The day-to-day management of property acquired by Roads Service in advance of road schemes is carried out by the Department for Social Development’s Lands Service, under the terms of a Service Level Agreement (currently under review). The term ‘management’ as defined in the Service Level Agreement includes the letting of land, collection of rent, rent review, rent accounting and maintenance of property. It also includes the supervision of derelict land and buildings to ensure that they do not constitute a danger to the public and the safeguarding of vacant land against vandals.
Mr. Peter Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1) how many (a) properties and (b) gardens have been bought by the Roads Service in the Shandon Park area of East Belfast in each of the last 25 years; and on what date each site was (i) purchased, (ii) last maintained and (iii) completed; [52475]
(2) how much the Roads Service has spent purchasing property in the Shandon Park area of East Belfast in connection with the proposed link road between Ascot Park and Shandon Park. [52476]
David Cairns: The Chief Executive of Roads Service (Dr. Malcolm McKibbin) has been asked to write to the hon. Gentleman in response to this question.
Letter from Dr. Malcolm McKibbin, dated 20 February 2006:
You recently asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland two Parliamentary Questions regarding the Shandon Park area:
how many (a) properties and (b) gardens have been bought by the Roads Service in the Shandon Park area of East Belfast in each of the last 25 years and on what date each site was (i) purchased, (ii) last maintained and (iii) completed; and
how much the Roads Service has spent purchasing property in the Shandon Park area of East Belfast in connection with the proposed link road between Ascot Park and Shandon Park.
As these issues fall within my responsibility as Chief Executive of Roads Service, I have been asked to reply.
By way of background, I should explain that the proposed widening of the A55 at Knock Road is included in the Belfast Metropolitan Transport Plan and Roads Service’s Major Works Preparation Pool. The two detailed options still being considered
are a dual carriageway or two lanes in both directions with right turning lanes at junctions. Both of these options currently include a link road from Ascot Park to Shandon Park. We plan to present these options at a public consultation day in spring 2006.
In the past 25 years, 2 properties/gardens were acquired by Roads Service for the proposed A55 widening scheme—number 2 Shandon Park (purchased 23 May 1984) and number 4 Shandon Park (purchased 7 December 1987). Both these properties were subsequently demolished. In addition, 2 properties/gardens were acquired for the associated proposed link road from Ascot Park to Shandon Park—number 11 Shandon Park (purchased 17 November 1997) and number 13 Shandon Park (purchased 7 February 2003). The total cost for these two properties was £406,000.
The day-to-day management of property acquired by Roads Service in advance of road schemes is carried out by the Department for Social Development’s Lands Service, under the terms of a Service Level Agreement (currently under review). This document, among other things, stipulates response times for reacting to maintenance problems.
DSD colleagues have advised that 11 and 13 Shandon Park were rented to tenants but vacated in January and February 2005 respectively. Unfortunately DSD was unsuccessful in its efforts to secure new tenants for them after advertising in the local press in June 2005.
I understand maintenance work has been ongoing at these properties. At 11 Shandon Park work was carried out between February and April 2005 with further work to be carried out this month. At 13 Shandon Park maintenance work was also carried out in June, July and September 2005 and in January 2006.
Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1) how much each education and library board in Northern Ireland has spent on school governor training in each of the last 10 years, broken down by (a) staff costs, (b) facility hire, (c) refreshments and (d) other expenses; [74383]
(2) how much each education and library board expects to spend in 2006-07 on training for school governors. [74384]
Maria Eagle: Records for all five education and library boards are only available for the four financial years 2002-03 to 2005-06. Figures for the Western Board will be forwarded when they become available on 12 June. Details of the actual expenditure for the other boards for these years plus the 2006-07 anticipated expenditure figures are as follows:
| £ | |||||
| Financial year/ELB | Staff costs | Facility hire | Refreshments | Other expenses | Total |
| 2006-07 anticipated expenditure | |
| Amount (£) | |
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland pursuant to his answer of 11 May 2006, Official Report, column 541W, on sex offenders, for what offences each of the people whose addresses are not known to the police were convicted; whether any of these people have been assessed as a danger to public safety; and whether they were subject to supervision and control orders at the time they moved from their last known residential address. [74314]
Mr. Hanson: Sex offender compliance with the notification requirements of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 is high at around 97 per cent. in Northern Ireland. Notifications are recorded by the police on a live database and the number of unregistered offenders in breach of the requirements may therefore fluctuate on a daily basis. A search of the database to provide the information in reply to the hon. Gentleman's question showed that the number of offenders subject to the notification requirements and for whom the police did not have a current residential address has now reduced to 11. The offences for which these offenders had been convicted were as follows: three for rape; one attempted rape; two unlawful carnal knowledge; two indecent assault on a female; two making/possessing indecent images of children; one buggery. One person with a conviction for making/possessing indecent images of children was subject to probation supervision at the time they failed to comply with the notification requirements. Of the 11 offenders, four had been subject to a multi-agency risk assessment with no one being assessed as Category 3 High Risk i.e. someone whose sexual offending has been assessed as currently likely to lead them to seriously harm other people. PSNI pursue a policy of actively seeking to trace offenders who fail to comply with the notification requirements. This includes placing the offender's details on ViSOR and PNC to alert other UK police forces, checking with agencies such as social security to establish if the offender is claiming benefits etc, and providing full details to colleagues in An Garda Siochana who then complete similar checks for the offender in the Republic of Ireland.
Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether discussions are planned between the Northern Ireland Office and the US consul’s office in Belfast in advance of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington DC during July 2007. [74422]
Maria Eagle: The Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure co-ordinates arrangements on behalf of the Northern Ireland Government in respect of its planning for the 2007 Smithsonian Folklife Festival and consequently has regular contact with staff of the US consulate.
Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many social housing units are scheduled to be completed during 2006. [55789]
Mr. Hanson: The Department’s completion statistics are based on the completion of each contract. Houses are not therefore counted as each one individually completes. In a contract that will not complete until 2006-07, the individual houses completed in 2005-06 have not been scored.
Some 1,200 new homes are currently programmed for ‘contract completion’ in 2005-06.