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170338

registered interest
date	15/12/2014
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Recycling: Brighton
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what recent discussions he has had with Brighton and Hove City Council on the recycling rate for household waste; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Brighton, Kemptown
tabling member printed	Simon Kirby
uin	218608
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/01/2015 answer text <p>We have not had any recent discussions with Brighton and Hove City Council on recycling rates for household waste. This Government is committed to recycling 50% of household waste by 2020 and we've made a great deal of progress: 44% of household waste is now recycled in England compared to 11% in 2001. While we are pleased that Brighton and Hove City Council has maintained weekly collections of residual waste for its residents, it is interesting to note it has a recycling rate of only 25.8% as other, perhaps similar, coastal towns with weekly collections of residual waste such as Bournemouth Borough Council and Southend-on-Sea Borough Council are now recycling over or around 50% of their household waste, in part because of funding received through the Weekly Collection Support Scheme. These and many other councils are demonstrating that you do not need to switch to fortnightly collections to achieve high recycling rates. We would urge Brighton and Hove City Council to learn from these other councils and take steps to improve its recycling rate.</p><p> </p><p>We are aware that projects are being implemented in the city and expect them to have an impact in the coming months. In November 2012, Brighton and Hove City Council was awarded £840,000 from the £250 million Weekly Collection Support Scheme to improve recycling in the city centre by: replacing the existing service with communal recycling points, making the service more user-friendly and introducing associated recycling reward schemes. In May 2014 we received an update stating the communal recycling roll- out should be completed by June 2014. We would therefore expect to see an increase in Brighton and Hove's recycling rate in its 2014/15 figures.</p> answering member constituency Keighley answering member printed Kris Hopkins question first answered 06/01/2015 16:35:19 answering member 4043 label Biography information for Kris Hopkins
tabling member	3929 label Biography information for Simon Kirby

168853

registered interest
date	09/12/2014
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Public Sector: Mutual Societies
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many local authorities in England have allowed staff-led mutuals to run services; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Brighton, Kemptown
tabling member printed	Simon Kirby
uin	217788
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/12/2014 answer text <p>This data is not held centrally.<br><br>Information from the Community Rights Support Programme suggests that 30 groups of local authority employees have been helped to explore use of the Community Right to Challenge to help them mutualise a service and 10 local authorities have been provided with advice on the issue.<br><br>The Cabinet Office has engaged with around 200 emerging and established public service mutuals across multiple sectors, ranging from social care and integrated health to libraries and youth services. Over 100 are live and trading, employing more than 35,000 people and delivering well over £1.5 billion of public services. In England today there are now over 100 live public services mutuals, employing more than 35,000 people and delivering well over £1.5 billion worth of services.</p><p> </p><p>The Local Government Association carries out research for the local government sector on workforce matters. The latest Local Government Association’s Workforce Survey for 2012/13 includes information collected on staff–led organisations and can be found at:<br><br>http://www.local.gov.uk/research-pay-and-workforce/-/journal_content/56/10180/6033972/ARTICLE</p> answering member constituency Keighley answering member printed Kris Hopkins question first answered 18/12/2014 15:50:11 answering member 4043 label Biography information for Kris Hopkins
tabling member	3929 label Biography information for Simon Kirby

168854

registered interest
date	09/12/2014
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Public Sector: Mutual Societies
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will assess the effectiveness of staff-led mutuals in providing value for money for local authorities; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Brighton, Kemptown
tabling member printed	Simon Kirby
uin	217789
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/12/2014 answer text <p>It is for locally elected council leaders to decide how best to deliver the services that their communities rely upon. If council leaders decide to deliver services using staff–led mutuals or other staff-led initiatives than they must ensure they clearly demonstrate that they offer good value for local taxpayers and provide the best outcomes for services users.</p><p> </p><p>The Government is encouraging the development of public service mutuals because of the benefits they bring to public sector staff, local commissioners and service users. By freeing employees to deliver and improve their services as they know best, mutuals enable innovation and because they feel more engaged, staff are likely to stay longer with the organisation and miss fewer days of work. Research shows that absenteeism and staff turnover fall 20% and 16% respectively after an organisation has spun out.</p><p> </p><p>Mutuals are proving successful at generating new business, expanding into more areas and winning additional contracts, acting as engines for small business growth in their local communities. Our latest data shows that mutuals have average projected revenue growth of 10% over the next year.</p><p> </p><p>The Community Right to Challenge complements the work to support formation of new staff-led mutuals in local government by providing a mechanism for local authority employees to set out their proposals for delivering services as a mutual or other service spin–outs. Information from the Programme suggests it has helped 30 groups of local authority employees to explore using the Community Right to Challenge to help them mutualise a service and has given advice to 10 local authorities.</p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Keighley answering member printed Kris Hopkins question first answered 18/12/2014 15:48:05 answering member 4043 label Biography information for Kris Hopkins
tabling member	3929 label Biography information for Simon Kirby

168856

registered interest
date	09/12/2014
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Older Workers
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many people working in his Department are over 65 years old; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Brighton, Kemptown
tabling member printed	Simon Kirby
uin	217824
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/12/2014 answer text <p>The Department had a total of 16 employees aged 65 and above as of 30 November 2014.</p> answering member constituency Keighley answering member printed Kris Hopkins question first answered 16/12/2014 15:02:18 answering member 4043 label Biography information for Kris Hopkins
tabling member	3929 label Biography information for Simon Kirby

168866

registered interest
date	09/12/2014
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Disabled Staff
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many people with a disability work in his Department; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Brighton, Kemptown
tabling member printed	Simon Kirby
uin	217903
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/12/2014 answer text <p>As of 30 November 2014, 77 of the Department's employees had declared themselves as being disabled. This accounts for 5.5% of the Department's workforce based on the Office of National Statistics headcount definition.<br><br><br></p> answering member constituency Keighley answering member printed Kris Hopkins question first answered 16/12/2014 14:56:16 answering member 4043 label Biography information for Kris Hopkins
tabling member	3929 label Biography information for Simon Kirby

167432

registered interest
date	02/12/2014
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Energy
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he has taken to insulate his departmental estate in order to improve energy efficiency; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Brighton, Kemptown
tabling member printed	Simon Kirby
uin	216835
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/12/2014 answer text <p>The Department for Communities and Local Government has undertaken a number of steps to insulate its offices. All refurbishment work is compliant with the most recent building regulations, specifically the insulation requirements contained within Part L Conservation of Fuel and Power. The Department has also undertaken retrofit measures, such as draught proofing and lagging pipes, ducts and vessels; as well as trialling innovative window films which help improve the thermal efficiency of glazing.</p><p> </p><p>In addition, the Department is committed to complying with the Top Quartile for Energy Performance target which helps ensure that any new buildings to the Government estate are energy efficient and well insulated.</p><p> </p><p>In parallel to our work on insulation and energy conservation, the Department has implemented a more comprehensive carbon reduction programme which has led to a 54% reduction in its greenhouse gas emissions since 2009-10. This has primarily been achieved through low and no cost energy efficiency measures, and operating our buildings even more efficiently. In taking this action, we have reduced our annual energy bill by £925,000 since 2009-10, and we continue to work towards identifying even greater efficiencies.</p> answering member constituency Keighley answering member printed Kris Hopkins question first answered 09/12/2014 15:49:15 answering member 4043 label Biography information for Kris Hopkins
tabling member	3929 label Biography information for Simon Kirby

166958

registered interest
date	01/12/2014
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Renewable Energy
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the capacity of his Department's buildings for the micro-generation of renewable energy; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Brighton, Kemptown
tabling member printed	Simon Kirby
uin	216584
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/12/2014 answer text <p>The Department for Communities and Local Government has assessed the feasibility of introducing renewable energy generation across it estate as part of a series of more detailed carbon reduction audits.</p><p> </p><p>Although some opportunities for installing micro-generation technologies have been identified, a range of even more cost-effective carbon reduction opportunities were also identified.</p><p> </p><p>My Department has therefore chosen to follow the energy hierarchy, by implementing the most cost-effective options for reducing energy, primarily low and no cost energy efficiency and energy conservation measures, ahead of installing renewable technologies.</p><p> </p><p>By adopting this strategy, the Department has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 54% since 2009-10, and reduced its annual energy bill by £925,000 since 2009-10. The Department continues to consider all available options for introducing even greater efficiencies.</p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Keighley answering member printed Kris Hopkins question first answered 08/12/2014 16:55:31 answering member 4043 label Biography information for Kris Hopkins
tabling member	3929 label Biography information for Simon Kirby

165918

registered interest
date	25/11/2014
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Water
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to reduce water (a) usage and (b) bills in his Department; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Brighton, Kemptown
tabling member printed	Simon Kirby
uin	215955
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/12/2014 answer text <p>The Department for Communities and Local Government has made significant reductions to both its water usage and associated bills.</p><p> </p><p>Total water use has been reduced by 50% since 2009-10, and the number of its offices falling within good and best practice office water benchmarks has been increased from 28% to 73% during the same period.</p><p> </p><p>These improvements have primarily been achieved by installing efficiency devices such as tap aerators, flow control valves, through leak reduction work, and by encouraging staff and facilities managers to adopt more water efficient behaviours.</p><p> </p><p>In taking this action, the Department has reduced its annual water bill by £13,000 since 2009-10, and continues to work towards identifying even greater efficiencies.</p> answering member constituency Keighley answering member printed Kris Hopkins question first answered 02/12/2014 17:11:26 answering member 4043 label Biography information for Kris Hopkins
tabling member	3929 label Biography information for Simon Kirby

164323

registered interest
date	24/11/2014
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Electronic Government
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to ensure its services are available online; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Brighton, Kemptown
tabling member printed	Simon Kirby
uin	215658
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/12/2014 answer text <p>My Department does not provide any transactional services to the general public as such.</p><p> </p><p>The Planning Inspectorate provides a planning appeals service; information about its electronic transactions can be found at:</p><p><br><a href="https://www.gov.uk/performance/transactions-explorer/department/dclg/by-transactions-per-year/descending" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/performance/transactions-explorer/department/dclg/by-transactions-per-year/descending</a></p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/performance/transactions-explorer/department/dclg/by-transactions-per-year/descending" target="_blank"><br></a><br>My Department will shortly be introducing secondary legislation to facilitate council papers being sent to councillors in an electronic format.</p><p> </p><p>The newly updated local government Transparency Code will ensure that more information about councils’ activities is available for online scrutiny.</p><p> </p><p>Earlier this year, we amended legislation to allow council meetings to be reported through digital media.</p> answering member constituency Keighley answering member printed Kris Hopkins question first answered 04/12/2014 15:59:01 answering member 4043 label Biography information for Kris Hopkins
tabling member	3929 label Biography information for Simon Kirby

114632

registered interest
date	05/11/2014
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
hansard heading	Devolution: West Midlands
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what recent discussions he has had with local authorities in the West Midlands on the devolution of his Department's powers to that urban area; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Brighton, Kemptown
tabling member printed	Simon Kirby
uin	213542
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/01/2015 answer text <p>We have regular discussions with local authorities on a range of issues associated with localism.</p><p> </p><p>I refer my hon. Friend to the recent command paper, <em>Implications of devolution for England</em> (Cm 8969) which sets our approach to further decentralisation in England.</p><p> </p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/implications-of-devolution-for-england" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/implications-of-devolution-for-england</a></p><p> </p><p>I would also note the recent Written Ministerial Statement on the governance of Birmingham City Council of 9 December 2014, <em>Official Report</em>, Column 27WS, which follows the review by Sir Bob Kerslake.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Keighley answering member printed Kris Hopkins question first answered 15/01/2015 17:27:41 answering member 4043 label Biography information for Kris Hopkins
tabling member	3929 label Biography information for Simon Kirby