Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much his Department and its agencies and non-departmental public bodies have spent on infraction proceedings in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Lord Wharton of Yarm
I refer my hon. Friend to the answer given by my Rt Hon. Friend the Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General today. UIN: 36288
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many infraction proceedings the EU has initiated against his Department in each of the last 10 years; what the reasons were for each such proceeding being undertaken; and what the outcome was of each such proceeding.
Answered by Lord Wharton of Yarm
The information requested is publically available on the website of the European Commission where the infringement cases for each member state can be found. This includes the infringement and the decision. These records go back to 2002 and can be found here: http://ec.europa.eu/atwork/applying-eu-law/infringements-proceedings/infringement_decisions/?lang_code=en
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of nationals from other EU member states who are on social housing waiting lists in the UK.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The Department’s annual Local Authority’s Housing Statistics provide information on the total households on local authority waiting lists in England but do not record nationality. The Department’s English Housing Survey does ask whether respondents are on a waiting list and also records nationality. The sample size, however, is not sufficient to provide a robust estimate by nationality.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether local authorities are required to consider environmental factors when awarding contracts.
Answered by Marcus Jones
The over-riding procurement policy requirement is that all public procurement must be based on value for money, defined as the best mix of quality and effectiveness for the least outlay over the period of use of the goods or services bought. This includes taking environmental issues into consideration.
The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 requires all public authorities, to have regard to economic, social and environmental well-being in connection with public services contracts; and for connected purposes. In addition under the Duty of Best Value, local authorities should consider overall value, including environmental value when reviewing service provision.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the contribution of the hon. Member for St Albans of 26 January 2015, Official Report, column 648, if he will make it his policy to issue new guidance during the planning process that will put an obligation on commercial buildings to have zero-carbon or low-carbon emissions.
Answered by Stephen Williams
The National Planning Policy Framework already states that to support the move to a low carbon future local planning authorities when setting any local requirements for a building’s sustainability should do so in a way consistent with the Government’s zero carbon buildings policy. The Government is committed to progressively strengthening the national regulatory requirements for new non-domestic buildings, enabling them to be zero carbon from 2019. To that end the minimum energy performance requirements in the Building Regulations have been twice strengthened under this Administration resulting in an average energy performance improvement of over 30%.