Written Answers to Questions
Monday 20 April 2009
Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
Bank Services: Fees and Charges
The OFT has written to banks with its provisional view on the fairness of unarranged overdraft and returned item fees, setting out its concern that they may be unfair under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Regulations 1999. The OFT announced on 3 April 2009 that it is to streamline its investigation into unarranged overdraft charges by focusing on the terms of three banks in particular in order to progress the case in the shortest and most efficient way possible. The OFT expects to reach final conclusions on fairness later this year.
China
Officials from this Department have been in contact with colleagues in the Scotland Office regarding the Secretary of State for Scotland's visit to China.
Officials from this Department did not accompany the Secretary of State for Scotland on his visit. However, officials at our missions in China supported both the trade mission and the visit.
Departmental Buildings
This Department has not sold any land from its HQ estate over the last five years.
I have approached the chief executives of Companies House and the Insolvency Service and they will respond to you directly.
Information for those non-departmental public bodies overseen by BERR who have sold properties in each of the last five years is as follows:
UK Atomic Energy Authority
The Winfrith Technology Centre, Dorset was sold to the Urban Regeneration Agency (doing business as English Partnerships) on 31 March 2004. Associated with the sale of the Winfrith Technology Centre, six plots of adjoining agricultural land were sold in financial year 2006-07 in accordance with the Crichel Down rules. Two areas of agricultural land to the west of the Winfrith site were sold in financial year 2005-06. The final plot of this agricultural land was sold in financial year 2006-07. None of these were sold for housing development.
In summer 2006 two plots of land were sold in Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire associated with the former water treatment works at Harwell: an angling lake; and a plot of land with planning permission for two residential dwellings.
Information for the regional development agencies (statistical information only due to volume involved) is as follows:
Number Properties sold Properties sold for housing development 2007-08 24 1 2006-07 6 0 2005-06 5 2 2004-05 12 5 2003-04 3 0
Number Properties sold Properties sold for housing development 2007-08 5 0 2006-07 1 0 2005-06 3 0 2004-05 3 0 2003-04 4 0
Number Properties sold Properties sold for housing development 2007-08 2 0 2006-07 0 0 2005-06 38 0 2004-05 4 0 2003-04 5 0
Number Properties sold Properties sold for housing development 2007-08 4 0 2006-07 8 1 2005-06 3 2 2004-05 3 2 2003-04 2 1
Number Properties sold Properties sold for housing development 2007-08 2 0 2006-07 54 0 2005-06 27 0 2004-05 13 0 2003-04 48 0
Number Properties sold Properties sold for housing development 2007-08 0 0 2006-07 0 0 2005-06 0 0 2004-05 0 0 2003-04 0 0
Number Properties sold Properties sold for housing development 2007-08 0 0 2006-07 0 0 2005-06 0 0 2004-05 0 0 2003-04 0 0
Number Properties sold Properties sold for housing development 2007-08 18 0 2006-07 17 1 2005-06 25 2 2004-05 19 1 2003-04 18 0
Number Properties sold Properties sold for housing development 2007-08 1 0 2006-07 0 0 2005-06 2 0 2004-05 2 0 2003-04 0 0
The information given for the RDA's are actual buildings mainly for regeneration purposes. It does not include land or larger regeneration sites. The RDAs are not involved in direct housing provision.
Letter from Gareth Jones, dated 13 April 2009:
I am replying on behalf of Companies House to your Parliamentary Question tabled on 23 March 2009, UIN 266497, to the Minister of State for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.
Companies House has not sold any properties in the last five years.
Letter from Stephen Speed, dated 13 April 2009:
The Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform has asked me to reply to you directly on behalf of the Insolvency Service in respect of your question, what properties (a) his Department, (b) its agencies and (c) the non-departmental public bodies it oversees have sold in each of the last five years; and how many of these have been sold for housing development The Insolvency Service leases its properties and therefore have not been and will not be in a position to sell any.
Departmental Carbon Emissions
BERR has had two recent reviews carried out by the Carbon Trust, on its headquarters estate. The second, run in April to May 2008, was a follow-on to previous work done under the energy efficiency accreditation scheme (EEAS) which closed in March 2008. As a result of the second review, BERR was given certification under the new Carbon Trust Standard; this was awarded to the Department on 2 July 2008. On the basis that these reviews had been done, the Department did not feel it necessary to take up the Carbon Trust management programme.
Departmental Electronic Equipment
The information requested is as follows:
(i) The Department has deployed Blackberry services to staff since 2006 through the Office of Government Commerce’s mobile telecommunication services contract. From the records available the cost of purchasing the Blackberry hardware each year since 2006 has been:
Ministers Special advisers Other staff 2006 — — 16,800 2007 1,120 1,120 68,880 2008 280 280 8,400 2009 280 — 27,695
The 2009 figure includes the costs of recent hardware upgrades.
The operating costs for BERR’s Blackberry service is only held from 2008 and includes costs for Ministers and special advisors:
Other staff (£) 2006 n/a 2007 n/a 2008 132,128 2009 154,902 n/a = Not available.
(b) The Department uses the Office of Government Commerce’s mobile telecommunication services contract to provide official mobile telephones to staff. No cost information is available on the provision of mobile hardware. No detailed information is available on the cost of the services that have been deployed to Ministers and their special advisors. During this period all Ministers and special advisors have had access to mobile telephones from a central pool of handsets operated by the ministerial support office. The only information available is the total cost of the mobile telephones services operated by the ministerial support office and for those services provided to other BERR staff for each year since 2008.
Mobile telephone costs for ministerial support office Total cost of staff mobiles provided 2008 23,541 218,317 2009 24,541 192,868
Departmental Energy
BERR are continuing to work towards achieving the energy efficiency targets expressed in the Sustainable Operation of the Government Estate (SOGE) framework. Our main strategy has been to gain efficiencies through a reduction in the physical size of its estate and the number of buildings occupied. As a result the whole BERR estate has been reduced by 58 per cent. and its overall carbon footprint by 26 per cent. since the baseline year of 1999-2000.
As we are working the remaining buildings harder, through better space optimisation, energy use has risen slightly. We are addressing this through improved utilisation of building management systems; installing new environmental and lighting controls during 2008-09, together with introduction in January 2009 of new automated monitoring and targeting systems, which will give significant savings over the next few years.
Furthermore, in mid-February 2009, BERR installed two sets of photovoltaic arrays on the roof of its 1 Victoria Street HQ building and carried out a thermal imaging study. We are currently evaluating the latter study to see if there are additional means of improving the performance of the HQ building.
BERR's HQ estate recently received the Carbon Trust Standard certification.
Since the inception of BERR in June 2007, the Department has used the following amounts of electricity and gas on its HQ estate up to the end of February 2009.
kWh Electricity 19,706,096 Gas 9,264,323
I have approached the chief executives of the Insolvency Service and Companies House and they will respond to you directly.
The following tables contain details of the amounts spent by each regional development agency on electricity, gas and other fuels during the past 10 years. Where there is a blank entry (—), figures are unavailable and would incur disproportionate cost to produce. The RDAs do not record units used.
£000 Electricity Gas Other fuel 2007-08 67 12 0 2006-07 51 6 0 2005-06 72 9 0 2004-05 50 7 0 2003-04 42 7 0 2002-03 34 4 0 2001-02 29 3 0 2000-01 — — — 1999-2000 — — — 1998-99 — — — Total 345 48 0
£000 Electricity Gas Other fuel 2007-08 44 7 0 2006-07 76 9 0 2005-06 46 2 0 2004-05 24 3 0 2003-04 28 2 0 2002-03 18 2 0 2001-02 13 2 0 2000-01 8 1 0 1999-2000 — — — 1998-99 — — — Total 257 28 0
£000 Electricity Gas Other fuel 2007-08 53 24 0 2006-07 50 25 0 2005-06 61 16 0 2004-05 43 13 0 2003-04 23 5 0 2002-03 32 7 0 2001-02 — — — 2000-01 — — — 1999-2000 — — — 1998-99 — — — Total 261 90 0
Total fuel cost (£000) 2007-08 128 2006-07 145 2005-06 115 2004-05 — 2003-04 — 2002-03 — 2001-02 — 2000-01 — 1999-2000 1— 1998-99 1— Total 388 1 LDA not established.
The LDA does not record fuel expenditure in the manner requested. As a result, it would be unable to break down its energy spend into separate components without incurring disproportionate cost. Figures for 2001-02 to 2004-05 are not available as during this period fuel bills were included within a general service charge.
£000 Electricity Gas Other fuel 2007-08 53 49 0 2006-07 112 47 0 2005-06 68 40 0 2004-05 70 20 0 2003-04 49 39 0 2002-03 46 1 0 2001-02 35 4 0 2000-01 9 — — 1999-2000 — — — 1998-99 — — — Total 442 200 0
Total fuel cost (£000) 2007-08 160 2006-07 169 2005-06 165 2004-05 106 2003-04 98 2002-03 44 2001-02 46 2000-01 45 1999-2000 57 1998-99 — Total 890
One North East does not record fuel expenditure in the manner requested. As a result, it would be unable to break down its energy spend into separate components without incurring disproportionate cost.
£000 Electricity Gas Other fuel 2007-08 105 29 0 2006-07 87 12 0 2005-06 79 11 0 2004-05 48 5 0 2003-04 45 7 0 2002-03 44 7 0 2001-02 39 6 0 2000-01 35 6 0 1999-2000 32 5 0 1998-99 — — — Total 514 88 0
Total fuel cost (£000) 2007-08 106 2006-07 93 2005-06 87 2004-05 29 2003-04 14 2002-03 16 2001-02 — 2000-01 — 1999-2000 — 1998-99 — Total 345
SWRDA does not record fuel expenditure in the manner requested. As a result, it would be unable to break down its energy spend into separate components without incurring disproportionate cost.
Electricity Gas Other fuel 2007-08 70 14 0 2006-07 71 7 0 2005-06 60 10 0 2004-05 63 9 0 2003-04 48 9 0 2002-03 56 9 0 2001-02 51 9 0 2000-01 — — — Total 419 67 0
Letter from Gareth Jones, dated 13 April 2009:
I am replying on behalf of Companies House to your Parliamentary Question tabled on 25 March 2009, UIN 267342, to the Minister of State for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.
Since the inception of BERR in 2007, Companies House has used the following amounts of fuel:
Financial year Electricity Gas 2007-08 5,315,618 1,708,260
Letter from Stephen Speed, dated 13 April 2009:
The Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform has asked me to reply to you directly on behalf of The Insolvency Service how much (a) electricity, (b) gas and (c) other fuel was used by (i) his Department and (ii) each of its agencies since the inception of his Department; and how much was used by each of the regional development agencies in each of the last 10 years.
The Insolvency Service has consumed the following energy to date since the formation of BERR in June 2007:
kWh Electricity 2,109,082 Gas 934,211 Other Fuel 0
Departmental Public Expenditure
The latest estimate of capital expenditure for the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) is as follows:
Capital expenditure in £ million 2008-09 forecast outturn 2009-10 budgets allocated 2010-11 CSR07 settlement figures Capital expenditure 143.800 131.054 166.325 Less capital income from launch investment (129.000) (120.000) (184.500) Net capital expenditure 15.800 11.0540 (18.175)1 1 Planned receipts are in excess of expenditure in 2010-11.
The Department’s settlement from the 2007 comprehensive spending review (CSR07) included use of end year flexibility (EYF) stocks and other flexibilities, subject to agreement by HM Treasury. The planned expenditure for 2009-10 includes use of £43 million, the balance of a loan made to the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS), which is due to be repaid in 2009-10. There remains considerable volatility in the planned income received from launch investments in the aerospace sector, which will impact on BERR’s future capital expenditure plans, particularly in 2010-11.
Plans for 2011-12 have not yet been formulated, pending the outcome of the next spending review.
Departmental Redundancy
The following table sets out details of staff who left the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform under staff exit schemes with a severance package.
Severance package 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 Total £100,000-£125,000 9 12 4 25 £125,000-£150,000 2 2 3 7 £150,000-£200,000 3 10 4 17 £200,000-£250,000 1 6 3 10 £250,000-£500,000 0 5 3 8 £500,000 plus 0 0 0 0 Total 15 35 17 67
For staff leaving on compulsory or flexible early severance terms, or in receipt of a statutory redundancy payment, the size of the package is simply the lump sum compensation payment made.
For staff leaving on compulsory, flexible or approved early retirement terms, the size of the package includes any lump sum compensation payment made on departure (compulsory terms only) and also the capitalised cost of paying a pension or annual compensation payment (ACP) before pension age, the cost of any pension enhancement (compulsory and flexible terms only) and the cost of bringing forward the payment of the pension lump sum (for those in classic). These figures are therefore the initial provision for the early departure liabilities caused by the staff departures. They will include any cash payments made during the period.
Departmental Responsibilities
BERR and its predecessor Departments have been responsible for company law issues since the 19th century. The name “Corporate Law and Governance Directorate” (CLG) was adopted in 2005 when responsibility for company investigations transferred to the Insolvency Service. Highlights of CLG work appear on the Department’s annual report (Sections 2.91-2.94)
http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file47097.pdf
My hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State currently has responsibility for company law issues in succession to my hon. Friend the Minister for Trade, Development and Consumer Affairs. The directorate also houses BERR’s Better Regulation Unit, which reports to the Minister for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting in succession to the Minister for Competitiveness and Small Business. In 2007-08 the running costs of the directorate were £2,198,000.
Departmental Sick Leave
The total number of staff recorded as having been on sick leave for over 12 months on 31 December over the past five years is 12.
It is not possible to give a breakdown for each individual year in order to avoid possibly revealing the identity of the individual staff members.
Departmental Standards
BERR leads delivery of three CSR 07 public service agreements, (PSA 1—Raise the productivity of the UK economy; PSA 6—Deliver the conditions for business success in the UK; PSA 7—Improve the economic performance of all English regions and reduce the gap in economic growth rates between regions), and two PSAs outstanding from SR 04, (PSA 6—Enterprise; and PSA 10—Maximising potential in the workplace.)
Compliance with BERR’s PSAs is measured as progress against a number of indicators. Costs to BERR of measuring progress against these PSAs are as listed. In most cases progress is measured against externally produced data, provided at no cost to BERR.
Progress against the CSR 07 PSA 1 is measured wholly against externally produced data, provided at no cost to BERR.
Costs to BERR of producing data for measuring progress against the CSR 07 PSA 6 are estimated at £66,000 in the last 12 months.
Costs to BERR of processing data for measuring progress against the CSR 07 PSA 7 are estimated at £43 in the last 12 months.
Costs to BERR of producing data for measuring progress against the SR 04 PSA 6 are estimated at £144,550 (excluding VAT) in the last 12 months.
Costs to BERR of producing data for measuring progress against the SR 04 PSA 10 are estimated at £1,000 in the last 12 months.
Total costs to BERR of producing data for measuring progress against these PSAs are estimated at £211,593 in the last 12 months.
EU Internal Trade
The Mutual Recognition Regulation places two main obligations on EU member states—to ensure that specified fair and transparent procedures are followed when enforcing rules which exclude from their market products lawfully marketed elsewhere in the EU, and to establish a contact point to provide information on these rules.
An exercise to identify affected UK rules has been completed. Officials have been working with other Departments and enforcement authorities responsible for these rules in order to ensure that their procedures are in line with the requirements of the regulation.
The product contact point for the regulation is being established within the Businesslink.gov.uk website, including new guidance pages within the international trade area of the site. Guidance pages on individual regulations are being amended or expanded as necessary to provide the additional information specified in the regulation.
The regulation comes into effect on 13 May 2009. New enforcement procedures will take effect from this date, and the new section on Businesslink.gov.uk is expected to go live by this date.
The latest figures available for the number of cases handled on SOLVIT is for the period January to December 2008. During that period the Action Single Market/UK SOLVIT centre dealt with 247 cases.
The product contact point for the Mutual Recognition Regulation will be located within the Businesslink.gov.uk website. Businesslink.gov.uk already provides the majority of the information on technical rules required by the regulation, so locating the contact point here minimises the cost and takes advantage of the site's high brand recognition and traffic.
India: Overseas Trade
UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) is the principal Government organisation for the promotion of trade and investment with India. In 2007 UKTI increased its staff in India by 18 per cent. to better support British business and inward investment. In 2007-08 and 2008-09 UKTI allocated grant funding to the newly created UK India Business Council (UKIBC)—a business-led organisation specifically tasked with supporting Government in the promotion of bilateral trade, business and investment with the two countries. We have also refreshed the UK-India Joint Economic Trade Committee (JETCO) dialogue, which my noble Friend the Secretary of State co-chaired with Minister Nath this January as part of a wider trade and investment visit to India.
We continue actively to develop trade and investment links, through the ongoing work of our team in India and the UK, and have commissioned research by the UKIBC into the opportunities represented by India’s second tier cities—the results of which will be released shortly. We are also recruiting a supply chain specialist and have put in place a new initiative, Fiscal Compass, which will help UK companies capitalise on overseas business opportunities arising from fiscal stimulus spending, including in India. My noble Friend the Minister for Trade and Investment is planning to visit India later this year, to further promote trade and investment.
£ 2008-09 22,033,261 2007-08 1,964,507 2006-07 1,842,356 2005-06 1,213,472 2004-05 872,234 1 Figures may slightly under-report the total programme expenditure on India as they do not take account of UKTI multi-market initiatives where the India costs are not specifically identified. 2 Estimated outturn.
£ 2007-08 7,018,563.28 2006-07 5,028.766.97 1 2008-09 figures are not yet available. 2 Staff and establishment cost for UKTI in the years prior to 2006-07 were included in the general FCO compliment in India and are therefore not specifically identifiable.
UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) is the principal body concerned with promoting trade and investment with India. The network in India consists of officials (full-time equivalent) at the following grades:
AA AO EO HEO SEO Grade 7 Grade 6 SCS Total Present 1.9 9.3 32.1 34.95 0.7 3.7 1.7 1.95 86.3 2007 6.35 34.99 8 23.85 1.7 1.95 1.8 1.78 80.42 2006 3.1 35.35 7.8 20.63 2.65 2.05 0.8 1.6 73.98 2005 4.1 37.48 7.35 20.26 2.7 1.95 0.55 1.95 76.34
Historical staffing levels for the period 1998 to 2004 are not available in a format that provides a meaningful comparison with the subsequent data.
The South Asia Team in International Group, UKTI consists of seven officials and is predominantly focused on India but it also has responsibility for trade and investment issues in other South Asian markets.
Similarly other officials in UKTI and BERR contribute towards the promotion of trade between the UK and India but it is not possible to quantify exact staffing levels as this is only part of their role.
In each of the two financial years 2007-08 and 2008-09 we paid to the UK-India Business Council (UKIBC) a grant of £1,000,000.00.
The purpose of the grant is to finance the UKIBC’s advice and assistance to UK businesses doing or seeking to do business in India. This complements the services offered by UKTI in the UK.
UKTI, within BERR, provides services to companies not only from India, but across the globe. This includes: promoting the attractiveness of the UK to investors; a free consultancy service to foreign owned companies wishing to locate in the UK; direct access to Government Departments (and HMG policy) and introductions to private sector advisors wherever possible. Relationships between UKTI staff in London and overseas and with the UK regions provide a seamless service to clients.
UKTI, working with the regional development agencies and the devolved Administrations, maintains links with strategic companies once they have invested in the UK via the Investor Development programme. UKTI systematically gathers feedback on issues of concern to established inward investors, bringing these to the attention of relevant Government Departments and Ministers as appropriate.
UKTI does not offer specific services around joint ventures or mergers and acquisitions but provides services to assist with the trade and expansion efforts of companies that establish in the UK. UKTI does not provide finance to companies locating in the UK, but does provide strategic and operational advice via the UKTI/RDA/private sector networks.
Israel: Overseas Trade
UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) provides a range of support services to British companies wishing to trade with or invest in Israel, through commercial teams based in both the UK and the British embassy in Tel Aviv.
UKTI support focuses, in particular, on business opportunities in high technology sectors, including biotechnology, health care, aerospace, information and communication technology, the environmental industries and financial and legal services. Information on commercial events in Israel is posted on the UKTI website (www.uktradeinvest.gov.uk) along with details of specific business opportunities in the market.
UKTI supports the work of the Israel British Business Council (IBBC) including bi-annual meetings in Tel Aviv and London, and also supports a broad range of activities aimed at boosting bilateral trade and investment, including trade missions to Israel, inward missions by Israeli firms to trade fairs in the UK and promotional events aimed at encouraging Israeli companies to list in London and do business which brings benefits to Britain.
Information on annual expenditure on trade promotion is unavailable due to the length of time it would take to research these figures.
The benefits of international trade to gross domestic product (GDP) result from greater economic efficiency due to a combination of increased competition in markets, relative comparative advantages, economies of scale, increased opportunities for learning, and greater incentives for innovation. Due to the difficulty of differentiating between the impact of trade and other factors on growth, it is not possible to quantify precisely the impact of trade with another country on GDP.
The following table indicates the scale of UK trade in goods and services to Israel for the years 2006-07 as a proportion of GDP:
2006 2007 UK exports to Israel: % of UK GDP at market prices 0.13 0.12 UK imports from Israel: % of UK GDP at market prices 0.10 0.10
Geographical data for trade in 2008 are due to be published at the end of July.
I have not met my Israeli counterpart but there are regular exchanges between officials.
UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) allocates £25,000 annually for the activities of the Israel-Britain Business Council (IBBC). This funding supports UKTI’s efforts to increase trade and investment with Israel. UKTI officials work closely with both the director of the IBBC and other UK members, to try to ensure the best fit between the activities of the Business Council and UKTI’s strategic priorities for business with Israel, including the financial services, health care and high technology sectors.
Kenya: Overseas Trade
According to HM Revenue and Customs Overseas Trade Statistics, in 2008 UK exports of goods to Kenya were worth about £194 million and UK imports of goods from Kenya were worth about £316 million.
The Office for National Statistics is likely to publish its first estimates of 2008 UK trade in services with Kenya on 31 July. Their Balance of Payments Pink Book estimates for 2007 trade in services were UK exports to Kenya worth about £136 million and UK imports from Kenya worth about £182 million.
Legal Opinion
Since this Department was established in July 2007, it has spent the following on external legal services:
£ million 2007-081 9.8 2008-092 8.2 1 From July onwards. 2 Up to 22 January 2009.
Lord Jones of Birmingham
Since 1999 the Government have published the total cost of all overseas travel by Ministers and a list of all overseas travel by Cabinet Ministers costing over £500. From 2008 the list included details of overseas visits undertaken by all Ministers. This information for the last financial year was published in July 2008. Details for the last financial year will be published as soon as possible. All ministerial travel is undertaken in accordance with the “Ministerial Code”.
Members: Correspondence
[holding answer 20 March 2009]: I responded to the hon. Member on 6 April 2009.
[holding answer 20 March 2009]: This matter falls under the responsibility of the Insolvency Service and I have asked the chief executive to reply direct to my hon. Friend.
I responded to the hon. Member on 27 March 2009.
I responded to my hon. Friend on 31 March. I apologise for the delay caused by the current high volumes of correspondence.
Minimum Wage
The national minimum wage was introduced in 1999. The following numbers relate to the number of workers who were earning below the national minimum wage before its introduction.
Information on earnings is taken from the ONS’ Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) dataset for 1998. Information for individual parliamentary constituencies is not readily available in the ASHE dataset. However, information is available on a Government office region basis.
(a) The number of workers in the UK that stood to benefit directly in the form of higher hourly wages from the introduction of the national minimum wage in April 1999 is estimated to be around 1,000,000.
(b) In the West Midlands, 100,000 workers were estimated to benefit directly from higher hourly wages as a result of the introduction to the national minimum wage in April 1999.
Morocco: Overseas Trade
UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) is able to provide British companies with detailed advice concerning business opportunities in Morocco when requested. They would also be advised of the sensitivities in respect of Western Sahara.
Motor Industry: France
My noble Friend the Secretary of State has discussed state aid matters with Commissioner Kroes on a number of occasions. On each occasion he has stressed the need to take enforcement action against abuses of the state aid rules by any member state.
Post Offices
This is an operational matter for Post Office Ltd. (POL). I have therefore asked Alan Cook, Managing Director of POL, to reply direct to the hon. Member.
Copies of the letter will be placed in the Libraries of the House.
Royal Mail: Pensions
Over time there have been a number of changes in the organisation and structure of the Royal Mail group of companies. This makes a clear and accurate split of the past membership and deficit of the pension scheme for Post Office Ltd. difficult to establish.
Under Government proposals to support the pension scheme (as part of the package of measures currently before Parliament in the Postal Services Bill) members of the scheme who do, or did, work for Post Office Ltd will be treated on an equivalent basis to other Royal Mail employees.
As at 31 March 2008 out of a total 181,276 permanent Royal Mail employees, 9,163 were engaged on Post Office Ltd. business. This represents approximately 5 per cent. of the current workforce.
Royal Mail: Reorganisation
The estimated expenditure incurred to the end of March 2009 on external advisers providing legal, financial and accountancy advice in relation to the partnership proposals for Royal Mail is £3.6 million.
It is not appropriate for commercial reasons to reveal the costs incurred by a specific external adviser which would be the case in this instance. The total estimated expenditure incurred to the end of March 2009 on external advisers providing legal, financial and accountancy advice in relation to the partnership proposals for Royal Mail is £3.6 million.
South West Regional Development Agency
The following reductions were made to the indicative allocations given to the South West of England Regional Development Agency (SWRDA) at the start of the comprehensive spending review 2007 period:
SWRDA contribution Programme1 Resource Capital £20 million Flood Work and Climate Change (2008-09) 1.5 — £25 million HomeBuyers Direct Initiative (2009-10) — 220.0 £275 million HomeBuyers Direct Initiative (2010-11) — 2— £17 million Fuel Efficiency Initiative (2008-09) 1.1 — £25 million Small Business Finance Scheme (2009-10) 33.5 — £25 million Small Business Finance Scheme (2010-11) 3— — £10 million Equity Fund (2009-10) — 0.7 1 Figures represent total for the regions 2 Indicates brace 3 Indicates brace
Zimbabwe: Overseas Trade
Data on recorded trade in goods with Zimbabwe are shown in the following table:
UK exports of goods to Zimbabwe UK imports of goods from Zimbabwe 2004 26 48 2005 22 44 2006 20 27 2007 23 20 2008 21 37 Source: HMRC Overseas Trade Statistics
Estimates of trade in services are not available for the full five years. ONS data published in the UK Balance of Payments Pink Book 2008 were:
UK exports of services to Zimbabwe UK imports of services from Zimbabwe 2006 21 31 2007 32 37
Communities and Local Government
Council Tax
Details of the number of second homes in each council tax band in each region in England since 2004 are given in the following table. Information for previous years is not available. The data are a snapshot taken in the autumn of each year and are as reported to Communities and Local Government by all billing authorities in England on their annual council tax base (CTB) returns.
A B C D E F G H Total 1 November 2004 North East 2,661 1,116 1,041 696 372 170 112 21 6,189 North West 5,299 3,097 3,273 2,292 1,527 877 734 89 17,188 Yorkshire and the Humber 4,778 3,047 2,911 1,988 1,204 463 297 48 14,736 East Midlands 4,163 1,908 1,626 1,050 504 322 249 37 9,859 West Midlands 3,070 1,759 1,409 988 727 400 327 72 8,752 East of England 7,664 5,312 5,753 3,762 2,352 1,351 1,104 165 27,463 London 1,135 4,241 9,280 9,365 8,328 6,537 8,851 4,736 52,473 South East 6,797 6,516 9,033 7,146 5,040 3,232 3,411 954 42,129 South West 9,819 8,590 9,813 8,447 6,394 3,680 3,103 551 50,397 10 October 2005 North East 3,221 1,238 1,204 791 418 178 119 19 7,188 North West 5,674 3,376 3,462 2,398 1,611 955 730 89 18,295 Yorkshire and the Humber 5,367 3,353 3,189 2,205 1,281 496 330 46 16,267 East Midlands 4,041 1,940 1,725 1,038 563 331 277 53 9,968 West Midlands 6,064 3,151 2,153 1,410 1,038 499 385 74 14,774 East of England 8,191 5,242 5,797 3,816 2,373 1,416 1,159 187 28,181 London 1,156 3,997 8,924 8,861 7,982 6,074 8,330 4,496 49,820 South East 6,849 6,294 8,713 7,382 5,079 3,113 3,235 923 41,588 South West 9,493 8,607 9,937 8,498 6,471 3,624 3,065 555 50,250 9 October 2006 North East 3,279 1,315 1,262 783 430 184 127 19 7,399 North West 5,459 3,385 3,589 2,477 1,632 971 775 97 18,385 Yorkshire and the Humber 5,380 3,471 3,325 2,196 1,305 537 325 46 16,585 East Midlands 3,973 2,140 1,823 1,102 554 320 281 59 10,252 West Midlands 6,247 3,390 2,414 1,640 1,122 546 409 88 15,856 East of England 8,212 5,343 5,895 3,830 2,385 1,414 1,159 195 28,433 London 1,233 4,253 9,316 9,063 7,992 5,972 7,868 4,284 49,981 South East 6,915 6,376 8,745 7,326 5,160 3,144 3,137 931 41,734 South West 9,821 8,871 10,170 8,708 6,537 3,686 3,080 586 51,459 8 October 2007 North East 3,167 1,305 1,275 811 429 191 120 22 7,320 North West 5,326 3,660 3,837 2,660 1,725 1,031 788 104 19,131 Yorkshire and the Humber 5,607 3,659 3,417 2,276 1,321 563 328 48 17,219 East Midlands 3,971 2,185 1,832 1,093 551 333 280 60 10,305 West Midlands 5,739 3,706 2,566 1,513 1,081 510 413 87 15,615 East of England 8,123 5,326 5,996 3,858 2,421 1,416 1,161 193 28,494 London 1,264 4,132 8,846 8,808 7,763 5,707 7,209 3,993 47,722 South East 6,839 6,383 8,895 7,444 5,253 3,177 3,138 948 42,077 South West 9,415 8,728 10,145 8,848 6,538 3,646 3,141 592 51,053 6 October 2008 North East 3,225 1,384 1,322 832 477 215 141 22 7,618 North West 5,767 3,968 4,121 2,900 1,852 1,059 804 106 20,577 Yorkshire and the Humber 5,877 3,978 3,643 2,360 1,353 582 337 44 18,174 East Midlands 3,881 2,194 1,850 1,177 603 339 283 59 10,386 West Midlands 5,771 3,885 2,667 1,636 1,134 522 401 79 16,095 East of England 7,986 5,375 6,012 3,929 2,533 1,492 1,171 197 28,695 London 1,325 4,189 8,837 8,860 7,835 5,666 7,209 3,928 47,849 South East 8,749 6,399 8,996 7,540 5,387 3,253 3,255 979 44,558 South West 9,321 8,790 10,204 8,915 6,643 3,779 3,175 605 51,432
Details of how many chargeable dwellings in each council tax band there were in each region in each year from 1997 to 2008 are shown in the following table. The data are a snapshot taken in the autumn of each year and are as reported to Communities and Local Government by all billing authorities in England on their annual council tax base (CTB) returns.
Numbers of chargeable dwellings in each council tax band for England, but only at an all England total level, are published by the Department in statistical releases, most recently on 26 November 2008, and in the annual publication ‘Local Government Financial Statistics’.
Band A Band B Band C Band D Band E Band F Band G Band H Total 3 Nov 1997 North East 643,320 150,105 148,150 70,694 34,751 15,904 9,074 978 1,072,976 Northwest 1,250,413 531,964 489,673 265,402 149,441 74,112 51,491 5,033 2,817,529 Yorkshire and the Humber 957,203 398,112 331,569 167,896 104,013 50,245 30,161 2,480 2,041,679 East Midlands 661,857 382,774 303,997 166,851 93,681 44,902 27,420 2,396 1,683,878 West Midlands 693,484 533,196 407,559 221,355 135,103 72,913 44,452 4,314 2,112,376 East of England 308,973 468,062 587,394 375,910 223,799 119,720 82,455 9,434 2,175,747 London 99,663 396,249 794,043 755,314 454,595 220,519 180,911 46,860 2,948,154 South East 268,492 527,829 839,359 644,487 431,715 256,957 207,112 27,155 3,203,106 South West 346,213 507,392 478,489 319,604 209,978 106,429 63,987 5,865 2,037,957 3 Nov 1998 North East 642,130 150,072 149,472 72,289 35,566 16,167 9,247 1,019 1,075,962 North West 1,251,929 534,893 492,203 268,428 152,468 75,294 52,015 5,076 2,832,306 Yorkshire and the Humber 955,819 400,337 333,824 170,687 106,085 51,338 30,604 2,518 2,051,212 East Midlands 664,304 385,230 306,290 170,094 96,196 46,134 27,853 2,439 1,698,540 West Midlands 695,245 535,583 409,645 223,866 137,510 74,336 45,335 4,370 2,125,890 East of England 311,895 470,380 591,095 380,063 227,426 122,088 83,855 9,578 2,196,380 London 99,898 399,541 797,675 759,098 456,573 222,216 182,861 47,565 2,965,427 South East 271,015 531,573 843,715 649,088 436,184 260,392 210,047 27,551 3,229,565 Southwest 349,852 510,573 481,321 323,165 214,203 108,376 64,728 5,935 2,058,153 3 Nov 1999 North East 639,023 150,718 150,904 74,063 36,637 16,508 9,411 1,027 1,078,291 North West 1,252,849 538,633 495,747 272,237 155,700 76,755 52,726 5,158 2,849,805 Yorkshire and the Humber 954,716 402,689 336,028 173,869 108,770 52,562 31,122 2,573 2,062,329 East Midlands 666,867 387,752 308,713 173,482 99,188 47,623 28,449 2,458 1,714,532 West Midlands 694,748 538,693 412,393 226,690 140,267 76,058 46,235 4,451 2,139,535 East of England 314,029 472,670 594,105 383,948 230,976 124,608 85,503 9,791 2,215,630 London 99,822 403,437 800,302 763,560 458,530 224,683 184,624 48,467 2,983,425 South East 273,059 534,023 847,352 653,850 440,279 264,115 212,813 27,950 3,253,441 South West 352,418 512,905 484,904 327,053 217,863 110,300 65,677 6,020 2,077,140 1 Nov 2000 North East 642,988 152,230 152,632 76,352 37,765 16,833 9,639 1,031 1,089,470 North West 1,267,869 543,069 499,671 276,183 159,247 78,605 53,863 5,270 2,883,777 Yorkshire and the Humber 959,073 405,337 339,040 177,965 111,960 54,200 31,944 2,675 2,082,194 East Midlands 672,131 391,759 310,703 177,005 102,310 49,246 29,244 2,490 1,734,888 West Midlands 698,557 541,822 415,384 229,974 143,387 77,892 47,470 4,603 2,159,089 East of England 318,408 476,872 598,660 389,136 234,349 127,024 86,991 10,046 2,241,486 London 102,759 406,922 804,719 768,933 462,610 228,074 187,070 49,702 3,010,789 South East 277,204 537,514 852,739 659,164 444,525 267,773 216,085 28,449 3,283,453 South West 356,792 516,509 488,900 330,922 222,221 112,315 66,834 6,105 2,100,598 1 Nov 2001 North East 640,555 152,622 154,073 78,328 39,079 17,151 9,967 1,050 1,092,825 North West 1,262,039 545,560 502,403 279,428 162,976 80,228 54,717 5,315 2,892,666 Yorkshire and the Humber 957,100 407,530 341,342 182,037 115,299 55,683 32,820 2,726 2,094,537 East Midlands 676,053 394,126 313,497 180,544 105,607 50,780 30,041 2,538 1,753,186 West Midlands 697,713 543,614 417,443 232,745 145,975 79,451 48,439 4,711 2,170,091 East of England 320,443 479,398 601,712 392,594 237,562 129,072 88,384 10,213 2,259,378 London 102,493 408,413 807,709 773,498 466,479 230,640 189,012 50,421 3,028,665 South East 278,908 539,435 856,349 663,625 448,620 270,574 218,552 28,775 3,304,838 South West 359,736 519,985 492,367 334,555 225,712 114,104 67,700 6,170 2,120,329 1 Nov 2002 North East London 638,449 153,658 155,272 80,258 40,271 17,617 10,254 1,070 1,096,849 North West 1,260,057 548,719 505,452 283,133 166,609 81,646 55,735 5,462 2,906,813 Yorkshire and the Humber 956,417 409,505 343,719 185,535 118,565 57,150 33,525 2,792 2,107,208 East Midlands 676,573 396,177 316,302 183,716 108,707 52,392 30,840 2,578 1,767,285 West Midlands 697,269 546,602 420,415 236,018 149,042 81,319 49,450 4,740 2,184,855 East of England 321,675 481,420 604,936 396,891 240,864 131,599 89,740 10,406 2,277,531 London 101,830 410,338 812,695 778,663 469,813 233,049 190,424 51,035 3,047,847 South East 279,835 542,597 861,170 668,722 452,888 273,676 220,894 29,208 3,328,990 South West 361,351 522,925 495,692 338,112 228,809 115,987 68,520 6,254 2,137,650 3 Nov 2003 North East 638,476 154,253 156,193 81,769 41,264 18,078 10,489 1,067 1,101,589 North West 1,260,433 552,435 508,912 287,413 169,563 82,908 56,703 5,542 2,923,909 Yorkshire and the Humber 956,015 411,557 345,459 189,173 121,171 58,038 33,983 2,823 2,118,219 East Midlands 679,912 397,581 318,872 187,210 111,098 53,657 31,314 2,623 1,782,267 West Midlands 698,976 548,618 422,615 239,396 151,545 82,619 50,287 4,790 2,198,846 East of England 322,972 483,885 607,580 401,016 244,093 133,231 90,951 10,505 2,294,233 London 102,278 412,658 817,281 783,347 472,513 235,496 191,969 51,641 3,067,183 South East 281,481 545,939 865,094 673,561 455,931 276,122 222,397 29,590 3,350,115 South West 364,349 525,884 498,945 341,817 230,885 117,532 68,878 6,280 2,154,570 1 Nov 2004 North East 636,777 155,272 157,213 83,398 42,297 18,457 10,677 1,087 1,105,178 North West 1,257,266 556,992 512,713 291,900 172,407 83,966 57,361 5,639 2,938,244 Yorkshire and the Humber 956,778 414,827 348,671 193,265 123,109 58,977 34,476 2,820 2,132,923 East Midlands 682,896 400,625 322,179 190,847 113,177 54,841 31,762 2,668 1,798,995 West Midlands 698,950 551,918 425,498 242,350 153,602 83,651 51,035 4,807 2,211,811 East of England 324,269 486,517 611,663 405,720 247,419 134,906 91,716 10,613 2,312,823 London 101,358 413,781 822,322 787,709 475,586 236,983 192,703 52,062 3,082,504 South East 281,744 549,690 870,304 679,986 459,170 278,502 224,026 29,923 3,373,345 South West 366,459 529,753 503,191 345,433 233,257 118,978 69,336 6,359 2,172,766 10 Oct 2005 North East 634,129 156,349 158,402 84,778 43,215 18,800 10,886 1,109 1,107,668 North West 1,254,347 561,954 515,601 295,454 173,968 84,877 57,864 5,705 2,949,770 Yorkshire and the Humber 958,244 417,874 351,499 196,221 124,541 59,610 34,783 2,844 2,145,616 East Midlands 685,552 402,936 325,204 193,365 114,872 55,789 32,158 2,671 1,812,547 West Midlands 700,260 555,330 428,103 245,147 154,999 84,364 51,533 4,864 2,224,600 East of England 327,129 489,843 616,137 409,404 249,765 136,238 92,445 10,783 2,331,744 London 102,532 416,823 830,604 793,973 478,914 238,947 193,653 52,598 3,108,044 South East 285,267 553,001 876,949 685,906 462,406 280,440 225,149 30,163 3,399,281 South West 368,870 532,582 506,523 348,088 235,104 119,964 69,752 6,403 2,187,286 9 Oct 2006 North East 632,961 158,976 160,182 85,965 44,064 19,159 11,081 1,131 1,113,519 North West 1,255,835 569,290 520,222 299,247 175,927 85,819 58,287 5,792 2,970,419 Yorkshire and the Humber 958,349 421,400 355,550 199,251 126,030 60,450 35,178 2,870 2,159,078 East Midlands 688,108 406,786 328,616 196,019 116,395 56,686 32,510 2,678 1,827,798 West Midlands 701,781 560,082 431,911 248,081 156,546 85,128 52,063 4,920 2,240,512 East of England 329,921 494,319 620,889 413,944 252,314 137,569 93,475 10,952 2,353,383 London 103,689 420,576 838,414 801,104 481,844 240,976 194,630 53,218 3,134,451 South East 287,938 559,505 885,158 692,453 466,099 282,466 226,670 30,516 3,430,805 South West 373,075 537,894 511,618 351,508 237,375 120,974 70,091 6,503 2,209,038 8 Oct 2007 North East 632,818 161,789 161,857 87,415 44,627 19,460 11,237 1,153 1,120,356 North West 1,256,151 577,480 525,575 303,378 177,357 86,606 58,421 5,879 2,990,847 Yorkshire and the Number 957,629 426,086 359,033 201,990 127,215 61,133 35,360 2,897 2,171,343 East Midlands 692,315 411,573 333,043 198,676 117,779 57,274 32,815 2,696 1,846,171 West Midlands 703,364 564,508 435,558 250,299 157,990 85,546 52,409 4,941 2,254,615 East of England 333,156 501,053 627,039 418,635 255,285 138,999 94,351 11,145 2,379,663 London 105,114 424,253 848,734 807,723 484,579 242,674 194,779 53,655 3,161,511 South East 292,255 567,195 894,039 699,785 468,902 284,584 227,535 30,920 3,465,215 South West 378,907 544,380 516,405 355,170 239,242 121,845 70,374 6,565 2,232,888 6 Oct 2008 North East 631,311 164,191 163,628 88,801 45,203 19,681 11,355 1,179 1,125,349 North West 1,257,746 586,683 529,579 306,230 178,223 87,091 58,548 5,987 3,010,087 Yorkshire and the Humber 962,094 432,791 363,736 204,986 128,453 61,829 35,596 2,962 2,192,447 East Midlands 697,725 417,325 336,626 201,260 118,935 57,880 33,052 2,713 1,865,516 West Midlands 703,807 569,909 439,121 252,297 159,351 86,235 52,697 4,981 2,268,398 East of England 336,033 508,049 632,710 422,724 257,393 140,006 94,841 11,393 2,403,149 London 105,677 428,235 860,363 816,303 487,682 243,822 195,240 54,142 3,191,464 South East 297,754 575,802 903,921 706,279 471,469 285,858 228,545 31,327 3,500,955 South West 385,144 551,064 521,628 359,108 241,176 122,673 70,793 6,671 2,258,257
Councillors
This is an operational matter for the Audit Commission and I will ask the chief executive of the Audit Commission to write to the hon. Member direct.
Letter from Steve Bundred, dated 20 April 2009:
Your Parliamentary question on whether the Audit Commission plans to obtain bank account information from councillors in other local authorities during its next National Fraud Initiative national data matching exercise has been passed to me to reply.
All local authorities will be required to provide payroll data relating to a salary, members' allowance or other remuneration for the next scheduled exercise, NFI 2010/11. The fields required for data matching are set out in a 'data specification'. The bank account and sort code are included on the payroll data specification. This information is required under powers in Part 2A of the Audit Commission Act 1998.
A copy of this letter will be placed in Hansard.
Departmental Carbon Emissions
Communities and Local Government signed up to the Carbon Trust’s Carbon Management Programme in April 2006. Since then, the Department has continued to work with the Carbon Trust to identify opportunities to reduce further carbon emissions.
In 2007-08, the Department reduced its electricity and gas consumption in its main headquarter building by 22 per cent. and 37 per cent., respectively, compared to 2006-07.
Departmental Computers
The information is as follows.
Ministerial Team
The costs of laptops in 2005 to 2007 are not recorded separately and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Number Cost (£) 2005 1 n/a 2006 1 n/a 2007 1 n/a 2008 1 1,047 2009 1 1,047 n/a = Not available.
Special advisers
The cost and numbers of any laptops provided to special advisers in 2005 and 2006 are not recorded separately and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Number Cost (£) 2005 n/a n/a 2006 n/a n/a 2007 1 1,178 2008 2 11,047 2009 0 — n/a = Not available. 1 Plus one laptop reused.
The Department as a whole (figures include those above). Cost information for 2005 and 2006 is not centrally held and can be provided only at disproportionate cost. A further 31 laptops were purchased during 2007 as part of a wider project to upgrade the CLG network and costs cannot be disaggregated from the overall project costs.
Number Cost (£) 2005 237 n/a 2006 140 n/a 2007 61 72,089 2008 123 182,582 2009 159 285,227 n/a = Not available.
Departmental Manpower
The following table shows the numbers of staff employed in Housing Directorates in each of the last five years. There may be other staff engaged in housing-related matters, though it is not possible to ascertain this without incurring disproportionate cost.
Current Directorate Title 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Housing Delivery and Homelessness 102.54 108.49 114.01 110.62 138.12 Housing Management and Support 57.18 61.49 64.66 50.76 73.85 Housing Markets 38.77 40.61 43.39 49.63 66.55 Grand Total 198.49 210.59 222.06 211.01 278.52
Departmental Mobile Phones
This information is not held centrally and could be supplied only at disproportionate cost. However, details of our total spend on mobile devices (hardware and running costs) for the last five years are in the following table:
Total (£) 2004-05 94,487 2005-06 94,904 2006-08 112,650 2008-09 166,985
This information is not held centrally and could be supplied only at disproportionate cost.
However, the Department currently has 684 mobile devices on contract from our supplier; 284 of these devices are BlackBerrys.
Departmental Pay
The Communities and Local Government board consists of eight executive board members and five non-executive board members (although one non-executive board member post is vacant at present). There is no system of incentives or bonuses for the non-executive board members.
The eight executive board members are all senior civil servants and therefore eligible to be considered for annual performance bonuses under senior civil service pay arrangements. Our senior civil service staff members are assessed against a range of factors, such as:
The achievement of their Prime Objective which focuses on the way in which they lead, manage and develop their staff;
Degree to which business objectives are met;
Delivery for Ministers;
Demonstration of skills such as judgment, leadership and the PSG skills;
Effective resource management
There is no system of incentives or bonuses for special advisers in the Department.
Eco-Towns: Publicity
The cost of producing the video ‘Animated eco-town walkthrough—what might an eco-town look like?’ on the Directgov website was £21,500 excluding VAT. It was produced by Smoothe, a design agency procured through the COI.
Empty Property: Essex
The number of empty residential dwellings in Castle Point and Essex in each of the last five years are shown in the following table.
Castle Point Essex 1 November 2004 664 14,541 10 October 2005 712 15,697 9 October 2006 811 16,331 8 October 2007 862 16,045 6 October 2008 877 18,365
Data for Essex are the sum of all vacant dwellings in the individual billing authorities including Castle Point but excluding figures for Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock unitary authorities.
The data are as reported annually to Communities and Local Government on the CTB and CTB (Supplementary) forms that are completed by all billing authorities in England. The data relate to particular dates in the autumn of each year.
Faith Communities Capacity Building Fund
The British Humanist Association received £25,000 in order to establish and support a network of grassroots humanists to work and build relationships with statutory bodies and participate in groups that advise local authorities on matters of religion or belief, or encourage dialogue between people with different beliefs. The project aimed to enable local humanists to network with faith and ‘interfaith’ groups and participate in groups convened by local authorities, and thus contribute towards good relations and community cohesion.
The Faith Communities Capacity Building Fund was designed to increase the capacity of all religion and belief communities to engage with each other and with wider society. The guidance notes for the fund included the following definition:
“For the purpose of this fund, a faith organisation is defined as one where the majority of its members adhere to the same faith. They share a world view or ‘life stance’ that involves a set of moral and spiritual values and beliefs about the nature of life and the world. They will usually, but not always, believe in a god or gods.”
The application was made under the “relationships with local, regional or national Government” category—one of the capacity building categories of the fund. In its application, the BHA described their faith tradition as: “Humanist (though we do not think of ourselves as a ‘faith’, we meet the definition of ‘faith’ given in the guidance)”.
Fire Services
There is no mechanism that allows Communities and Local Government to access how many fires have been prevented. However the latest provisional figures show that in 2007-08, fire and rescue services in England attended a total of 293,900 fires, a 32 per cent. reduction on the 2001-02 figure of 431,800.
Fire Services: Manpower
The number of fire stations in England by type of staffing system is set out as follows.
As at 31 March 2008 there were 774 fire stations staffed wholly by retained duty firefighters in England. Stations with the Day-crew, Nucleus and ‘Wholetime-other duty’ system staffing typically use both whole-time and retained firefighters.
Type of fire station Number Whole-time 2:2:4 shift 551 Day-crew 97 Wholetime-other duty system 14 Nucleus 3 Retained duty system 774 Total 1,439
Fire Services: Pay
The latest available data for average costs of employing fire fighters are for 2007-08 and are shown in the table.
Whole-time Retained Headcount (31 March 2008) 30,824 14,166 Full-time equivalents (31 March 2008) 30,580 n/a Cost (£ million) 1,276 110 Average cost per full-time equivalent (£) 41,738 n/a n/a = Not applicable 1 Costs are collected as totals covering all roles from Fire Fighter to Brigade Manager. 2 Pay, employer pension contributions and employer national insurance contributions. Source: Annual returns to Communities and Local Government
Homes and Communities Agency
The predecessor bodies of the HCA were English Partnerships, the investment arm of the Housing Corporation, and the Academy for Sustainable Communities. A range of programmes previously delivered by Communities and Local Government (CLG) also transferred to the Agency.
The last 10 years spending on staff for English Partnerships and the Housing Corporation can be found in their published Annual Report and Accounts. The spend for the Academy was consolidated within the Annual Report and Accounts of its parent organisation, Yorkshire Forward. The salary costs for ASC staff were £42,000 in 2005-06, the year of its establishment, £972,000 in 2006-07 and £1.28 million 2007-08. The costs of CLG staff that transferred to the Agency were included within Departmental Annual Reports and could be disaggregated only at disproportionate cost.
The HCA is responsible to Parliament for ensuring public funds are properly used. The Agency is also subject to scrutiny by the National Audit Office. Information on staff costs for the year ending 31 March 2009 will be published in the HCA's Annual Report and Accounts which will be laid before Parliament later this year.
Since their establishment the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) has spent approximately £0.8 million on IT for former English Partnerships, Academy for Sustainable Communities and transferred CLG staff. The spend for the Tenants Services Authority (TSA) is £0.9 million which covers the costs of IT relating to former Housing Corporation staff. This cannot be disaggregated between those staff that transferred to the HCA and those that transferred to the TSA.
Housing: Construction
The Housing Green Paper “Homes for the future: more affordable, more sustainable” published in July 2007 set out the Government’s ambition to increase housing supply. This step-change in housing delivery is necessary to ensure adequate housing supply that is crucial in order to improve housing affordability, ease the pressure on social housing waiting lists and improve economic productivity.
Information on new build social housing by constituency is not available. The following table shows the number of new build for social rent in Stafford local authority, the West Midlands region, and England in 2007-08.
Area 2007-08 Stafford local authority 60 West Midlands region 2,060 England 25,390
The social rent new build figures are from the Homes and Communities Agency Investment Management System (IMS), and Housing Strategy Statistical Appendix (HSSA) returns and P2 house building returns submitted to CLG by local authorities and the National House-Building Council (NHBC).
Not all social rented housing is provided by new build completions, as some supply can come from acquisitions. An additional 3,980 social rented homes were acquired in England in 2007-08; these are not included in the table. The social rent figures differ from the number of affordable homes provided, because the affordable housing figures also include intermediate rent and low-cost home ownership, as well as social rent.
Housing: Low Incomes
(2) what assumptions about (a) inflation, (b) wage inflation, (c) discount rate for scheme liabilities and (d) rate of increase for pensions were made by the Homes and Communities Agency and its predecessors in each of the last three years.
Homes and Communities Agency employees are covered by three pension schemes. The English Partnerships Pension scheme was renamed the Homes and Communities Agency Pension scheme with effect from 1 December 2008, when the Homes and Communities Agency replaced English Partnerships as the Principal Employer. It was adopted as the scheme of choice for the Homes and Communities Agency and is used to provide benefits for new employees of the Agency. Due to legacy arrangements on the formation of the Agency, some employees are covered by the Westminster Pension Fund or the West Sussex Pension Fund, both Local Government Pension schemes.
An actuarial valuation of each of the schemes is carried out every three years to assess the value of liabilities and future funding requirements. The assumptions used for the valuation are set by the Trustees or Administering Authority after taking actuarial advice. As part of the valuation, an analysis of the experience over the previous three years is carried out. The assumptions used to value each Scheme's liabilities are long term assumptions and are intended to reflect experience over the lifetime of the scheme. Details of the most recent available actuarial valuation for each of the schemes are as follows:
The experience for the three years following the valuation of the Homes and Communities Agency Pension scheme as at 31 March 2005 was as follows (the Trustees’ long-term assumptions at 31 March 2005 are shown in brackets):
Percentage p.a (a) average inflation 3.4 (2.8) (b) average wage inflation 4.5 (4.8) (c) average investment return/discount rate 6.2 (6.2)1 (d) average rate of pension increase 3.4 (2.8) 1 This figure is a weighted average, assuming a return of 6.7 per cent, on assets backing pre-retirement liabilities and 5.2 per cent. on assets backing post-retirement liabilities.
The approximate impact on the Scheme's ongoing liabilities due to actual experience differing from the assumptions over the three years to 31 March 2008 is as follows:
Increase/decrease (a) average inflation higher than assumed (includes impact on pension increases) increase by £1.1 million (b) average wage inflation lower than assumed decrease by £0.7 million (d) rate of pension increase higher than assumed increase by £0.8 million
The next actuarial valuation has an effective date of 31 March 2008 and is currently being finalised.
The experience for the three years following the valuation of the Westminster Pension Fund as at 31 March 2004 was as follows (the long-term assumptions at 31 March 2004 are shown in brackets):
Percentage p.a (a) inflation 3.1 (2.9) (b) wage inflation (estimate) 5.4 (4.4) (c) investment return/average discount rate 13.0 (5.7) (d) rate of pension increase 3.1 (2.9)
The financial impact for the (then) Housing Corporation over the three years to 31 March 2007 is as follows:
(a) change in financial assumptions: reduced funding position by approximately £2.5 million.
(b) investment returns greater than expected: improved funding position by approximately £16.9 million.
The assumptions used to determine the value of the ongoing liabilities of the Westminster Pension Fund for the triennial actuarial valuation of the Fund as at 31 March 2007 were as follows:
Percentage p.a (a) inflation 3.2 (b) wage inflation 4.7 (c) (i) discount rate for members whilst in service 6.2 (ii) discount rate for members other than whilst in service 5.2 (d) rate of pension increase 3.2
An analysis of the experience over the three years following the valuation is not yet available. The next actuarial valuation will have an effective date of 31 March 2010.
The experience for the three years following the valuation of the West Sussex County Council Pension Fund as at 31 March 2004 was as follows (the long-term assumptions at 31 March 2004 are shown in brackets):
Percentage p.a (a) average inflation 2.9 (2.9) (b) average wage inflation 13.5 (4.4) (c) average investment return/discount rate 14.1 (6.3) (d) average rate of pension increase 2.9 (2.9) 1 This is an average figure for the Fund as a whole, based on average pensionable salaries at 31 March 2004 and 31 March 2007.
A breakdown of the impact on the Fund's ongoing liabilities due to actual experience differing from the assumptions is not disclosed in the actuarial valuation report. However at a high level the financial impact for the whole fund over the three years to 31 March 2007 is as follows:
(a) change in financial assumptions: reduced funding position by £156 million.
(b) investment returns greater than expected: improved funding position by £278 million.
The assumptions used to determine the value of the ongoing liabilities of the West Sussex county council pension fund for the triennial actuarial valuation of the fund as at 31 March 2007 were as follows:
Percentage p.a (a) inflation 3.2 (b) wage inflation 14.7 (c) discount used to value liabilities 6.1 (d) rate of pension increase 3.2 1 Plus allowances for promotional increases
An analysis of the experience over the three years following the valuation is not yet available. The next actuarial valuation will have an effective date of 31 March 2010.
Housing: Sales
The numbers of first-time buyers purchasing a home with a mortgage in the UK in each year between 1987 and 1996 are presented as follows. This shows between 1987 and 1996 there were 4,689,400 first-time buyers. There were 5,272,500 between 1997 and 2008.
Number of first-time buyers purchasing with a mortgage, UK 1987 523,700 1988 580,300 1989 455,200 1990 409,200 1991 336,200 1992 447,600 1993 519,500 1994 532,100 1995 420,300 1996 465,300 Source: Council of Mortgage Lenders
Infrastructure Planning Commission
The number of judicial reviews the Infrastructure Planning Commission is likely to face in the first three years of its operation depends on a number of unknown variables. As such it is not possible to make a meaningful estimate of their number. However, I am confident that the Commission will ensure its decisions are robust and would be able to defended legal challenges vigorously.
Local Government
A person who is employed by a local authority is disqualified for being a member of that local authority whatever their occupation.
Local Government: Bank Services
I have no plans to seek further information on levels of exposure on local government finance due to investment in the Madoff hedge fund.
Since 2006, the Government have issued over £1.1 billion in capitalisation directions to provide support for councils to deliver equal pay for thousands of employees.
In 2006-07, Communities and Local Government approved capitalisation directions for equal pay for 35 authorities totalling £160.5 million. A full list of these authorities and the sums they received is available at:
http://www.local.communities.gov.uk/finance/capital/cap0607appls.xls
The actual amount of capital expenditure used by individual authorities is available from their accounts.
In 2007-08, 46 applications for equal pay capitalisation were approved, totalling £500 million. The full list of authorities who received capitalisation directions, including the amount of capitalisation used is available at:
http://www.local.communities.gov.uk/finance/capital/equalpay0708.pdf
A further £455 million approved for 34 councils in 2008-09. The amount of capitalisation used by each individual authority will not be published until September 2009. However, a list of the councils who received directions is available at:
http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/977615
Local Government: Pensions
(2) what requirements there are on trustees of local government pension schemes in relation to maximising returns on their investments.
Investment decisions in the local government pension scheme in England and Wales are the responsibility of designated administering authorities whose decisions are subject to the provisions governing the management and investment of funds. Authorities are required to publish a Statement of Investment Principles, including their policy on the expected rate of return on investments, the types of investments to be held and the way in which risks are measured and managed. Decisions must be taken on the basis of expert advice, and comply with the regulations and with each authority’s published Statement of Investment Principles and Funding Strategy Statement. Authorities must have regard also to guidance issued by CIPFA on the preparation of these statements and on funding and investment issues.
Those responsible for investment decisions in the scheme are also required to act within general legal principles relating to their fiduciary duty and the investment of monies held in trust.
Local Government: Redundancy
The Department issues no general guidance on redundancy payments. All decisions to terminate a local authority employment, for any reason, are matters for the local authority involved.
Mobile Homes
The 2006 ad hoc survey of park home sites in England has now been placed in the Library. The data were provided by local authorities and my Department is not responsible for their accuracy.
Mortgages
The Department holds data on completed mortgages used for house purchase via the Regulated Mortgage Survey (RMS) which is supplied by the Council of Mortgage Lenders. The RMS covers about 60 per cent. of the UK mortgage market and includes details on whether the mortgage was used to purchase a new build property, whether the buyer was a first-time buyer and the loan amount and the purchase price of the property.
From this survey we have the following information on the amount of mortgage lending which has funded mortgages for house purchase (a) for new build, (b) for first-time buyers and (c) with high loan to value ratios in the (i) six months to February 2009 and (ii) the 12 months to February 2009:
Six months to February 2009 (Percentage) 12 months to February 2009 (Percentage) New build 6.8 7.3 First-time buyers 30.0 30.0 High loan to value ratios (90 per cent. or over) 17.1 24.0 Total gross mortgage lending for house purchase (£ million) 25,624 67,841 Notes: 1. These data are not necessarily representative of all mortgage lending as they are based on the Regulated Mortgage Survey data that Communities and Local Government hold which include only mortgages for house purchase and cover only about 60 per cent. of the market. 2. The total gross mortgage lending for house purchase is published by the Council of Mortgage Lenders.
Mortgages: Government Assistance
As part of the monitoring arrangements for the Government mortgage rescue scheme, headline data will be published on a monthly basis on the Department’s website starting this month. We plan to publish data for January, February and March 2009 on 21 April 2009.
Non-Domestic Rates: Small Businesses
The impact assessment, which will be prepared alongside the necessary secondary legislation, will set out details of the cost to the Exchequer and include costs to local government which are being considered as part of the Government’s new burdens rules.
(2) what estimate she has made of the likely take-up rate of the deferred business rate scheme.
There are approximately 1.7 million hereditaments in England that could potentially be eligible for deferring the increase in their business rate bills. An impact assessment will be undertaken as part of the process of making the necessary secondary legislation.
Any policy which increases the cost of providing local authority services is subject to the new burdens principle. The Government are committed to ensuring that all net new burdens falling on local authorities are fully and properly funded. The business rates announcement is covered by the new burdens principle, and the potential net impacts on local authorities will be fully funded.
The information is as follows:
England—Small Business Rate Relief Scheme
The eligibility rules for small business rate relief can be found at:
www.businesslink.gov.uk
and are summarised in the following table:
Rateable value threshold criterion Multiplier payable Relief granted Note Below £5,000—England and London Small business rate multiplier for 2008-09 is 48.1p 50 per cent. rate relief on liability This relief is available for occupiers of one property. But other properties with a rateable value under £2,200 can be disregarded in deciding whether the single occupancy criterion has been met. However, the rateable value(s) of such properties are included in determining whether the threshold criterion has been met. Between £5,000 and £10,000—England and London As above Relief is on a declining sliding scale from 50 per cent. to zero reducing at 1 per cent. per £100 of rateable value Between £10,000 and £21,499 in London or £10,000 and £14,999 elsewhere As above No relief granted Above £14,999 in England and £21,500 in London National non-domestic rate multiplier for 2009-10 is 48.5p No relief granted The small business rate relief scheme is funded by businesses that pay the national non-domestic rates multiplier.
Planning: Gardens
Residential gardens are contained within the definition of previously-developed land in Annex B of Planning Policy Statement 3 (PPS3). However, paragraph 43 of PPS 3 says that local authorities can, when deciding the priority for the location of new housing, set out in their local development framework the contributions expected from different categories of previously-developed land. This could include residential gardens. If garden development is a particular issue for an authority, then they could also introduce a plan policy on development in gardens which, for example, could set out the circumstances and type of development that would or would not be acceptable.
On the 2 April the Government announced, via a response to a parliamentary question from the hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam, a review into the evidence on the extent and impact of housing development on garden land in order to establish whether there was a genuine problem. Further details can be found at:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmhansrd/cm090402/text/90402w0048.htm#0904032000060
Regional Government: Finance
As part of the Government’s response to the economic downturn, the Ministers for each English region have established regional economic fora, which they co-chair with the chair of the regional development agenda. These short-term, ad hoc advisory groups, whose members are unpaid, have no dedicated budgets and are supported by secretariats provided by their Government offices. The members come from a variety of bodies with an interest in the regional economy, including public sector bodies, local authorities, business organisations, unions and the third sector and were invited to take part in the meetings by the co-chairs of the fora.
Details of the remits and members of each forum have been placed in the Library.
Sheltered Housing
Information is collected on sheltered housing schemes for older people that are in receipt of Supporting People funding. The information collected does not include a count of people but shows the number of household units that can be accommodated in the sheltered housing. A household unit can be one or more persons. A table has been placed in the Library which includes the number of household units that can be accommodated in such sheltered housing services, by region and administering authority area as at 31 December 2008.
No information is collected centrally on waiting lists for sheltered accommodation.
Information is collected on sheltered housing schemes for older people that are in receipt of Supporting People funding. The information collected includes the number of household units that can be accommodated in the sheltered housing. A household unit can be one or more persons.
A table has been placed in the Library showing (a) the number of household units that can be accommodated and (b) the number of sheltered housing services for older people in receipt of Supporting People funding as at 31st December 2008, by region and administering authority area.
The Department for Communities and Local Government does not issue any guidance on the employment of wardens and care workers in sheltered accommodation.
However Communities and Local Government has recently refreshed the Quality Assessment Framework (QAF) which is a voluntary scheme that sets out the standards expected in the delivery of housing-related support services, including staff quality and competence—although not mandatory, the majority of administering authorities continue to use the QAF to continue to drive up the quality standards of service providers and to ensure that services adapt to meet the changing needs of clients.
Social Rented Housing
(2) how many social homes there were in (a) London, (b) Birmingham, (c) Liverpool, (d) Leeds, (e) Sheffield, (f) Bristol, (g) Manchester, (h) Leicester, (i) Coventry, (j) Kingston upon Hull, (k) Bradford, (l) Stoke-on-Trent, (m) Wolverhampton, (n) Nottingham, (o) Plymouth, (p) Southampton, (q) Reading, (r) Derby, (s) Dudley and (t) Newcastle upon Tyne in (i) 2007 and (ii) 2008; and how many there were on 1 March 2009.
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Brent, East (Sarah Teather) on 2 April 2009, Official Report, column 1510W. A table has already been placed in the Library to provide the number of social homes owned by local authorities and registered social landlords in 2008, for every local authority area.
A new table showing the number of social homes owned by local authority and registered social landlords in 2007, for every local authority area has been deposited in the Library.
Information on local authority (LA) owned housing stock is collected from local authorities on the Housing Strategy Statistical Appendix (HSSA) return. This information is recorded as at 1 April and is published on the Communities and Local Government website in Table 116 at:
http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/housing/xls/140882.xls
Information on Registered Social Landlords’ (RSL) stock is collected through the Tenant Services Authority’s Regulatory and Statistical Return (RSR) and is recorded as at 31 March.
Figures for RSLs are for social housing stock owned in England only and include general needs, supported housing and housing for older people accommodation. Both self-contained units and bed spaces are included because a split for local authority areas is not available.
Information is not available for the expected number of social homes in 2010 or for the number of social homes on 1 March 2009.
On 29 January 2009, the Tenant Services Authority issued a guidance note to housing associations entitled “Guideline limit for rent increases”—it can be found on their website at:
http://www.tenantservicesauthority.org/server/show/ConWebDoc.16647
The guidance note refers to a circular (04/08) from the former Housing Corporation entitled “Rent, Rent Differentials and Service Charges”. This is available to download at:
http://www.housingcorp.gov.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.156337PHPSESSID8beeecea4f3ff072063dbe6c96d431a4
Travelling People: Caravan Sites
The regional assembly held this consultation and took decisions on how to treat responses. It has not yet submitted the outcome to the Secretary of State.
The provision of pitches for the Gypsy and Traveller community throughout the south-east of England is currently being reviewed as part of the region’s spatial strategy. The review is being undertaken by the South East England regional assembly, as the regional planning body. The next stage in the Gypsy and Travellers regional spatial strategy review will be a public consultation, followed some months later by an examination in public.
Health
Abortion
No assessment has been made of the number of abortions which will take place in each year to 2015. The reasons women seek an abortion are complex and may be subject to a number of different factors, and this means that it is very difficult to formulate robust estimates.
Abortion: Costs
This information is not collected centrally.
The cost of emergency contraception (morning after pills) for the latest period for which figures are available is given in the following table. The cost is for drugs listed in the British National Formulary (BNF) under paragraph 7.3.5, emergency contraception.
This figure is taken from the prescription cost analysis system, supplied by the prescription pricing division of the Business Services Authority, and covers prescriptions dispensed in England. It is based on an analysis of prescriptions dispensed in the community i.e. by community pharmacists and appliance contractors, dispensing doctors, and prescriptions submitted by prescribing doctors for items personally administered in England. The data do not cover drugs dispensed in hospitals (including mental health trusts), private prescriptions, or community contraceptive services.
£000 2007 1,892.3
Cost is the net ingredient cost and is given in thousands.
Accident and Emergency Departments: Death
The information requested is not collected centrally. The hon. Member may wish to approach local national health service organisations for further information.
Alcoholic Drinks: Health Education
The Department has invested £6 million per year in a national communications campaign, launched in May 2008, to improve the public's understanding of units of alcohol and alcohol related health harm. The campaign's purpose is to give clear information about how many units are in alcoholic drinks and to raise awareness of the risks to health of regularly drinking too much. Its messages are being released across television, press, outdoor, radio and on-line channels.
We intend that this campaign should be sustained over a number of years. The key tasks in 2009-10 will be to optimise the unit messaging, by continuing to focus on the recommended unit guidelines and to communicate the health risks associated with drinking regularly in excess of these guidelines through media channels such as television and print.
We also provide web-based support and advice and an enhanced helpline available nationally.
We have recently completed an innovative pilot to target information to neighbourhoods, individuals and their families and encourage those most affected to seek advice and support, including help from health professionals locally. Initial results are promising and development work will continue in 2009. The aim is to develop an evidence base for effective local action by national health service bodies.
The north-east has launched a regional alcohol office, which is committed to changing the drinking culture in the north-east by informing, influencing and educating people about the health and other dangers caused by alcohol misuse, both to themselves as individuals and to the wider community and by encouraging evidence-based NHS interventions.
Middlesbrough Primary Care Trust has received £150,000 in additional funding in 2008-09, as an Early Implementer of the Alcohol Improvement Programme, to implement high impact changes and other measures, which will address health problems caused by alcohol misuse. This includes providing £32,000 funding for extra identification and brief advice sessions in hospitals, accident and emergency departments, and primary care.
Ambulance Services: Airwave Service
No formal documentation has been issued to ambulance trusts with regards to Airwave although regular communication takes place between the Department and ambulance trusts; this includes planning documentation related to the implementation of the radio project and regular reports to ambulance chief executives on progress to date.
Antidepressants
(2) how many prescriptions for each selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor were dispensed to persons aged (a) under 10, (b) 10 to 15 and (c) 16 to 25 years in each of the last five years.
The number of items of Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) dispensed in England is available by calendar year from the Prescribing Cost Analysis database.
The number of items dispensed for each formulation is given in the following table.
Thousand Drug name 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Citalopram Hydrobromide 4,210.1 4,615.7 5,077.9 6,265.5 7,830.7 Escitalopram 627.6 1,033.5 1,358.8 1,466.3 1,373.9 Fluoxetine Hydrochloride 4,288.0 4,409.8 4,394.5 4,690.1 5,045.7 Fluvoxamine Maleate 31.6 30.4 29.6 29.8 29.9 Paroxetine Hydrochloride 2,869.3 2,388.3 2,040.2 1,864.9 1,765.9 Sertraline Hydrochloride 1,790.3 1,834.3 1,845.1 1,910.7 2,032.8 Total1 13,816.9 14,312.0 14,746.1 16,227.1 18,078.9 1 Totals may not match individually aggregated figures due to rounding. Notes: 1. SSRI drugs listed are those classified within the British National Formulary paragraph 4.3.3. 2. Information is not available on the age of a person receiving a particular drug or group of drugs. Source: Prescription Cost Analysis (PCA) system
Autism: Health Services
(2) how much funding his Department provided for the commissioning of autism services in the last year for which figures are available.
National health service services are commissioned locally and information on the types and numbers of providers of NHS services for people with autism is not held centrally.
For 2007-08, and also for the Comprehensive Spending Review 07 (2008-11), the Department did not provide grants for the commissioning of autism services.
A statutory duty of partnership requires primary care trusts and NHS trusts to participate in local strategic partnerships and the development of local area agreements when agreeing commissioning plans for the delivery of autism services in their locality. The Department published on 2 April this year “Services for adults with autistic spectrum conditions (ASC): good practice advice for primary care trust and local authority commissioners”, which reminds commissioners of the need to plan for autistic services and provides best examples of how they may be implemented. A copy of this publication has been placed in the Library.
Blood
The Department holds some records on the source of individual donations of blood and blood components given by donors who subsequently developed variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. However, these records contain no information that identifies the patients concerned.
The Department holds no records on the hospitals or other destinations to which individual units of blood components are sent, or on the number of occasions the Department sought information on the origin and destination of blood components.
In England and North Wales, the collection, processing, testing and issue of blood products to hospitals is the responsibility of NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT).
In accordance with the Blood Safety and Quality Regulations (2005), records kept by NHSBT uniquely identify each donor, each blood unit collected, and each component prepared, whatever its intended purpose. These records contain sufficient information to ensure each donation, unit and blood component can be identified and traced at each processing stage, and as far as the hospitals which receive the products. The time limit for retention of records is for a period of not less than 30 years.
Cardiovascular System: Children
(2) what guidance his Department has issued to primary care trusts on the reduction of extreme vascular malformations in children.
The majority of cases of congenital heart disease are isolated defects and not associated with any other disease. Many cases have no clear cause. However, the Department and the National Institute for Clinical Excellence have issued advice and guidance to help reduce known risk factors. This covers: vaccination against rubella; ensuring that diabetic women achieve good glycaemic control prior to conception and throughout the pregnancy; encouragement to women to seek the advice of their family doctors before conception if they are taking any medicine, as some prescription drugs increase the likelihood of congenital heart disease; and advice to avoid alcohol during pregnancy.
Funding is a matter for the national health service locally.
CJD: Screening
Any item of equipment for a variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease test kit must meet the essential safety requirements specified in the In Vitro Diagnostic Medical Devices Directive.
The device must perform as intended by the manufacturer and meet criteria relating to sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, repeatability and reproducibility.
Such samples can only be used for the purposes for which consent was given. Consent may be withdrawn at any time.
A process, overseen by the independent OD Resource Centre Oversight Committee, is already in place to enable appropriate access to the small number of blood samples from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob (vGD) disease patients. Companies developing vCJD screening tests are already participating in this process.
Congenital Abnormalities: Compensation
The Department’s financial records indicate that no such compensation has been paid in the period since 2001-02.
Information prior to this date could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Contraception
The Department has not undertaken or evaluated any research on the relationship between access to emergency contraception and teenage sexually transmitted infection rates.
This information is not collected centrally. However, the Department supports innovative approaches to ensuring that young people have access to sexual health advice.
Departmental Carbon Emissions
The Department's consultant, Clouds Environmental Consultancy Ltd., is currently working with the Department and the Carbon Trust to produce a report recommending the appropriate scope for the full Carbon Management Programme. Once this is completed we intend to commence the full programme by early summer 2009.
Departmental Computers
The Department issues laptop computers to individuals conducting work on behalf of the Department based upon business need. No distinction is made between the allocation of such devices to Ministers, special advisers, civil servants or other staff working on behalf of the Department. Historical records of the allocation of laptops to specific individuals are not kept.
Based upon current allocation we can state the following:
Ministers, three laptops;
Special advisers no laptops allocated currently; and
Civil servants and others, working on behalf of the Department have 2,346 laptops.
The costs of the specific laptops allocated to individuals are not held.
Departmental Domestic Visits
Ministers of this Department have had a number of meetings with Leeds departmental staff in Leeds and by videoconference. The Department makes as much use as possible of technology in holding meetings between Ministers and staff based in Leeds to help reduce both travel costs and carbon emissions. In 2007, the Secretary of State for Health, the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State my hon. Friend the Member for Bury, South (Mr. Lewis) and the Minister of State my right hon. Friend the Member for Bristol, South (Dawn Primarolo) and met staff at an all-staff event at a conference venue in Leeds. In 2008, the Secretary of State my hon. Friend the Member for Brentford and Islesworth, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State my hon. Friend the Member for Brentford and Isleworth (Ann Keen), the Minister of State my right hon. Friend the Member for Bristol, South (Dawn Primarolo) and the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State my hon. Friend the Member for Bury, South (Mr. Lewis) met staff at the next all-staff event in Leeds, which was also based at a conference venue. In 2009, Ministers attended the Leeds all-staff event by videoconference. The dates on which Ministers have had meetings within Quarry House itself are in the following table.
Date of visit Minister 15 August 2007 Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health services (Ann Keen) 20 September 2007 Secretary of State (Alan Johnson) 6 March 2008 Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Lord Ara Darzi) 28 August 2008 Secretary of State (Alan Johnson)