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6 Oct 2008 : Column 291W—continued
Stress
Mr. Hands: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what arrangements his Department has in place to assist officials to overcome the effects of stress experienced in the workplace. [222182]
Mr. Thomas: BERR is committed to the well-being of its employees. It has a number of procedures in place to reduce stress at work. A stress management framework, based on the Health and Safety Executive’s management standards, is available to all employees and gives easy to use advice on the successful prevention, recognition and management of stress at work.
Taxis
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how much (a) his Department and (b) its agencies spent on taxis in the last financial year for which figures are available. [223026]
Mr. Thomas: The Department spend £278,410 on taxis in the financial year 2007-08. This figure includes taxi spend in both the UK and overseas. I have asked the chief executives of the Department's agencies to reply to you directly.
Letter from Gareth Jones, dated 6 October 2008:
I am responding on behalf of Companies House to your recently tabled Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.
The amount spent on Companies House's taxi account in the financial year 2007/8 was £22,332.
Letter from Stephen Speed, dated 6 October 2008:
The Secretary of State 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 (2007/3644) asking how much (a) his Department and (b) its agencies spent on taxis in the last financial year for which figures are available.
The Insolvency Service's policy is that public transport must be used in preference to taxis on all possible occasions.
The Service is unable to extract details of annual taxi expenses for the year 2007-2008, but a sample data has been extracted which shows costs of £1,510 for a month. We would not expect annual taxi fares to be more than £20,000.
TICC: Redundancy
Mr. Betts: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many employees were made redundant when TICC Ltd went into liquidation; how many received compensation from public funds; how such compensation payments were determined; and under what statutory authority such payments were made. [222802]
Mr. McFadden: TICC Ltd was placed into creditors voluntary liquidation on 8 November 2002. The Insolvency Service's Redundancy Payments Service received claims from 21 dismissed employees in respect of statutory redundancy payments, arrears of wages, holiday pay, notice pay, and a basic award for unfair dismissal. The sum of £53,850.24 was paid from the National Insurance Fund with the amounts being determined in accordance with the statutory provisions contained in Parts XI and XII of the Employment Rights Act 1996.
Trading Funds
Adam Afriyie: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform which representatives of the private sector the shareholder executive team (a) has met and (b) plans to meet as part of the trading fund assessment. [223240]
Mr. McFadden
[holding answer 10 September 2008]: To date, as part of the trading funds assessment, the Shareholder Executive team has heard the views of around 20-25 stakeholders from the private sector, as well as others from the public and third sectors. The private sector stakeholders have included customers, suppliers and competitors of the trading funds, small UK-based companies, large multinationals and representatives of trade associations and interest groups. It would not be appropriate to name the organisations individually because their contributions to and comments on the assessment have been to
inform advice to Ministers and were on a non-attributable basis. The team will continue to seek the views of a large number of stakeholders as the assessment progresses. Any change in Government policy that arises as a result of the assessment will be subject to the appropriate public consultation.
UK Trade and Investment: Manpower
Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform who is on the UK Trade and Investment Defence Advisory Group. [215440]
Mr. Thomas [holding answer 1 July 2008]: UK Trade and Investment has set up a Defence Advisory Group (DAG) to advise on strategy and objectives for the defence sector. The DAG comprises 15 members, who are expected to serve for two years and who have been selected on the basis of the expertise that they personally bring to speak with authority and experience of defence exports. At the first meeting Sir Kevin Tebbit, Chairman of Finmeccanica UK, acted as Chairman of the Group. Information on individual members of the Group is considered to be personal information and is withheld for that reason.
Communities and Local Government
ABL Consulting
Mr. Carswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether her Department has a contract with ABL Consulting. [222076]
Mr. Khan: The Department has let no contracts with ABL Consulting.
Arc Manche Assembly
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what meetings of the Arc Manche Assembly representatives of (a) her Department and (b) the Government Offices attended in the last 12 months; and on what dates. [224482]
Mr. Khan: No representatives of my Department or the Government Offices have attended meetings of the Arc Manche Assembly in the last 12 months.
Carbon Emissions
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment has been made of the effect of greenfield development on carbon dioxide emissions. [222869]
Mr. Iain Wright:
Assessments of the likely effects of new development, including likely impacts on carbon emissions, are made through the sustainability appraisals supporting the preparation of regional and local planning strategies. Actual carbon emissions arising from greenfield development will vary according to the type, size and design of the development concerned and its location.
Our planning policies on climate change, including the new planning policy statement on climate change, expect new development to be planned to limit carbon dioxide emissions and sustainability appraisal to be used to shape planning strategies that help achieve this.
Community Development: Newcastle Upon Tyne
Mr. Henderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what further assessment her Department plans to make of the performance of Pathfinder in the Newcastle area in meeting the needs of communities by developing retail premises within communities which previously fell within the most deprived indices. [222633]
Mr. Iain Wright: Housing market renewal pathfinders have an important role to play in helping shape the redevelopment of the neighbourhoods where they operate, as well as focusing simply on improving the housing stock. This will include consideration with local partners of a wide range of facilities, including retail. The Department will continue to take a close interest in the performance of each pathfinder, including against business plans prepared last November and targets agreed in this year's Funding Agreements. We are also discussing with pathfinders a new set of performance monitoring indicators, as recommended recently by the Public Accounts Committee, in order to measure the change in quality of an area as well as the amount of refurbishment, demolition and new build.
Community Infrastructure Levy
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether the rules for the (a) liability and (b) the tariff rate for the Community Infrastructure Levy will be centrally or locally determined. [222576]
Mr. Iain Wright: The document “The Community Infrastructure Levy” published on 5 August by the Department sets out the Government's detailed proposals for how CIL liability will be established. Rates of CIL will be determined locally, according to a process which the Government will set out in guidance.
Community Relations: Islam
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Brentwood and Ongar of 23 June 2008, Official Report, column 19W, on community relations: Islam, what the timetable is for the report by the Change Institute on Understanding Muslim Ethnic Communities to be completed; and if she will place a copy in the Library on receipt. [222888]
Mr. Khan: The Understanding Muslim Ethnic Communities report will be subject to external peer review and copy editing before it is completed, which the Department anticipates will be by November. Following this, a decision will be taken on whether to publish the report and place a copy in the Library.
Council Housing
Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much funding her Department provided for the improvement of standards in council housing in each year since 1997. [222960]
Mr. Iain Wright: The following table shows the overall capital sums provided by CLG for capital investment in council owned housing stock from 1997-98 to 2007-08.
| CLG capital investment council owned stock (£ million) | |
Government investment in council owned housing stock has primarily been provided through the housing revenue account (HRA) subsidy system in the form of local authorities supported capital expenditure (SCE), ALMOs supported borrowing allocations and major repairs allowance (MRA).
Prior to 2006-07, local authorities were provided with SCE for the renewal of private sector housing combined with that for their own stock. In the table therefore the SCE for private sector renewal is included in the council housing column as it cannot be disaggregated until 2006-07, which also helps to explain the reduction in the level of council owned stock in 2006-07 from 2005-06 levels.
Council Housing: Cumbria
Mr. Jamie Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) whether her Department has made an estimate of the average length of time a family has been on a socially provided housing waiting list before being suitably housed within (a) Cumbria and (b) Copeland; [223914]
(2) how many families are on waiting lists for social housing within (a) Cumbria and (b) Copeland. [223938]
Mr. Iain Wright: Information for average length of time on a housing waiting list is not collected centrally.
Information about social housing waiting lists is collected in respect of households rather than families. Where local authorities and registered social landlords operate a common register, households registered with the RSL will be included in the data. However, registered social landlords are independent bodies and can keep their own waiting lists.
At 1 April 2007, the number of households on the local authority housing waiting list in Cumbria was 13,119 and in Copeland was 1,935.
Information on the number of households on local authorities’ waiting lists broken down by Government office region and local authority for 1997 to 2007 is published on the Communities and Local Government website in Table 600 at:
Copies of this table have been deposited in the Library of the House.
Mr. Jamie Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) what estimate her Department has made of the number of socially provided homes that will need to be adapted for disabled tenants in (a) Cumbria and (b) Copeland over the next five years; [223931]
(2) what estimate her Department has made of the number of empty disabled-adapted social homes in (a) Cumbria and (b) Copeland in 2008-09. [223934]
Mr. Khan: The Department does not hold the requested information.
On 30 September we published the Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) for the North West. The RSS indicates that in Cumbria, 8,980 homes are required over the next five years and in Copeland 1,150 homes are required over the same period. It is now up to local authorities to decide on how this provision should be divided between market housing and affordable housing, including socially rented, intermediate and supported housing.
4NW (formally, the North West regional assembly) have commissioned a report looking at the needs for Support and Supported Housing Services in the North West from 2008 to 2020, which will help identify the need for supported housing. In response to this report, the Supporting People Commissioning Body in Cumbria has allocated £50,000 this year, to meet the shortfall in supply of accommodation based and non accommodation based services required for physical disabilities.
Across Cumbria, the county council and Copeland borough council in partnership with local housing associations are currently undertaking a housing needs survey to develop a disabled needs register. This will map current provision and ensure future housing projects meet the needs of the community. It is anticipated this work will be completed in 2009.
Council Housing: Repairs and Maintenance
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment has been made of progress in applying the decent homes standard to occupied council houses flooded in 2007 and still awaiting repair. [224440]
John Healey: Councils that had housing stock that was flooded in 2007 have regularly reported the impact of the floods including on their decent homes programme to CLG, the last report was in September. Nine authorities had 3,064 properties affected. It is for councils to prioritise their expenditure to deal with the repairs required by the floods. We have not been notified of any authority that faces a particular problem as a result of the flooding nor been asked for additional time to undertake remedial works and meet the decent homes standard.
Council Tax
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether billing authorities will have a liability for the administrative costs of rebilling in circumstances similar to the decision to cap Lincolnshire Police Authority in 2008 and issue new bills. [222572]
John Healey: No. As I made clear in my statement to the House on 9 July 2008, it is Lincolnshire police authority that is responsible for the costs of rebilling, not the billing authorities. The legislative basis for this can be found at section 31(5) of the Local Government Finance Act 1992.
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government which councils reduced their absolute rate of council tax for 2008-09 compared to 2007-08. [222950]
John Healey: Details of the average Band D council tax in each local authority in England in 2007-08 and 2008-09 are available on the Communities and Local Government website at
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