here - United Kingdom Parliament

881W
Written Answers
1 DECEMBER 2010
Written Answers
882W
priorities for its future work, including seeking the
views of the public and other stakeholders. In addition,
the statutory review of the Charities Act 2006 which is
due to take place in 2011 will consider potential changes
to the legislative framework for charities and the Charity
Commission.
The Charity Commission’s strategic review is currently
under way and it would be premature to speculate on
the outcome, but I am confident that the Charity
Commission can be an effective regulator of charities in
England and Wales within the resources allocated in its
spending review settlement.
Community Organisers
Alex Cunningham: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet
Office what roles and responsibilities the proposed
community organisers will have; and what mechanisms
he plans to put in place to monitor and assess their
effectiveness. [27300]
Mr Hurd: Community organisers will act as a catalyst
for more social action, supporting all parts of the
community (including under-represented and disadvantaged
groups and individuals), to express their needs and
issues, as well as identify opportunities and resources.
Through supporting communities to take action, they
will:
(a) Build capacity of the community they serve by helping the
community take action on the issues that matter most to them;
(b) Help the community challenge vested interests and drive
change in public and private sector organisations and in the
community;
(c) Build self-reliance, individual and collective responsibility;
(d) Encourage diverse people to work with others to improve
the quality of life locally;
(e) Identify local leaders who can carry forward actions;
(f) Support and link new and existing neighbourhood groups
(thereby supporting the activity of the Community First programme,
a targeted grants programme, currently under development).
The Office for Civil Society is currently procuring a
national partner to further develop, manage and implement
the community organisers programme at arms length
from Government. This ensures that community organisers
will be accountable to the national partner, while remaining
free from political influence.
The effectiveness of the community organisers will
also be measured by the success they have in enabling
the communities to take successful actions for change,
on the priorities that the communities have identified.
Community organisers will be accountable to the
community they are supporting as well as any institutions
which support them.
Deaths: Winter
Valerie Vaz: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet
Office what recent discussions he has had with ministerial
colleagues on responsibility for steps to prevent excess
winter deaths. [26283]
Mr Maude: Officials from all key Departments are in
regular contact on a wide range of winter resilience
issues, including steps to reduce the number of excess
deaths over the winter period.
Emergencies
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet
Office what assessment he has made of the likely effects
of the outcomes of the comprehensive spending review
on his Department’s civil contingencies programmes.
[26629]
Mr Maude: The Government’s plans for changes in
the United Kingdom’s civil contingencies programmes,
within the resources available through the 2010 spending
review, are set out in chapter 4 of the strategic defence
and security review published on 19 October.
The need for resilience to all kinds of emergency is
identified in the National Security Strategy as a priority
task. The role of the Cabinet Office is to co-ordinate
Government-wide resilience planning and programmes,
and will continue therefore to be an important task for
the Department.
Football: South Africa
Graham Evans: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet
Office how much his Department spent on attendance
at the 2010 FIFA World cup. [26151]
Mr Hurd: The Cabinet Office did not spend any
money on attendance at the 2010 FIFA World cup.
Iraq Committee of Inquiry: Public Appointments
Mr Llwyd: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office
(1) what skills and experience were identified as being
required for the role of Secretary to the Iraq Inquiry;
how many candidates were identified as having such
skills and experience; and on what basis the successful
candidate was selected; [26897]
(2) what steps were taken in the process of appointment
of the Secretary to the Iraq Inquiry (a) to identify
potential conflicts of interest and (b) to ensure that any
such conflicts did not affect the independence of the
inquiry. [26898]
Mr Hurd: The Cabinet Secretary decided to nominate
the Secretary to the Iraq Inquiry and agreed the
appointment with the Chairman of the Inquiry. Both
the Cabinet Secretary and the Chairman of the Inquiry
agreed that the Secretary to the Inquiry should be a
senior individual in the civil service ideally with previous
involvement in Iraq issues.
The Chairman of the Inquiry has told the Cabinet
Secretary that, in agreeing to the appointment, he was
aware of the candidate’s role in the Foreign and Defence
Policy (formerly the Defence and Overseas Policy)
Secretariat in the Cabinet Office from November 2004,
and, given the professional standards of the senior civil
service, saw no potential conflict of interest with her
appointment as Secretary to the Inquiry that would, in
his view, affect the independence of the Inquiry.
Mr Llwyd: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office
which of his Department’s human resources procedures
were followed in the selection of the (a) secretary and
(b) press secretary to the Iraq Inquiry. [26899]