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The Registrar General has also registered 123 naval, military or air force chapels for the solemnisation of marriages, otherwise than according to the rites of the Church of England, under Section 70 of the Marriage Act 1949. No denomination is stated with these registrations.

Asked by The Lord Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham

Lord West of Spithead: There are currently 29,774 certified places of meeting for religious worship registered by the Registrar General under the Places of Worship Registration Act 1855.

RAF Northolt

Question

Asked by Lord Ashcroft

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Baroness Taylor of Bolton): Yes, I will place a copy of the lease in the Library of the House. The rental level will be redacted from the lease document as its release would, or would be likely to, prejudice commercial interests.



23 Feb 2009 : Column WA26

Railways: Rolling Stock

Question

Asked by Lord Bradshaw

The Minister of State, Department for Transport (Lord Adonis): Prior to issuing the Intercity Express specification, the Department for Transport assessed the costs and technical feasibility of extending the life of the existing high-speed diesel train fleet.

Given the age of the vehicles, and the need for major structural modifications to meet accessibility legislation and the provision of modern safety features for staff and retention toilets, it was not considered cost-effective to extend their lives compared with procuring a new train.

Smoking

Questions

Asked by Lord Cope of Berkeley

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Darzi of Denham): The Consultation on the Future of Tobacco Control, published July 2008, is available in the Library.

The department received around 10,000 responses from small retailers, including pre-prepared postcards and emails made available to respondents by third parties, 11 responses from individual larger retailers and 21 responses from retail industry representative organisations, including trade associations.

The department received seven responses from organisations that receive funding directly from the department for programmes of work related to smoking. Identification of respondents that receive funding from the department for other purposes could not be provided without incurring disproportionate cost.

The department received over 85,000 responses from members of the public, including pre-prepared postcards and e-mails made available to respondents by third parties.

Various organisations which responded to the consultation claim to represent certain numbers of members and/or supporters. The department has no way of verifying the accuracy of such claims.



23 Feb 2009 : Column WA27

Smoking: Canada

Question

Asked by Lord Cope of Berkeley

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Darzi of Denham): There is evidence from jurisdictions that have removed tobacco displays at the point of sale that such measures can make an important contribution to reducing smoking prevalence among children and younger adults.

Data on smoking prevalence among young people in each Canadian province over the period 1999 to 2007 are available in the Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey (CTUMS). The CTUMS has been placed in the Library.

In 2008, the department received information from the Government of Saskatchewan about smoking rates among young people since legislation removing tobacco display at the point of sale came into force in that province. Tobacco display legislation came into force in Saskatchewan in 2002, and apart from a 15 month break as a result of legal challenge, has been in force ever since. At the point that legislation came into force, smoking prevalence among 15-19 year-olds in Saskatchewan was 29 per cent. The latest smoking rate for 15-19 year-olds in Saskatchewan is 22 per cent, 2007 data. The Saskatchewan Government advised that the removal of tobacco displays has made an important contribution to this reduction in smoking prevalence among young people.

The department has not received any specific information from the Government of Manitoba.

Social Workers: Children

Questions

Asked by Lord Hanningfield



23 Feb 2009 : Column WA28

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Children, Schools and Families (Baroness Morgan of Drefelin): Social workers are directly employed by local authorities and other organisations. The Department for Children, Schools and Families does not centrally collect information on social worker length of service, retention rate, absenteeism or vacancy rate.

In the Children's, Young People's and Families' Social Care Workforce Survey 2006, a survey of 88 local authorities, the Local Authority Workforce Intelligence Group (LAWIG), estimated that the turnover rate for children’s and families' social workers was 9.6 per cent down from 11 per cent the previous year. LAWIG estimated that 2 per cent of the overall workforce left social work all together, either to retire or move on to another destination.

LAWIG also estimated vacancy rates for children's social workers to be 9.5 per cent, down from 11.8 per cent the previous year.

The regional breakdown was as follows:

RegionVacancy Rates for Children's Field Social Workers in 2005Vacancy Rates for Children's Field Social Workers in 2006

East Midlands

6.9%

4.9%

Eastern

10.2%

11.7%

London

17.5%

11.4%

North East

7.8%

4.8%

North West

12.0%

7.2%

South East

7.5%

11.6%

South West

5.4%

4.8%

West Midlands

17.6%

12.8%

Yorkshire and Humberside

13.2%

10.4%

England

11.8%

9.5%

The Children's, Young People's and Families' Social Care Workforce Survey 2006 can be found at www.lga.gov.uk/lga/aio/1098172.

Southern African Development Community

Question

Asked by Lord Jones of Cheltenham

The Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform & Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Davies of Abersoch): Her Majesty's Government's vehicle for increasing trade is UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), which currently has teams based in the SADC FTA countries of South Africa, Tanzania, Angola and Mozambique. These teams assist UK companies to do business in these markets, and also encourage potential investors into the UK. The amount of trade fluctuates with the level of interest shown by British companies in the area

23 Feb 2009 : Column WA29

and, more usually, with specific opportunities in individual countries. UKTI keeps the deployment of its teams throughout the world under regular review to ensure they offer government support to trading relationships where it is most effective.

Information is provided on all markets via the UKTI portal www.uktradeinvest.gov.uk.

Sport: Academies

Question

Asked by Lord Moynihan

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Children, Schools and Families (Baroness Morgan of Drefelin): There are 42 open academies in London, seven with a sports specialism. Of these, 24 are already in their new or refurbished buildings, and our current target is that all academies will have their capital work completed within three years of opening.

The 24 academies with completed capital work have new or refurbished sports halls and new sporting equipment. Where space is available they have all-weather pitches or enhanced outdoor sporting areas too. This is the case for all of the seven academies with a sports specialism.

All academies delivered through Building Schools for the Future (BSF) have a standard provision for sports facilities which meet the Building Bulletin 98 building guidelines for new schools. Partnerships for Schools, which manages all BSF projects, also liaises with Sport England through the statutory consultation process in order to ensure that all playing field provision is maintained or improved in any new development.

In 2007, the Government removed the VAT requirement on the use of academy facilities. This has opened up new academy sports facilities for much wider use by their local communities.

Sport: Swimming Pools

Question

Asked by Lord Moynihan

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Children, Schools and Families (Baroness Morgan of Drefelin): The department does not collect information about which sports facilities have been provided through Building Schools for the Future (BSF). It is for each local authority to decide how to make the best use of its overall BSF funding allocation across the schools in a particular project and the scope of works at each school. An authority can choose to use some of its BSF allocation to refurbish an existing

23 Feb 2009 : Column WA30

pool where it considers this to be the best use of the available funding. There is also the option of exploring other sources of funding (eg DCMS/Sport England) to supplement that from BSF.

Sustainable Communities Plan

Question

Asked by Lord Dykes

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Baroness Andrews): The Sustainable Communities Plan, published in 2003, set out a long-term vision and programme of action to create decent homes in good quality local environments across England. As part of this plan, the Government set out actions related to construction methods. This included actions to promote modern methods of construction (MMC). MMC can be defined as construction that uses modern processes to provide more, better quality houses in less time. It can apply to homes built on and off-site.

The Sustainable Communities Plan set out that some 25 per cent of the homes funded by the (then) Housing Corporation in the south-east would be built using MMC. In the two years following publication of the Sustainable Communities Plan (2004-05 and 2005-06) the Housing Corporation approved investment in London and the south-east which is resulting in the construction and delivery of 13,297 MMC units. This represents some 40 per cent of the total number of homes delivered in both regions.

The vision set out in the Sustainable Communities Plan was for new housing to be more sustainable. It proposed that building regulations would be kept under review with this in mind, and set a new requirement that, as a condition of grant, all new homes funded by the public sector should achieve the Eco-Homes pass standard. This was put in place. However, since 2003, the Government have taken more steps to improve further the sustainability of new homes. The Code for Sustainable Homes (the code) became operational in 2007 and replaced Eco-Homes as the sustainable standard in house building. All homes supported by funding from the Homes and Communities Agency must now be built to code level 3. The code, like building regulations, is outcome based and does not require a particular construction method. However, using MMC may be useful to achieve code levels.

Steps have also been taken to strengthen building regulations. In 2006, the Government published revisions to part L of the building regulations which set higher standards for energy performance. A policy commitment was published in July 2007 to control the water efficiency of new dwellings through changes to the building regulations. And in 2008 a consultation was launched on proposed changes that would add to part G of these regulations a requirement for new homes to be

23 Feb 2009 : Column WA31

built to a water efficiency standard of 1251itres/person/day. We plan to publish a final revised version of part G and the accompanying guidance later in 2009 with the intention of it coming into force before the end of this calendar year.

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