You are here: Parliament home page > Parliamentary business > Publications and Records > Lords Publications > Lords Hansard > Daily Hansard

Previous Section Back to Table of Contents Lords Hansard Home Page

Defra: Advertising Standards Agency

Baroness Miller for Chilthorne Domer asked Her Majesty's Government:

Lord Whitty: Approaches to and correspondence with the Advertising Standards Authority would be conducted on behalf of Defra by its Communications Directorate and no such approaches have been made or correspondence taken place over the past 12 months.

10 Feb 2003 : Column WA62

Grey Squirrels

Lord Inglewood asked Her Majesty's Government:

    Whether they have any plans to continue research into the feasibility of using contraception to control grey squirrels now that the Forestry Commission and its research partners have discontinued their work in this area.[HL1428]

Lord Whitty: The grey squirrel is a long-established invasive non-native species which has impacted significantly on native wildlife and also causes significant economic damage. Article 8(h) of the Convention on Biological Diversity places obligations on contracting parties to take action in respect of invasive non-native species.

Research was undertaken into the feasibility of using contraception to control the impact of grey squirrels, with input from the Forestry Commission and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, but this was discontinued in 2002 when the results failed to give the partners any promise of a practical application in a reasonable time-frame. Although laboratory trials of the technique had proved encouraging, enclosure and field trials were inconclusive and highlighted the enormous difficulties of putting such a method into practice.

Further research on contraceptive vaccines is likely to be extremely costly and the Government have no plans to continue it at present. Nevertheless, we retain a strong interest in non-lethal and humane measures for controlling populations of wild animals that cause problems. Government scientists will keep a technology watch on developments that might offer innovative techniques of wildlife management. Departments and agencies involved in wildlife management and woodland protection have to weigh priorities very carefully among the many calls on their research budgets.

Foot and Mouth Disease: Compensation

Baroness Byford asked Her Majesty's Government:

    Further to their response to the reports of the foot and mouth disease inquiries (CM5637), what progress has been made on the consultation into rationalised compensation proposals.[HL1436]

Lord Whitty: The arrangements for compensation for different animal diseases have been brought into effect on a case-by-case basis. Inevitably the overall approach has become fragmented and inconsistent. The Government therefore plan to consult on a rationalisation of compensation arrangements for animal diseases in the early summer.

Officials are currently examining options for simplified legislation that sets out a single compensation mechanism that can be applied to all notifiable animal diseases. Consideration is being given to how livestock market prices can be used to calculate transparently a national average market price for different categories of livestock.

10 Feb 2003 : Column WA63

Insurance against Exotic Diseases

Baroness Byford asked Her Majesty's Government:

    Whether there is any European Union legislation disallowing claims raised as a result of government legislation and action which will prevent farmers from insuring their businesses against exotic diseases.[HL1438]

Lord Whitty: We are not aware of European legislation which would prevent farmers from making insurance claims for losses arising out of government measures to control exotic diseases, nor are we aware of any European action to prevent farmers from taking out such insurance.

Sheep: Ruminal Bolus

Baroness Byford asked Her Majesty's Government:

    How many instances of reticulitis in lambs have been found due to the presence in the reticulum of a bolus used for the identification after sheep genotyping.[HL1439]

Lord Whitty: More than 330,000 sheep have so far been genotyped under the National Scrapie Plan for Great Britain and have been identified by ruminal bolus. One case of reticulitis has been attributed to the presence of the ruminal bolus. The ram lamb in question made a full recovery following surgery.

Baroness Byford asked Her Majesty's Government:

    How many sheep have died due to the insertion of a bolus used for identification after sheep genotyping.[HL1440]

Lord Whitty: Under the National Scrapie Plan for Great Britain over 330,000 sheep have so far been genotyped and identified by the use of a bolus. A total of 69 sheep have died, or have been humanely destroyed, following administration of ruminal boluses. Compensation to the full value of the sheep is paid to the owner in all such cases. The Government also bear the costs incurred in determining the cause of death where this might be attributable to the administration of the bolus.

Higher Education: Disabled and Ethnic Minority Students

Lord Lester of Herne Hill asked Her Majesty's Government:

    Whether they have evidence of the extent to which (a) disabled students and (b) students from ethnic minority groups face barriers in their access to opportunities for higher education; and if so, whether they will publish evidence.[HL1272]

    What barriers are faced (a) by disabled students and (b) by students from ethnic minority groups in their access to opportunities for higher education.[HL1273]

10 Feb 2003 : Column WA64

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education and Skills (Baroness Ashton of Upholland): Ethnic minorities as a whole are well represented in higher education in the United Kingdom but there are some pockets of under-representation. We have commissioned a study to examine the experiences of ethnic minority students which will identify and assess the factors which affect participation, student achievement and transition into the labour market. The Higher Education Funding Council for England and universities and colleges admissions services are also looking to see whether data can be extracted to test whether there are any issues around universities' admissions in respect of ethnicity.

The Higher Education Funding Council for England announced in December 2002 the introduction of a new performance indicator for access of disabled students to higher education institutions based on the percentage of students who are in receipt of the disabled students' allowance.

Male Teachers

Lord Stoddart of Swindon asked Her Majesty's Government:

    What action is being taken by the Teacher Training Agency to increase substantially the number of male teachers in state primary and secondary schools.[HL1345]

Baroness Ashton of Upholland: The Teacher Training Agency is using a range of strategies to promote the recruitment of men to teaching, especially to the primary schools sector, where they remain most acutely under-represented. In addition to its main Those who can, teach campaign, the agency discusses and disseminates approaches to the recruitment of men to teaching at twice-yearly conferences with teacher training providers. Men who contact the agency's information line are sent direct marketing material illustrating, through the use of case studies, the challenges and rewards which male teachers have found teaching in primary and secondary schools. The agency also makes male teaching advocates available for recruitment events and for one-to-one telephone discussions with men interested in applying to teach.

The number of men training as primary school teachers in England has risen from 1,589 in 2001–02 to 1,717 in 2002–03 and as secondary school teachers from 5,483 to 5,851.

Licensing Bill: Use Classes Order

Lord Avebury asked Her Majesty's Government:

    Whether they will announce how they intend to proceed on the Use Classes Order before the Licensing Bill begins its Report stage in the House of Lords, and whether they will make nightclubs a sui generis use before the Bill comes into effect.[HL1260]

10 Feb 2003 : Column WA65

Lord Evans of Temple Guiting: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is considering the responses to the consultation paper on possible options for change to the current Use Classes Order provisions and will make an announcement about how we intend to proceed as soon as possible.

Planning Delivery Grant

Baroness Goudie asked Her Majesty's Government:

    Whether they are now in a position to announce the details of the Planning Delivery Grant for 2003–04 [HL1586].

Lord Evans of Temple Guiting: Yes. As the noble Baroness knows, the Deputy Prime Minister announced last July that we would be making an additional £350 million available to local authorities over the period 2003–06 to improve the delivery of planning services. We have now decided the basis on which we will distribute this new Planning Delivery Grant in 2003–04 and will be informing recipients of their allocations.

The grant is being paid out of additional resources from Spending Review 2002. The aim of the grant is to improve the planning system to ensure the effective delivery of our objectives for sustainable communities which we set out in the document Sustainable Communities: Building for the Future. It is specifically targeted towards meeting the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's Public Service Agreements 5 and 6. PSA 5 aims to achieve a better balance between housing availability and demand. PSA 6 requires all authorities to have local development frameworks in place (in accordance with agreed local development schemes) and to meet the best value development control targets by the end of 2006–07.

The amount of grant distributed in 2003–04 is £50 million. It will be paid to local planning authorities, regional planning bodies and the Greater London Authority. The grant is a performance reward grant and rewards local authorities both for improvements towards and achievement of best value development control targets in the period June 2001 to June 2002. Those meeting the development control handling targets both at the start and the end of the year are rewarded separately for consistently high performance. No authority will receive an allocation of less than £75,000 in 2003–04 so that every authority has additional resources to help drive improvement in performance towards the targets. The grant allocations are enhanced for those local authorities within the high housing demand and growth areas identified in the document Sustainable Communities: Building for the future.

Regional planning bodies were notified in December of their share of the £6 million of existing funding which will, from 2003–04, be paid directly to them. They will also receive a share of the new planning delivery grant for their work on new regional spatial strategies (due to replace regional planning guidance under the Bill) and their review of existing

10 Feb 2003 : Column WA66

regional planning guidance to take account of the growth area proposals. The Greater London Authority receives grant to assist its related review of elements of the London Plan.

County councils will not receive direct resources from the grant. The counties' planning functions are being changed under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Bill currently before Parliament. Subject to Royal Assent, county councils will cease to have a duty to prepare structure plans but their resources will not be reduced accordingly. Therefore, while in some cases counties may need to continue with structure plan preparation over the next year and possibly beyond, given the transitional period set out in the Bill, as this function winds down they will be able to take advantage of freed up resources. It will be important that these freed up resources and the expertise available in county councils are retained and used to deliver other county planning responsibilities and to undertake their function as statutory consultees in the preparation of regional spatial strategies and local development frameworks. Counties can be engaged to conduct work related to regional spatial strategies on an agency basis.

The criteria for grant allocations have been designed to drive up performance in the delivery of planning functions, both in respect of development control and plan making. Authorities should be aware that they will need to continue to secure improvements in performance in order to receive money in further years. Grant allocations are not ring-fenced and authorities have complete discretion in the way they spend this money. Areas that authorities may consider concentrating on include: contribution to the preparation of regional planning guidance and the future regional spatial strategies; completing current reviews of existing development plans and preparing for the new system of local development frameworks; better resourcing of IT systems; assistance from consultants; outsourcing of certain planning services; increasing staffing levels; training for staff and councillors; supporting mediation services; encouraging a more diverse planning workforce; bursaries for employees to gain planning qualifications and more use of technical staff.

The amounts payable are shown in the tables below.

Letters to all leaders of local and county planning authorities, chief executives of the regional planning bodies and the Mayor of London have been laid in the Libraries of the House. They set out the details of each recipient's grant.

We will be laying a special grant report before the other place shortly.

Table 1: Total Planning Delivery Grant (£) for 2003–04

£
Adur138,189
Allerdale151,179
Alnwick75,000
Amber Valley75,000
Arun137,500
Ashfield181,650
Ashford163,816
Aylesbury Vale203,206
Babergh75,000
Barking and Dagenham150,758
Barnet458,095
Barnsley75,000
Barrow-in-Furness75,000
Basildon208,346
Basingstoke and Deane203,463
Bassetlaw75,000
Bath and North East Somerset UA133,008
Bedford203,206
Berwick-upon-Tweed75,000
Bexley236,793
Birmingham75,000
Blaby75,000
Blackburn with Darwen UA75,000
Blackpool UA75,000
Blyth Valley75,000
Bolsover75,000
Bolton75,000
Boston75,000
Bournemouth UA157,781
Bracknell Forest UA121,875
Bradford75,000
Braintree275,158
Breckland88,297
Brent283,364
Brentwood108,480
Bridgnorth75,000
Brighton and Hove UA121,875
Bristol UA189,258
Broadland75,000
Broads Authority75,000
Bromley241,106
Bromsgrove189,943
Broxbourne101,316
Broxtowe75,000
Burnley75,000
Bury125,400
Calderdale75,400
Cambridge101,316
Camden223,407
Cannock Chase75,000
Canterbury200,070
Caradon75,000
Carlisle75,000
Carrick97,304
Castle Morpeth75,000
Castle Point158,757
Charnwood94,248
Chelmsford137,500
Cheltenham75,000
Cherwell278,812
Chester75,000
Chesterfield75,000
Chester-le-Street75,000
Chichester336,900
Chiltern249,282
Chorley75,000
Christchurch75,814
City of London75,000
Colchester137,500
Congleton75,000
Copeland129,735
Corby115,100
Cotswold232,085
Coventry75,000
Craven100,555
Crawley109,091
Crewe and Nantwich75,000
Croydon219,955
Dacorum229,265
Darlington UA89,770
Dartford148,191
Dartmoor NP75,000
Daventry101,316
Derby UA134,206
Derbyshire Dales75,000
Derwentside75,000
Doncaster111,189
Dover109,091
Dudley207,414
Durham83,569
Ealing121,875
Easington75,000
East Cambridgeshire126,617
East Devon75,000
East Dorset75,000
East Hampshire272,875
East Hertfordshire163,542
East Lindsey75,000
East Northamptonshire107,684
East Riding of Yorkshire UA213,853
East Staffordshire75,000
Eastbourne109,091
Eastleigh173,009
Eden207,267
Ellesmere Port and Neston75,000
Elmbridge254,351
Enfield186,316
Epping Forest199,600
Epsom and Ewell75,000
Erewash82,836
Exeter100,000
Exmoor NP75,000
Fareham132,211
Fenland113,199
Forest Heath75,000
Forest of Dean75,000
Fylde75,000
Gateshead201,962
Gedling75,000
Gloucester75,000
Gosport75,000
Gravesham124,878
Great Yarmouth75,000
Greenwich200,000
Guildford75,000
Hackney121,875
Halton UA160,000
Hambleton147,416
Hammersmith and Fulham157,020
Harborough214,061
Haringey255,952
Harlow181,028
Harrowgate75,000
Harrow251,783
Hart109,091
Hartlepool UA150,460
Hastings146,840
Havant75,000
Havering171,591
Herefordshire UA326,145
Hertsmere75,000
High Peak75,000
Hillingdon320,040
Hinckley and Bosworth75,000
Horsham177,256
Hounslow404,246
Huntingdonshire141,866
Hyndburn97,980
Ipswich75,000
Isle of Wight UA166,588
Isles of Scilly101,965
Islington237,532
Kennet75,000
Kensington and Chelsea178,865
Kerrier75,000
Kettering136,309
King's Lynn and West Norfolk75,000
Kingston upon Thames195,300
Kingston-upon-Hull UA109,981
Kirklees75,000
Knowsley165,505
Lake District NP75,000
Lambeth330,617
Lancaster75,000
Leeds75,000
Leicester UA119,296
Lewes75,000
Lewisham184,375
Lichfield111,461
Lincoln104,952
Liverpool250,982
Luton UA203,267
Macclesfield288,603
Maidstone280,076
Maldon75,000
Malvern Hills75,000
Manchester251,537
Mansfield85,963
Medway UA264,462
Melton138,634
Mendip75,000
Merton195,450
Mid Bedfordshire187,855
Mid Devon140,627
Mid Suffolk75,000
Mid Sussex132,681
Middlesbrough UA158,038
Milton Keynes UA348,120
Mole Valley75,000
New Forest109,091
Newark and Sherwood77,253
Newcastle upon Tyne75,000
Newcastle-under-Lyme164,755
Newham201,503
North Cornwall106,149
North Devon148,241
North Dorset138,788
North East Derbyshire112,340
North East Lincolnshire UA75,000
North Hertfordshire148,191
North Kesteven75,000
North Lincolnshire UA99,889
North Norfolk75,000
North Shropshire75,000
North Somerset UA75,000
North Tyneside75,000
North Warwickshire75,313
North West Leicestershire75,000
North Wiltshire123,305
North Yorkshire Moors NP75,000
Northampton169,285
Northumberland NP75,000
Norwich75,000
Nottingham UA75,000
Nuneaton and Bedworth75,000
Oadby and Wigston75,000
Oldham75,000
Owestry75,000
Oxford174,294
Peak NP75,000
Pendle75,000
Penwith75,000
Peterborough UA77,843
Plymouth UA75,000
Poole UA182,279
Portsmouth UA137,500
Preston122,151
Purbeck75,000
Reading UA203,648
Redbridge197,789
Redcar and Cleveland UA75,000
Redditch75,000
Reigate and Banstead109,091
Restormel191,936
Ribble Valley75,000
Richmondshire87,304
Richmond-upon-Thames299,968
Rochdale115,401
Rochford156,036
Rossendale75,000
Rother75,000
Rotherham188,698
Rugby75,000
Runnymede139,569
Rushcliffe75,000
Rushmoor85,695
Rutland UA99,039
Ryedale75,000
Salford75,000
Salisbury109,688
Sandwell75,000
Scarborough75,000
Sedgefield103,484
Sedgemoor75,000
Sefton286,592
Selby101,549
Sevenoaks108,508
Sheffield75,000
Shepway109,091
Shrewsbury and Atcham75,000
Slough UA166,681
Solihull75,000
South Bedfordshire135,407
South Buckinghamshire75,000
South Cambridgeshire116,667
South Derbyshire75,000
South Gloucestershire UA153,702
South Hampshire75,000
South Holland75,000
South Kesteven112,488
South Lakeland75,000
South Norfolk75,000
South Northamptonshire186,876
South Oxfordshire137,500
South Ribble75,000
South Shropshire115,864
South Somerset140,728
South Staffordshire75,000
South Tyneside85,254
Southampton UA124,029
Southend on Sea UA116,667
Southwark225,790
Spelthorne75,926
St Albans109,091
St Edmundsbury79,076
St Helens75,000
Stafford165,858
Staffordshire Moorlands75,000
Stevenage75,000
Stockport294,100
Stockton-on-Tees UA75,000
Stoke on Trent UA99,461
Stratford-on-Avon118,587
Stroud75,000
Suffolk Coastal75,000
Sunderland110,170
Surrey Heath167,324
Sutton109,091
Swale179,167
Swindon UA75,000
Tameside75,000
Tamworth100,000
Tandridge266,668
Taunton Deane75,000
Teesdale75,000
Teignbridge156,222
Telford and Wrekin UA75,000
Tendring253,159
Test Valley295,525
Tewkesbury125,675
Thanet118,945
Three Rivers106,503
Thurrock UA179,167
Tonbridge and Malling109,091
Torbay UA75,000
Torridge75,000
Tower Hamlets224,039
Trafford238,831
Tunbridge Wells75,000
Tynedale75,000
Uttlesford246,201
Vale of White Horse128,821
Vale Royal225,115
Wakefield75,000
Walsall100,199
Waltham Forest109,091
Wandsworth246,513
Wansbeck75,000
Warrington UA75,000
Warwick75,000
Watford75,000
Waveney75,000
Waverley75,000
Wealden192,964
Wear Valley75,000
Wellingborough108,383
Welwyn Hatfield75,000
West Berkshire UA268,281
West Devon77,159
West Dorset75,000
West Lancashire75,000
West Lindsey75,000
West Oxfordshire121,875
West Somerset75,000
West Wiltshire75.000
Westminster474,679
Weymouth and Portland75,000
Wigan210,441
Winchester297,062
Windsor and Maidenhead UA227,499
Wirral267,697
Woking166,989
Wokingham UA170,019
Wolverhampton120,263
Worcester75,000
Worthing219,977
Wychavon254,927
Wycombe109,091
Wyre108,801
Wyre Forest108,105
York UA75,000
Yorkshire Dales NP75,000

10 Feb 2003 : Column WA71

10 Feb 2003 : Column WA72

Table 2: Planning Delivery Grant for Regional Planning Bodies and the GLA for 2003–04

£
East Midlands Region Local Government Association365,000
East of England Local Government Conference516,000
Greater London Authority75,000
Regional Assembly for the North East263,000
North West Regional Assembly369,000
South East Regional Assembly581,000
South West Regional Assembly324,000
West Midlands Local Government Association332,000
Regional Assembly for Yorkshire and the Humber325,000

Next Section Back to Table of Contents Lords Hansard Home Page