§ Lord Aveburyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will list the gypsy sites approved by local authorities in England since those authorities were advised to consider the provision of further sites by Circular 18/94. [HL4938]
§ The Minister of State, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (Lord Rooker)A list of local authority gypsy sites, indicating the number of pitches on each site, is produced annually by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (and previously by the Department of Transport, Local Government and Regions), based on information provided by local authorities. These figures are routinely placed in the Libraries of both Houses as soon as they become available. The figures published for January 1994 prior to the issue of the guidance in Circular 18/94 show there were 307 sites, containing a total of 5,068 pitches. The latest figures, 3WA as at January 2002, show 325 sites, containing a total of 5,005 pitches.
§ Lord Aveburyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they have corrected the information about gypsy sites given on the website www.housing.odpm.gov.uk/information/index14.htm, in the light of errors drawn to their attention by Dr Donald Kenrick and others. [HL4939]
§ Lord RookerThe Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has been reviewing the statistics in the Gypsy Site Count for January 2002, and has included the information provided by Dr Kenrick in that review. Any corrections will be included in July 2002 Gypsy Caravan Count statistics, which will be published on the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's website shortly. Copies will also be placed in the Libraries of both Houses as soon as they become available.
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is committed to review both how and what data are collected for the Gypsy Site Count and Gypsy Caravan Count once it has received the results to the recently conducted Gypsy Sites Research.