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To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they support the planning application for a wind farm
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The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change & Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): As this particular wind farm application is currently in the planning system, it is a matter for the relevant local planning authority. I am therefore unable to comment.
English Heritage
Question
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much English Heritage has spent per capita in each of the counties in the east of England in each of the past 11 years. [HL1839]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting (Lord Carter of Barnes): English Heritage advises that it is not possible to provide expenditure figures broken down by county, only by region. Approximately half of its expenditure is allocated directly to its regions and the following table sets out its East of England spend per capita for the years in question. The figures do not include centrally managed expenditure although a considerable proportion delivers activity in the regions, for example, education, outreach, the property investment programme and some grants programmes.
The proportion of English Heritage's centrally managed expenditure allocated to the East of England region cannot be established without disproportionate cost. This is because many activities are categorised thematically rather than geographically; for example, research into seaside towns or spend on presentation and interpretation at English Heritage properties based on need.
The East of England spend per capita is as follows:
| English Heritage Spend for East of England Region 1997-98 — 2002-03 | ||||||
| 1997-98 | 1998-99 | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | |
| English Heritage Spend for East of England Region 2003-04 - 2007-08 | |||||
| 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | |
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Government Departments: Websites
Question
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether all their websites located in the United Kingdom must have the letters “UK” in their domain names. [HL967]
Lord Patel of Bradford: Ministers agreed in July 2008 that all new central government owned websites should use .gov.uk domain names. This new policy applies to all new websites. We are discussing transitional arrangements with existing websites. Non-government domains (eg com, org etc) should be used only for defensive registration when a similar domain name is registered to protect an organisation's brand from common misspellings (typosquatting) or intentional misuse; for example, seeking to sell back to the organisation or use in bad faith (cybersquatting). Any such defensive registration must redirect to the primary government domain. (See http://coi.gov.uk/guidance.php?page=194#section3a for related guidance.) A copy has been placed in the Library.
Gross Domestic Product
Question
Asked by Lord Roberts of Conwy
To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of the United Kingdom's gross domestic product was attributable to the City in 2007—08; and how they define the City for that purpose. [HL1574]
Lord Patel of Bradford: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, National Statistician, to Lord Roberts of Conwy, dated March 2009.
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Question about the proportion of UK gross domestic product attributable to the City of London. (HL 1574)
The Office for National Statistics does not publish regional GDP but does publish estimates of regional gross value added (GVA), which is the same as GDP except for excluding taxes on products and including subsidies on products.
Regional GVA is produced using official statistical geographies known as nomenclature of units for territorial statistics (NUTS). This nomenclature provides a single uniform breakdown for the production of regional statistics for the European Union. Regional GVA data are produced at three levels of NUTS in the UK. These are:
NUTS1: Government Office Regions of England and the devolved Administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland;NUTS2: 37 areas—sometimes referred to as sub- regions; and12 Mar 2009 : Column WA274
NUTS3 boundaries (the lowest level at which the ONS publishes regional GVA) do not directly correspond to the City of London, so we are unable to provide data at the geographical detail you require.
Health: Tuberculosis
Question
Asked by Baroness Masham of Ilton
To ask Her Majesty's Government what facilities are in place to diagnose tuberculosis in prisoners in England. [HL1928]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord Bach): A prisoner with possible TB will usually be seen first by the prison primary care team who will then refer to the local NHS TB network for confirmation of the diagnosis.
The Department of Health is currently funding a programme to install digital X-ray equipment in eight major prisons in England specifically for the purpose of screening prisoners for tuberculosis. This programme is expected to be complete before the end of 2009.
House of Lords: Reform
Question
Asked by Lord Morris of Aberavon
To ask Her Majesty's Government further to the Written Answer by Lord Bach on 24 February (WA 49), what principles are applied in appointing party-political life peers; to whom the nominations are made; and in what numbers. [HL1880]
The Lord President of the Council (Baroness Royall of Blaisdon): Nominations of party political life peers are a matter for the political parties concerned within the overall numbers set by the Prime Minister. All nominations are passed to the Prime Minister, who in turn passes them to the House of Lords Appointments Commission for vetting on propriety grounds.
International Whaling Commission
Question
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will support measures at the June meeting of the International Whaling Commission that will end or seek to end imports of whale meat by Japan from Norway and Iceland. [HL1939]
The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change & Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): Trade matters are within the competence of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and outside that of the International Convention on
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We are increasingly concerned about the trade in whale products between countries holding reservations to the CITES appendix I listing, or to countries which have not joined CITES. To eliminate the unacceptable risk of market-driven whaling in the future, we believe that contracting Governments to the IWC should lift all CITES reservations to cetacean species in order to aid negotiations on the future of the IWC.
Merseyside: Legacies
Question
To ask Her Majesty's Government what legacies have been left in Merseyside following Liverpool's designation as the European Capital of Culture 2008; and how many of these affect Sefton, Wirral, St Helens, Knowsley and Halton. [HL1875]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting (Lord Carter of Barnes): Liverpool's role as European Capital of Culture 2008 not only attracted unprecedented investment in the region, but also helped to raise the profile of culture across Merseyside. Liverpool 08 brought more than £800 million in revenue to the region, on top of the £4 billion that has been invested since 2000, and which has resulted in a number of exciting capital projects, including Liverpool One, the Echo Arena and the Cruise Liner Terminal. These new developments will ensure a lasting economic legacy for Merseyside, both in terms of increased visitor numbers across the region, and also the impact on jobs and skills.
A key success of Liverpool 08 was the relationships which were forged between cultural organisations and between the city of Liverpool and the rest of the Merseyside region, including Sefton, Wirral, St Helens, Knowsley and Halton. Much of this work will continue, including Halton's Got Talent, Theatre in the Parks and the joint Merseyside projects, Open Art, Streetwaves, Let the People Sing, etc. Furthermore, the new Culture Collective created by Phil Redmond will be working to embed cultural legacy across Merseyside, in particular by continuing the excellent co-operation between the city of Liverpool and the rest of the region, which was so instrumental in the success of Liverpool 08.
Petitions
Questions
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many petitions the Department of Energy and Climate Change received in (a) 2008 and (b) 2009; what steps the department has taken to publicise them; and whether they will put the text of the petitions received and the number of signatures in the Library of the House. [HL1548]
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To ask Her Majesty's Government what procedures the Department of Energy and Climate Change has for receiving, acknowledging, dealing with and responding to petitions that it receives from members of the public. [HL1549]
The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change & Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): Petitions will be received and acknowledged by DECC in the same way as other correspondence received by the department. It is also general practice to send a response to the issues raised to the originator of the petition. Although the department records the number of letters it receives, it does not count the numbers of petitions separately. The text of petitions and the number of signatures could be provided only at disproportionate cost, again because they are not stored separately from other forms of correspondence.
The department is, however, currently considering options for handling petitions going forward, and has recently placed a link from the consultation section of DECC's new website to the e-petitions system on the Number 10 site.
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many petitions the Department for Work and Pensions received in (a) 2007 and (b) 2008; what steps the department has taken to publicise them; and whether they will place the text of the petitions received and the number of signatures in the Library of the House. [HL1791]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Lord McKenzie of Luton): The information requested is not available. Information on all the petitions received by the department is not held centrally.
To ask Her Majesty's Government what procedures the Department for Work and Pensions has for receiving, acknowledging, dealing with and responding to petitions that it receives from members of the public. [HL1792]
Lord McKenzie of Luton: There are no specific procedures for dealing with petitions. Petitions from members of the public are handled as part of normal correspondence and a response will be sent to the organisation or individual who sent in the petition. It would be for the organisation or individual to communicate the reply to the signatories on the petition.
Prisons: Imams
Questions
Asked by Baroness Neville-Jones
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many imams have been employed in HM Prison Service prisons in each year since 1997. [HL1860]
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord Bach): Historical information on the number of employed Muslim chaplains is not available for every year since 1997. This information is not held centrally and could be obtained only by approaching more than 140 establishments in England and Wales. There were no Muslim chaplains employed by the Prison Service in 1997. Currently there are 78 Muslim chaplains employed by the Prison Service. The only other period for which figures are available is 2006, when there were 39 Muslim chaplains employed in prisons.
Asked by Baroness Neville-Jones
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many imams are employed in each HM Prison Service prison. [HL1861]
Lord Bach: I refer the noble Baroness to the Answer I gave to the noble Baroness, Lady Warsi, on 3 March (Official Report, col. WA 143).
Asked by Baroness Neville-Jones
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many imams employed in HM Prison Service prisons have been dismissed or otherwise disciplined in each year since 1997; and what were the reasons for such action. [HL1862]
Lord Bach: The National Offender Management Service does not hold the information centrally in the format requested. Central collation of investigations details were not established until 2000. Formal investigations would need to be examined individually to identify relevant cases.
Asked by Baroness Neville-Jones
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many imams employed in HM Prison Service prisons have been investigated by the Prison Service in each year since 1997; and what were the reasons for such action. [HL1863]
Lord Bach: According to records of disciplinary proceedings held centrally by the National Offender Management Service, one imam has been subject to formal disciplinary action, short of dismissal, since 1 January 2005. The disciplinary action was taken in 2008 following allegations of bullying from other members of staff.
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