§ Mr. BarnesTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales what use his Department and its agencies make of postcode areas for the collection of data and in formulas for the distribution of grants and awards; and when such usages were last reviewed. [14798]
§ Mr. HaguePostcode areas are used for a number of purposes:
- —By the Further Education Funding Council in part of its methodology for funding further education institutions.
- —To select houses to be monitored as part of a research to assess radon levels in houses in Wales.
- —For the 1996 Welsh house condition survey, which is one of the components in the housing capital allocation formula—As the basic sampling frame for both the 1992 Welsh social security survey and the 1997 household interview survey.
330W
1996–97 £ 1997–98 £ Welsh Office Transport Grant (50 per cent. grant and 50 per cent. SCA) Third Dee Crossing 19,000,000 7,400,00 Welsh Office Strategic Development Scheme/Welsh Capital Challenge Funding (75 per cent. Welsh Office Grant 25 per cent. SCA) Traffic Management, Buckley Town Centre (100 per cent. SCA) 650,000 10,000 Construction of Industrial Road and Units at Sandycroft 400,000 100,000 Development of Shotton County Stores 400,000 Provision of Infrastructure at River Lane/Flint Road Industrial Park, Saltney (100 per cent. SCA) 350,000 1,000,000
- —By the Welsh register of manufacturing employment to define different regions in Wales, for example by parliamentary constituencies, unitary authorities and travel-to-work areas.
- —In origin and destination traffic surveys to build a model of traffic movement and demand form one area to another.
- —Indirectly in a small part of the formula for calculating local authority spending assessments which are used for the distribution of revenue support grant.
- —To help identify individual companies or sites when compiling the Welsh index of production and construction.
By health authorities and trusts to authenticate ECRS (extra-contractual referrals) to determine the purchaser responsible for funding treatment.
- —To assist health authorities and trusts in the health needs assessment process at district and sub district levels, for contract monitoring; monitoring activity at local level; and assisting in determining GP allocations.
- —Used to assist in the administration of deprivation payments made to GPs having patients living in wards which are identified as deprived for the purposes of these surveys.
- —Used by highways directorate to analyse comments made on public consultation returns for new road schemes, in order to determine whether the respondent is local to the area.
The ways in which the postcode areas are used are reviewed from time to time.