To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission (1) if the Electoral Commission will place in the Library a copy of the report of its investigation into Bearwood Corporate Services; (322794)

I will give the hon. Member a substantive reply as soon as possible.

Substantive answer from Gary Streeter to Gordon Prentice:

The Electoral Commission informs me that, consistent with its disclosure policy, it has published on its website a case summary setting out the issues considered by the Commission during the course of the investigation, the information obtained in relation to those issues, and the legal basis for the conclusions the Commission reached.

The Commission further informs me that, in the interests of effective regulation and having regard to the confidentiality and sensitivity of information provided, and the privacy and confidentiality of those involved, it is not the Commission's practice to release further information obtained during an investigation.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission which trade unions have registered with the Electoral Commission as a registered third party in respect of the forthcoming general election to date; and how much Unite has spent as a registered third party to date. (323831)

The Electoral Commission informs me that as of 19 March 2010 seven trade unions have registered with the Commission as recognised third parties. These are Community, the National Union of Teachers, the Public and Commercial Services Union, the Educational Institute of Scotland, Unison, Unite and USDAW. The Commission further informs me that recognised third parties must report their regulated spending to the Commission after the general election.

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will take steps to ensure that the meat and dairy products procured by his Department are free range or produced to standards equivalent to those of the RSPCA Freedom Food scheme. (323079)

My Department does not procure any meat or dairy products.

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales whether the dates of publication of any regular statistics or reports by his Department have been affected by planning for the forthcoming general election. (323454)

No.

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will take steps to ensure that the meat and dairy products procured by his Department are free range or produced to standards equivalent to those of the RSPCA Freedom Food scheme. (323076)

The Scotland Office does not procure any meat or dairy products, with the exception of small quantities of milk on which we have not logged any particular certification.

To ask the Prime Minister pursuant to the answer of 4 March 2010, Official Report, column 1304W, on building resilience, whether the paper from the Civil Contingencies Secretariat entitled “Building Resilience: a new approach to crisis” by M. S. D. Granatt, Head of GICS, Cabinet Office and J. P. Macintosh DSTL, Ministry of Defence, published in July 2001 and revised in February 2002 is classified. (323330)

Yes. The paper “Building Resilience: a new approach to crisis” is classified.

To ask the Prime Minister how many designs for its (a) internal website and (b) intranet his Office has commissioned since 2005; and what the cost was of each such design. (321981)

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my right hon. Friend the Minister for the Cabinet Office (Tessa Jowell) on 17 March 2010, Official Report, column 866W.

To ask the Prime Minister pursuant to the answer of 1 March 2010, Official Report, column 861W, when he expects the views of the Intelligence and Security Committee to be published. (322313)

The Government remain committed to publishing both the guidance and the views of the Intelligence and Security Committee as soon as possible.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will place in the Library a copy of the benchmark results of the Civil Service People Survey for his Department and its agencies. (322573)

The Civil Service People Survey was not carried out within the Northern Ireland Office (NIO). However, a separate NIO staff attitude survey was carried out within the Department in May and June 2009. A copy of the overall results of this survey has been placed in the Library.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many people are in prison in Northern Ireland as a result of non-payment of fines. (323324)

On 18 March 2010 there were 28 persons in prison in Northern Ireland as a result of non-payment of fines.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many people are expected to be employed in the (a) construction and (b) running of the new prison at HM Prison Magilligan. (323323)

It is too early to provide specific answers, but it is estimated that between 150 and 300 people could be working on site, depending on procurement method and stage of construction.

The new design would entail more cost effective staffing when the prison is operational.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many (a) young adults and (b) women were serving a custodial sentence in prison in Northern Ireland in (i) January 2010, (ii) January 2009 and (iii) January 2008. (323325)

The information for the last Monday in each month is provided in the following table.

Young offenders are defined as being aged 18 to 21 years. Upon attaining 21 years they are deemed to be adults and can be sent to an adult prison.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the (a) maximum and (b) minimum number of years of over-paid council tax is that should be refunded to local taxpayers when a council tax banding error has been identified by the Valuation Office Agency; and what guidance has been issued to local authorities on this matter. (323104)

I refer the hon. Member to the answers I gave to the hon. Member for Peterborough (Mr. Jackson) on 1 March 2010, Official Report, columns 952-53W. No guidance has been issued to local authorities on this matter.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Peterborough of 14 December 2009, Official Report, column 896W, on council tax: empty property, whether the additional revenue raised under the recalculation of the council tax base for the 2011-12 settlement will be retained by local authorities. (323039)

All council tax revenue is retained by local authorities. Each local authority's council tax base is calculated for the purposes of formula grant distribution, and is the number of Band D equivalent properties in their authority.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when his Department's headquarters were last reviewed for compliance with the Public Records Acts; and what the results were of that review. (322839)

The Department's headquarters were reviewed by the National Archives for compliance with both the Public Records Acts and Lord Chancellor's Section 46 Code of Practice for Records Management under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in 2007. The outcome of the review was published on the National Archives website. This can be found at:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/dclg-summary -report.doc

The outcome includes evidence of good practice, the challenges faced and recommendations. The Department also has put in place arrangements to ensure that records are managed on a day-to-day basis to comply with the requirements of the Public Records Acts and officials meet regularly with the National Archives to review record-keeping arrangements.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether his Department undertakes equality and diversity monitoring of agency staff recruited to work at its headquarters. (322841)

Our contracted supplier for temporary staff is Reed and, as part of their contract, they are required to monitor the diversity of the staff they provide to the Department. The data include staff provided to the Government Offices and the Government Equalities Office (GEO). They report to us on a monthly basis, with the report covering nationality, ethnicity, gender, age and disability.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether his Department has provided guidance to fire and rescue authorities on the use of socio-demographic profiling to inform decisions on the provision of fire and rescue services. (308427)

A range of IRMP-related guidance has been issued to FRAs and is available on the Communities and Local Government website at:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/fire/developingfuture/integratedriskmanagement/

The guidance, which is non-prescriptive, is designed to provide advice and assistance on IRMP and its associated processes, allowing local authorities and local communities to make appropriate decisions at the local level.

The Department has also provided each fire and rescue service with a suite of software called the fire service emergency cover (FSEC) toolkit. This toolkit allows each fire and rescue service to undertake a risk-based assessment of their area. FSEC is based upon a geographical information system, which takes account of a range of factors including socio-economic and geo-demographic data, and uses bespoke software to calculate the probable losses based on a particular set of response strategies in terms of lives lost and property costs. That then enables the FRA to determine its optimum prevention, protection and response strategies appropriate to its own area.

The Department has also recently published research on socio-demographics and fire risk, which can be found at:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/fire/frsperforman ceanalysis

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the average response time was for a fire appliance to attend (a) a dwelling fire with persons involved, (b) a dwelling fire with no persons involved, (c) a fire in a non-dwelling building, (d) a road vehicle fire and (e) an outdoor fire broken down by (i) region, (ii) fire service family group and (iii) local authority in each of the last three years. (320846)

The information requested has been placed in the Library.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) which (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department attended the MIPIM international property conference in (i) 2007, (ii) 2008 and (iii) 2009; (323282)

In 2007, 2008 and 2009, the MIPIM conference was attended by the following officials from Communities and Local Government:

2007

Director General, Policy Programmes and Innovation

2008

Director General, Housing and Planning

Director General, Tackling Disadvantage

Director General, Finance and Corporate Services

2009

Director General, Housing and Planning

Director General, Regions and Communities

No departmental Ministers or officials have attended the MIPIM conference in 2010, either at the expense of the Department or at the invitation of the Homes and Communities Agency. Therefore, no costs were incurred by HCA for this purpose.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if he will amend section 11 of the Local Government Act 1976 to permit local authorities to sell electricity other than that produced in association with heat. (323160)

I have been asked to reply.

The Government published a consultation document on proposals to allow local authorities to sell electricity they generate themselves from renewable sources on 2 March.

We believe that local authorities should play a full part in the development of renewable heat and electricity. Allowing local authorities to sell electricity generated by them from renewable sources is expected to encourage the development of local renewable electricity projects by those local authorities that are well-placed to undertake such projects either on their own or in partnerships.

The consultation document can be found at:

http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/consultations/loc_auth_elec/loc_auth_elec.aspx

and has a closing date for responses of 2 June 2010.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what his latest estimate is of the take-up rate of small business rate relief in each local authority area. (323033)

The report “Small business rate relief—improving evidence on eligibility and take-up: Methodology”, published on 9 December 2009, provides details of the methodology to estimate take-up of small business rate relief. This methodology can only be applied nationally for England as a whole. Therefore it is not possible to calculate an estimate of take-up for each local authority. This report is available at:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/local government/smallbusinessmethod

However, new experimental statistics on the number of hereditaments claiming small business rate relief (SBRR), published on the Communities and Local Government website on 25 February 2010, show that 462,000 hereditaments in England were benefiting from SBRR on 31 December 2008.

By applying that figure to the eligibility estimates made for the 2005 rating list it is estimated that around 80 per cent. of eligible hereditaments in England were claiming SBRR in 2008-09—see table 1.

Relief granted to small businesses has been increasing since SBRR was introduced—from £202 million in 2005-06 to £298 million in 2008-09. This represents a real terms increase of 34 per cent. This suggests that 92 per cent. of the maximum amount of relief that could be claimed is being taken up, up from 69 per cent. in the first year of the scheme—see table 2.

This statistical release is available at:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/corporate/statistics/sbrrfeb2010

The report “Small business rate relief—improving evidence on eligibility and take-up: Methodology” will be updated to take account of these new numbers.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether local education authorities will be liable for the carbon dioxide emissions of maintained schools under the Carbon Reduction Commitment process. (323143)

I have been asked to reply.

Maintained schools will be grouped with their relevant maintaining local authority (LEA) for the purposes of CRC qualification and participation. The exception is PFI schools deemed to be responsible for the energy supply under the CRC, which will participate individually or as part of their PFI corporate structure.

This grouping approach brings schools that would not have otherwise qualified into the scheme, thereby enabling the public sector to demonstrate leadership in carbon reduction and realise the cost-effective energy efficiency opportunities across the schools' estate.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence which staff from his Department have visited Afghanistan in each month since 2007. (322515)

Military and civilian staff from the Ministry of Defence are required to visit Afghanistan on a regular basis in support of current operations. The number and posts of those visiting in each month since 2007 is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much his Department has paid to relatives of servicemen killed in action in each of the last five years. (321372)

It is not possible to provide a definitive figure for all aspects of the payments made to bereaved families as benefits are payable under a range of different provisions and, as the information is not held centrally, it could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

The Armed Forces Pension Scheme provides a death- in-service lump sum and the appropriate family forces pensions, including enhanced payments where death is related to service. It is estimated that at least £14 million has been paid in death-in-service lump sums over the last five years to the families of those killed in action.

The War Pension Scheme provides for ongoing payments to families of personnel killed, as a result of service, before 6 April 2005, with the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS) making that provision for those who have died since that date. In addition to a Guaranteed Income Payment, a Bereavement Grant of up to £20,000 is payable under AFCS. Payments amounting to some £8.8 million have been made to bereaved families under AFCS since 2005 including those killed in a non-operational environment where death was attributable to service.

Funeral grants are also payable where a service funeral is held or the cost of a private funeral (up to a current maximum of £2,786) will be met. In the region of £112,000 has been paid in funeral costs. In addition costs associated with family attendance at repatriation ceremonies and any pre-inquest and inquest hearings are met by the MOD.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Dunfermline and West Fife of 22 February 2010, Official Report, columns 7-8W, on armed forces: discharges, how many compulsory drug tests the Army has carried out in each quarter since January 2008; and how many positive tests for (a) cocaine, (b) ecstasy and (c) cannabis there were in each such quarter. (322535)

The number of compulsory drug tests undertaken by the Army in each quarter since January 2008 and the positive results for cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis are shown in the following table:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much funding has been allocated to (a) cadet forces and (b) the Territorial Army on Merseyside in 2009-10. (322633)

The information is not held centrally.

Funding for the cadet forces in any particular area comes from a wide variety of sources including the single services, the use of subsidised accommodation, and local donations and fundraising efforts. To determine how much funding has been allocated to a specific unit would require a manual search of records and incur disproportionate cost.

Territorial Army (TA) funding is provided not only through the Army but also from different sources dependent on how the infrastructure is shared. For example, funding may be generated by allowing another organisation, such as the Air Training Corps or Sea Cadets, to use the facility when not required for TA activity. This allows for the most efficient use of resources. To determine how much funding has been provided to Merseyside would require the manual search of records ranging from local agreements through to more formal arrangements with the single services, thus incurring disproportionate cost.

The Government remain committed to the TA and the cadet forces. The TA continues to play a vital role in support of the Regular Army, not least on operations in Afghanistan. The Cadet Organisation dates back 150 years. It is one of the oldest and most successful voluntary youth organisations in the world. Today it numbers 131,000 young people, led by 25,000 adult volunteers, in well over 3,000 sites across the country.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many abnormal safety events were recorded at the Atomic Weapons Establishment in (a) 2008 and (b) 2009; and how many of those events were classified as having the potential to challenge a nuclear safety system. (319191)

The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) defines an abnormal event (AE) as any action or series of actions that causes a deviation from the planned course of events. An AE need not cause physical harm to persons, property or the environment, and AEs may cover quality and security issues as well as safety.

AEs are classified into seven different categories; five of these are considered to be related to safety. The total number of AEs in these five categories was 4,020 in 2008 and 3,911 in 2009. Of these, three in each year were assessed as having the potential, in the absence of remedial action, to challenge a nuclear safety system. None of these six actually did, and none resulted in any harm.

All reported AEs are investigated as appropriate; in particular, the six events referred to above were subject to detailed investigations, and all necessary remedial action has been completed to the satisfaction of the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate.

The aim of the AWE reporting system is to identify all AEs, however minor, and the number of AEs is considered to be a reflection of the robustness of the system and the vigilance of the AWE work force.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will take steps to ensure that the meat and dairy products procured by his Department and its non-departmental bodies are free range or produced to standards equivalent to those of the RSPCA Freedom Food scheme. (323070)

For UK armed forces personnel “in barracks”, when personnel are not being fed under the catering retail and leisure contracts, and those serving on operations and overseas exercises, there is a single food supply contractor, Purple Foodservice Solutions (PFS).

PFS increasingly takes into account ethical and sustainable criteria in their procurement, and is required to seek best value for money in the open market consistent with meeting Ministry of Defence food quality standards which are linked to the Office of Government Commerce food quality standards.

PFS procures meat and dairy proteins in the UK that meet the Red Tractor Scheme (a UK farm assured scheme which is the equivalent to the RSPCA Freedom Foods scheme) and UK animal welfare standards. Any which are purchased outside the UK comply with the EU animal welfare standards.

Dairy products meet the Red Tractor requirements, and eggs meet the Lion Standard, an internationally recognised quality code of practice.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer of 1 March 2010, Official Report, column 849W, on departmental internet, what the cost was of the website redesign. (321932)

The costs of the redesigns were as follows:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many designs for its (a) internal website and (b) intranet his Department has commissioned since 2005; and what the cost was of each such design. (321994)

The following designs have been commissioned since 2005.

A number of other internal websites are run by different parts of the Ministry of Defence, but these are not managed centrally. Information on these sites could be provided only at disproportionate cost. The Ministry of Defence is progressively reducing the number of internal websites and migrating their content across to the Defence intranet.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) how much his Department spent on maintaining its Flickr channel in 2009-10; (322526)

There is no one MOD employee whose main role is to maintain social media and social networking sites, Twitter, YouTube or Flickr, although there are some for whom it is a small part of their role alongside their other duties.

My Department has spent $30 on a single Flickr ‘Pro’ licence, for the Royal Military College Sandhurst.

The official, sponsored and affiliated social media presences of the Ministry of Defence and the armed forces are listed at

http://www.blogs.mod.uk/homepage.html

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many civilian staff are employed principally to operate his Department's White Fleet of vehicles. (322848)

A Contract Management Team comprising 15 civilian posts manages the UK White Fleet contract on behalf of the MOD. Other civilian staff are involved in managing White Fleet activity at a local level across MOD; this information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will place in the Library a copy of the benchmark results of the Civil Service People Survey for his Department and its agencies. (322576)

Yes. The document—October 2009 MOD Your Say Survey results (part of the Civil Service People Survey)—will be placed in the Library of the House.

These results are also available on the MOD website:

http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/FreedomOfInformation/PublicationScheme/SearchPublicationScheme/HrStrategy CivilianContinuousAttitudeSurveys.htm

The document for UK Hydrographic Office results will also be placed in the Library of the House shortly. No other trading funds participated in the 2009 survey.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much his Department spent on travel for its civilian staff between (a) London and Edinburgh, (b) London and Glasgow and (c) London and the rest of Scotland in each of the last five years. (321701)

Travel between London and Scotland may be undertaken by a number of methods of travel (e.g. road, rail, air, coach). This information is not recorded by location and this information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when his Department will make a decision on the future base-porting of frigates currently base-ported in Devonport Naval Base. (323267)

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 27 January 2010, Official Report, column 890W, to the hon. Member for Portsmouth, South (Mr. Hancock).

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) when he expects to announce his decision on the preferred bidder for the Future Rapid Effect System armoured reconnaissance vehicle contract; (323169)

The Future Rapid Effect System programme has been recast from a single programme into a set of constituent projects, namely: the Specialist Vehicles; the Utility Vehicles; and the Manoeuvre Support Vehicles. An announcement on the competition for the Specialist Vehicle project has been made today in a written ministerial statement by the Secretary of State for Defence.

HM Treasury has provided no advice to the Department regarding the choice of design for the Specialist Vehicle capability. The MOD reached its own decision on the choice of design based on the advice of expert assessment panels.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what discussions his Department has had with Group 4 Securicor on its proposals to have outsourced to the private security industry those services which are detailed in the unprinted paper reported to the House by the Defence Committee on 10 February 2010; and if he will make a statement. (322507)

[holding answer 17 March 2010]: The Ministry of Defence has a number of existing agreements with Group 4 Securicor for the provision of Defence services. We are aware of the range of services that the company offers and it is, of course, free to compete for additional Ministry of Defence business through established procedures. My officials engage with Group 4 Securicor on both current business and potential future opportunities as required.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many search and rescue call-outs there were from HMS Gannet between 1 March 2009 and 28 February 2010. (322857)

[holding answer 18 March 2010]: The numbers of search and rescue call-outs from HMS Gannet between 1 March 2009 and 31 January 2010 are as follows:

Official Statistics guidelines do not allow the release of data prior to their official publication. The Official Statistics for February 2010 are due to be released by Defence Analytical Services and Advice on Monday 29 March. Search and rescue statistics can be found at:

www.dasa.mod.uk

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much his Department has spent on (a) renting accommodation and (b) hotel costs for its civilian staff attending meetings in Scotland in the last 12 months. (321702)

Civilian employees are unlikely to use or stay in rented accommodation for a business meeting. Employees may rent accommodation temporarily as a result of a transfer but information on this or hotel costs for meetings in Scotland is not held in the format requested and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence with reference to the answer of 4 November 2009, Official Report, column 704W, on helicopters, when he plans to write to the hon. Member for Woodspring. (314287)

I wrote to the hon. Member on 5 March.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence to which countries in the Middle East a UK defence attaché is posted. (320967)

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to him by the Minister for Veterans (Mr. Jones) on 20 October 2009, Official Report, column 1366W.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many naval vessels are permanently based in Scotland; and how many have been permanently based in Scotland in each year since 1997. (317783)

The Royal Navy currently has five submarines and eight surface vessels based in Scotland. The details for each year since 1997 are shown in the following table.

The fluctuations in submarine numbers reflect the gradual drawdown of the Swiftsure class vessels, as they reach the end of their in-service life. Over the next few years, as HM Naval Base Clyde becomes the main operating base for all classes of submarines, there will be a gradual transfer of three Trafalgar class submarines from Devonport to Faslane. In the future, the Astute class and the replacement for the Vanguard class will also be based in Scotland.

The number of surface ships initially increased over this period, reflecting the move of the Sandown class mine counter-measure vessels to Scotland, then decreased reflecting the subsequent disbandment of the Northern Ireland Squadron following the NI Accord. The numbers are commensurate with the reduction in the surface fleet numbers as a whole throughout this period.

Additionally some 23 small boats allocated to the Royal Marines are currently maintained in Scotland. These are not allocated to a base port in the same way as larger vessels; details of the numbers maintained in Scotland since 1997 are not available.

I refer the hon. Member to the written ministerial statement on 6 May 2009, Official Report, column 16WS, which provided clarity to future base-porting regarding the three naval bases under the Maritime Change Programme.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what his most recent estimate is of the cost to the public purse of the Nimrod MR2 modification programme announced in March 2009. (322845)

The cost of replacing a number of fuel seals and the engine hot air ducts on the Nimrod aircraft, as announced on 9 March 2009, Official Report, columns 1-2WS, together with associated maintenance work, was in the order of £16 million.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether the fast jet test and evaluation advice available at RAF Coningsby is provided in-house. (322787)

On 1 April 2010, the Fast Jet Test Squadron, currently based at MOD Boscombe Down, will complete its merger with 17 (Reserve) and 41 (Reserve) Squadrons. Under this new arrangement, most fast jet test flying will be conducted by the two RAF squadrons at RAF Coningsby. Evaluation advice will be provided jointly by QinetiQ and MOD personnel at RAF Coningsby and MOD Boscombe Down. A fast jet experimental flight, and the fast jets owned by QinetiQ, will remain at MOD Boscombe Down.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when he plans to respond to the petition on SAR Chivenor presented to the Prime Minister on 25 February 2010. (322844)

The Ministry of Defence is in receipt of the petition and I will write to the hon. Member, as the petition organiser, shortly.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what timetable has been set for signing the search and rescue helicopter contract with Soteria Consortium. (322843)

Subject to finalisation, it is expected that the contract will be signed later in 2010. This is anticipated to be in good time to allow the service to commence in 2012.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether contractual provisions were included in the documentation for the sale by Defence Estates of the Royal Hospital Haslar to ensure that the vision for the future of the site referred to in the letter from the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence to the hon. Member for Gosport of 16 July 2009 would be fulfilled. (321679)

The future of the site is now a matter for Gosport borough council as the local planning authority.

As I set out in my written ministerial statement on 20 July 2009, Official Report, columns 94-95WS, Our Enterprise has a vision of promoting the quality of life for both individuals residing on the site and for Gosport as a whole and will continue social and health care on the site by providing a “Veterans Village”, student accommodation, community healthcare and a commercial centre as well as residential uses.

Contractual provisions between the Ministry of Defence and the purchaser affecting the development of the site were not included in the sale documentation for the sale of the Haslar site.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what recent discussions he has had on (a) the funding and (b) the participation of students in officer training corps units at universities; and if he will make a statement. (322613)

The Government fully recognise the value of the University Royal Naval Units, the Officer Training Corps, the University Air Squadrons and the Defence Training Undergraduate Scheme. They allow individuals to develop skills that are extremely valuable in a future career either within the armed forces or without.

Each of the services is looking at how best to support the University Training Units; until those decisions are finalised I cannot speculate about future funding levels.

No University Training Units have closed as a result of changes to funding during this financial year. Despite some reduction in attendance by Officer Cadets at University Officer Training Corps they remain oversubscribed against their establishment. The average actual strength in 2009 was around 3,500. This is against an establishment figure of 2,946.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what account was taken of each of the criteria in the Government's code of practice on consultation in preparing his Department's consultation on arrest warrants and universal jurisdiction. (323262)

The question of arrest warrants for universal jurisdiction offences is not the subject of a consultation exercise. Given the importance of the issue, however, the Government thought it right to seek views from a small number of interested parties.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether the remit of the National Victims Fund will extend to British residents who are victims of crimes committed abroad. (323278)

The Victims Fund is used to provide funding to third sector organisations that support those bereaved by homicide. These services are provided by third sector organisations and are available to British residents in England and Wales regardless of where the homicide takes place.

Applications for the 2010-11 fund are being processed and results will be announced shortly.

The National Victims' Service will provide services to victims of crime who are resident in England and Wales regardless of where the crime takes place.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what services his Department provides for the families of British victims of homicides committed abroad. (323279)

The Ministry of Justice provides funding to the charities Victim Support and SAMM National (Support After Murder and Manslaughter) to deliver services to those bereaved by homicide. The service provided by Victim Support is available to anyone in England and Wales regardless of where the homicide takes place.

The Justice Secretary recently announced the launch of a National Victims' Service. The first part of the service has begun with the introduction of the homicide scheme which will be delivered by Victim Support. This will provide focused support for each bereaved person and a range of commissioned services. Residents in England and Wales who are bereaved are entitled to support under this scheme wherever the homicide takes place.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) if he will publish the benchmark results of the Civil Service People Survey relating to his Department; (322308)

I will arrange for the results from the Civil Service People Survey for the Ministry of Justice and its agencies to be placed in the Library of each House.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people resident in Leeds North West constituency have been summoned for jury service (a) once, (b) twice, (c) three times and (d) four times in each year since 2005. (322699)

The following table shows, on a national level basis for each calendar year from 2000-08, the following:

(a) how many people have been required for jury service

(b) how many people have been supplied to the court for jury service

(c) how many people have been deferred from the original date they were summoned for jury service

(d) how many people have been excused from jury service

(e) how many people have been disqualified from jury service

The Jury Central Summoning Bureau (JCSB) is not able to supply the information for Leeds North West as the data cannot be extracted in this way by the computer system.

The JCSB is also unable to provide information on how many people have been summoned for jury service more than once. This is because jurors are selected on a completely random basis by the JCSB using the electoral voting registers supplied annually by each local authority. As the electoral registers are updated annually and due to the randomness of jury selection there is potential for some members of the public to be called for jury service more than once while some may never be called.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will make available for public inspection in the National Archives all papers relating to the disappearance and death in 1956 of Commander Buster Lionel Crabb RN, OBE, GM; and if he will make a statement. (322999)

The National Archives hold a number of records relating to the disappearance of Commander Buster Lionel Crabb (PREM 11/2077; CAB21/3887; F0371/122885; and ADM 1/29241), all of which are available for public inspection. Some portions of these records however have been retained by the transferring Departments under section 3.4 of the Public Records Act. Where records are retained, this is the decision of the relevant Department.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many indeterminate sentences for public protection handed down (a) between 14 July and 31 December 2008 and (b) in 2009 were given with tariffs of no more than 23 months. (323013)

I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave on 8 March 2010, Official Report, columns 93-94W.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how many deaths of prisoners serving a determinate sentence were recorded in each year since 2005; how many such deaths were self-inflicted; and how many determinate sentenced prisoners there were in each of those years; (323011)

The information requested is combined in the following table:

Any death in prison custody is a tragic event. The Government, Ministry of Justice and the National Offender Management Service, (NOMS) are committed to learning from such events and reducing the number of self-inflicted deaths in prison custody.

NOMS has a broad, integrated and evidence-based prisoner suicide prevention and self-harm management strategy that seeks to reduce the distress of all those in prison. This encompasses a wide spectrum of prison and Department of Health work around such issues as mental health, substance misuse and resettlement. Any prisoner identified as at risk of suicide or self-harm is cared for using the Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork procedures.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will make it his policy to record centrally the number of closed visits made on the prison estate. (322861)

The National Offender Management Service records centrally the number of closed visits imposed within the prison estate. In 2008-09 closed visiting conditions were imposed on 1,817 occasions.

These figures have been drawn from administrative data systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system. The data are not subject to audit.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer to the right hon. Member for Horsham of 25 February 2010, Official Report, column 664W, on public sector: disclosure of information, in respect of which of the 57 requests to the Unlocking Service which have been accepted the data requested have been released. (322874)

The Unlocking Service is not primarily concerned with the release of data. Its main purpose is to allow people to resolve issues concerned with re-use and publishing formats of data.

Where requests have been classified as resolved, every issue identified in the original request has been fully addressed. Two of the resolved requests related to the availability of data and in both instances those data have been provided. The remaining resolved requests relate to licensing conditions, copyright notices, publishing formats and charging.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer to the right hon. Member for Horsham of 25 February 2010, Official Report, column 664W, on public sector: disclosure of information, for what reasons each request was given the status of (a) resolved, (b) unresolved and (c) part resolved. (322916)

Requests have been classified as resolved where every issue identified in the original request has been fully addressed and the current state corresponds to the requester's description of “My ideal solution” in the original request. If the request relates to the availability of data in a particular format, those data have been provided. If the request relates to a licensing issue, for example, that issue has been addressed.

Requests have been classified as unresolved where the current state does not correspond to the requester's description of “My ideal solution” and where there has been no substantive change since the request was posted, work will be continuing or the issue is intractable.

Requests have been classified as part resolved if there has been progression towards the requester's “ideal solution” but the current state does not fully meet this. Often in these cases there is continuing work or policy development. For example, a number of the requests relate to Ordnance Survey data, where commitments made in the Smarter Government White Paper address the requester's “ideal solution” but the issues are subject to a public consultation.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people serving a custodial sentence had their conviction overturned on appeal in each year since 2005. (322695)

The information requested is not available. Data collected within the central IT systems do not currently hold sufficient detail to allow identification of the type of sentence which is the subject of each appeal against a sentence heard in the Crown Court or Court of Appeal.

Annual statistics on all appeals dealt with in the Crown Court against sentences given in the magistrates' court are published by the Ministry of Justice in table 6.10 of the annual command paper “Judicial and Court Statistics”. Annual statistics on all appeals in the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) against sentences in the Crown Court are also published in Table 1.6 of this report. The most recent edition, presenting statistics for 2004 to 2008, was published in September 2009.

Copies of “Judicial and Court Statistics” are available in the Library of the House and from the Ministry of Justice website at:

http://www.Justice.gov.uk/publications/judicialandcourt statistics.htm

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer of 11 March 2010, Official Report, columns 383-84W, on trade unions, how many of the days staff of his Department and its agencies spent on trade union activity were spent in respect of each individual trade union recognised by his Department and its agencies in the last 12 months. (322746)

The number of days that were available to be spent on trade union activity by each of the trade unions in the Ministry in the last 12 months, for which information is available, are as follows:

The days quoted do not include PCS local representatives in MoJ (excluding NOMS). This figure is not known.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) whether any authorisations of trade unions under section 30 of the Access to Justice Act 1999 have been withdrawn; (322741)

No authorisations of trade unions under section 30 of the Access to Justice Act 1999 have been withdrawn.

The Ministry of Justice does not collect information on the amounts recovered by trade unions or any other approved membership organisation under section 30.

All trade unions in England and Wales listed by the Certification Officer are covered to provide enhanced legal services to members and their families under the Access to Justice Act 1999. The current list is available at the website at:

www.certoffice.org

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many and what proportion of young offenders supervised by youth offending teams were in full-time training and employment in (a) England and (b) each youth offending team area in each of the last four years; and how many and what proportion of young offenders were on secure remand in each youth offending team area in each of the last four years. (322241)

Data relating to this question have been placed in the House Library.

Education, training and employment: Table A shows the number and the proportion of young people on relevant youth justice disposals in each youth offending team in England who were in full-time education, training and employment (ETE) in each of the last four years. ‘Relevant youth justice disposals' are defined as programmes resulting from a Final Warning with intervention, relevant community-based penalty or the community element of a custodial sentence. Relevant community-based penalties include Referral Orders, Reparation Orders, Action Plan Orders, Drug Treatment and Testing Orders, Supervision Orders (with or without conditions), Community Rehabilitation Orders (with or without conditions) and Community Punishment and Rehabilitation Orders.

Full-time ETE is defined here as 25 or more hours for young people of school age and 16 hours for those above school age.

Secure Remands: The number and proportion of young offenders on secure remand in each of the youth offending team areas in the last four years is not held centrally. However the YJB has figures for the average number of young people aged 10-17 on custodial remands in each YOT area in England in each of the last four years, which is shown in Table B. Custodial remand includes young people who are remanded in custody, convicted awaiting sentence or subject to court ordered secure remand. These data take a snapshot of young people who are on remand at a particular point in time which is then averaged out over the year.

The data have been supplied by the Youth Justice Board and have been drawn from administrative IT systems, which, as with any large-scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing and may be subject to change overtime. Differences in counting rules may mean that figures from other databases are not directly comparable.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what steps he is taking to increase the level of training and education provided to young offenders under pre-release schemes. (322996)

Government recently passed legislation through the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 to bring improvements for education and training for young people detained in the youth secure estate. It makes local authorities responsible for learning for young people detained in youth custody and aligns arrangements in custody with the mainstream learning sector for the first time. This aims to increase consistency and continuity of learning for young people entering and leaving youth custody. The Act also includes a new duty on local authorities to make arrangements for education and training provision for the person on their release from custody, when appropriate for them to do so.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many cases managed by the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission relate to absent parents in Banff and Buchan constituency. (321830)

The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission is responsible for the child maintenance system. I have asked the Child Maintenance Commissioner to write to the hon. Member with the information requested and I have seen the response.

Letter from Stephen Geraghty:

In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Child Maintenance Commissioner.

You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many cases managed by the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission relate to absent parents in Banff and Buchan constituency. [321830]

Latest figures show, as at December 2009, the number of cases in Scotland is 111,050; of these 1,820 are in the Parliamentary Constituency of Banff and Buchan. These figures include old scheme cases with a full or interim maintenance assessment as well as current scheme cases with a full maintenance calculation or default maintenance decision. Figures are adjusted to reflect those cases administered clerically.

I hope you find this answer helpful.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 8 March 2010, Official Report, column 68W, on cold weather payments: highlands of Scotland, in respect of how many weather stations cold weather payments have been triggered in 2010; what payments have been made in respect of each weather station in 2010; and what estimate has been made of the number of potential qualifiers in respect of each weather station in 2010. (323081)

The information requested is given in the table.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many (a) households and (b) individuals in weather station areas covering Angus have received cold weather payments since 1 November 2009. (323342)

The available information is given in the table.

The Government provide information about cold weather payments on the Directgov website at:

www.direct.gov.uk

This includes the eligibility rules, details of how payments are made and a postcode search which allows customers to find out whether the weather station that is linked to a specific postcode has triggered.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many designs for its (a) internal website and (b) intranet her Department has commissioned since 2005; and what the cost was of each such design. (321991)

The DWP internal website for staff is called DWP Intranet. No commissions for a redesign of the DWP Intranet have been made since 2005 and therefore no costs have been incurred.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions for what reasons the departmental expenditure limit for her Department in 2009-10 changed from £9.728 million in her Department's three-year business plan to £9.2 billion in the pre-Budget report. (317618)

The 2009-10 figure of £9.728 billion presented in the Department's three-year business plan represented the total funding available to the Department. This included additional funding agreed at pre-Budget report 2008 and Budget 2009, to support the Department in its response to the recession.

The revised figure of £9.2 billion presented in the pre-Budget report 2009 represented a departmental group which includes the Government Equalities Office.

The Department for Work and Pensions proportion of this funding was £9.090 billion. This was reflected in the winter supplementary estimate laid in Parliament on 24 November 2009.

The Department's final funding position for 2009-10 is set out in the spring supplementary estimate which was laid in Parliament on 23 February 2010.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much (a) Ministers and (b) staff of each grade in (i) her Department and (ii) its agencies spent on first-class travel in the last 12 months. (320392)

The Department has over 100,000 staff operating from over 1,000 office locations across the UK. The Department's travel policy encourages staff to travel using the most cost-effective tickets available at the time of booking and staff must consider travelling standard class where possible.

The spend for first-class travel by DWP for the last 12 months (February 2009 January 2010) is as follows:

There was no first-class air travel undertaken in the period in question and therefore all of the above figures relate to rail travel.

The split by grade is not available for the required period.

Travel by civil servants is undertaken in accordance with the principles of Managing Public Money and the Treasury handbook on Regularity and Propriety. The Civil Service Management Code sets outs regulations and instructions to Departments and agencies regarding the terms and conditions of service of civil servants and the delegations which have been made by the Minister for the Civil Service under the Civil Service (Management of Functions) Act 1992 together with the conditions attached to those delegations.

The code can be accessed at:

http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/about/resources/csmc/index.aspx

Paragraph 8.2 of the code deals with travel and under this section Departments and agencies must ensure that staff use the most efficient and economic means of travel in the circumstances, taking into account any management benefit or the needs of staff with disabilities.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what her most recent estimate is of the number of people aged between 60 and 64 years old claiming the higher rate care component of disability living allowance on the grounds of terminal illness. (322291)

[holding answer 15 March 2010]: The information requested is provided in the table.

Caution

The preferred statistics on benefits are now derived from 100 per cent. data sources. However, the 5 per cent. sample data still provide some detail not yet available from the 100 per cent. data sources, in particular, more complete information on the disabling condition of disability living allowance claimants. The Department recommends that, where the detail is only available on the 5 per cent. sample data, or disabling condition is required, the proportions derived should be scaled up to the overall 100 per cent. total for the benefit. The figures have been rated to agree with Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study totals.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the average waiting time was for a work capability assessment to be conducted for claimants for employment and support allowance in the latest period for which information is available. (319976)

[holding answer 2 March 2010]: The average time from the date an employment and support allowance claim starts to the date that Atos advice is given is shown in the following table. Information is provided from October 2008 (when employment and support allowance was introduced) to June 2009 (the latest data that can be used to calculate a reliable average).

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many job point kiosks there are; how much her Department spent on job point kiosks since their introduction; what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of job point kiosks; and what plans she has for the future of such kiosks. (323482)

The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the chief executive of Jobcentre Plus, Darra Singh. I have asked him to provide the right hon. Member with the information requested.

Letter from Darra Singh:

The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question asking how many job point kiosks there are; how much her Department spent on job point kiosks since their introduction; what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of job point kiosks; and what plans she has for the future of such kiosks. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.

The number of job points currently being managed under the terms of a commercial agreement between Jobcentre Plus and its current IT provider, Hewlett Packard, is 7,283.

Running costs for the job points have amounted to £16.7 million since August 2007. Detailed costs prior to August 2007 are not available due to the way the Department was invoiced for services at that time.

Our job points continue to form a key part of the Jobcentre Plus self service strategy and have enabled its customers to conduct approximately 89.5 million job searches a year through this key channel. Later this year, Jobcentre Plus will start to replace 5,000 of its current job points with new kiosks. These are specifically designed to improve accessibility, reliability and cost effectiveness and give a much greater opportunity to exploit new technologies to enhance customer service.

Along with this replacement project, Jobcentre Plus is also installing an enhanced central kiosk management system that will provide much greater opportunity to monitor individual kiosk use and therefore continually assess effectiveness and future development.

I hope this information is helpful.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the planned duration of the Future Jobs Fund scheme is; and if she will make a statement. (318534)

Details of the Future Jobs Fund were announced in Budget 2009 on page 102, box 5.4. The third bullet point states:

‘funding for local authorities and partners to take forward the creation of 100,000 new jobs in socially useful activity. 10,000 of these will be green jobs;’

and the final paragraph goes on to say:

‘To support communities most affected by rising unemployment, the Government will allocate additional funding for local authorities to provide a further 50,000 jobs in areas of high unemployment across the country.’

A copy of this Budget has been placed in the library and can also be accessed at:

www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/bud09_completereport_2520.pdf

We will continue to review the support that is available for jobseekers, and decisions on the Department's future expenditure limits and spending allocations will be taken at the Spending Review.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions for what reason tenants aged over 25 years may not as of right receive housing benefit for shared accommodation for amounts less than the sole tenancy amounts they would be entitled to if that is their choice; and if she will make a statement. (322386)

[holding answer 15 March 2010]: Housing benefit is an income-related benefit administered by local authorities to assist people on low incomes who need help to pay their rent. Tenants in the private rented sector have their benefit entitlement restricted to an amount considered to be reasonable for the area and their accommodation needs. As from 7 April 2008 the local authority uses the appropriate local housing allowance rate, based on the area where the person lives and the size of their household, to determine the maximum amount to be included in the housing benefit calculation.

In the case of single people aged 25 years and over and couples with no dependent children, the local housing allowance rate for a one-bedroom properly would normally be used to calculate their benefit entitlement. However, if they choose to live in a property where they do not have either exclusive use of two or more rooms, or exclusive use of one room, a bathroom and toilet and a kitchen or facilities for cooking, the shared room rate would apply.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions for what reasons her Department's decision of 8 October 2009 to grant income support in respect of the case with reference NINO YX220262A with effect from 12 August 2008 has not been implemented; and when she expects that decision to be implemented. (322314)

[holding answer 15 March 2010]: The administration of income support is a matter for Jobcentre Plus. I have asked the chief executive of Jobcentre Plus, Darra Singh, to provide my hon. Friend with the information requested.

Letter from Darra Singh:

The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question asking for what reasons her Department's decision of 8 October 2009 to grant Income Support in respect of the case with reference NINO YX 22 02 62A with effect from 12 August 2008 has not been implemented; and when she expects that decision to be implemented. This is something that falls within my responsibilities as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.

As this is a personal matter relating to the individual involved, I will write to you separately.