and promotion investing some £60 million in 2008-09. Local authorities are also important partners in supporting the visitor economy. The Local Government Association is represented on the Ministers' Tourism Advisory Council and the DCMS engages regularly with local bodies such as the British Resorts and Destinations Association and Destination Performance UK.
Alongside the marketing campaigns conducted by VisitBritain and VisitEngland, a number of DCMS programmes encourage and enable local authorities to develop and promote their tourism offer. DCMS sponsors "Sea Change", which has allocated £38 million to 32 seaside resorts, to support projects for cultural regeneration and the visitor economy. The "Renaissance in the Regions" programme is a ground-breaking initiative to transform England's regional museums. Renaissance has seen an investment of £242.8 million from 2002-09 and it is anticipated that nearly £300 million will have been invested by March 2011. We have seen recently, in the long queues at Bristol for the Banksy temporary exhibition and at Birmingham for the display of the Staffordshire
Hoard of Anglo Saxon Gold, how these revitalized museums can encourage tourism.
Most recently, following on from the success of Liverpool European Capital of Culture, the DCMS launched the "UK City of Culture" competition, challenging bidding cities to develop a substantial programme of cultural activity which leads to a demonstrable step-change in their area, and a lasting legacy. Fourteen cities submitted initial bids, with Birmingham, Derry/Londonderry, Norwich and Sheffield succeeding in being shortlisted. The winning city will be announced in the summer.
In addition, whilst funding decisions are for local authorities themselves, to make, DCMS supports the Charter for Placemaking and Destination Management, developed through the "Partners for England" initiative, which provides guidance to local authorities on promoting, developing and measuring tourism, and on working with the industry and public sector partners. Local authority support and engagement will also be addressed in the England tourism strategy, currently being developed by VisitEngland.
Lembit Öpik: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport whether his Department has made an investigation into the reasons for the closure of tourist and visitor centres in 2008-09; and if he will make a statement. [320975]
Margaret Hodge: The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has discussed the issue of Tourist Information Centre (TICs) closures with VisitEngland, and the Regional Development Agencies.
VisitEngland are undertaking some work to establish how many TICs are closing and what local authorities are doing to provide appropriate information to tourists in their area.
Solicitor-General
Departmental Disabled Staff
Mr. Harper: To ask the Solicitor-General how many and what proportion of staff of the Law Officers' Departments are disabled; and what the average salary in the Law Officers' Departments is of (a) full-time disabled staff, (b) full-time non-disabled staff, (c) part-time disabled staff and (d) part-time non-disabled staff. [317901]
The Solicitor-General: The Law Officers' Departments routinely provide information on the numbers of disabled staff and average salaries to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) who periodically publish these data on behalf of the whole civil service. The latest available figures were published on 20 January 2010. Specific information relating to the Law Officers' Departments is outlined in the following tables.
| Median earnings by Department and disability status( 1) | ||||
| Attorney-General's Departments | Full-time non-disabled | Full-time disabled | Part-time non-disabled | Part-time disabled |
| (1) Salaries in this table represent the full-time equivalent salaries of employees rounded to the nearest 10. Earnings are not shown where there are less than five members to protect staff confidentiality. (2) HMRCPO have since merged with CPS in January 2010. (3) Data for NFA have not been collated or published by ONS. The data provided are based on the latest available data. | ||||
Trade Unions
Mr. Syms: To ask the Solicitor-General how many days staff of the Law Officers' Departments spent on trade union activity in the latest year for which figures are available; and what recent estimate she has made of the annual cost to the public purse of such activity. [320668]
The Solicitor-General: No days were spent by staff members of the Attorney-General's Office or the National Fraud Authority on trade union activity in 2008-09.
HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate has a Whitley council which meets quarterly and is attended by FDA and Public and Commercial Services Union representatives. Where it is necessary for union representatives to devote time to specific activities on personal cases, this is done by agreement with their line manager. No formal record is maintained.
The Serious Fraud Office does not record details on the number of days spent by staff engaged on trade union activities.
Information on the Treasury Solicitors Department (TSol) and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is contained in the following table.
| Department | Estimate of the number of days spent on union activities 2008-09 | Estimated cost( 1) (£) |
| (1) These are estimates based on the average pay grade of staff involved in trade union activity. (2)( )The CPS data includes figures for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office which merged with CPS in January 2010. 126 days were spent on trade union activities by HMRCPO officials at an estimated cost of £18,791. | ||
International Development
World Water Day
Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what plans his Department has to mark World Water Day. [320957]
Mr. Michael Foster: The Department for International Development (DFID) will mark this important occasion by hosting an event shortly before World Water Day. During the event we will hear what action our stakeholders are taking to address the millennium development goals for water and sanitation, and how best DFID can continue to support their efforts. DFID will also seek to raise awareness of the important of access to water and sanitation for poverty reduction through our website, newsletters and the release of a new publication, reporting on the work we have done to help poor people get access to water and sanitation.
House of Commons Commission
Buildings
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission what major refurbishments have been carried out on the House of Commons Estate in the last five years; and what the cost was of each such refurbishment. [320557]
Nick Harvey: Major refurbishments carried out in the last five years, taken to mean construction projects to improve existing facilities on the Commons part of the parliamentary estate where expenditure has been more than £1 million during the period 1 April 2004 to 31 March 2009, have been shown in the following table.
Nurseries
Mr. Chope: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission what advice the House of Commons Commission has sought from the Finance and Services Committee on the cost of replacing Bellamy's Bar, the Astor Suite and Bellamy's Clubroom with a day nursery. [321400]
Nick Harvey: The Commission considered it important to have the planned nursery facility operating early in the new Parliament, before new Members had made other child care arrangements. This is a challenging timescale, given the need for listed building consent and consent for change of use, the time required to make the premises ready and the requirement to pass the Ofsted inspection and be registered with Ofsted. In view of the time constraints, the Commission decided it was not feasible to seek advice from the Finance and Services Committee.
Mr. Chope: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission if the House of Commons Commission will place in the Library a copy of the full business case for the replacement of Bellamy's Bar, the Astor Suite and Bellamy's Clubroom by a day nursery. [321401]
Nick Harvey: The full business case is being prepared for submission to the Clerk of the House. Such documents necessarily contain commercially confidential information, the disclosure of which would damage the commercial interests of the House.
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