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1 May 2003 : Column 493W—continued
Public Service Agreement
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (a) how many and (b) what grades of officials are responsible for the monitoring of progress towards the public service agreement targets of his Department. [109478]
Malcolm Wicks: Monitoring progress towards the department's PSA targets is undertaken by a wide variety of staff at all levels of the organisation.
Social Security Regulations
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what representations he has received about the Social Security (Earnings Factor) Amendment Regulations. [110509]
Malcolm Wicks: No representations have been received.
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER
Local Development Orders
Llew Smith: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what measures will be implemented to encourage local authorities to use local development orders in enterprise areas, as referred to in paragraph 3.62 of the budget 2003, HC 500. [110171]
Mr. McNulty: The Government will encourage local authorities to make use of Local Development Orders to relax planning controls in Enterprise Areas. Guidance for Local Authorities on the use of planning tools in Enterprise Areas will be covered in the forthcoming draft Planning Policy Statement, PPS4 "Planning for Economic Development" which should be issued for consultation by the end of this year.
Area Cost Adjustment
Mr. Michael Foster: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister for what reasons he did not separate metropolitan areas in West Midlands when calculating area cost adjustment. [109361]
Mr. Raynsford: The area cost adjustment is calculated using New Earnings Survey (NES) data. The data contain no information on the size of an area's resident population. Office for National Statistics uses national insurance numbers to select those who participate in the survey.
The NES does contain information on the area in which the survey respondent lives and in which they work. Information on the area in which the survey respondent works is used in the calculation of the area cost adjustment.
The area cost adjustment (ACA) has been calculated for each 1991 county in line with the recommendations of the independent Elliott review of the area cost adjustment. The exception to this rule is that the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has further refined the
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ACA geography around London, by acknowledging fringe and non-fringe areas in the counties which surround London, and by separating Greater London into four ACA areas.
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister calculates the ACA for county areas because we wish to produce robust ACA factors that are stable over time. For individual authorities the NES sample size can be small and small samples can lead to volatility. In reforming the ACA the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has had to strike a balance between more finely reflecting local labour market pressures, by calculating the ACA for smaller areas, and providing stable and robust ACA factors each year.
Departmental Staff
Mr. Norman: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many employees of (a) the Social Exclusion Unit, (b) the Neighbourhood Renewal Unit and (c) the Homelessness Directorate there were in each year since their creation. [103064]
Mrs. Roche: The Social Exclusion Unit was created in 1997. The figures for staff in the Social Exclusion Unit are:
- 1997—12
1998—21
1999—35
2000—43
2001—47
2002—57
2003—57.
- 2001—63
2002—133
2003—159.
- 2002—34
2003—35.
Regions White Paper
Joyce Quin: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what progress has been made towards the goal set out in the White Paper "Your Region, Your Choice", of (a) ensuring that regional awareness and devolution feature strongly in civil service training and development, (b) increasing the mobility of civil servants between headquarters offices, regional offices, and the Government Offices and (c) encouraging interchange between the civil service and organisations in the regions. [108586]
Mr. Raynsford: I refer my right hon. Friend to the answer given by my hon. Friend the member for Paisley, South (Mr. Alexander) on 14 April 2003, Official Report, column 602W.
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The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is currently undertaking a skills audit as part of the regular review of its development and training needs and ambitions. Regional awareness and devolution will feature in this. Two seminars have been held on aspects of devolution and a leaflet on good working relationships circulated to all staff. Material on regional governance issues is available on the Office's internal electronic briefing system.
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister encourages movement between different offices where that enhances Departmental effectiveness and individual career prospects. Improving mobility of staff between HQ policy sections and regionally based delivery units is a strategic priority. In the past year 26 Office of the Deputy Prime Minister HQ staff moved to Government offices.
There are currently 103 secondees working in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister drawn from non-government organisations in the regions. In addition there are currently 18 members of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister who are working in non-government organisations in the regions. The target for the Interchange Programme for 2003–04 is to increase inward secondments by 10 and outward secondments to 50.
Supporting People
Mr. Drew: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will make a statement on the implementation of Supporting People; and which responsible authorities failed to fully implement Supporting People at the date of its commencement. [108752]
Mr. McNulty: All of the 150 principal authorities have accepted their responsibilities for the funding and strategic planning of housing related support services in their areas under the Supporting People programme. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is currently in discussion with several local authorities with regard to contractual arrangements between the authority and provider, and other matters.
Tobacco Advertising
Tim Loughton: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what discussions his Department has had with local authority chief executives regarding the removal of billboard tobacco advertising; and what funding has been given to local authority trading standards teams to help in the removal of billboard tobacco advertising. [106571]
Ms Blears: I have been asked to reply.
No specific discussions have taken place with local authority chief executives and no specific additional funding has been provided to local authority trading standards departments regarding the removal of billboard tobacco advertising. The Department of Health published its consultation document on the regulations to the Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Act 2002 with provisions concerning the removal of billboard advertising and a risk impact assessment. The consultation exercise ran from 22 August 2002 to 15 November 2002, which included local authority chief executives. A copy of the consultation document is available in the Library.
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FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS
Afghanistan
Joan Ruddock: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what plans he has to provide financial help for training of Afghans who wish to prepare for democratic elections. [110340]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: The UK is working with the Afghan Transitional Administration, the UN and international partners to secure the full implementation of the 2001 Bonn Agreement, the framework within which elections in 2004 will take place.
We support the efforts of the Transitional Administration to rebuild the mechanisms of government. We contributed £1 million to the office of the UN Special Representative to assist in developing a political framework. We have also contributed £1 million to the Judicial Reform Commission for the development of an independent judicial system, and £500,000 to help fund a process of public consultation in advance of the Constitutional Loya Jirga, which will adopt a new Constitution for Afghanistan later this year.
In order to enable more women to participate in both the constitutional and the electoral process the FCO is funding a WOMANKIND Worldwide project in Afghanistan, which will include advocacy and human rights awareness training for women in advance of the Constitutional Loya Jirga and the elections. We hope that the Transitional Administration will, in the near future, establish the Afghan Election Commission. The Election Commission will work with the UN on preparations for the elections, including providing training for election officials. Once the Commission has been established, we will consider what further assistance we can provide.
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