Written Answers to Questions
Wednesday 9 May 2007
Transport
Aviation: Exhaust Emissions
Contrails are ice crystal clouds that form at high altitudes under certain atmospheric conditions. They are initiated by exhaust products and the disturbance caused by aircraft. The Department has sponsored research into these emissions including a major international scientific meeting last year which presented significant new research on the subject:
http://www.pa.op.dlr.de/tac/.
Bridges: Thames Gateway
In the last year the Secretary of State has received (a) one letter supporting and (b) two letters opposing the Thames Gateway Bridge.
Bus Services: Concessions
From April 2006, older and disabled people have been guaranteed free off-peak local bus travel within their local authority area. Statutory concessionary fares are one of the services supported through Formula Grant, which comprises Revenue Support Grant, Redistributed Business Rates and Principal Formula Police Grant.
Formula Grant is an unhypothecated block grant i.e. authorities are free to spend the money on any service. Because of this and the method of calculation, particularly floor damping (which guarantees local authorities at least a minimum percentage increase by scaling back increases for other authorities), it is not possible to say how much of the total Formula Grant funding is for any particular service. The Government provided an extra £350 million in 2006-07 and a further £367.5 million in 2007-08, via the Formula Grant system, to fund the extra costs to local authorities. The Government are confident that this should be sufficient to cover the total additional cost to local authorities of the statutory concession.
Local authorities have the discretion to offer (and fund from their own resources) enhancements to the statutory minimum, such as peak bus travel and/or concessions on other modes.
Departments: Energy
The Department for Transport (Central) and its agencies are very conscious of the need to reduce power, thereby contributing to a common target to reduce carbon emissions by 12.5 per cent. by 2010-11. All therefore have policies of shutting down computers at night, and staff are regularly instructed to do so by means such as induction training, circulars, general guidance, notices and night security checks. In addition, departmental procurement policy states that preference should be given to energy efficient IT equipment.
Technical procedures are not used at the moment, although DfT (Central) is examining the possibilities for this, commencing in mid-June, with an automatic shutdown of computers inadvertently left powered on at close of business each Friday.
Fares: Technology
As part of extending concessionary travel to cover journeys on all off peak local bus services anywhere in England, the Department for Transport intends to specify a standard national concessionary bus travel pass.
We are actively exploring the option of specifying that the new passes must be ITSO compliant smartcards. Our decisions about the specifications of the pass will be dependent on the outcome of a forthcoming consultation and discussions with suppliers.
ITSO based smartcards are being used by both Scotland and Wales for their national concessionary travel schemes.
Honorary Medical Advisory Panel on Driving and Diabetes Mellitus
Two lay members sit on the panel.
There are no health criteria for lay panel members but we do draw them from a range of sources including patient interest and support groups.
Road Traffic Control: Blackwall Tunnel
The Secretary of State has received one representation regarding the decision to end the tidal flow system at the Blackwall Tunnel. This was a letter from a Member of Parliament.
Roads: Safety
The Department endorses “Well maintained Highways” the code of practice on highway management published by the UK Roads Liaison Group. The code provides guidance on safety inspections and those defects to be inspected which include ironwork broken or missing.
The Highways Agency is responsible for the maintenance of the strategic road network. Their routine and winter service code specifies that a missing drain cover requires an immediate and temporary repair and a permanent repair within 28 days. Safety inspections are carried out every 24 hours on most motorways and every seven days on heavily trafficked all purpose trunk roads and on a 28 day cycle on all other trunk roads.
Transport: Radioactive Materials
In the European Union the regulations to cover the safe transport of radioactive material are contained in the European Agreement concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Road (ADR) 2005 Edition and the Regulations concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Rail (RID) 2005 Edition. These regulations are required to be transposed into domestic regulations by each member state.
In Great Britain the current regulations are the Radioactive Material (Road Transport) Regulations 2002, SI 2002 No. 1093 and the Radioactive Material (Road Transport) (Amendment) Regulations 2003, SI 2003 No. 1867 and, for rail transport, the Carriage of Dangerous Goods and Use of Transportable Pressure Equipment Regulations 2004, SI 2004 No. 568.
The Transfrontier Shipment of Radioactive Waste Regulations 1993 SI 1993 No. 3031 may also apply in order to prevent diversion of material.
House of Commons Commission
Parliament: Parking
As I said in my earlier reply there are no plans to introduce charges for use of car parking spaces on the parliamentary estate.
Prime Minister
Early Intervention Measures
Ensuring that all children are able to read is essential to tackling inequality and under-attainment. Since 1997, 95,000 more 11-years-olds are able to read as a result of the daily literacy hour. We are also putting in place the recommendations of the review by Jim Rose for systematic phonics teaching for all children.
In addition, the Government are also supporting measures to improve children's behaviour and attitudes from an early age. The evaluation of the primary Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL) programme found that it had a positive impact on children's results, behaviour and attitudes to school. Approximately 60 per cent. of primary schools are already implementing SEAL and a programme for secondary schools will start from September 2007.
Departments: Internet
My office is responsible for the No. 10 website (http: //www. number-10.gov.uk).
Information on the number of visits to the site can be found on the No 10. website (http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page1232.asp). A copy of this web page has been placed in the Library of the House.
On costs, I refer the right hon. Member to the answer I gave the hon. Member for Beverley and Holderness (Mr. Stuart) on 19 December 2006, Official Report, columns 1807-8W. Figures for the financial year 2006-07 are not yet available.
Trade and Industry
Credit: EC Action
The DTI published an up-dated impact assessment in 2006 on the revised proposal for a Consumer Credit Directive. Our assessment then was that it could impose potential costs on lenders and lead to a possible reduction in access to credit among consumers, both of which could have a negative impact on consumer spending. Since then the proposal has been through a number of re-drafts and we think this risk has been very much reduced. It is not practicable to make any further assessment of the impact of the proposal post-implementation at a time when the text is subject to frequent change. We will be up-dating our impact assessment in the light of the final text if and when the directive is agreed. I will write to the hon. Member as the impact assessment is updated—and place copies in the Libraries of the House.
The DTI published an up-dated impact assessment in 2006 on the revised proposal for a Consumer Credit Directive. Our assessment then was that it did put at risk the diversity of credit products and could drive up costs and prices and lead to a reduction in the availability of credit particularly to the sub-prime market. Since then the proposal has been through a number of re-drafts and we think this risk has been very much reduced. Negotiations are ongoing and we will be up-dating our impact assessment in the light of the final text if and when the directive is agreed. I will write to the hon. Member as the impact assessment is updated and place copies in the Libraries of the House.
Overseas Trade: Canada
[holding answer 8 May 2007]: Through UK Trade and Investment, the Department supports initiatives and provides services across a range of sectors for UK companies seeking business in Canada, with a clear focus on activity that delivers maximum added value for business and the UK economy.
Pay Television: Competition
The matter raised is the responsibility of the independent regulator, the Office of Communications (Ofcom), which is accountable to Parliament rather than Ministers. Accordingly, I have asked the Chief Executive of Ofcom to reply directly to my hon. Friend. Copies of the Chief Executive’s letter will be placed in the Libraries of the House.
Northern Ireland
Departments: Renewable Energy
My Department purchased 811,107 kilowatt hours of energy from renewable sources in 2005-06. This represents 25 per cent. of the total energy used and is well ahead of the 10 per cent. target set for March 2008. This is the most recent year for which figures are available.
Equal Opportunities
This matter is now the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Administration.
Health Professions: Training
This matter is now the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Administration.
Midwives
This matter is now the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Administration.
Northern Ireland Assembly: Flags
Parliament Buildings is not defined as a Government building as classified in the Flags Order (NI) 2000, and so is not subject to the Flags Regulations. After devolution it will be for the Northern Ireland Administration to decide on flag flying procedures at Parliament Buildings.
Police Service of Northern Ireland: Casualties
The following tables provide a breakdown of the number of RUC or PSNI officers who have been (a) killed on duty and (b) injured on duty.
Number 1997 4 1998 1 1999 0 2000 2 2001 0 2002 0 2003 1 2004 0 2005 1 2006 0 1 Includes (a) death by terrorist on duty (b) death by non-terrorist on duty (c) death by traffic accident on duty (d) death by accident on duty.
Number 1999 1,598 2000 1,594 2001 2,114 2002 1,490 2003 1,165 2004 928 2005 848 2006 564 1 Figures include IOD incurred by police officers while travelling to and from work. 2 Earliest year for which this data is available.
Police Service of Northern Ireland: Finance
The Police Service of Northern Ireland budget for the period 2002-03 to 2006-07, excluding budgets for the police pension schemes which are treated separately to other GB forces, is detailed in the following table.
£ million Main grant revenue Main grant capital Patten non severance revenue Patten non severance capital Patten severance 2002-031 635.1 20.5 9.8 14.9 42.2 2003-041 649.2 19.7 14.6 12.9 10.2 2004-05 780.8 30.3 20.0 7.9 26.6 2005-06 721.8 32.2 21.1 6.4 28.1 2006-07 764.2 36.1 19.6 2.6 27.9 1 Represents cash budgeting figure (non cash not included). All other figures are on a resource basis. Notes: 1. 2004-05 main grant includes a provision for FTR severance. 3. 2006-07 main grant includes a provision for injury on duty liabilities.
Police Service of Northern Ireland: Manpower
On 27 April 2007 the number of officers and civilian staff of the PSNI, not including secondments, was 12,670.
Police: Crimes of Violence
Information prior to 2005-06 is not available in the requested format. However the following table outlines the total number of attacks on police officers in each of the last two years.
District command unit 2005-06 2006-07 Antrim 39 7 Ards 5 3 Armagh 7 7 Banbridge 1 4 East Belfast 178 31 North Belfast 454 124 South Belfast 123 39 West Belfast 696 439 Ballymena 29 11 Ballymoney 4 2 Carrickfergus 18 9 Coleraine 6 7 Cookstown 6 8 Craigavon 131 106 Castlereagh 17 22 Dungannon and S. Tyrone 14 3 Down 12 15 Fermanagh 8 2 Foyle 251 173 Larne 3 1 Limavady 7 9 Lisburn 130 138 Magherafelt 2 6 Moyle 5 2 Newtownabbey 79 50 North Down 12 11 Newry and Mourne 62 92 Omagh 12 8 Strabane 39 26 Total 2,350 1,355
Justice
Absent Voting: Merchant Seamen
I have not received any representations on this matter.
Voting Rights: Prisoners
The Government are currently analysing the responses to the first stage consultation document. Once this analysis is complete, a second consultation document will be produced, to consider how any changes might work in practice.
Our current plans are as set out in the action plan submitted to the Committee of Ministers for responding to the Hirst judgment. That indicates that we hope to conclude the consultation process on this subject by January 2008.
International Development
Security Objectives
Security and development are linked. Poverty, under-development, weak and ineffective government all help to provide fertile conditions for conflict, criminality and, in some circumstances, terrorism, which is why DFID country programmes all promote the security of the poor and in doing so, help to address the root causes of insecurity locally, nationally and internationally.
Democratic Republic of the Congo
During my visit I met President Kabila, Prime Minister Gizenga and others. I expressed deep concern about the recent fighting in Kinshasa and Bas Congo: Congolese politicians need to embrace democracy, not confrontation and violence. I pressed for renewed commitment to democracy, progress on security sector reform and enforcement of the moratorium on new logging concessions.
At Panzi hospital in Eastern DRC, I met rape victims aged just 4 and 7. I was moved by the hospital staff’s determination to make a difference. DFID’s task is to support such efforts to help poor people and sustain peace in DRC.
Water Supplies
We will double our expenditure on water and sanitation in Africa—where the Millennium Development Goal targets are most off-track—to £95 million a year by 2007-08, and then double it again to £200 million a year by 2010-11.
Last November, I published a global call to action on water and sanitation. We need both developing country Governments and donors to do more, we need to invest more and to ensure this money is spent effectively, and we need to put the best structures in place to make all of this happen.
Nigeria
Nigeria ranks below the average for sub-Saharan Africa in the UN’s Human Development Index. In Northern Nigeria, high maternal mortality, low levels of immunisation, and gender inequality mean human development indicators are among the world’s worst, outside conflict zones. While Nigeria has not seen a widespread humanitarian crisis in recent years, there are regional instances of severe human suffering. A nutritional crisis in mid-2005 in several Northern states led Medicins Sans Frontieres to treat over 15,000 severely malnourished children. Meanwhile, oil spills in the Niger Delta have affected the environment and local livelihoods in that region.
Darfur
Four million people in Darfur are in need of assistance including two million Internally Displaced Persons, 131,000 of whom have been displaced since the beginning of the year.
Recent assessment showed malnutrition just below emergency line and fairly stable mortality figures. This success however is dependent on continued humanitarian assistance which continues to be under threat both from violence and from bureaucratic impediments imposed by the Government of Sudan. Aid delivery remains suspended or severely curtailed in many areas of Darfur leaving large numbers of people with no access to critical humanitarian assistance.
Four million people in Darfur are in need of assistance including two million who have been displaced by violence. Displacements continue at an alarming rate of 30,000 a month.
Recent assessments report malnutrition just below emergency threshold and fairly stable mortality figures. However this success is dependent on the provision of ongoing humanitarian assistance which continues to be under threat both from insecurity and from bureaucratic impediments imposed by the Government of Sudan. Aid deliveries remain suspended or severely curtailed in many areas of Darfur leaving many without access to critical humanitarian assistance.
Vulture Funds
The actions of vulture funds are deplorable. They cannot be allowed to continue to profit from poor countries. The UK is working with the World Bank to ensure that countries can buy back their commercial debts at a considerable discount through the Debt Reduction Facility. We are encouraging the World Bank and IMF to strengthen their support for debt management capacity building in developing countries. The UK is also supporting the African Development Bank’s proposal to set up a legal assistance facility to help countries facing lawsuits access legal advice. In addition, we will seek to develop a voluntary code of conduct for commercial creditors.
Latin America
DFID is primarily working with the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and World Bank. We are seeking to help the poor to get better access to markets, and to make their voice heard in Government services. There are signs of improvement: between 2001 and 2005, incomes of the poorest 10 per cent. of people in Brazil rose eight times faster than incomes of the top 10 per cent. This is in part because of the Bolsa Familia programme of cash transfers that the banks and DFID have been supporting.
Somalia
The UN has declared Somalia one of the most serious humanitarian crises in the world. Killings, woundings, displacement, destruction of homes, and theft of property, especially due to the conflict in Mogadishu, has added to mounting levels of starvation and epidemic disease especially in southern and central Somalia. More people were displaced in Somalia in the past month than in any other conflict in the world. Continuing insecurity, and deliberate harassment and obstruction by all parties is seriously impeding relief efforts. Against a UN appeal of $262 million DFID has committed over £3.6 million to humanitarian activities in 2007, and is considering further support.
Communities and Local Government
Aerials: Planning Permission
We are currently considering the need to revise Planning Policy Guidance Note 8 but have yet to make a decision on whether we will do so. If we believe there is a case for revision to the guidance, we will consult the Electronic Communications Working Group which comprises Government, industry, academic and campaign representatives.
Bridges: Thames Gateway
Overall, the Department has received 4,808 written representations objecting to the scheme, broken down as follows:
2,949 representations, of which 2,836 were contained in petitions, before the opening of the Public Inquiry into the proposed Bridge;
1,819 representations were made during the Inquiry; and
44 representations following the close of the Inquiry.
Overall, the Department has received 77 written representations supporting the scheme, broken down as follows:
59 expressions of support/representations for the proposal before the opening of the Public Inquiry into the proposed Bridge;
11 representations were made during the Inquiry; and
7 written representations following the close of the Inquiry.
Fire Services
[holding answer 24 April 2007]: As yet no fire and rescue authority has been asked to commit to formally moving to a regional fire control centre although all have been asked to make preparations for doing so in accordance with the fire and rescue national framework. The business case shows that FiReControl provides good value for money and we expect every fire and rescue authority should see savings on current spend.
Planning Permission
I am presuming that the right hon. Gentleman is referring to decisions where the Secretary of State has disagreed with the ‘recommendation’ of a Planning Inspector. The Secretary of State does not overturn decisions taken by the Planning Inspectorate.
Since 5 December 2005:
The Secretary of State has made 23 planning decisions against the recommendations of the Inspector.
Since 1 November 2006:
The Secretary of State has made seven planning decisions against the recommendations of the Inspector.
The issue of reserve sites for housing is not one that arises nationally. It relates to only a few areas, including the county in which the right hon. Gentleman’s constituency lies. It was not an issue in any of these cases.
Some recent cases, where the Secretary of State has been minded to make a decision against Inspectors recommendations, will not be included in these statistics as a final decision has not yet been issued.
Planning Policy Statement 3: Housing (PPS3) was published in November 2006 and took full effect on 1 April 2007. It is therefore the relevant national policy statement which the Secretary of State takes into account in determining planning cases which involve prospective housing development.
I am presuming that the right hon. Gentleman is referring to decisions where the Secretary of State has disagreed with the ‘recommendation’ of a Planning Inspector.
The Secretary of State does not overturn decisions taken by the Planning Inspectorate.
If so, records are available since 2002, and can be seen in the following table:
Call-ins (Number) Call-ins (Percentage) Recovered appeals (Number) Recovered appeals (Percentage) Total (Number) Total (Percentage) 2006-07 Total decisions 80 — 153 — 233 — Decisions against Inspector’s recommendation 6 7.5 10 6.5 16 6.9 2005-06 Total decisions 78 — 306 — 384 — Decisions against Inspector’s recommendation 17 21.8 18 5.9 35 9.1 2004-05 Total decisions 86 — 261 — 347 — Decisions against Inspector’s recommendation 12 14.0 17 6.5 29 8.3 2003-04 Total decisions 88 — 236 — 324 — Decisions against Inspector’s recommendation 11 12.5 20 8.5 31 9.6 2002-03 Total decisions 59 — 124 — 183 — Decisions against Inspector’s recommendation 12 20.3 5 4.0 17 9.3
The figures, for cases decided by the Secretary of State, should be seen in the context of the total number of planning decisions made by Inspectors of the Planning Inspectorate:
Number 2002-03 14,950 2003-04 18,194 2004-05 17,403 2005-06 21,493 2006-07 20,860
For the most recent year, the 16 decisions made by the Secretary of State against the recommendation of the Inspector represents 0.08 per cent. of the total number of decisions made by Inspectors or the Secretary of State.
There are no regional planning authorities, as suggested in the question. It may be that the right hon. Gentleman is referring to the Government Office regions. Should this be the case, I would be more than happy to provide him with this information on request.
The Secretary of State fully takes into account the views of local people when determining planning applications. The principle of fully considering the views of local people, and the importance the Secretary of State ascribes to this process, is outlined in paragraphs 40-44 of Planning Policy Statement 1: Delivering Sustainable Development.
Furthermore, the Secretary of State will always consider the Inspector’s Report, inquiry evidence and post-inquiry representations—all of which incorporate the views of local people.
Defence
Afghanistan: Peace Keeping Operations
The Secretary of State announced the deployment of additional Royal Engineers on 10 July 2006 to accelerate the reconstruction effort in southern Afghanistan. It is worth noting, though, that the UK task force as a whole is deployed to provide security so that reconstruction and development may take place.
The following tables list quick impact projects being undertaken in Helmand Province, and the progress that has been made to date. I have stated the agency responsible for the implementation of each project, and identified whether the responsible agency reports to the MOD. It is important to note, however, that in all instances the military work closely with other Government Departments and non-governmental organisations to agree key priorities with the Afghan authorities. In many instances, project delivery will require the involvement of a number of agencies. This is in line with our comprehensive approach.
In addition to the projects in the following table, there are a number of long-term development initiatives being undertaken throughout Afghanistan, to which the Department for International Development (DFID) contributes. DFID funds around $60 million over three years (2006-09) in support of their Helmand Agriculture and Rural Development Programme.
Responsible agency Agency responsible to MOD Location Title Total cost ($) Status Royal Engineers Yes Lashkar Gah Permanent Vehicle Check Point (PVCP) 21,387 Complete Royal Engineers Yes Gereshk Afghan National Police (ANP) Infrastructure in Gereshk 240,000 Complete Royal Engineers Yes Lashkar Gah Afghan National Army (ANA) Platoon House 40,387 Complete Royal Engineers Yes Lashkar Gah ANP Outposts 143,964 Complete Royal Engineers Yes Lashkar Gah 4 x PVCPs 155,000 Complete Royal Engineers Yes Lashkar Gah 4 x Enhanced PVCPs 110,000 Complete Royal Engineers Yes Helmand Construction resources for 12 modular Military Construction Force built ANP temporary police stations/PVCPs 600,000 Complete Royal Engineers Yes Lashkar Gah New Joint Provincial Coordination Centre 161,147 Complete Governor’s Office No Lashkar Gah 2 x PVCPs 16,800 Complete Royal Engineers Yes Lashkar Gah Ablutions at US Protection and Investigations (USPI) compound for Afghan National Auxiliary Police (ANAP) training 5,265 Complete Royal Engineers Yes Tombstone Camp Shorabak (ANA) Mosque 100,000 Planned Royal Engineers Yes Lashkar Gah Provision of security infrastructure for Governor’s office and Bost Hotel 84,227 In progress Operational Mentoring and Liaison Team (OMLT) Yes Kajaki Water/Fuel storage for the ANA 1,200 In progress Royal Engineers Yes Gereshk Upgrade to ANA compound in Gereshk 15,000 Complete Operations Company Yes Laskhar Gah Upgrade to Muktar Gate 6,475 In progress 42 Commando Yes Nowzad Rubble Clearance 0 In progress Royal Military Police (RMP) Yes Lashkar Gah Bonus Scheme for ANP top-performers at PVCPs 3,000 In progress Information Exploitation Group Yes Garmsir Garmsir PVCP repairs 700 In progress Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) No Lashkar Gah Afghan Meeting facility 651 Complete Total 1,705,203
Responsible agency Agency responsible to MOD Location Title Total cost ($) Status Helping Afghan Farmers Organisation (HAFO) No Gereshk Sayed Tajdar Shrine: wall and gate construction 21,224 Complete HAFO No Gereshk Sayed Tajdar Shrine: road and footpath construction 33,076 Complete HAFO No Lashkar Gah Improvement of Friday market and Gabion wall 140,623 Complete HAFO No Cha-i-Anjeer Improvement of Friday market 24,950 Complete HAFO No Lashkar Gah Gabion Extension 34,108 Complete Royal Engineers Yes Lashkar Gah Safean Playground 50,000 In progress PRT No Lashkar Gah Support to Office of Governor to respond to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) needs 60,000 Complete Information Operations (IO) Yes Lashkar Gah improvements to Media Centre 8,336 Complete Civil-Military Co-operation (CIMIC) Yes Lashkar Gah/Gereshk Installation of solar-powered lighting 280,960 In progress IO Yes Lashkar Gah Support to Radio Stations 150,000 In progress HAFO No Lashkar Gah Weir on Helmand River 161,848 Complete HAFO No Lashkar Gah Extension of Gabion walls on Helmand River 168,045 Complete HAFO No Lashkar Gah Silt Removal from Helmand River 259,479 Complete Royal Engineers Yes Lashkar Gah Bost Hospital Generator and Mortuary 130,400 Complete Royal Engineers Yes Lashkar Gah Security wall for Women’s Centre 30,000 Complete Royal Engineers Yes Lashkar Gah Building work for Kartelegan and Toortank day care centres 86,052 Complete CIMIC Yes Lashkar Gah Women’s Centre sewing ISAF badges to UK mil uniforms 750 Complete Governor’s Office No Nahrisiraj Work to clear and strengthen stretch of Nahrisiraj canal 12,000 Complete Royal Engineers Yes Lashkar Gah Construction of 8 new classrooms at Zacor School 80,008 In progress Royal Engineers Yes Lashkar Gah Connection of a new school to electricity grid 1,809 Complete Royal Engineers Yes Lashkar Gah Construction of a 20 room midwifery hostel 221,762 In progress Royal Engineers Yes Lashkar Gah Construction of a perimeter wall for Cha I Anjeer school 25,000 Complete Royal Engineers Yes Lashkar Gah Essential repairs to Bolan Bridge 231,728 In progress CIMIC Yes Lashkar Gah Welfare Association for Development of Afghanistan (WADAN) Playground 1,090 Complete Royal Engineers Yes Lashkar Gah Repairs to 3 schools 185,062 In progress Royal Engineers Yes Lashkar Gah Improvements to Lashkar Gah library 13,925 Complete CIMIC Yes Lashkar Gah Sports equipment for 8 schools 0 Planned CIMIC Yes Lashkar Gah School sports equipment 30,000 Planned Royal Engineers Yes Lashkar Gah Kartelegan Playground 52,237 Complete CIMIC Yes Lashkar Gah Welfare Centre Kitchen 15,819 In progress HAFO No Lashkar Gah Women’s Park 840,813 In progress Royal Engineers Yes Lashkar Gah New School in Qala-e-Khana 0 Complete Royal Engineers Yes Lashkar Gah Refurbishment of Nawa School 72,713 In progress Ministry of Public Health No Lashkar Gah Rapid Assessment of Mukhtar IDP camp 973 Complete Royal Engineers Yes Musa Qaleh Repairs to 3 mosques 350,000 Planned Royal Engineers Yes Gereshk Playground and Football pitch 39,098 In progress Royal Engineers Yes Gereshk Seminar Awal School repairs 0 Planned Royal Engineers Yes Gereshk Technical School repairs 0 Planned Royal Engineers Yes Gereshk Abolfathi Botsi Boys School Repairs 0 Planned CIMIC Yes Lashkar Gah Ministry of Agriculture Tree 6,750 In progress Royal Engineers Yes Garmsir Reconstruction using local labour—road, wells, ditches 4,000 In progress Royal Engineers Yes Garmsir Culvert bridge 500 In progress Royal Engineers Yes Garmsir Bore Hole and Hand Pump 1,750 In Progress Royal Engineers Yes Nahr-e-Saraj Lashkar Gah-Gereshk canal road culvert and gravel track repairs 28,272 In progress Royal Engineers Yes Lashkar Gah 3 km asphalt road and solid drainage Kartelegan-601 429,950 In progress CIMIC Yes Garmsir CHC Generator Repair 505 In progress CIMIC Yes Lashkar Gah/Gereshk Midwifery Kits 5,416 In progress Stabilisation Advisor (STABAD) No Lashkar Gah Carpet weaving pilot project 82,733 In Progress CIMIC Yes Lashkar Gah Furniture for Zacor High School 20,000 Complete PRT No Helmand Support to Director of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (DRRD) for Musa Qaleh IDPs 800 Complete CIMIC Yes Gereshk Refuse Collection Points and new trucks 34,000 In progress CIMIC Yes Lashkar Gah Upgrade to Bost Hospital Grounds 150,860 In progress CIMIC Yes Gereshk Furniture for Gereshk Women’s Group 1,920 Complete HAFO No Lashkar Gah Lashkar Gah Bus Station 854,327 In progress UK Task Force (UKTF) Yes Garmsir Wells and Water Tower 10,800 In progress Royal Engineers Yes Lashkar Gah Covered waiting area at Bost Hospital 7,000 Complete Royal Engineers Yes Lashkar Gah Reconstruct Dept of Land Registry 98,142 In progress CIMIC Yes Helmand Procure 3 GPS units 500 In progress PRT No Helmand Provide Plant Machinery to DRRD 2,268,000 In progress Police Mentors No Lashkar Gah Additional Support to the Traffic Division 40,000 In progress Total 7,860,113
Responsible agency Agency responsible to MOD Location Title Total cost ($) Status BBC World Service (BBCWS) No Lashkar Gah/Gereshk Radio Transmitter 94,231 Complete RMP Yes Helmand ID card making facility (ANP) 30,295 Complete PRT No Lashkar Gah Generators for the Governor’s Office and compound 220,186 Complete Justice Advisor No Lashkar Gah Wall for the Office of the Prosecutor 10,000 Planned Governance Advisor No Lashkar Gah Refurbish of Offices for Provincial Government Departments 32,000 In progress IO Yes Lashkar Gah Rehabilitate Printing Press 224,098 In progress Governor’s Office No Musa Qaleh Set up costs for Musa Qaleh District Administration 10,000 Complete RMP Yes Lashkar Gah Equipment for 8 PVCPs 32,584 In progress PRT No Lashkar Gah Additional support to the Dept of Hajj 24,167 In progress Police Mentors No Lashkar Gah Support to ANP Traffic Division 32,631 In progress Total 710,192
Responsible agency Agency responsible to MOD Location Title Total cost ($) Status Royal Engineers Yes Lashkar Gah Regrading of Bost Airfield 555,000 In progress MNCC No Lashkar Gah Windmill Wells 10,640 In progress Royal Engineers Yes Lashkar Gah Upgrade to Lashkar Gah prison 45,385 Complete British Embassy Drugs Team (BEDT) No Lashkar Gah Comms equipment for the Counter-Narcotics Police Authority (CNPA) 8,900 Complete BEDT No Helmand PA Systems for 12 District Centres 3,000 Complete BEDT No Helmand CN Tractor Repairs 12,000 Complete BEDT No Helmand CN Tractor Ploughs 30,000 Complete BEDT No Lashkar Gah Tractors and equipment for the Governor 884,718 In progress Royal Engineers Yes Lashkar Gah Repair to bomb-damage at the Directorate of Counter-Narcotics 21,079 Complete BEDT No Lashkar Gah Upgrade to Counter Narcotics Provincial Administration 88,925 In progress BEDT No Lashkar Gah Incinerator for Bost hospital 30,000 In progress BEDT No Lashkar Gah Uniforms for the Prison Staff 5,000 Complete BEDT No Lashkar Gah Computer for Chief of Police 1,761 Complete BEDT No Lashkar Gah Support to the Counter Narcotics Provincial Administration 340,000 In progress Total 2,031,408
(2) when he plans to update the list of units deployed to Afghanistan on his Department’s website.
[holding answer 2 May 2007]: Following the recent roulement of forces in Afghanistan, an up to date list of military units deployed to Afghanistan is now available on the MOD website.
http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/FactSheets/Operations Factsheets/OperationsInAfghanistanBritishForces.htm
[holding answer 8 May 2007]: The numbers of UK military and civilian personnel killed or injured in Afghanistan are published on the Ministry of Defence website:
http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/FactSheets/Operations Factsheets
and are in the following tables. Figures cover military personnel and UK civilians employed, or contracted, by the MOD.
Number 2001 0 2002 3 2003 0 2004 1 2005 1 2006 39
Number January 2 February 2 March 4 April 1
Figures for Afghan armed forces fatalities are not held by the UK and are a matter for the Afghan National Government. There are no reliable means of ascertaining the numbers of Afghan civilians killed during the period since the conflict began. The UK makes every effort to minimise the impact of military action on the Afghan population.
Armed Forces: Casualties
Ownership of repatriation policy rests with the Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Personnel). The administration and operation of the process rests with the personnel staffs located at the permanent joint headquarters and the nominated lead authority, usually the parent service of the deceased.
Armed Forces: Children
(2) what support is provided for the care of children whose parents or guardians are both deployed on overseas operations with HM armed forces.
Service personnel who are single parents remain liable for deployment on operations in accordance with identified operational requirements. The need to make plans in advance for appropriate care arrangements for dependent children is made very clear to all service personnel but is explicitly brought to the attention of single parents. All children of any service personnel deployed on operations will continue to receive the full range of support available, such as unit staff, specialist service welfare organisations, community support staff, MOD children’s education support staff, HIVE information services, and the families federations.
This support will be available direct to children or, more typically, through those who have taken on the care of those children in the absence of the parent, in accordance with the arrangements made by the service parent.
The responsibilities, arrangements, support and advice available in the case of both serving parents being deployed on operations is no different to the case of a serving single parent deploying on operations. The armed forces are very successful in minimising the occurrence of such simultaneous deployments.
Armed Forces: Employment
Service personnel leaving the Regular Forces may accept paid permanent employment while on Terminal Leave subject to the requirements laid down in Queen’s Regulations which are available from the Library of the House.
Contrary to my answer of 26 April 2007, Official Report, column 1247W, Service personnel leaving the Regular Forces may accept paid employment while on Terminal Leave subject to the requirements laid down in Queen’s Regulations which are available from the Library of the House. Queen’s Regulations for the Army do however specifically preclude personnel taking up civil employment in an operational area while on Terminal Leave.
Armed Forces: Housing
The number of service personnel living in multi-occupant rooms within single living accommodation is not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Armed Forces: Life Insurance
The projected cost of the Service Life Insurance (SLI) project for 2007-08 is £90,000. This sum covers salaries (until the project team disbands on 30 June 2007), consultancy and ‘bedding in’ costs following SLI launch in May 2007.
SLI attracts no cost in subsequent years as it is planned to be at nil cost. All SLI costs fall to the centre top level budget.
Armed Forces: Pay
The April payroll has been completed successfully on time and the vast majority of 110,104 Army regulars and 17,059 TA personnel have received their basic pay accurately. 8,238 personnel have been affected by minor discrepancies in relation to deduction charges and allowances, of which some 4,000 stem from a single error resulting in an overpayment of £1.43 per person. 90 per cent. of these will be corrected in the May pay run with the remainder being corrected in June.
Armed Forces: South Africa
[holding answer 16 April 2007]: British, Irish or Commonwealth citizens can apply to join the Army, but there is no requirement for personnel with dual nationality to declare this on their Record of Service (ROS). As such, the only way to accurately determine this information, would require asking each and every British and South African national, and would incur disproportionate cost.
However, a check of the ROS has shown that 150 personnel in the Army have declared dual British/South African nationality.
Army: Fairtrade
No separate records are kept covering the purchase of Fairtrade items. The information is not therefore available.
Departments: BAE Systems
[holding answer 20 April 2007]: Mr. Scopes was photographed for a Main Building pass on 16 October 2004 and a contractor’s pass (valid for a year) was first issued to him at that time. My response of 15 March 2007, Official Report, column 458W, gave details of the most recent pass (which expired in December 2006). I apologise for any misunderstanding this may have caused.
Departments: India
Departments: Manpower
The civilian personnel numbers relate to staff filling civil service posts.
Departments: Paper
The percentage of paper used for photocopying and printed publications from recycled sources in the last three years is as follows:
In MOD Main Building, 100 per cent. of the paper used for photocopying comes from recycled sources, a practice which started in March 2006. For the Department as a whole, the figures for the last three years are as follows; 2.1 per cent. for 2004-05; 1.8 per cent. for 2005-06; 1.9 per cent. for 2006-07. As a Department, it is planned that as of October 2007, 100 per cent. of paper used for photocopying will be from recycled sources.
In 2006-07, the percentage of paper used for printed publications coming from recycled sources was 3.1 per cent. This figure is based on two thirds of MOD printed publications, the remaining one third covers smaller independent contracts for which data are unobtainable.
Data for the previous two years are unavailable from the supplier. As of April 2007, our new suppliers are required to print on paper containing a minimum of 50 per cent. recycled fibres.
As these targets are being put in place this year, our current data will not reflect this step change in paper procurement.
Departments: Telephone Services
The use of 0800, 0845 or 0870 numbers in the Department and its Agencies is determined at local level in accordance with individual business requirements and ordered directly from the supplier. Records of these numbers are not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
European Fighter Aircraft
(2) what the cost has been of retrofitting Typhoon aircraft with cannon.
[holding answers 30 April 2007]: All RAF Typhoon aircraft have been fitted with a cannon. As stated within the Major Project Report 2006, the decision to leave the Typhoon cannon non-operational was assessed to save £32 million in programme costs.
[holding answer 1 May 2007]: The activation of the cannon on Typhoon, and its fitting to future combat aircraft, would provide an additional means of delivering air-to-surface low collateral damage effect in support of ground forces. This would need to be weighed against the through life costs of such a capability, including the implications for airframe life.
Gap Year Commission
Gap Year Commissions were introduced in 2000, prior to this, personnel were granted a Short Service Limited Commission.
Intake by financial year, of untrained Regular Army Officers to Gap Year Commission is shown in the following table.
Financial year Number 2000-01 60 2001-02 70 2002-03 80 2003-04 70 2004-05 30 2005-06 40 2006-071 50 1 1 April 2006 to 28 February 2007.
Iraq: Peace Keeping Operations
Any mobilised serviceman or woman injured when on operational deployment is treated the same, and will receive exactly the same medical treatment and support, whether they are regular or reserve. If a medical officer in-theatre assesses that a member of the reserve forces requires treatment or rehabilitation back in the UK, they will be treated in exactly the same way as regular personnel. This may include treatment and rehabilitation at a military Regional Rehabilitation Unit or the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre at Headley Court, Surrey, or—if the problem is related to their mental health—admission to the Priory Group or treatment at a military Department of Community Mental Health.
When reserve personnel are demobilised, they are given a medical assessment. During this process, if it is identified that they are in need of an operation they may be referred to NHS hospitals housing Ministry of Defence Hospital Units or the Royal College of Defence Medicine at Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham, where they will be treated within military time frames which can in some cases offer faster access to treatment. Reserve personnel will receive treatment for injuries sustained on operation until they are deemed to have reached a steady state of fitness. They are then demobilised, and taken through a transition from military to NHS care, if they have continuing health care needs.
The patient may express a preference for treatment in a hospital nearer to their home, which may be a non-MDHU hospital, and some reservists opt for this route. In accordance with NHS protocols, if they are referred on to a non-MDHU hospital, then access to treatment is according to clinical priority.
Once demobilised it is a long established tradition that reserve forces’ medical welfare becomes the responsibility of their local NHS primary care trust and the majority of Veterans’ physical and mental health needs are met by these provisions. However, the MOD recognises that it has an expertise to offer in certain specific circumstances, and in November 2006 launched a new initiative—the Reserves Mental Health Programme. This is open to personnel who have been demobilised since January 2003 following overseas operational deployment as a reservist and who have concerns that their mental health has suffered primarily as a result of their operational service leading up to their demobilisation.
They will be invited to attend the Reserves Training and Mobilisation Centre at Chilwell, Nottinghamshire, where members of the Defence Medical Services will carry out an assessment of their mental health. If it is considered that they are eligible for out-patient treatment by the Defence Medical Services, this will be provided at one of the military Departments of Community Mental Health, at the most convenient site to meet the individual’s circumstances whenever possible. More details of the programme are available at:
http://www.army.mod.uk/rtmc/rmhp.htm
Finally, the Government fund courses of care at Combat Stress facilities for both regulars and reservists whose condition is due to service and for whom this is an appropriate course of treatment.
Lynx Helicopters
The current Lynx Mk8 aircraft were initially procured as Mk 2 and Mk3 aircraft between 1979 and 1988 and have subsequently been extensively modified, enhanced and converted to the Mk8 standard. The average Net Book Value on 16 January 2007 for these aircraft was £11.5 million.
The total operating cost per flying hour for Lynx Mk 8 is approximately £16,000. This cost includes both fixed and marginal costs incurred in using the aircraft, comprising servicing costs, fuel costs, crew capitation and training costs, support costs and charges for capital and depreciation.
Members: Correspondence
[holding answer 27 April 2007]: Following my interim reply of 22 February, I sent a final response to the hon. Member on 30 April.
Permanent Joint Headquarters
[holding answer 19 March 2007]: The Ministry of Defence (MOD) engages with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Department for International Development (DfID) on operational issues through a number of tri-departmental strategic and working groups from ministerial level downwards. Desk level officials maintain close and regular contacts across departments. Policy and Commitments staff in MOD head office lead on cross-governmental engagement. Permanent joint headquarters (PJHQ) staff are consulted and contribute on operational and tactical matters to provide an integrated HMG response.
At the tactical level, as part of the UK’s comprehensive approach to our operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans, personnel in theatre engage regularly with their deployed counterparts in the FCO and DfID. PJHQ staff monitor and advise as necessary on these interactions.
The MOD has also developed a formal agreement with DfID on the provision of military assistance to humanitarian relief operations and is in the process of agreeing service levels with the FCO on the provision of military assistance to evacuation operations.
War Pensions
The number of war pensions awarded under the Naval, Military and Air Forces, Etc, (Disablement and Death) Service Pension Order is by year shown in the following table.
Number 2001-02 5,945 2002-03 5,075 2003-04 4,530 2004-05 4,230 Note: Data have been rounded to the nearest five.
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Agriculture: Productivity
[holding answer 8 May 2007]: Total factor productivity for UK farming, which shows the volume of output leaving the industry per unit of all inputs including fixed capital and labour, rose by 2.1 per cent. in 2006. More information about the productivity levels of UK farming can be found in the DEFRA publication ‘Agriculture in the United Kingdom’.
DEFRA continues to conduct research, at both the farm level and through aggregate comparisons with other countries, into what influences the productivity of UK farming.
Improving productivity is a key element for our vision for farming, which identifies an industry that is profitable in the market place, makes a positive net environmental contribution and manages the landscape and the natural assets that underlie it.
We are undertaking a range of actions to improve the competitive position of farming in England. These include:
i. The use of Axis 1 funding of the new Rural Development Programme for England, which will be used to promote greater awareness of market opportunities, including for diversified enterprises, the benefits of collaboration and co-operation, and the acquisition of skills needed to exploit new opportunities.
ii. Restructuring the five statutory horticulture and agriculture levy boards into one overarching levy board with subsidiary, sectoral companies, thus allowing for efficiencies and commonalities to be identified, in order to help the sectors involved. For example, the new structure will facilitate exchange of information across the sectors on issues of common interest such as water and waste.
iii. In addition to that available under the agriculture development scheme, the Government have provided a significant amount of dedicated funding to the Food Chain Centre and the Red Meat and Cereals Industry Forums, and English Farming and Food Partnerships, as a transitional measure to help the industry adapt to a more market-orientated future.
iv. Implementation of the non-food crops strategy, which aims to drive forward the bio-based economy through research, dissemination of technology and knowledge, and building supply chains from agriculture to industry.
v. Supporting the quality regional food sector through a five year £5 million programme (which began in 2003-04) with the specific objective of creating a flourishing high quality regional food sector.
vi. Working with stakeholders to progress the action plan to develop organic food and farming in England which aims to create a sustainable and competitive organic farming and food sector.
vii. Support for farmers to take advantage of financial risk management products to enable them to be more resilient to increased price volatility, and to increase uptake of the business benchmarking software that is available under through the whole farm approach.
viii. Helping farmers and growers under the public sector food procurement initiative (PSFPI) to develop the capabilities and capacity necessary to meet the public sector's requirements for food.
ix. Establishment of the biomass action plan with the objective of addressing barriers to the production of biomass energy, and stimulating the development of the sector.
x. Improving the regulation of farming, by making it more effective, and efficient for farmers, thus helping them to reduce costs and increase competitiveness.
xi. The whole farm approach (WFA) helps farmers to identify where there is a regulatory requirement and the actions necessary to fulfil that requirement, supported by targeted help and guidance.
xii. Developing a business competence framework for the environmental and land-based sectors to provide a clear understanding of what skills an individual will require to work in particular industries and in particular jobs within those industries.
xiii. Supporting the initiative which aims to encourage new people into the farming industry with the appropriate skills to succeed in a market-driven environment.
Black Environment Network: Finance
The following table shows funding contributions to the Black Environment Network (BEN) over recent years from English Nature and the Countryside Agency (CA), as founding bodies for Natural England.
Countryside Agency English Nature Natural England 2002-03 13,300 3,000 — 2003-04 7,700 3,000 — 2004-05 7,800 7,000 — 2005-06 5,200 3,000 — 2006-07 0 0 0 Totals 34,000 16,000 —
No payments have been made to BEN after 1 October 2006 from any of the founding bodies, or Natural England.
English Nature (EN) had a long standing relationship with BEN and recognised the valuable work done to support and develop the involvement of ethnic minority groups and individuals with the natural environment. The payments in 2004-05 and 2005-06 were to further develop their national and regional networks, and to provide English Nature staff with awareness training, advice and guidance with projects involving ethnic communities.
Through our support, BEN was able to improve its network administration and support, further develop its website, and share good practice. An English Nature staff training event was very successful and well attended. Staff gained confidence and understanding, and were able to follow up and seek specific advice on their projects.
Additionally, the CA provided a three year grant to fund specific posts within BEN from January 2002 to March 2005.
BEN received funding of £98,473 over three years for their project ‘Core Strategic Programme’ under the Environmental Action Fund (EAF) 2002-05.
The project aim was to support and enable ethnic participation in sustainable development through developing the knowledge, skills and values needed to make decisions about how they do things, individually and collectively, locally and globally.
Key project activities and outcomes included:
Work developing and strengthening BEN as an infrastructural organisation
Enabling active participation in sustainable living,
Formalisation and promotion of partnership initiatives focussed on ethnic environmental participation,
Strategic participation in mainstream environmental movement, in order to maintain profile of ethnic community environmental participation,
Publication and promotion of resource materials based on models of good practice, in order to stimulate ethnic community environmental participation,
Development and promotion of BEN as a training and consultancy resource for ethnic community environmental participation.
Departments: Expenditure
The Department does not maintain a discrete record of expenditure on temporary staff accommodation.
Details of travel expenses can be found under other administration costs in the notes to the Department’s resource accounts.
Departments: Manpower
The number of press officers in Core DEFRA is tabulated as follows, with the census point for the number of press officers taken as June for each year. The staffing numbers for the Press Office fluctuate during the course of any one year.
Press officers 2001 22 2002 22 2003 22 2004 18 2005 24 2006 24
The DEFRA Press Office provides services for the Central Science Laboratory, Government Decontamination Service, Marine and Fisheries Agency, Pesticide Safety Directorate, Veterinary Laboratory Agency, and Veterinary Medicines Directorate.
The number of staff employed in the press offices of each of the remaining DEFRA agencies of CEFAS (Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences) and the Rural Payments Agency, in each year since 2001 is tabulated as follows:
CEFAS RPA 2001 0.02 0.2 2002 0.03 0.2 2003 0.03 0.2 2004 0.68 0.2 2005 1.0 0.2 2006 1.0 1.0
The salary and directly related costs for all permanent and temporary staff for both Press Officers and support staff were as follows:
Financial year £ million 2001-02 1.3 2002-03 1.2 2003-04 1.1 2004-05 1.3 2005-06 1.8 2006-07 1.5
The DEFRA Press Office provides press office services for the Central Science Laboratory, Government Decontamination Service, Marine and Fisheries Agency, Pesticide Safety Directorate, Veterinary Laboratory Agency, and Veterinary Medicines Directorate.
The costs for Press Officers and support staff in each of the remaining DEFRA agencies of CEFAS (Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences) and the Rural Payments Agency, in each year since 2001 were as follows:
Agency 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 CEFAS 900 936 18,140 41,222 50,201 43,553 RPA 6,000 6,000 6,000 6,000 40,000 132,000
Departments: Orders and Regulations
[holding answer 8 May 2007]: The number of Statutory Instruments implemented by the Department for the years 2001-06 are: 2001—133 (includes those implemented by MAFF up to June 2001); 2002—120; 2003—106; 2004—125; 2005—144; 2006—150; The figure to date for 2007 is 59.
DEFRA is committed to a comprehensive programme of regulating better. Our December 2006 simplification plan, maximising outcomes, minimising burdens, explains the action that is being taken across DEFRA and its agencies to reduce administrative burdens and to improve regulations, and identifies over 130 separate initiatives that will contribute to meeting our target of reducing the administrative burden we impose on business by 25 per cent. by 2010. Those initiatives are scheduled to deliver an annual administrative burden reduction of around £159 million. That includes removing redundant legislation, without compromising environmental standards, seeking alternatives to traditional regulation and taking a risk-based approach to enforcement and inspection. A copy of the simplification plan is available from the Library of the House.
Departments: Regulation
[holding answer 8 May 2007]: DEFRA is committed to a comprehensive programme of regulating better. Our December 2006 ‘Simplification Plan, Maximising Outcomes, Minimising Burdens’, explains the action that is being taken across DEFRA and its agencies to reduce administrative burdens and to improve regulations. That includes removing redundant legislation, without compromising environmental standards, seeking alternatives to traditional regulation and taking a risk-based approach to enforcement and inspection.
The Simplification Plan, which is available from the Library of the House, identifies over 130 separate initiatives that will contribute to meeting our target of reducing the administrative burden we impose on business by 25 per cent. by 2010. Those initiatives are scheduled to deliver an annual administrative burden reduction of around £159 million. They include:
Movements of hazardous waste—simplifying paperwork for monitoring movements will deliver savings of £2.1 million.
Whole Farm Approach—the administrative saving for farmers is estimated at £2.9 million by 2009-10 (based on current uptake).
Replacement of the over 30 month scheme with the older cattle disposal scheme—will deliver administrative savings of £3.49 million by the end of 2008.
Fruit and vegetable marketing standards (introduction of electronic certificates of conformity with EU marketing standards)—will achieve administrative savings of £3.22 million in 2007.
The Game licensing review—realises administrative savings of £0.6 million per annum—starting in mid-2007.
Eggs
The public sector food procurement initiative does not have specific guidance on purchasing eggs. Key objectives of the initiative, which apply to all food purchases, include increasing tendering opportunities for small and local food producers, raising standards of production, and addressing barriers to supply.
DEFRA’s Procurement and Contracts Division has included a model specification clause on farm assurance standards in the public sector food procurement initiative’s catering toolkit. This is helping to raise the profile of animal welfare in public sector food procurement and facilitate the purchase of products from welfare friendly producers.
In the longer term, the European Commission’s “Community Action Plan on the Protection and Welfare of Animals 2006-10” proposes quantifiable animal welfare indicators and an EU welfare labelling scheme for products produced from high welfare protection systems. This should enable public sector purchasers to make more informed decisions.
Fishing Catches
The information is as follows:
(a) It is not possible to provide figures for discards solely in UK waters. The discard estimates used by ICES in stock assessments are carried out in relation to particular sea areas (e.g. the North Sea) rather than national waters.
Since 2002 all EU countries have been required to collect data on discarding under Council Regulation 1543/2000, but the information is not yet compiled systematically. Quantities of discards are estimated quarterly using data collected by scientific observers aboard commercial fishing vessels. They are required to record the quantity landed and discarded, and the species and size composition of the discards each time the fishing gear is hauled. Deploying scientific observers in this manner is expensive and time consuming, with the result that it is usually only possible to sample a small proportion of the overall fishing trips in a given area. As a result it is necessary to extrapolate from the limited sampling to provide estimates for the entire fleet. Although the sampling is intended to cover a representative sample of the fleet, this does mean that the estimates of total discards are subject to uncertainty.
Quarterly figures for discards of some important commercial species in 2006 are given in the following table. The table also includes estimates of landings and discard rates by the same fleet segments in order to provide an indication of the relative importance of discarding in each case. The figures given are as follows:
Country Area Species Type Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 English and Welsh registered vessels North Sea ICES sub-area IV Cod L 240.4 214.9 406.4 323.8 D 20.5 65.4 243.1 252.2 DR (%) 7.9 23.3 37.4 43.8 Haddock L 68.2 50.6 75.7 107.0 D 23.8 35.3 148.5 102.6 DR (%) 25.8 41.1 66.2 48.9 Plaice L 1,390.0 1,432.5 2,119.7 1,425.0 D 17.9 4.9 290.9 37.1 DR (%) 1.3 0.3 12.1 2.5 Sole L 141.6 48.9 35.7 99.9 D 0.1 29.4 0.0 7.6 DR (%) 0.1 37.5 0.0 7.1 Whiting L 668.8 538.2 831.9 369.0 D 260.4 54.7 334.9 735.3 DR (%) 28.0 9.2 28.7 66.6 Scottish registered vessels North Sea ICES sub-area IV Cod L 1,505.8 1,918.8 2,003.0 1,136.1 D 262.1 587.3 331.1 489.1 DR (%) 14.8 23.4 14.2 30.1 Haddock L 9,744.0 4,792.0 9,882.0 7,081.8 D 2,669.2 3,503.2 5,262.9 3,234.1 DR (%) 21.5 42.2 34.8 31.4 Saithe L 2,671.6 2,769.1 1,579.1 712.8 D 1,366.1 955.6 2,648.9 752.1 DR (%) 33.8 25.7 62.7 51.3 Whiting L 2,189.9 1,891.6 1,843.0 2,017.1 D 1,122.1 933.4 1,114.2 1,287.1 DR (%) 33.9 33.0 37.7 39.0 Scottish registered vessels West of Scotland ICES Division VIa Cod L 70.2 100.6 93.6 43.3 D 19.9 32.8 214.1 53.8 DR (%) 22.1 24.6 69.6 55.4 Haddock L 1,150.7 1,938.4 1,218.0 596.2 D 680.9 1,205.2 1,961.6 605.5 DR (%) 37.2 38.3 61.7 50.4 Saithe L 603.3 648.6 399.8 706.9 D 233.2 755.7 302.3 407.0 DR (%) 27.9 53.8 43.1 36.5 Whiting L 35.0 42.9 48.6 50.9 D 99.4 104.0 246.3 197.8 DR (%) 73.9 70.8 83.5 79.5 Notes: L: Estimated landings (tonnes) D: Estimated discards (tonnes) DR: Discard rate, i.e. percentage of total catch in weight that is discarded.
There are a number of reasons for these discards. The mixed nature of most fisheries in EU waters means that fish of these and other species often swim together with others which fishermen have no interest in (for example because there is no market for the fish or they have no relevant quota allocation), all of which may be caught at the same time. Discards also arise from the catching of juvenile or undersized fish. In order to avoid this happening and those fish that are not required having to be discarded, UK Fisheries Departments are funding a range of work, in collaboration with the industry, looking at making the respective fishing activity more selective in terms of either species or size. The industry will be encouraged to use any such gear modifications which prove successful. The EU Commission has also made clear in its recent publication on discards that it attaches high priority to tackling this issue throughout EU waters.
(b) Discard estimates from other EU countries are not yet available for 2006, but these should appear later in the year. The UK is continuing to press the Commission to ensure all member states provide full sets of the relevant data. In the longer term, there are plans to develop a “Discards Atlas”—a compendium of available information from member states on discards—as a resource for fisheries science.
Food Supply
[holding answer 8 May 2007]: My Department published Food Security and the UK: An Evidence and Analysis Paper, a wide-ranging study on Food Security, in December 2006.
DEFRA is improving food security by promoting continuity and contingency planning in the food chain. By strengthening trading relationships, based on more open international markets and reductions in trade distorting subsidies, we increase UK food security by unlocking access to a diversity of supply sources.
In a modern economy, the production, availability and distribution of all our food is dependent upon a secure energy and fuel supply, as well as upon other transport infrastructure. It is clear that our food chain—whatever the degree of agricultural self-sufficiency—relies on various forms of energy and that energy security is a primary concern. The Government's ‘Energy Review’, published in July 2006, specifically considered how our energy security can be maintained and enhanced in an uncertain world.
The food retailers have robust and resilient business continuity plans to deal with any threat of disruption. DEFRA works closely with all parts of the industry to ensure that appropriate support is provided.
Genetically Modified Organisms: Crops
The potential implications would depend on the type of GM crop being grown and the specific policy that beekeepers were following. No commercial GM cropping is expected here for several years at least and it is difficult to make firm assumptions about the circumstances that might arise in the future. What can be said is that GM crops will only be grown here commercially if they are approved as safe at EU level, and if there is a market for them because they offer some recognised benefit. We know that beekeepers have concerns about GM presence in honey, and we will continue to discuss the coexistence of GM and honey production with them. From a regulatory standpoint it should not generally be necessary to avoid placing hives near to GM crops, as research has shown that any GM presence in honey should always be well below the 0.9 per cent. EU labelling threshold.
Honey: East Riding
The information sought is not being collected and is therefore not available.
Mackerel: Fishing Catches
This allocation is not made on the basis of a track record. The allocation for 10 metre and under vessels in International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) area IVa is a fixed share (300 tonnes) of the UK's opening quota for North Sea mackerel. This may change during the year following swaps with other groups. In 2007, their initial allocation was reduced by 43 tonnes to 257 tonnes as a result of a UK overfish of North sea mackerel in 2006.
Details of end year allocations and landings of mackerel by 10 metre and under vessels from areas IVa, b and c for the last five years are set out in the following table.
End year alloc. for area IVa (incl. swaps) Landings from Northern North sea (area IVa) End year alloc. for area IVbc (incl. swaps) Landings from central North sea (area IVb) Landings from Southern North sea (area IVc) 2002 299 251 0 6 5 2003 315 357 11 5 5 2004 324 322 0 0 5 2005 364 365 26 0 4 2006 333 409 19 13 2
None of the UK’s opening quota for North sea mackerel, which is allocated to the 10 metre and under fishing by handline, is available to vessels operating in International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) areas IVb or IVc. However, following representations received from fishermen in the North East and East Anglia, Fisheries Administrations have acquired 40 tonnes of North sea mackerel, through an international swap, for their use in 2007. They are continuing to explore the scope to acquire further quota. In the meantime, we will be consulting interested parties shortly on management arrangements for this fishery.
Meat: Smuggling
It is not possible to make an accurate estimate of the number of illegal meat imports because they are illegal and therefore, clandestine.
The Government have significantly increased the amount of money available to tackle illegal imports of Products Of Animal Origin (POAO), plants and Plant Based Goods (PBG). £25 million has been spent over the past three years. This money was split between DEFRA, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) shown as follows:
HMRC1 FSA2 DEFRA3 2003-04 4 1.5 0.5 2004-05 7 2 1 2005-06 7 2 1 1 HMRC: enforcement and publicity. 2 FSA: step change project with local/port health authorities. 3 DEFRA: publicity and risk. Note: £1 million extra spend.
The current level of funding has been included in HMRC’s allocation for future years. Funding will also continue to be available for DEFRA to examine the risks and help increase public awareness, and for the FSA for work on inland controls.
Since April 2001, seizures of illegal meat imported into the UK have been recorded and are shown in the following table:
As at 1 April to 31 March each year Seizures (kilograms) 2001-02 18,955 2002-03 31,301 2003-04 72,734 2004-05 78,664 2005-06 106,135
The table includes seizures made by HMRC at points of entry (and by staff funded by DEFRA until 11 April 2003), those made by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development for Northern Ireland (DARDNI) at points of entry in Northern Ireland, and those made by inland local/port health authorities. HMRC have been responsible for anti-smuggling controls on POAO into Great Britain since 11 April 2003.
It is not possible to say whether the increase in seizures is a result of more smuggling activity. It is equally likely to be the result of greater surveillance and enforcement.
Rights of Way: Prosecutions
I have been asked to reply.
Data extracted from the court proceedings database held by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform showing the number of defendants proceeded against for offences relating to obstructing Rights of Way in England and Wales, 2001 to 2005 are shown in the following table.
Offence Statute 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 Failure to comply with order to remove obstruction. Failure to comply with order to remove obstruction after conviction. Highways Act, 1980 S.137ZA(3) as added by Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 s.64 1 1 5 2 3 Total 1 1 5 2 3 1 These data are on the principal offence basis. 2 Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used.
Rural Areas: Low Incomes
For the population as a whole, the Government have a preferred measure of ‘low income’ defined as 60 per cent. of the median equivalised income for all UK households after tax. It may be presented either before housing costs or after housing costs. The Farm Business Survey is not able to provide figures for household income net of tax so farm household incomes cannot be compared directly with the low income threshold. Instead, they are compared with a modified low income threshold defined as 60 per cent. of the England median equivalised income before tax (and before housing costs).
This has been calculated from 2004-05 Family Resources Survey data. Table 1 shows that:
the mean income for farm households was higher than the national mean but the median income was about the same;
both mean and median farm incomes were lower than for the population of self-employed households;
31 per cent. of farm households were below the modified low income threshold (gross before housing costs) in 2005-06 compared with 21 per cent. for all households and 18 per cent. for self-employed households.
Average household income, equivalised, gross before housing costs (£ household) Mean Median Modified low income threshold(£ household) Percentage of households below low income threshold Household of principal farmers 33,900 22,700 — 31 All households 30,200 23,000 13,800 21 Self-employed households 38,000 27,000 — 18 Sources: Farm Business Survey (England) and Family Resources Survey (2004-05)
Household income data for rural households are not available. However, Table 2 shows the percentage of working age people living in England in households with an income of 60 per cent. below the GB median. Figures are broken down by DEFRA’s local authority (LA) classification. The classification divides LAs into the following six categories:
Rural-80: districts with at least 80 per cent. of their population in rural settlements and larger market towns,
Rural-50: districts with at least 50 per cent. but less than 80 per cent. of their population in rural settlements and larger market towns,
Significant Rural: districts with more than 37,000 people or more than 26 per cent. of their population in rural settlements and larger market towns,
Other Urban: districts with fewer than 37,000 people or less than 26 per cent. of their population in rural settlements and larger market towns,
Large Urban: districts with either 50,000 people or 50 per cent. of their population in one of 17 urban areas with a population between 250,000 and 750,000.
Major Urban: districts with either 100,000 people or 50 per cent. of their population in urban areas with a population of more than 750,000.
Before housing costs After hosing costs Rural 80 11 15 Rural 50 11 14 Significant rural 12 16 Other urban 13 18 Large urban 15 20 Major urban 16 22 Notes: Estimates are based on 3-year averages. 2004-05 uses data for 2002-03, 2003-04 and 2004-05. Low income is defined as households with an income of below 60 per cent. of the median income for GB. Source: DWP Family Resource Survey, 2004-05
Rural Payments Agency: Pay
The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) was formed in 2001, and we only hold data from 2003 onwards.
The following table shows how many bonuses were awarded to senior civil servants working in the RPA between 2003 and 2006.
Number of bonuses Amount of bonus (£) 2003 5 28,845.00 2004 6 51,640.60 2005 7 55,062.25 2006 4 33,000.00
Tree Planting
I can confirm that the England Forestry Strategy “England’s Trees, Woods and Forests” will be published in the summer.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Abdul Hameed
We regularly raise our concerns regarding blasphemy laws and the use of the death penalty with the Pakistan authorities and will continue to do so. In December 2006, together with EU partners, we reiterated to the Government of Pakistan our concerns about the effects of blasphemy legislation and its frequent abuse. My right hon. Friend the Minister for Trade, Investment and Foreign Affairs, Ian McCartney, most recently raised this issue in correspondence with the Government of Pakistan in February.
Although we do not usually raise individual cases, we follow closely the subject of blasphemy trials in Pakistan. Officials receive reports on blasphemy trials from human rights groups and monitor cases reported in the media. We oppose the death penalty in all circumstances as a matter of principle. We, together with our EU partners, call upon all states to abolish the death penalty for all crimes and forever.
China: Animal Welfare
My hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, (Barry Gardiner), raised animal welfare issues with the Chinese Government during his visit in July 2006. We continue to encourage the Chinese Government to establish laws that regulate treatment of animals, including domestic pets, and welcome the work that non-governmental organisations such as the International Fund for Animal Welfare and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals undertake with the Chinese authorities to improve standards and to build support in China for animal welfare issues. We also support a proposed EU ban on the import of domestic cat and dog fur.
China: Human Rights
We raise a comprehensive range of human rights issues, including the treatment of Falun Gong practitioners, with the Chinese Government at the biannual UK-China Human Rights Dialogue, the most recent of which was held in February. We also work bilaterally and through the EU to raise human rights concerns at every appropriate opportunity, including at senior level. My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister raised freedom of expression with the head of the Chinese Information Office for the State Council in April. He also raised human rights with Chinese Premier Wen in September 2006. Officials regularly raise concerns at working level in Beijing.
We do not estimate the number of religious and political prisoners in China, or the number of those who are followers of Falun Gong but continue to urge China to improve transparency of statistics. At the most recent round of the UK-China Human Rights Dialogue in February, we asked the Chinese Government to confirm how many Falun Gong practitioners are currently detained. We are still awaiting a response.
Greece: Whales
My right hon. Friend the Minister for Europe (Mr. Hoon) has had no discussions with Greek Ministers on the subject of whaling, but following discussions at official level with our embassy in Athens, Greece has indicated that it intends to join the International Whaling Commission (IWC). We welcome this move. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials remain in close contact with their Greek counterparts, and recently met representatives from the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs to discuss the IWC.
Sudan
We are not currently aware of militia recruitment from Niger to fight in Darfur. We are investigating these claims.
We are continuing to press the Government of Sudan to comply with its obligations under UN Security Council Resolution 1706 to disarm all militia operating in Darfur. If they do not comply, we will move towards further sanctions and an extension of the existing UN arms embargo in the UN Security Council.
Sudan: Libya
We have regular contacts with the Libyan Government on Darfur. We have encouraged the Libyans to work with the African Union (AU)/UN.
The UK’s special representative for Sudan, Mr. Christopher Prentice, attended a meeting in Tripoli on 28 April on the political track of the Darfur peace process. The representatives agreed that all regional mediation initiatives should converge under AU/UN leadership; urged all parties to show serious commitment and accelerate preparations for negotiations; warned of the consequences of obstructing progress; and encouraged the AU/UN to intensify their work to agree a road-map for renewed negotiations.
Sudan: Peace Keeping Operations
We are continuing to press the Government of Sudan and the rebel movements in Darfur to uphold their commitments to a ceasefire. The Government of Sudan reaffirmed their commitment to a ceasefire at a meeting in Tripoli of 28-29 April organised by the Libyans to discuss the political track of the Darfur peace process.
But we have made clear that all sides to the conflict will be judged by their actions. If they do not abide by their commitments, we will move towards further sanctions and an extension of the existing UN arms embargo in the UN Security Council.
We are concerned at the slow progress being made to implement the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). The Government of National Unity need to urgently resolve a number of difficult issues including the Abyei and North/South boundary disputes. While the Abyei dispute continues, the people of Abyei are without access to basic services. The parties must establish an interim administration there immediately. The North/South Border Technical Committee needs to accelerate its work, as its conclusions affect other elements of the CPA including elections and wealth sharing.
We continue to urge both sides to implement the CPA in full, including at meetings of the Assessment and Evaluation Commission tasked with monitoring CPA implementation. We also raised CPA implementation at the Sudan Consortium in Khartoum (19-21 March) and in the UN Security Council during discussions of the renewal of the UN mission in Sudan’s mandate last month.
UN Security Council Resolution 1755 renewed the UN mission in Sudan’s mandate for another six months on 30 April.
The Government of Sudan announced its plan to disarm the janjaweed in 2006. However, there has been little action since then. We are continuing to press the Government of Sudan to comply with its commitment obligation under UN Security Council Resolution 1706 to disarm the janjaweed. If they do not comply, we will move towards further sanctions and an extension of the existing UN arms embargo in the UN Security Council.
Uganda: Commonwealth
The Commonwealth Secretariat confirmed on 26 April that Kampala would be the venue for the 2007 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). Any decision about changing the CHOGM venue would be for the Commonwealth Secretariat to take, in consultation with member states.
We want CHOGM to take place in Uganda and for it to be a success.
We have important concerns about the state of governance in Uganda, particularly with respect to the independence of the judiciary, political space for the opposition and recent incidences of violence. We are working with the Government of Uganda to resolve these concerns. We continue to stress that CHOGM presents a historic opportunity for Uganda to demonstrate that it is building an inclusive and pluralist society and we will continue to press for progress on the issues of concern.
Uganda: Politics and Government
I refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave him on 30 April 2007, Official Report, column 1394W.
Uganda: Violence
We are particularly disturbed by the racially motivated aspects of the violence by some demonstrators during street protests in Kampala on 12 April. We welcome President Museveni’s statement of 13 April condemning the violence, in which he said that
“to attack, insult or damage the property of any Ugandan or guests of Uganda is something the National Resistance Movement government will not tolerate”.
We also condemn all such violence and call on all sides to show restraint and respect the rule of law during demonstrations. We are talking to the Ugandan Government about developing a ‘Code of Conduct’ for running and policing demonstrations.
We have expressed our concerns to the Ugandan Government about the importance of responsible and proportionate policing during demonstrations. Our high commissioner in Kampala raised this most recently with Foreign Minister Kutesa on 25 April.
The violence followed demonstrations protesting about the Ugandan Government’s plans to give away parts of Mabira forest to the Ugandan Sugar Corporation. Two Ugandans and one Indian national were killed and Asian businesses were attacked.
Deputy Prime Minister
Environment: Technology
I am deputy chair of the Cabinet Committee on Energy and the Environment, which develops the Government’s energy and environmental policies, monitors the impact on sustainable development of the Government’s policies, and considers issues of climate change, security of supply and affordability of energy.
The UK environmental goods and services industry is strong, well established and diverse, employing approximately 400,000 people in around 17,000 companies, with an estimated annual turnover of £25 billion. A recent joint report by the Department for Trade and Industry and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, ‘A Study of the Emerging Markets in the Environmental Sector’, estimates that this turnover will increase to more than £34 billion by 2010 and £46 billion by 2015. This is available on the DTI website at:
http://www.dti.gov.uk/sectors/environmental/index.html.
A Commission on Environmental Markets and Economic Performance was established in November last year and will publish its report in the spring. It will make recommendations on how the UK can make the most of the opportunity that environmental protection can present for wealth creation and employment growth. The Commission is jointly chaired by the Secretaries of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and for Trade and Industry, and its membership is drawn from business, non-governmental organisations, academia, trade unions and public-sector organisations.
Duchy of Lancaster
Departments: India
This Government publish an annual list of Cabinet Ministers’ travel overseas costing over £500 along with the total cost of all ministerial travel. Information for 2005-06 was published on 26 July 2006 and is available in the Library for the reference of members. Information for 2006-07 is currently in the process of being collected and will be published as soon as it is ready.
All travel is in accordance with the Ministerial Code and Travel by Ministers.
Departments: Sexual Harassment
In order to protect the confidentiality of individuals, it is standard Government practice not to publish records relating to five or fewer individuals.
Departments: Sick Leave
The Prime Minister’s Office forms part of the Cabinet Office.
In order to protect the confidentiality of individuals, it is standard Government practice not to publish records relating to five or fewer individuals.
Voluntary Work: Young People
Between May 2006 and May 2007 v has made grants totalling £13 million to projects in order to provide volunteering opportunities for over 59,000 young people. The grants provided for 22,000 short-term volunteering opportunities, 13,000 part-time, 1,200 full-time and 23,000 through volunteer development teams which work with statutory bodies to enable them to create volunteering opportunities for young people.
A further 55,000 volunteering opportunities have been created through match funding and partnerships with the private sector.
I refer the hon. Member to the answer that I gave to the hon. Member of Fareham (Mr. Hoban) on 18 January 2007, Official Report, columns 1312-13W and on 1 February 2007, Official Report, column 468W.
Full details of the organisations expenditure will be included in its annual report, which will be published later this year.
Home Department
Alcoholic Drinks: Children
Data extracted from the court proceedings database held by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform showing the number of defendants prosecuted for being under-age purchasers of alcohol from 1995 to 2005 in England and Wales is shown in the following table. Court proceedings data for 2006 will be available in the autumn of 2007.
As an alternative to court proceedings, the offence under section 149(1) of the Licensing Act 2003 of buying or attempting to buy alcohol by person under 18 can attract a Penalty Notice for Disorder (PND). The offence was added to the scheme in 2005 and there were 21 Penalty Notices issued that year. The provisional figure for 2006 shows that 70 Penalty Notices were issued during that year.
Offence Statute 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 Person under 18 buying or attempting to buy or consuming intoxicating liquor. Person under 18 buying or consuming intoxicating liquor in Licensed premises. Licensing (Occasional Permissions) Act 1983 Schedule (Sec 3) para 4(2). Licensing Act 1964 Sec 169(2) 25 33 31 39 38 24 21 16 29 21 21 1 These data are on the principal offence basis. 2 Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. 3 The licensing (Occasional Permissions) Act 1983 and the Licensing Act 1964 were repealed by the Licensing Act 2003 which came into force on 24 November 2005. There were no prosecutions for the newly created offence under the 2003 Act of buying or attempting to buy alcohol by a person under 18 (Section 149(1)(a)) in 2005. The figure for 2005 in the above table represents the number of defendants proceeded against under the old statute ( Licensing (Occasional Permissions) Act 1983 Schedule (Sec 3) para 4(2). Licensing Act 1964 Sec 169(2)).
Asylum
As of April 2007, there are just under 6,000 such applications1 awaiting decision. An expanded team is working to clear these cases as quickly as possible.
The Border and Immigration Agency does not record average processing time.
The data are not provided under the national statistics protocols. They have been derived from local management information and are therefore provisional and subject to change.
1 Figures rounded to the nearest 100.
[holding answer 23 April 2007]: The Border and Immigration Agency uses the criteria laid down in the 1951 United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, as interpreted in Council Directive 2004/83/EC of the European Union. These criteria are set out in the Refugee or Person in Need of International Protection (Qualification) Regulations 2006 (SI 2006 No.2525) and in the Immigration Rules (in particular the Statement of changes Cm 6918 of 18 September 2006), to which decision makers have regard when granting people political asylum in the UK.
The criteria are detailed and explained in the Asylum Policy Instruction “Assessing the Claim”, which can be found on the website of the Border and Immigration Agency at
http://www.bia.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/asylum policyinstructions/
Asylum: Deportation
The information requested is unavailable and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Border and Immigration Agency
(2) how much his Department has spent on the regionalisation of the Border and Immigration Agency.
Both the regionalisation of the Border and Immigration Agency and the transition to full agency status are ongoing projects which are at early stages. It is expected that both the regionalisation and transition to shadow agency status will be delivered within the current resources available to the department.
Deportation
All immigration escorting staff are trained in the application of handcuffs.
They are taught that handcuffs must be checked for security and comfort on application and then periodically whilst they remain in place. The handcuffs should ensure effective security but not be overly constrictive so that the skin is not pinched or circulation restricted.
Drugs: Misuse
The main source of estimates of self-reported drug use is the British Crime Survey (BCS) but this provides information at the national and regional level only. However, the Home Office has commissioned a research study to provide estimates of the number of problematic opiate and crack cocaine users at local and national level. The results of the first year of this three-year study estimated that there were about 593 problem drug users (probable range 447 to 907) in Bexley Drug Action Team area in 2004-05. There are no comparable estimates available for previous years but this research project will produce estimates for 2005-06 and 2006-07 in the future.
Human Trafficking
The nature of the crime makes it difficult to make an accurate assessment of the extent of the problem although intelligence suggests there has been an increase on the trafficking problem over the last two or three years. In order to understand the situation better the Serious Organised Crime Agency, along with the United Kingdom Human Trafficking Centre is working to improve intelligence collection as a priority and this features strongly in the national intelligence requirements for 2006-07 and 2007-08.
However, emerging findings from a Home Office research paper due to be published this year estimate that at any one time in 2003 there were in the region of 4,000 female victims of trafficking for prostitution in the UK.
Illegal Immigrants
This information could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Immigration and asylum statistics, including removals and deportations can be found at
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration1.html
Immigrants
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 23 January 2007, Official Report, column 1698W.
Immigration: Applications
[holding answer 26 April 2007]: It would not be appropriate for me to comment on individual cases in the House, but I will write to the hon. Member on the subject that she has raised.
Manpower: Home Office
There is no departmental committee or working group on identity cards policy. The introduction of identity cards is already Government policy and, within the Home Office, the Identity and Passport Service has responsibility for its implementation.
Offensive Weapons
The information available centrally relates to homicides by sharp instrument recorded by the police and is given in the following table. These figures are not collected below police force area level.
North east region England and Wales2 1997-98 15 202 1998-99 8 201 1999-2000 12 213 2000-01 11 214 2001-02 9 261 2002-03 14 265 2003-04 11 242 2004-05 11 256 2005-06 13 212 1 As at 9 October 2006: figures subject to revision as cases are dealt with by the police and by the courts, or as further information comes to light. 2 England and Wales totals as published in ‘Homicides, Firearm Offences and Intimate Violence 2005/2006’ (Home Office Statistical Bulletin 02/07)
Passports: Fees and Charges
The Identity and Passport Service (IPS) does not keep records in such a way as to be able to extract this information without incurring disproportionate cost. Complaints are recorded in particular categories, each covering a range of issues. There is not a specific category for women who have complained about the cost of renewing passports early owing to change of name following marriage. However, the IPS receives regular representations on this subject. When fees are next reviewed the IPS will discuss with HM Treasury whether the rules on Government fees and charges would permit some reduction of the fee in these circumstances.
The IPS received 8,551 complaints in total in the financial year 2005-06, which represents 0.13 per cent. of the total business.
Prisoners: Foreigners
We do not hold comprehensive records of the nationalities of offenders.
Prisoners: Qualifications
I have been asked to reply.
The information requested is not collected centrally. However, following the introduction of the Learning and Skills Council-led delivery arrangements for offender learning in England from 31 July 2006, data on prisoner achievement will increasingly become available for adults, young offenders and juveniles in custody.
The Government’s proposals for improving the education of offenders are set out in the “Reducing Re-Offending Through Skills and Employment: Next Steps” document which was published on 13 December 2006. Copies of the document were sent to all Members of Parliament on the day of publication.
Television: Licensing
Court proceedings data are collected and published by calendar year.
A total of £11.1 million was ordered by the courts to be paid by way of fines given for offences of television licence evasion in 2004 in England and Wales where a fine was the principal disposal and this offence the principal offence for which the persons concerned were dealt with. A total of £14.4 million was similarly ordered to be paid in 2005.
Figures for 2006 will be available in the autumn of this year.
These figures have been drawn from administrative data systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system.
The collection of fine amounts centrally is not sufficiently detailed to show how many of these total sums were actually paid.
Theft: Driver Information Systems
(2) what estimate he has made of the value of stolen satellite navigation systems for cars over the last three years for which figures are available.
Figures for theft of satellite navigation systems are not collected centrally and no estimate has been made of the total value of those stolen.
Anecdotal evidence from a number of police forces, including the Metropolitan Police, is that this type of theft is a growing problem in some force areas. To help combat it, the Home Office met a number of the main manufacturers in 2005 and, as a result, some of the manufacturers fast-tracked the introduction of security features into new models. The Home Office also produced a crime prevention advice leaflet aimed at motorists showing them the simple steps they could take to help prevent them becoming victims of this type of crime. This leaflet is available on the Home Office website and is intended for use by police and Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships.
Yarl’s Wood Detention Centre
This is a matter to be settled between the insurance company and Bedfordshire Police.
Yarl’s Wood Detention Centre: Prescription Drugs
All medication is assessed by the centre GP as to the suitability of allowing the medication to be held in possession by the detainee. Where it is decided that the medication should be held in the healthcare suite the detainee is notified and advised to attend the pharmacy at the appropriate times for dispensing.
I will write to the hon. Member for Portsmouth, South regarding Miss Ketchanon.
Work and Pensions
Child Support Agency: Tribunals
[holding answer 29 March 2007]: The administration of the Child Support Agency is the matter for the Chief Executive. He will write to the right hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Stephen Geraghty, dated 9 May 2007:
In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many tribunals were operated by the Child Support Agency (CSA) in each of the last five years; how much was spent on those tribunals in each year; how many appeals were received by the CSA in each year; and how much was spent on processing appeals in each year. [130677]
Please find attached a table detailing the number of tribunals operated by the Tribunal Service on behalf of the Child Support Agency and the number of appeals received by the Agency.
Unfortunately the information requested in respect of the cost of tribunal hearings and the cost of processing appeals is unavailable in the format requested.
I hope you find this answer helpful.
Appeals received by the CSA CSA appeals referred to Tribunal Service 2001-02 9,800 5,300 2002-03 10,900 5,100 2003-04 8,600 4,200 2004-05 8,000 4,200 2005-06 8,000 4,400 Note: Appeals and referrals rounded to nearest 100.
Departments: Disciplinary Proceedings
No information is held on the number of grievance procedures that have been initiated in the Department for Work and Pensions in the last year. The Department has recently introduced a new IT resource management system. In the next 12 months it will record details of the number of grievance procedures initiated across the Department and will be able to provide information centrally.
Departments: Energy
When joining the Department, staff are told how to shut down personal computers as part of their initial training. Further advice is also available on the Department's intranet site and from local IT support staff. Computers are shut down each evening by the member of staff who uses them.
Departments: Paper
The Department is committed to meeting cross-Government sustainable operations targets which include commitments to increase recycling rates and the mandatory minimum environmental procurement product standards for paper.
(a) Photocopying paper purchased is used in both photocopiers and office printers and therefore a separate figure for photocopiers is not available.
Usage (Percentage) 2004-05 3 2005-06 1Over 90 2006-07 96 1 This followed a change of supplier, product and price and the mandatory use of recycled paper.
(b) Printed publications (this includes Department’s claim packs forms and leaflets): from June 2007 all existing contracts for the supply of printed materials will cease and a new contract for the supply of Print and Associated Services will commence. This contract will meet all the sustainable operations targets for the supply of printed materials. All paper used, including paper with no recycled content, is derived from sustainable sources.
100 per cent. content1 50 per cent. content2 2004-05 0 33 2005-06 32 13 2006-07 57 10 1 Made from up to 100 per cent. post consumer waste with full Blue Angel accreditation. No bleaching is used in production and the energy supply used by the mill is also 100 per cent. green. 2 Made from up to 50 per cent. post consumer waste and virgin fibre.
Departments: Standards
Each of the Department for Work and Pensions’ agencies is responsible for operating its own mystery shopping programme. The most recent available information for Jobcentre Plus and the Pension Service are in the following tables.
£ 2003-04 676,828 2004-05 693,174 2005-06 471,368 Note: Figures for 2006-07 are not yet available.
£ 2004-05 334,490 2005-06 291,400 2006-07 268,000
The Disability and Carers Service (DCS) has not previously used a mystery shopping programme. The DCS tested a mystery shopping programme between January and March 2007. The programme proved successful and will be fully rolled out from April 2007.
For the period January 2007 to 31 March 2007, DCS’s expenditure was £22,120.
The Child Support Agency has not had a mystery shopping programme since prior to 2001. No information is available for the expenditure prior to 2001.
Departments: Telephone Services
No.
Most DWP helplines use 0845 numbers. The cost of contacting 0845 numbers varies depending on the time the customer calls, the contract they have with their network provider, and whether calls are made from residential lines or mobile lines. BT advises that the most popular tariff used by residential lines is BT Customer Option 1 or 2. Under these schemes, the cost of peak time calls to 0845 numbers is 2.55 pence per minute.
Customers using mobile telephones are charged at their network provider’s tariff for 0845 calls and may incur a charge even when dialling an 0800 number depending on the contract they have with their network provider.
If a customer indicates that they are concerned about the cost of a call, a call back will always be offered.
A breakdown for the Department’s helplines and call rates is shown in the following table.
Helpline Call rate Jobcentre Plus Jobseeker Direct 0845 Local rate Jobcentre Plus Employer Direct 0845 Local rate Jobcentre Plus First Contact (making a claim) 0845 Local rate. Currently an 0845 number but this is being replaced by an 0800 number. All First Contact, Contact Centres will have moved to the 0800 number by the end of May 2007. National Benefit Fraud Hotline 0800 Free to landline callers. Disability Careers Service Helpline 0845 Local rate. Benefit Enquiry Line 0800 Free to landline callers. Child Support Agency National Helpline 0845 Local rate. The Pension Service All the following services are provided by different 0845 local rate telephone lines: General enquiries Change of circumstances Claims for State Pension Pension forecasts Winter fuel queries Welsh Language Line Pension Credit Application Line 0800 Free to landline callers. International Pension Centre 0191 standard rate number for those who live, or have previously lived overseas. Debt Management Debt Management does not operate a "helpline" as such but access to debt centres is via an 0845 local rate number.
Departments: Training
Considerable effort and resources would need to be used on interrogating the staff information system in order to obtain information that could be used to identify the 20 most expensive training courses provided to Ministers and civil servants. Attendance at external events will have been recorded by individuals on their learning history. This information cannot be accessed centrally. Obtaining this level of information could be done only at disproportionate cost.
Financial Assistance Scheme
I refer the hon. Member to the oral answer I gave for question number 5 to the hon. Member for Ludlow (Mr. Dunne) on 23 April 2007.
Industrial Health and Safety
Several studies have looked at the effect of trade union safety representatives on workplace safety, including one commissioned by the Health and Safety Executive. Overall, the evidence suggests that trade union safety representatives make a positive contribution to improving health and safety standards in the workplace.
Ministers look to the Health and Safety Commission for advice on these matters. I understand it is currently looking at measures to support consultation and involvement of workers in health and safety, including better guidance. It will make recommendations to Ministers if appropriate.
The Government strongly support the efforts and dedication of all health and safety representatives in helping to make their workplaces healthier and safer.
Pension Credit
(2) how many pensioners who were eligible for (a) pension credit and (b) winter fuel allowance did not claim it in each of the last five years;
(3) how many pensioners in Islwyn constituency received pension credit in each of the last five years;
(4) how many pensioners in Islwyn constituency claimed the winter fuel allowance in each of the last five years.
Latest estimates of the amount of pension credit left unclaimed and the number of pensioners who were eligible but not claiming pension credit can be found in the DWP publication series entitled: “Income Related Benefits Estimates of Take-Up”. Copies of the annual reports are held in the Library.
The vast majority of winter fuel payments are made automatically without the need to claim as we hold sufficient information on our benefit systems. It is not possible to say how many people may be eligible for a winter fuel payment and are not receiving it. This is because not everyone aged 60 or over will be eligible for a payment. In order to assess whether a person is eligible we need to establish their circumstances and this can only be done once they have contacted the Department. A person may be ineligible for various reasons such as serving a custodial sentence, in hospital receiving free in-patient treatment for more than 52 weeks, or subject to immigration control.
All winter fuel payment information for past years is in the Library and is updated yearly. A letter was issued to all MPs in January 2005 to inform them that the information would be published and updated each year.
Pension credit was introduced in October 2003, so the following table shows the number of household recipients of pension credit in Islwyn constituency for 2003 to 2006.
Household recipients November 2003 2,800 August 2004 3,580 August 2005 3,760 August 2006 3,830 Notes: 1. The number of households in receipt are rounded to the nearest 10. 2. Pension credit was introduced on 6 October 2003 and replaced minimum income guarantee (income support for people aged 60 or over). 3. Household recipients are those people who claim pension credit either for themselves only or on behalf of a household. Source: DWP Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study 100 per cent. Data
The following table shows the number of winter fuel payments made in the Islwyn constituency over each of the last five years. Figures for winter 2006-07 are not yet available but we expect the number to be similar to that for winter 2005-06.
Payments made 2001-02 13,740 2002-03 14,030 2003-04 13,850 2004-05 13,660 2005-06 13,750 Notes: 1. Figures rounded to the nearest 10. 2. Parliamentary constituencies are assigned by matching postcodes against the relevant ONS postcode directory. Source: Information directorate 100 per cent. data.
Pension Credit: West Yorkshire
The answer is set out in the following table;
Ward name Household recipients Abbey 540 Bristnall 965 Langley 905 Old Warley 785 St. Pauls 795 Smethwick 1,005 Soho and Victoria 590 Warley Constituency 5,590 Notes: 1. Caseloads are rounded to the nearest five and totals may not sum as a result. 2. Wards are based on 2003 ward boundaries. 3. Household recipients are those people who claim pension credit either for themselves only or on behalf of a household. Source: DWP Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study 100 per cent. data.
Pension Service
The Pension Service Local Service is currently running a feasibility pilot in the West Midlands area in partnership with the Disability and Carers Service to investigate the possibility of extending the face to face service to working age customers.
The pilot is in its early stages and initial evaluation results are anticipated at the beginning of June 2007.
In the last four years, 100 per cent. of Pension Service local service staff were involved in the home visiting service, through face-to-face contact with our customers.
Support is provided to the local service from a centrally based national team.
The proportion of local service staff involved in the home visiting service will not change in 2007-08.
Pension Service: Manpower
No data are available for 2002-03 and 2003-04 as national figures were not maintained for this period.
Information since 2004-05 is in the following table.
Total number of local service cluster staff (whole-time equivalent) 2004-05 2,515 2005-06 2,532 2006-07 2,317
Pensioners: Overseas Residence
We have no plans to change the current arrangements whereby the UK state pension is uprated for UK pensioners living overseas.
Pensioners: Social Security Benefits
Information on entitlement to benefits upon reaching state pension age (currently 60 for women and 65 for men) is provided in a number of ways:
A state pension claim pack is sent out to all customers, four months and four days before their state pension age. This includes information on pension credit, housing benefit and council tax benefit.
Customers who claim their state pension by telephone are now also able to claim any entitlements they may have to pension credit, housing benefit and/or council tax benefit in the same call.
Winter fuel payments are made to people aged 60 or over (men and women). Over 99 per cent. of the payments are made automatically without the need to claim. Some people who are not in receipt of a benefit administered by DWP need to claim. Each year we send claim forms automatically to everyone who we know from departmental records will be aged 60 by the end of the qualifying week and for whom we have a current address. An extensive publicity campaign begins in July and includes advertisements in both regional and national newspapers.
Pensions: Index Linking
The estimates are in the following table.
Basic state pension cost (£ billion) 1998 0.1 1999 0.5 2000 1.3 2001 1.6 2002 2.4 2003 2.7 2004 2.8 2005 2.9 2006 3.4 2007 3.8 Note: Figures are net in cash terms, are rounded to the nearest million and include UK and overseas pensions Source: DWP modelling.
The earnings link will be restored to the basic state pension. The objective is that this will be done, subject to affordability and the fiscal position, in 2012 but in any event at the latest by the end of the next Parliament.
By 2050 the amount of the basic state pension will roughly double in value compared with current policies.
Remploy: Closures
(2) which aspects of the PricewaterhouseCoopers report on Remploy he plans to implement;
(3) what deadlines have been set to turn around Remploy sites running at a financial loss; and if he will make a statement.
In my statement on 19 July 2006 I said I would be asking the board of Remploy to undertake the preliminary work to bring forward later this year a five-year restructuring plan with proposals both to modernise the business and to support substantially larger numbers of disabled people into work. It is currently working on that plan.
Remploy: Pay
As Remploy is a non-departmental public body, the senior management salaries are subject to a pay remit process, which requires that pay increases are within Treasury limits for public sector pay. Remploy pay remits require the approval of the Secretary of State, on behalf of the Treasury. The Remploy senior management pay remit for 2007-08 is currently being considered.
Remploy no longer holds information on senior management salaries prior to April 2002. The agreed senior management pay remit increases since 2002 are in the following table.
Percentage increase 2002-03 2.5 2003-04 2.5 2004-05 2.62 2005-06 3.21 2006-07 3.5
Sick Leave
The available information is contained in the following table. It was obtained from the computer systems that managers use to record absences. The figures are for the period 1 January 2006- 31 December 2006.
The table shows two sets of figures broken down into length of absence where the employee returned to work during the period. The first shows all recorded sickness absences, while the second shows absences recorded as injury and poisoning. It is not possible to show the number and percentage of employees returning from sickness absences of different durations because some employees have had more than one absence during the period; therefore, the figures show the number of absences in each category.
Absences relating to injury are recorded against a category of ‘Injury and Poisoning’. This includes, for example, the toxic effects of alcohol or drugs, any surgical procedures, and road traffic accidents. It is not possible separately to identify cases relating to injuries.
Absence duration Number of absences Percentage of total absences Number of absences Percentage of total absences Up to two weeks 183,779 90.61 3,185 78.53 Up to one month 7,966 3.93 308 7.59 Up to three months 8,274 4.08 445 10.97 Up to six months 2,229 1.10 84 2.07 Over six months 583 0.29 34 0.84 Total absences 202,831 100.00 4,056 100.00
Winter Fuel Payments: Elderly
The winter fuel payment has risen from £20 in winter 1997-98 to £200 from winter 2000-01 and to £300 for those aged 80 or over from winter 2003-04. The estimated annual cost of raising the winter fuel payment by £25 for people aged 80 or over in 2007-08 is around £50 million.
[holding answer 3 May 2007]: The winter fuel payment has risen from £20 in winter 1997-98 to £200 from winter 2000-01 and to £300 for those aged 80 or over from winter 2003-04. The estimated annual cost of raising the winter fuel payment by £25 for people aged 80 or over in 2007-08 is around £50 million.
Winter Fuel Payments: Tamworth
Information relating to winter fuel payments for the winters of 1997-98 and 1998-99 is not available. The information from winter 1999-2000 is in the following table. Figures for winter 2006-07 are not yet available but we expect the number to be similar to that for 2005-06.
Payments made 1999-2000 12,520 2000-01 14,480 2001-02 14,850 2002-03 15,230 2003-04 15,710 2004-05 15,940 2005-06 16,460 Notes: 1. Figures rounded to the nearest 10. 2. Parliamentary constituencies are assigned by matching postcodes against the relevant ONS postcode directory. Source: Information directorate 100 per cent data.
Health
Acute Beds: Greater London
The information requested is not available. However, information on the number of acute beds per 100,000 population in each former London strategic health authority (SHA) from 2002-03 to 2005-06 is shown in the following table. These SHAs now collectively form NHS London. Information prior to 2002-03 is not available as SHAs did not exist.
Acute beds Population Acute beds per 1000,000 population 2002-03 North West London 3,886 1,806,532 215 North Central London 3,249 1,213,768 268 North East London 3,430 1,527,794 225 South East London 3,174 1,515,226 210 South West London 2,658 1,307,919 203 2003-04 North West London 3,903 1,814,671 215 North Central London 3,376 1,220,221 277 North East London 3,470 1,530,792 227 South East London 3,164 1,511,793 209 South West London 2,763 1,310,391 211 2004-05 North West London 4,012 1,834,066 219 North Central London 3,300 1,227,957 269 North East London 3,392 1,531,427 221 South East London 3,102 1,514,122 205 South West London 2,870 1,321,018 217 2005-06 North West London 3,870 1,871,187 207 North Central London 3,271 1,243,437 263 North East London 3,409 1,542,634 221 South East London 2,941 1,524,646 193 South West London 2,845 1,335,822 213 Notes: Population data are mid-year resident population estimates based on the 2001 census. Source: Department of Health form KH03 and Office for National Statistics
Ambulance Services: Rural Areas
No assessment has been made of the effectiveness of experienced ambulance control room staff in saving lives and minimising risks to patients in rural areas.
However, national health service ambulance trust control room staff play an important role in ensuring that responses to 999 calls are dispatched promptly, that calls are prioritised accurately and that callers receive the advice and reassurance that they need. For example, call handlers can give callers advice on dealing with childbirth, uncontrolled bleeding or resuscitation while they wait for help to arrive. This advice is routinely provided no matter where the control room or the caller is located.
Asthma
(2) what studies her Department has undertaken of the variations in rates of admission for asthma attacks across primary care trusts;
(3) what steps her Department is taking (a) to improve preventative provision for asthma and (b) to reduce the need for asthma-related emergency admissions.
[holding answer 8 May 2007]: The Department published “Supporting People with Long-term Conditions: An NHS and Social Care Model” in January 2005. The purpose of the model is to improve the health and quality of life of people with long-term conditions, including asthma, by providing:
early detection;
good control to minimise the effects of the disease and reduce complications;
more effective medicines management to reduce the number of crises; and
promoting independence by empowering patients allowing them to take control of their lives.
The new general medical services contract was launched in February 2003. The contract includes a specific quality indicator for treatment and care of people with asthma based on:
a register of patients diagnosed with, and prescribed drugs for, asthma;
a record of patients aged 8 years and over where diagnosis confirmed by spirometry or peak flow measurement; and
a record of asthma review within past 15 months.
We are not aware of the Department’s having undertaken any studies of the variation in admission rates across primary care trusts.
It is the responsibility of local health bodies to ensure they have adequate staff with the skills necessary to meet the health needs of their local population.
Brain Tumours
The Department funds research to support policy and to provide the evidence needed to underpin quality improvement and service development in the national health service. The Department’s national research programme spend on projects related to brain tumour in 2006-07 is £868,000. This figure includes expenditure in two areas where the focus is on paediatric oncology as a whole. It excludes expenditure from the research and development allocations made annually to NHS providers. That information is not held centrally.
The information available is shown in the table.
Title Research Funder Status Recruitment BR12: Temozolomide vs PCV chemotherapy in the treatment of recurrent malignant glioma Cancer Research UK (CR-UK)/Medical Research Council (MRC) Recruiting 351 BR 14: A randomised controlled trial of temozolomide as adjuvant and/or concurrent treatment in anaplastic (WHO grade III) glioma European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC)/Schering Plough In set-up 0 Primary chemotherapy with temozolomide vs. radiotherapy in patients with low grade gliomas with stratification for genetic 1p loss: a phase III study EORTC/ Schering Plough In set-up 0 No Radiotherapy versus Whole Brain Radiotherapy for 1 to 3 Brain Metastases from Solid Tumor after Surgical Resection or Radiosurgery. A Randomized Phase III Trial EORTC In set-up 0 Phase III Trial comparing Conventional Adjuvant Temozolomide with Dose Intensive Temozolomide in Patients with Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma EORTC In set-up 0 BR11: Adjuvant procarbazine, CCNU and vincristine chemotherapy in patients with highly anaplastic oligodendroglioma MRC Closed, in follow-up 368 Multicentre, Phase II Study of Carboplatin pre-irradiation in patients with primary glioblastoma multiforme following biospy Closed, in follow-up 25 (closed early) Childhood brain tumour patients Hyperfractionated accelerated radiotherapy (HART) with chemotherapy (cisplatin, CCNU, vincristine) for metastatic (M1-3) Medulloblastoma CR-UK Recruiting 18 A Prospective randomised controlled trial of hyperfractionated versus conventionally fractionated radiotherapy in standard risk medulloblastoma CR-UK Recruiting 18 Phase II study of the combination of Cisplatin + Temozolomide in malignant glial tumours in children and adolescents at diagnosis or in relapse CR-UK Recruiting 15 Cooperative Multicentre Study For Children And Adolescents With Low Grade Glioma CR-UK Recruiting 111 Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy of Brain Tumours CR-UK Recruiting 48 Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy of Brain Stem Tumours CR-UK Recruiting 7 An in depth study over time on the effect of child and parent factors on the perceived quality of life of children treated for a brain tumour Samantha Dickson Research Trust Brain Tumour UK Recruiting 47 Phase I Studies of TARCEVA (erlotinib Hydrochloride, OSI-774) as Single Agent in Children with Refractory and Relapsed Malignant Brain Tumours and in Combination with Irradiation in Newly Diagnosed Brain Stem Glioma CR-UK Recruiting 0 CNS 1992 04 (Infant Brain Tumours) Use of high-field strength MR derived biomarkers in prostate cancer: Potential for improved cancer staging and prognostication CR-UK Closed, in follow-up 213 Study of Paediatric Low Grade Gliomas CR-UK Closed, in follow-up 798 Treatment of children with newly diagnosed diffuse pontine gliomas using conventional radiotherapy and high dose tamoxifen CR-UK Closed, in follow-up 31 SIOP Intracranial Germ Cell TumoursI CR-UK Closed, in follow-up 137 Comparison of Hair regrowth in children with localised PNETs of the posterior fossa (medulloblastoma) treated with surgery followed by radiotherapy or chemotherapy and radiotherapy CR-UK Closed, in follow-up 75
The Department’s allocation to the NCRN in 2006-07 is £14.5 million. It is not possible to say what part of this support funding is spent on individual projects.
Details of a number of other non-NCRN studies supported from the allocations made by the Department to national health service research active organisations can be found on the National Research Register at
www.dh.gov.uk/research
Care Homes
Information for the Jarrow constituency is not centrally available.
Table 1 shows the number of care homes open and places available in England, the North East region, and South Tyneside and Gateshead area for adults aged 18 and over, at 31 March for the years 1997 to 2001. Data for 2002 are not available. Data for 2001 are not comparable to 2003 data.
England North East region South Tyneside and Gateshead2 Homes Places Homes Places Homes Places 1997 28,800 534,400 1,300 31,700 170 4,100 1998 29,000 553,500 1,400 34,000 190 4,500 1999 28,700 546,200 1,400 33,400 190 4,200 2000 28,300 539,200 1,400 32,800 180 4,200 2001 27,500 528,000 1,400 31,100 190 4,100 1 Includes residential homes, nursing homes, mental nursing homes and private hospitals/clinics. 2 Nursing care relates to Gateshead and South Tyneside Health Authority; residential care relates to Gateshead and South Tyneside councils with social services responsibilities. Data for South Tyneside alone was not collected until 2003, with the establishment of the National Care Standards Commission and later the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) to register and inspect social care providers. Source: RA and RH(N) returns
Table 2 shows the number of care homes and places registered in England, the North East region and South Tyneside for adults aged 18 and over, at 31 March for the years 2003 to 2007.
England North East region South Tyneside Homes Places Homes Places Homes Places 20032 20,038 434,637 1,017 25,899 53 1,491 2004 19,502 445,732 1,014 26,405 52 1,519 2005 19,033 440,886 1,003 26,658 54 1,669 2006 18,718 441,335 962 25,690 49 1,561 2007 18,577 441,958 951 25,866 47 1,492 1 Includes care homes with nursing, adult placement, non-medical and personal care. 2 Excludes some local authority homes, which were open but not registered. Source: CSCI registration and inspection database. Data as at 26 April 2007.
Community Service Volunteers
The Department was responsible for allocating resource to community services volunteers for the capital volunteering project in line with Treasury approved “invest to save” bid.
Consanguineous Relationships
(2) what information her Department provides to GPs and other medical professionals on how they should advise patients of the risks associated with consanguineous sexual relationships.
The Department does not produce leaflets for members of the public on this issue, nor does it collect data on leaflets that may be produced by other sources.
A leaflet on genetic risk and consanguineous marriage has recently been produced as part 2 of a collaborative project by the London IDEAS genetic knowledge park and the Genetic Interest Group (GIG, a national alliance of patient organisations) that aims to address the lack of availability of multilingual information on genetic disorders and risk. However, this leaflet is for use by specialised genetics services as an adjunct to genetic counselling. It is currently available in English, Urdu, Gujarati, Punjabi and Turkish. It is one of a series dealing with genetic disorders and risk.
The Department does not provide guidance for general practitioners or other health professionals on the issue of the risks associated with consanguineous sexual relationships. In general, guidance on issues of practice is a matter for the appropriate professional or regulatory bodies. In addition, local national health service organisations may decide to issue guidance to help practitioners deal with issues which are of particular relevance to their local population.
The Human Genetics Commission supports the need for proper provision of education and information about marriage within a kinship group. This should entail access to counselling and support, preferably in the individual’s or couple’s preferred language, and a no-blame approach that enables at-risk couples to come forward for testing. Those wanting specific advice on their individual risk should consult a clinical geneticist or genetic counsellor in their local NHS regional genetics centre.
From later this year the curriculum for trainee general practitioners will include learning objectives to equip them to refer patients at risk of genetic conditions appropriately and to appreciate the importance of considering a patient’s cultural and religious background and beliefs concerning inheritance in providing care. These have been developed by the Royal College of General Practitioners in partnership with the NHS National Genetics Education and Development Centre, which is funded by the Department.
Dental Services: Manpower
The information requested is not available in the form requested. Under the new arrangements for national health service dental services, patients do not need to be formally registered with a practice to receive NHS services.
Information is available on the number of patients who received care or treatment from an NHS dentist in the last 24 months. The most recent information is as at 31 December 2006. The information shows the numbers of patients receiving services in each primary care trust and strategic health authority area and in England as a whole. It could be made available by constituency only at disproportionate cost.
This information is contained in sheet F2, within annex 3, “NHS Dental Statistics for England Q3: 31 December 2006”. This report was published by the Information Centre for Health and Social Care, and has been placed in the Library.
The report is also available online at:
www.ic.nhs.uk/webfiles/publications/dental06q3/Quarterly %20Publication%20Q3%202006-7%20Annex%203.xls
Departments: Consultants
The Department does not collect information that would identify the numbers of consultants engaged for the years requested. Contracts do not usually specify the precise numbers of consultants and the numbers can vary during a contract.
Departmental expenditure on external consultancy services is set out as follows:
Financial year £000 1997-98 11,911 1998-99 6,179 1999-2000 8,726 2000-01 6,859 2001-02 7,056 2002-03 7,266 2003-04 10,036 2004-05 12,800 2005-06 16,000 2006-07 26,532 1 The 2005-06 and 2006-07 spend is lower because the Department rectified some miscoding against the expenditure category codes to provide a more accurate figure of external consultancy spend. 2 Spend up to end of February 2007.
The Department has only recently started to record contractors on its Human Resources Information System, so figures have only become available during the last year.
The number of contractors working for the Department on 1 January 2007 was 223.
Departments: Press
One reorganisation of the Department's press office has taken place since May 2005.
This involved reorganising the teams of press officers to establish a desk dedicated solely to answering incoming calls and queries from the media, separate from specialist desks providing proactive media relations handling for Ministers.
The rationale behind this reorganisation was to provide a faster and more efficient service for the media and Ministers.
Doctors: Ministerial Policy Advisers
The answer could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Fertility: Stem Cells
The United Kingdom Government have maintained a consistent policy of support for stem cell research in this country. While the Department has not funded or carried out any research on the use of bone marrow stem cells to treat male fertility or undertaken any type of review of the issue, we are aware of recently published findings for pre-clinical research on this issue and await the results of further trials with interest.
Food Labelling
Investigations into falsely labelled food are not carried out directly by the Food Standards Agency. The agency has overall policy responsibility for food labelling, but the enforcement of the legislation is undertaken by food enforcement officers who are employed by local authorities.
Health Services: Barnet
The following table shows the total expenditure on drugs and pharmaceutical services for Barnet Primary Care Trust (PCT). Figures have been provided for 1998-99 (which is the earliest year for which the data exists for the individual organisations) and for 2005-06.
Barnet health authority Barnet PCT 1998-99 2005-06 2006-07 Drugs or prescribing costs 10,292 47,061 46,057 Pharmaceutical services 791 97 n/a Notes: Information for individual national health service bodies is not available prior to 1998-99. The majority of expenditure on pharmaceutical services was accounted for by the Prescription Pricing Authority and not by commissioners. Therefore this cannot be included in the answer. Sources: Audited accounts of Barnet Health Authority 1998-99. Audited summarisation schedules of Barnet PCT 2005-06.
The second table shows the Prescription Pricing Division estimate of final year spending on primary care prescribing in 2006-07 for Barnet PCT. This covers prescriptions issued in England. Prescriptions written in hospitals or clinics that are dispensed in the community, prescriptions dispensed in hospitals and private prescriptions are not included in this figure.
PCT code PCT name Total actual cost (£) 2005-06 5A9 Barnet PCT 44,684,957 2006-07 (part year April to January) 5A9 Barnet PCT 138,562,545 1 Part year spend. The Prescription Pricing Division estimate final year spending in primary care prescribing in 2006-07 for 5A9 Barnet is £46,057,219.
Health Research
The Department, together with the Department of Trade and Industry, is taking forward the recommendations of the Cooksey review jointly and with other stakeholders. My right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer has invited Professor John Bell to be the interim chair of the new Office for Strategic Co-ordination of Health Research (OSCHR). The interim oversight group for OSCHR met for the first time in January. In March, OSCHR submitted to the Treasury a single funding bid for health research as part of the 2007 comprehensive spending review.
Hospitals: York
[holding answer 8 May 2007]: The information requested is shown in the following table.
£000 1992-93 5,791 1993-94 6,028 1994-95 7,456 1995-96 8,841 1996-97 2,708 1997-98 1,457 1998-99 3,185 1999-2000 2,778 2000-01 6,571 2001-02 4,159 2002-03 10,232 2003-04 11,247 2004-05 15,493 2005-06 14,769 Source: Audited summarisation schedules of the York hospitals NHS trust 1992-93 to 2005-06
Human Embryo Experiments: Stem Cells
(2) what progress has been made in curing diseases arising from the results of (a) adult stem cell research, (b) embryonic stem cell research and (c) human embryo experimentation since July 2006; and if she will make a statement.
As indicated by previous replies to the hon. Member’s questions on these topics at the end of in 2005 and 2006, it is too early to talk of treatments for disabling conditions. However, research in these areas has started us on the road to a better understanding of conditions such as motor neurone disease, diabetes and cystic fibrosis that will help us to develop effective treatments, with time. Scientific opinion remains that research in these areas will revolutionise the treatment for such conditions in the 21st century.
Insulin
We are aware that several insulin presentations will be discontinued from the United Kingdom market during 2007. However, we do not believe that patient care will be compromised as alternative treatment options remain available. All companies need to keep their product portfolios under close review, and may decide to discontinue a product for a number of reasons. The Department has no powers to insist that a company continue to keep a product on the market if it decides not to. Officials are in regular contact with the companies who supply insulins to the UK market and are continuing to monitor the situation.
Kidneys: Transplant Surgery
Over the last five years, the Department has provided NHS Blood and Transplant dedicated funding—over £4 million in 2006-07—to support a number of specific hospital based initiatives to increase organ donor rates, including 25 living kidney donor schemes. Since 2001-02, there has been a 2 per cent. increase in kidney transplants.
Over 14 million people have registered on the Organ Donor Register (ODR), which represents approximately 23 per cent. of the United Kingdom population. The Department gives around £1 million pounds yearly to NHS Blood and Transplant to run the ODR and to promote transplantation. The Department also provides Section 64 grants to a number of charities.
In addition, an Organ Donation Task Force is currently identifying barriers to organ donation and will report later this year on what further steps could be taken to increase organ donation rates.
Macular Degeneration
The majority of patients receiving treatment for macular degeneration are likely to be treated as out-patients. We do not hold data showing the number of out-patient attendances for this condition.
The table shows the number of national health service in-patient admissions during 2005-06 for those whose primary diagnosis was degeneration of the macular and posterior pole.
We do not hold data covering the whole of the United Kingdom, nor do we hold data for Romford, which is covered by Havering Primary Care Trust.
Total patients England 5,232 Greater London 450 Havering (Primary Care Trust) 14 Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), The Information Centre for Health and Social Care.
The main risk factors for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) include smoking and poor diet. The White Paper “Choosing Health” sets out the wide range of action being taken to reduce smoking and improve diet and nutrition.
In September 2003, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommended the use of Visudyne in photodynamic therapy for the treatment of wet AMD in some patients. All primary care trusts are funding this treatment in accordance with NICE’S guidance.
NICE began a review of Macugen and Lucentis as a treatment for wet AMD on 1 August 2006. NICE will issue a draft document for public consultation following its first appraisal committee meeting on 18 April.
Maternity Services: Havering
There are two maternity units in the London borough of Havering—both part of Barking, Havering and Redbridge Hospitals national health service trust—one at Queen’s Hospital in Romford and one at King George Hospital in Ilford.
Midwives: Greater London
The information is shown in the following table. Information on redundancies was collected centrally for the first time in 2006.
Headcount 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 20061 Midwifery compulsory redundancies in the nine months to 31 December2006 London Strategic Health Authority 3,370 3,406 3,581 3,399 3,526 3,601 3,981 3,950 4,338 4,307 3 Barking, Havering and Redbridge Hospitals NHS Trust n/a n/a n/a n/a 248 244 283 284 297 292 0 Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust n/a n/a 222 206 229 260 247 242 270 243 0 Barts and the London NHS Trust n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 119 150 142 131 115 0 Brent and Harrow Health Authority n/a n/a n/a 1 0 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 0 Bromley Hospitals NHS Trust 94 97 89 84 87 88 90 96 109 121 0 Central Middlesex Hospital NHS Trust 48 57 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 0 Chase Farm Hospital NHS Trust 135 120 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 0 Chelsea and Westminster Healthcare NHS Trust 129 149 152 146 142 148 151 121 188 165 0 Croydon Primary Care Trust n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 2 0 0 0 0 0 Ealing Hospital NHS Trust 101 80 92 110 131 65 69 88 91 45 0 Epsom and St. Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust n/a n/a 256 242 210 232 231 220 229 225 0 Forest Healthcare NHS Trust 110 116 117 109 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 0 Guys and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust 176 235 189 140 170 176 234 239 286 342 0 Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust 46 71 150 188 198 172 141 154 214 160 0 Haringey Teaching PCT n/a n/a n/a n/a 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Havering Hospitals NHS Trust 141 140 132 147 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 0 Hillingdon Hospital NHS Trust 167 132 105 105 106 184 175 157 125 145 0 Hillingdon PCT n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 1 0 0 Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust 156 130 121 99 132 159 159 196 196 179 0 Kensington and Chelsea PCT n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 1 0 0 0 0 King’s College Hospital NHS Trust 151 115 132 128 160 161 198 197 209 210 0 Kingston Hospital NHS Trust 156 176 177 165 157 160 162 155 172 179 0 London Strategic Health Authority n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 2 0 Mayday HealthCare NHS Trust 157 44 200 89 111 98 99 106 102 141 0 Newham Community Health Services NHS Trust 1 0 0 0 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 0 Newham University Hospital NHS Trust 115 141 157 115 125 119 119 118 146 156 0 North East London SHA n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 0 2 2 2 n/a 0 North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust 107 111 97 96 104 100 117 127 93 87 0 North West London Hospitals NHS Trust n/a n/a 158 174 129 135 137 125 149 116 1 Northwick Park Hospital NHS Trust 98 106 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 0 Queen Elizabeth Hospital NHS Trust 88 109 19 52 29 26 178 99 137 157 0 Queen Mary’s Sidcup NHS Trust 159 162 161 151 175 204 161 124 122 109 0 Redbridge Health Care NHS Trust 103 111 99 100 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 0 Redbridge PCT n/a n/a n/a n/a 0 1 1 n/a n/a n/a 0 Richmond, Twickenham and Roehampton NHS Trust 2 0 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 0 Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust 26 25 50 38 51 95 105 72 99 131 0 St. George’s Healthcare NHS Trust 116 119 120 134 138 146 150 148 176 143 2 St. Helier NHS Trust 156 164 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 0 St. Mary’s NHS Trust 81 84 87 74 75 71 87 105 110 135 0 The Lewisham Hospital NHS Trust 53 99 102 111 103 114 127 106 140 143 0 Tower Hamlets Healthcare NHS Trust 127 139 137 121 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 0 Tower Hamlets PCT n/a n/a n/a n/a 117 1 1 1 1 1 0 University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 20 30 35 52 64 67 85 94 101 134 0 Walthamstow, Leyton and Leytonstone PCT n/a n/a n/a n/a 0 1 n/a n/a n/a n/a 0 Wellhouse NHS Trust 135 140 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 0 West Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust 104 101 88 86 109 67 81 94 123 127 0 Whipps Cross University Hospital NHS Trust n/a n/a n/a n/a 122 80 156 184 143 145 0 The Whittington Hospital NHS Trust 112 103 137 136 103 106 84 154 176 159 0 n/a = not applicable. 1 More accurate validation processes in 2006 have resulted in the identification and removal of 9,858 duplicate non-medical staff records out of the total workforce figure of 1.3 million in 2006. Earlier years’ figures could not be accurately validated in this way and so will be slightly inflated. The level of inflation in earlier years’ figures is estimated to be less than 1 per cent. of total across all non-medical staff groups for headcount figures (and negligible for full time equivalents). This should be taken into consideration when analysing trends over time. Source: NHS Hospital and Community Health Services Non-Medical Workforce Census.
NHS: Drugs
(2) what representations she has received on her Department’s policy on the funding of other costs of treatment which would normally be provided by the NHS for patients choosing to fund the cost of a drug privately; and if she will make a statement.
Information is not collected centrally on the number of patients who self-funded drugs and were required to meet all other costs of treatment.
The Department has received a number of representations from hon. Members and the public on the question of combining privately funded and national health service-funded treatments.
We are committed to maintaining the core principle of NHS treatment being provided free at the point of the delivery, based on clinical need and not ability to pay. This means it is important there is clarity on whether a procedure is publicly or privately funded.
NHS: East Yorkshire
The information requested has been placed in the Library.
NHS: Finance
No guidance on media management relating to financial deficits has been sent to national health service trusts by the Department.
Under the terms of the capital challenge fund, acute hospital trusts in England were invited to apply for up to £300,000 additional capital finance in 2006-07, to help combat healthcare associated infections. The table showing the allocations from the capital challenge fund and the amounts received has been placed in the Library.
A small number of trusts did not benefit from the full allocation because of an overriding pre-existing agreement with the trust covering all capital finance in 2006-07, and in these cases the amount received (column 2) was less than the allocation from the capital challenge fund.
Ritalin
The Department does not hold data on the number of patients prescribed methylphenidate hydrochloride drugs. The table shows the number of prescription items dispensed in the community in England.
Number of prescription items dispensed (thousand) 1997-98 102.2 1998-99 134.2 1999-2000 168.0 2000-01 189.6 2001-02 214.6 2002-03 271.3 2003-04 329.3 2004-05 362.1 2005-06 403.5 Source: Prescription cost analysis (PCA) system
Smoking
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence expects to publish its public health programme guidance on smoking cessation in November 2007.
Testicular Cancer
Testicular cancer is almost always curable if found early. The disease responds well to treatment even if it has spread to other parts of the body. More than nine out of 10 patients are cured.
Men should be aware of any unusual changes and consult doctors early in order to ensure the maximum chance of a cure. That is why we have collaborated with Cancer Research UK in the production of a leaflet to promote the public awareness of testicular cancer, ‘Testicular Cancer: Spot The Symptoms Early’. Around 250,000 copies of the leaflet were produced in 2006-07, distributed through Cancer Research UK helplines, at events and in Cancer Research UK shops. The leaflet has been placed in the Library and can be viewed at:
info.cancerresearchuk.org/images/publicationspdfs/leaflet_testicular.pdf
Wheelchair Services
The needs of those requiring wheelchair services will continue to be assessed individually on the basis of clinical need and locally determined eligibility criteria. The document ‘Health Care Standards for Wheelchair Services under the NHS’ was not a document published or endorsed by the Department but was produced by the wheelchair managers forum, which includes representation from the British Society of Rehabilitation Medicine, empower, the National Forum of Wheelchair User Groups the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency, the Posture and Mobility group and Whizz-Kidz. The document was issued as guidance and is not mandatory.
Treasury
Departments: Computers
All Treasury staff are instructed to shut down their computers overnight, through internal guidance and IT induction courses, as part of the Department’s sustainable development strategy to minimise energy use.
Departments: Silverfish TV
Treasury Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors. As was the case with previous Administrations, it is not the Government’s practice to provide details of all such meetings.
HM Treasury has awarded no contracts to Silverfish TV since April 2003. Information relating to earlier years could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Hospitals
The Chancellor and Treasury Ministers have made a number of visits across the United Kingdom since May 2005, including visits to NHS hospitals. The information requested could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. However, I can confirm the Chancellor most recently visited Birmingham Heartlands Hospital on 27 April 2007.
Inheritance Tax
The information which would be needed to produce estimates at local levels is not available.
NHS: Finance
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Chipping Barnet (Mrs. Villiers) on 20 April 2007, Official Report, column 863W.
Office for National Statistics
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Colin Mowl, dated May 2007:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking how the Office for National Statistics (ONS) chooses people for interview in the course of compiling its statistics; what obligation there is on such. people to respond; what guidance the ONS gives to such people. I am replying in her absence. (135806)
The ONS interviews people as part of its Social Survey Programme. Addresses are selected at random from the Royal Mail’s Postcode Address list. Residents at those addresses are then interviewed. Participation in the survey is voluntary.
All households selected for interview receive an early warning letter from the Office. This letter explains the purpose of the survey, the selection procedures and encourages participation. It also describes on whose behalf the survey is being conducted. In some cases a small reward (in the form of a gift voucher) is offered on completion. The letter also provides details of the interviewers and offers an inquiry line for questions.
When interviewers call at the address they provide interviewees with a leaflet which covers many of the points referred to above, in more detail. This leaflet also explains to respondents that data obtained in the interview are confidential and are used for statistical purposes only. When asked whether the interviews are mandatory, interviewers are trained to explain that they are conducted on a voluntary basis. I am placing a copy of a sample of the leaflet and introductory letter in the House of Commons Library.
ONS also interviews people at airports for the International Passenger Survey, where people are again selected randomly at the Departures and Arrivals areas of ports and airports. In addition ONS does sometimes interview people via telephone to follow up social survey interviews first conducted face-to-face, as described above.
Official Cars
All travel by Ministers is conducted in line with the Ministerial Code and Travel by Ministers. All travel by civil servants, including special advisers, is conducted in line with the Civil Service Management Code.
Poverty: Children
(2) what percentage of the additional expenditure on tax credits announced in the 2007 Budget is expected to be claimed by families in Copeland;
(3) how many families in Copeland will receive the increase in the child element of the child tax credit announced in the 2007 Budget.
HMRC statistics1 show that, at 3 April 2007, approximately 7,400 children in 4,100 families in Copeland were receiving above the family element of child tax credit and would benefit from increasing the child element by £150 per year above earnings indexation. In addition to this, increasing the child element above earnings indexation will mean that some families in Copeland currently receiving only the family element of child tax credit will also receive some of the child element. It is however, not possible to prevent poverty statistics below the regional level.
Nationally, as a result of the package of measures announced in Budget 2007:
households with children will be, on average, £200 a year better off;
households with children in the bottom fifth of the income distribution will be on average, on average, £350 a year better off; and
200,000 children will be lifted out of poverty.
It is not known what percentage of the additional expenditure on tax credits announced in the 2007 Budget is expected to be claimed by families in Copeland, as we do not break down expenditure to constituency level.
1 http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/personal-tax-credits/ctc-wtc-geog-apr07.pdf
Revenue and Customs: Publicity
Since the launch in 1999, £2,522,459 has been spent on online website advertising services as part of the “Tax doesn’t have to be taxing” campaign.
The latest tracking research has shown that the proportion of people claiming to have started online filing has continued to increase.
In 2007, 2.9 million filed online, 35.1 per cent. of total returns against a target of 35 per cent.
Smith Institute: Publications
The Treasury has no records of purchasing Smith Institute publications.
Taxation: Agriculture
The Government announced a package of business tax reforms in the Budget. This included the withdrawal of agricultural buildings allowances and the introduction of a new category of fixtures integral to a building that will be included in the 10 per cent. capital allowances pool, effective from 2008. The Government will be consulting this summer on the definition of this new classification of integral fixtures.
Taxation: Car Sharing
This information is not available as there is no requirement for employers to report details of exempt benefits to HMRC.
Taxation: Self-Assessment
The information requested is not available for each of the last nine years. The self- assessment penalties outstanding at the end of HM Revenue and Customs accounting years, both in monetary amounts and in percentage terms against the cumulative penalties raised, are set out in the table. HMRC accounting years run to the end of October.
SA penalties outstanding (£ million) Outstanding as a percentage of charges raised 1998 54.81 47.08 1999 92.37 36.99 2000 112.95 28.37 2001 127.24 23.30 2002 136.26 19.76 2003 131.79 15.68 2004 134.45 13.28 2005 145.52 12.02
Valuation Office Agency
Of the 2.2 million photographs, 1.28 million (58 per cent.) were of domestic properties. The 1.28 million photographs related to some 823,000 separate addresses.
Welfare Tax Credits
(2) if he will estimate the cost of lowering the age at which able-bodied people without children can claim tax credits from 25 to 18 years.
Tax credits are not available to families only consisting of adults aged under 25 without children or a disability. There is no upper age limit. If the age at which these families become eligible for tax credits was lowered from 25 to 18 years around 500,000 additional families, mainly single adults, would be eligible to claim and receive tax credits at an estimated cost to the exchequer of £325 million.
These estimates do not include the effects of the disregard which may increase the number of eligible families and estimated cost.
Education and Skills
Adoption: China
The Department is currently processing 50 applications by British citizens to adopt children from China. They are at various stages of processing between acknowledgement and sending the application to the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) and are being processed under the new requirements which came into force on 1 May 2007.
Of the above applications, the oldest standard application was received on 20 October 2006. One complex application, received on 16 June 2006, is also being processed by the Department.
The Department will continue to have a processing role for applications already with the CCAA until an adoption order is made. There is no central record of the number of applications already processed (and with the CCAA) under the old and new requirements.
Apprentices: Assessments
[holding answer 20 April 2007]: The NVQ component of apprenticeships and advanced apprenticeships assessing competence in the workplace is rarely tested by written examination, though this method could be appropriate to some sectors where competence and knowledge elements of the framework are integrated. The NVQ component is normally assessed by apprentices accumulating a portfolio of evidence of practical achievements. Assessment methods vary between sectors and are determined for apprenticeship frameworks by the appropriate Sector Skills Councils, Sector Bodies and employers in collaboration with the QCA.
Asperger's Syndrome
The Secretary of State met Ivan Corea of the Autism Awareness Campaign UK earlier this year and the Minister of State for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education responded on behalf of the Government to a Westminster Hall debate on 7 March 2007, proposed by Mr Corea's MP, the Member for Ilford North, on educational provision for autistic children. Ministers and the Department have ongoing discussions with The National Autistic Society and others on improving educational provision for all children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs).
The inclusion development programme, part of the Department's special educational needs (SEN) strategy, is designed to help schools with practical resources and to deliver cascaded training through local authority advisers and school SEN co-ordinators. ASDs will be in the second wave of the programme and will encompass the schools' autism pack which the Department is developing through its Autism Working Group.
Children's Centres
The information available for spend on Sure Start Local Programmes and children’s centres for the period 1999-2000 to 2005-06 in London local authorities is shown in the following table:
Local authority Revenue spend Capital spend Revenue spend Capital spend Brent 9,432,746 3,802,502 967,594 2,551,717 Camden 15,388,525 4,676,434 308,072 816,644 Enfield 7,056,269 596,588 922,092 1,619,194 Hackney 19,583,092 4,254,948 1,350,658 1,150,066 Haringey 14,581,579 5,265,454 704,120 2,234,381 Newham 21,129,500 4,255,006 789,367 2,617,406 Tower Hamlets 18,299,717 3,024,082 597,515 614,267 Waltham Forest 9,827,119 3,638,114 1,242,574 2,989,125 Greenwich 12,718,642 3,443,016 1,473,027 2,288,470 Lambeth 16,452,545 3,758,929 1,940,570 2,113,716 Southwark 22,623,179 6,757,939 1,722,915 4,159,930 Barking and Dagenham 0 0 1,264,610 1,659,918 Croydon 3,619,626 1,069,687 199,838 395,074 Ealing 5,926,123 2,083,672 688,909 598,240 Hammersmith and Fulham 5,178,042 2,085,116 370,384 300,000 Hounslow 3,553,715 1,074,186 341,534 478,627 Islington 16,018,141 4,711,548 948,816 2,215,578 Kensington and Chelsea 5,069,010 1,776,721 281,970 652,388 Lewisham 13,458,688 2,812,999 950,048 1,851,929 Redbridge 3,292,748 1,135,002 331,309 173,978 Wandsworth 5,997,550 2,132,627 219,108 300,000 Westminster 8,283,229 2,429,315 367,744 1,029,000 Bromley 2,703,525 1,075,000 290,746 21,061 Havering 3,403,631 272,123 208,357 111,936 Hillingdon 3,033,094 1,177,577 140,794 134,716 Bexley 2,623,925 869,859 335,340 788,022 Merton 1,825,782 1,004,667 217.696 0 Barnet 1,483,713 800,000 249,134 150,000 Sutton 2,013,707 111,000 200,750 498,047 City of London 0 0 0 0 Richmond upon Thames 0 0 0 0 Kingston upon Thames 0 0 0 0 Harrow 0 0 0 0 Total 254,577,162 70,094,111 19,625,590 34,513,430 Notes: 1. Source is audit returns from the local authority and the individual SSLP’s where available. 2. Where audits are outstanding we have estimated expenditure based on unaudited expenditure figures. 3. Where both audited and unaudited expenditure figures are unavailable we have included an estimate based on average spend rates. 4. There is not sufficient available data to include 2006-07 until later in the year when local authorities make their audited expenditure returns. 5. In 2005-06 Hammersmith and Fulham and Greenwich received funding for children’s centres through a local area agreement.
City Academies: Sponsorship
Sunderland city council, Manchester city council, Kent county council, Coventry city council and the Royal borough of Kensington and Chelsea have all signed a formal Expression of Interest as a part sponsor of one or more academy projects. In each case the council proposed to become part-sponsor but with the non-state sponsor appointing a majority of the governors and taking responsibility for the governance of the academy, as is required under the academies programme even when a local authority is part sponsor. It is not permitted that the local authority appoint more than two governors or play the leading role in the academy governance.
Once a formal Expression of Interest has been signed and approved by Ministers there are two further stages in the development of an academy before it opens—a “feasibility stage” during which the project team prepares detailed plans, including an educational vision and model, and formally consults with the local community; and an “implementation stage” during which detailed plans for school improvement are developed by all the stakeholders, and any necessary building work is carried out. Sunderland city council’s interest is in three academies, all of which have entered their feasibility stage. Manchester city council has signed an Expression of Interest for a total of seven academies, all of which have entered their feasibility stage. Kent county council has an interest in five projects, of which one is already open and four have entered feasibility. The Royal borough of Kensington and Chelsea has signed an Expression of Interest for one academy, which is in its implementation stage. All of the academies have non-state co-sponsors.
Classroom Assistants: Greater London
Information for teaching assistants employed in maintained schools is not available by examining body.
In January 2006 the full-time equivalent number of teaching assistants employed in maintained nursery, primary, secondary and special schools and pupil referral units in the London Government office region was 22,820, of which 660 were in the London borough of Havering and 190 in Romford constituency. This is the latest information available at constituency, local authority and Government office level.
Provisional teaching assistant numbers for 2007 at the national level were published on 26 April.
Community Champions Fund
The purpose of the comprehensive spending review settlement for this Department for 2008-11 is to deliver key priorities for children, young people and learners. Decisions to be taken over the coming months will permit more detailed announcements to be made in due course about the allocation of resources. The option of continuing to fund Community Champions will need to be considered alongside programmes that more directly impact on outcomes for children and young people.
Departmental Expenditure
The following table gives details of internal running costs expenditure for the initial purchase of (a) commercial software products and (b) Microsoft products. All of the totals are inclusive of VAT. The columns have been sorted by financial year.
FY Commercial software products Microsoft products 2003-04 2,040,522 575,567 2004-05 1,779,864 422,765 2005-06 1,709,154 318,589 2006-07 to date 1,471,881 362,947
The following table gives details of the costs incurred to maintain and licence software. Unfortunately it is not possible to separate between Microsoft products and non Microsoft products as the information is not readily available. Again all totals are inclusive of VAT.
FY £ 2003-04 733,673 2004-05 731,056 2005-06 892,500 2006-07 to date 858,845
We are unable to provide any expenditure information which covers operating and supporting either commercial software products or Microsoft software products as this is not identifiable from other costs held in our records.
Other expenditure incurred purchasing software from programme budgets is not readily available within Department for Education and Skills. To respond fully would involve an extensive internal information collection exercise which would exceed the recommended disproportionate cost threshold.
Departments: ICT
The information as requested is not readily available centrally within the Department for Education and Skills. To respond fully would involve an extensive internal information collection exercise which would exceed the recommended disproportionate cost threshold.
Departments: India
This Government publishes an annual list of Cabinet Ministers’ travel overseas costing over £500 along with the total cost of all ministerial travel. Information for 2005-06 was published on 24 July 2006 and is available in the Library of the House. Information for 2006-07 will be published as soon as it is ready.
All travel is in accordance with the Ministerial Code and Travel by Ministers.
No Department for Education and Skills’ Minister has visited India in the last 12 months.
Departments: Market Research
We do not classify our research expenditure in this way, so we cannot break it down by these categories. To gather the information in such a way would incur disproportionate costs.
Departments: Sick Leave
One hundred and twenty seven (127) people took sick leave for stress in my Department during the 12 months ending March 2007; this represents 3.5 per cent. of the total staff number.
Departments: Visits Abroad
The figures in the following table are taken from the Department’s financial systems for the years in question and cover overseas travel by both Ministers and civil servants. All such travel is undertaken in accordance with the requirements of the “Ministerial Code, Travel by Ministers” and the “Civil Service Management Code”, as appropriate. Since 1999 the Government have published, on an annual basis, the total costs of all ministerial overseas travel and a list of all visits by Cabinet Ministers costing in excess of £500. This information is available in the Library of the House. Information for the financial year 2005-06 was published on 24 July 2006, Official Report, column 86WS. Information for the financial year 2006-07 is in the process of being collated and will be published shortly.
£000 1997-98 663 1998-99 773 1999-00 789 2000-01 832 2001-02 506 2002-03 243 2003-04 218 2004-05 180 2005-06 251 2006-07 (provisional) 324
These figures reflect the Department as constituted at the time the accounts for each year were produced and so are not adjusted for Machinery of Government changes.
Diplomas for England
We are working with national and local employers on both the design of Diplomas and their implementation at a local level. 5,000 employers have been involved in the design of the first five Diploma lines including major corporations such as BT, BSkyB and Sainsbury through Diploma Development Partnerships (DDPs). A large number of employers are also currently involved in the development of the second five Diploma lines and we expect even more will get involved in the development of the final four.
The DDPs also have an important role in engaging both large corporations and local employers in the direct delivery of Diplomas. To this end the DDPs will be running nine regional events in May for local consortia who were successful in the recent Diploma Gateway process and will be offering the first Diplomas in 2008.
Our key partner bodies in education business links, the local Education Business Partnerships, Trident, and others also have a role to play. Between them they have links to at least 300,000 businesses already working with schools and colleges. They are engaging with DDPs, Sector Skills Councils, and local Diploma delivery consortia to help local employers to support Diploma students with work experience placements and other essential work-related input. If Diplomas are genuinely to provide the kind of knowledge, skills and attitudes that employers value, we need them to get involved in supporting all aspects of teaching and learning. The nature of this will depend on each employer’s capacity and might include providing support materials; sponsoring projects; mentoring young people or simply giving talks on relevant topics. Bill Rammell recently announced improvements that we are making to the existing infrastructure for supporting work-related learning.
In addition, the Secretary of State has appointed Sir Alan Jones as the Diploma Champion for Employers. Employer to employer promotion of the expected value to business is key in ensuring that we get a high level of employer engagement and active involvement in Diplomas. Sir Alan Jones is already attending a number of events which will enable him to talk to a large number of employers. On 5 June the Secretary of State and Sir Richard Lambert will also host a joint CBI/DfES breakfast event for CEOs focusing on the Diplomas.
Education Maintenance Allowance
[holding answer 8 May 2007]: After extensive piloting, the education maintenance allowance was rolled out nationally from September 2004. In taking the decision to roll out the scheme, the Department ensured there were robust arrangements in place to minimise the risk of fraud.
Responsibility for operating the education maintenance allowance, and maintaining and implementing a strategy for managing the risk of fraud, transferred to the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) on 1 April 2005. The LSC have provided a response to these questions as follows:
The EMA national scheme has been operating in its current form since September 2004 and is currently being paid to over 500,000 learners aged 16 to 19.
All aspects of EMA fraud are proactively managed by a compliance manager, drawing upon support from a number of colleagues and external experts as and when required.
The following table provides details on the number of fraudulent claims established and the amount of money recovered for the three years of the national scheme.
Number of fraudulent claims established Amount recovered (£) 200405 0 0 2005-06 15 1,120 2006-07 (to date) 9 540
Due to the relatively small sums involved no prosecutions have been made to date.
Education Maintenance Allowance: West Midlands
This is a matter for the Learning and Skills Council, who operate the education maintenance allowance (EMA) for the DfES and hold the information about take-up and payments made under the scheme. Mark Haysom, the council’s Chief Executive, has written to my hon. Friend with the information requested and a copy of his reply has been placed in the House Library.
Letter from Mark Haysom, dated 25 April 2007:
I am writing in response to your recent Parliamentary Question that asked;
“How many pupils in (a) Tamworth constituency, (b) Staffordshire and (c) the West Midlands have claimed the education maintenance allowance since its introduction.”
In the first year of national roll out EMA was available to all 16 year olds across England and to 17 and 18 year olds in former pilot areas (young people who are 19 are entitled to receive EMA in certain circumstances). In 2005/06 EMA roll out continued and EMA was available to all 16 and 17 year olds nationally. In 2006/07 EMA is available to all 16, 17 and 18 year olds nationally.
Information on the number of young people who have applied, enrolled and received Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) is available at Local Authority Level, but not at constituency level. EMA take-up is defined as young people who have received one or more EMA payments in the academic year.
The attached table shows EMA take-up data for Staffordshire Local Authority area and the West Midlands during each academic year since the introduction of the scheme.
2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 to end March Staffordshire 1,137 2,033 7,726 West Midlands 41,125 53,274 62,549
I hope this information is useful and addresses your question.
Education: Cambridgeshire
Changes to the distribution of the Ethnic Minority Achievement (EMAG) element of the Standards Fund were introduced in 2004-05 to bring a better targeted, fairer and more sensible distribution to this grant. These changes were widely endorsed by the DfES “Aiming High: Raising the Achievement of Minority Ethnic Pupils” consultation of 2003.
The redistribution of funding resulted in a small number of local authorities, including Cambridgeshire, receiving less funding than they did under the previous system under which allocations did not properly reflect the number of minority ethnic children in the local authority. However, losses in any one year were limited to 0.05 per cent. of each authority’s overall school funding.
Education: Finance
The Activity Agreement pilots began in April 2006 in eight areas of England. They were originally planned to run to the end of March 2008. In his Budget Report in March, the Chancellor announced an extension of the pilots into the 2007 CSR period.
A comprehensive evaluation project is running alongside the pilots to examine and assess the effectiveness of the pilot activity and to understand how young people respond to the initiative.
The evaluation will report to the DFES in December 2008.
Employer Training Pilots
[holding answer 23 April 2007]: Train to Gain is an ongoing service and as such performance is updated on a regular basis. Detailed operational information is not held centrally by the Department but is collected by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC). Mark Haysom the LSC Chief Executive has written to the hon. Member. and a copy of his reply will has been placed in the House Library.
Letter from Mark Haysom, dated 8 May 2007:
I am writing in response to your recent parliamentary question about how many employees had enrolled in the Train to Gain programmes by the end of February 2007 in companies where the employer has (a) fewer than 250, (b) between 250 and 1,000 and (c) between 1,000 and 5,000 employees?
At the end of February 2007, the LSC had this information for 13,362 of the 18,530 employers with learners at that time. The details you requested are shown below for these employers.
Company size Number of companies Employees enrolled as learners (a) below 250 11,184 49,216 (b) 250-1,000 1,196 11,627 (c) 1,000-5,000 982 6,664
I hope this response is helpful to you.
Faith Schools: Admissions
The information requested is not collected centrally.
Families: Eating Habits
(2) whether he plans to take steps to reduce the number of children spending money on unhealthy snacks in between meals.
We have no plans to issue guidance to schools on encouraging families to eat at home at night round the table. Arrangements for eating outside of school are rightly matters for individual families to decide. However, our school food programme is designed to help children to recognise the benefits of healthy eating, not only at school but also at home. This includes ensuring that all secondary school pupils will have an entitlement to learn to cook from 2008. This will ensure that they have the necessary skills to enable them to reproduce that healthy food at home.
New school food standards to be introduced in September 2007, cover both food served at lunchtime and at other times of the school day, building on the interim standards introduced in September 2006. The new school food standards will restrict snacks provided in schools to nuts, seeds, fruit or vegetables with no added salt sugar or fat. This will ensure that the food available to children throughout the day in school is healthy and nutritionally balanced. Recognising the benefits of healthy eating should also help to discourage pupils from buying unhealthy snacks on the way to and from school.
First Aid: Education
The Department’s ‘Safefy Education: Guidance for schools DfES/0161/2002’ provides information on how the framework for Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) can address the issue of accidental injury arid death in children and young people. The framework includes teaching young people at primary school level about school rules relating to health and safety issues, and at secondary school level to develop skills to cope with emergencies, including first aid and resuscitation techniques. Beyond this, the guidance also highlights how other parts of the national curriculum can be used to develop children's ability to recognise hazards and respond appropriately to risky situations.
The Department encourages schools to develop strategies that are effective at a local level in raising the profile of safety education and dealing with medical emergencies, working with suitable partners where appropriate to do so. We are aware of the valuable support that organisations such as the British Red Cross offer individual schools or groups of schools at a local level to enrich curriculum work in this area.
Free School Meals
In 2001 pupils whose parents received income support (IS), income based jobseekers allowance (IBJSA) or support under part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 were entitled to receive free school lunches. Children who received IS or IBJSA in their own right were also entitled to free school lunches.
In April 2003 an additional free school meal eligibility criterion was introduced, predominantly to protect pupils who prior to 6 April 2003 were entitled to receive a free school lunch but, who after that date would otherwise have lost that entitlement as a result of the changes to the tax credit and welfare system. The additional criterion allowed pupils whose parents who were in receipt of child tax credit, without additional working tax credit, and an income as assessed by HMRC that did not exceed £13,230, (2003/04 tax year) (currently 2007/08 £14,495) to receive free school meals.
Also from April 2003 legislation requires:
a claim for a free school lunch, by or on behalf of a pupil, to be made before they could be considered for a free school meal; and
children who receive education suitable for a child under compulsory school (who would otherwise be eligible to receive a free school meal) to satisfy an additional requirement of receiving that education both before and after the lunch period before being eligible to receive a FSM.
A final change was made in April 2003 that extended free school meal eligibility to pupils whose parents receive the guarantee element of state pension credit.
Figures for maintained schools in England show, with the exception of 2004, that since 1997 there has been a continuous downward trend in the number of children known to be eligible to receive free school meals. The 2004 figures reflect the additional families that were brought into entitlement as a result of the changes to eligibility criteria in 2003. Figures show a similar, although lesser percentage, downward trend in the number of pupils that take-up their entitlement.
Further Education
The following table shows the number of young people aged 16 to 18 previously not in education, employment or training who began (a) education or (b) work based learning in each of the last three years as a proportion of the average number of young people not in education, employment or training during each of these years.
Education Work based learning 2003-04 16 34 2004-05 20 34 2005-06 22 36 Source: Connexions Service
The proportion of young people beginning education cannot be broken down by the type of education establishment. Information on the proportion of young people who are no longer included under the definition because they reached their 19th birthday is not collected as Connexions may continue to work with them after this date. Young people beginning more than one course will be recorded on each occasion.
It is estimated that 220,000 (11 per cent.) 16 to 18-year-olds were not in education, employment or training (NEET) at the end of 2005. Not all of these young people are out of work—the figures include young people taking a break from study, caring for families, or simply between jobs or courses. Annual surveys carried out on a group of young people at ages 16, 17 and 18 found that nearly 20 per cent. were NEET at one of the three survey dates, while only around 1 per cent. were NEET at each of the three survey points.
Record numbers of 16-year-olds are in full-time education. But, we recognise the need to take action to reduce the proportion of young people not in any form of education, employment or training, and have set ourselves a very challenging target to get the proportion down to 8 per cent. by 2010.
Our 14 to 19 reforms are vital: the implementation plan makes commitment to make and offer of learning to every young person after they complete year 11. They also give us the platform for agencies working with young people to plan and develop learning and employment opportunities that meet local needs.
To keep them in learning, need to help them tackle the other issues in their lives that might cause them to leave which we are doing through our every child matters reforms.
Further Education: Student Wastage
The Department has commissioned research to ascertain the main reasons why students drop out of their further education courses. The report, 'Reasons for Early Leaving from Further Education and Work-based Learning Courses', assesses the reasons for course drop-out and identifies policy mechanisms that might reduce non-completion. The report does not include analysis at a regional level.
This research is due to be published at the end of June 2007. It will be available from the Department's research website
http://www.dfes.gov.uk/research
The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) undertake a regular national learner satisfaction survey (NLSS) involving learners studying on a range of programmes in further education, work-based learning and adult and community learning. This survey provides an overview of delivery and satisfaction with education and training in England among learners aged 16 and over. The survey also analyses reasons for early leaving.
In 2004-05 the most common reasons for early leaving were, being on the wrong course (15 per cent.) and health reasons (13 per cent.) Other key reasons related to tutor, assessment and quality of teaching issues (12 per cent.) 10 per cent. left to commence employment.
The findings can be found in the publication, located http://research.lsc.gov.uk/LSC+Research/published/learner-satisfaction/ and by looking at the further education report.
Each LSC region will conduct analysis and commission research to understand issues and concerns specific to them. Analysis of learner data and characteristics are undertaken as part of each region's strategic analysis activity to inform planning and commissioning decisions.
GCSEs: Standards
The following table gives estimates of the proportion of 16,17 and 18 year olds not in education, employment or training at the requested levels of GCSE attainment by the end of year 11. These are survey based estimates and have been obtained from the Youth Cohort Study, tracking the same cohort of young people. There is no available estimate at a single point in time for the combined 16-18 group.
Percentage Population at age 16 NEET age 16 in 2004 NEET age 17 in 2005 NEET age 18 in 2006 5+ A* to C grades 54 12 12 35 1 to 4 A* to C grades 23 26 29 25 5+ D to G grades 16 31 31 24 1 to 4 D to G grades 3 11 9 7 No GCSEs 4 20 19 9 1 Includes equivalent GNVQ qualifications achieved in year 11
Giles Brook Primary School: Repairs and Maintenance
This information is held locally. Much of the Department’s capital resources are allocated to local authorities and schools by needs-related formulae, so that priorities for investment can be decided locally and in accordance with locally prepared asset management plans.
Guardianship
[holding answer 1 May 2007]: This information is not collected centrally.
Head Lice
I have been asked to reply.
The Department has produced a leaflet containing guidance on the prevention and treatment of head lice, which includes the option of using lotions as well as combing. The leaflet is widely available from locations that include schools and general practioners’ surgeries and on the Department’s website at:
www.dh.gov.uk/assetRoot/04/ll/63/47/04116347.pdf
A copy of the leaflet has been placed in the Library.
Maintained Schools: Qualifications
The Department does not hold the information required to answer the question.
Mental Health
Under the Disability Equality Duty introduced by the Disability Discrimination Act 2005, the Department and the public sector bodies for which I am responsible are required to publish and implement a Disability Equality Scheme. These are plans setting out how we will carry out the Disability Equality Duty, monitor and report on progress. In particular this includes our arrangements for gathering information on the effect of our policies and practices on the recruitment, development and retention of our disabled employees, including those with mental health conditions, and making use of that information.
The Department, and the public sector bodies for which I am responsible, also have duties under the employment provisions in Part 2 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 not to discriminate against, and to make reasonable adjustments for, disabled job applicants and employees. The arrangements are set out in the Department’s Disability Equality Scheme which is a matter of public record.
In addition, specifically on mental health, the Department will be launching a stress policy, and are working closely with ‘Action on Stigma’, the Department of Health led initiative to promote and sustain employment for people with mental illness.
The public sector bodies sponsored by the Department that are subject to these requirements are responsible for publishing and implementing their own Disability Equality Schemes.
Action the Department is taking includes; an internal guide which describes how individuals and managers can manage and support mental health issues in the workplace, including sources of support for new joiners and existing employees; a stress policy based on the HSE Stress Management Standards; a 24/7 Employee Assistance provider who will provide telephone advice or 1:1 counselling; health fairs where material on mental health issues supplied by our local primary care trusts was distributed; and no pre-screening for health prior to recruitment or appointment with a guarantee that a person’s health status does not form part of the selection process.
New Schools
The information given in the answer of 26 March 2007, Official Report, column 1288W was partial. The Department is currently collecting details from all authorities of buildings investment in schools, including new schools built from all sources of funding. This information will be made available later this summer. I will ensure that copies are placed in the House Library, and that the hon. Member is informed when this happens.
Nursery Schools: North East Region
The available information is shown in the table.
3 year olds 4 year olds Maintained nursery and primary schools3 Maintained and private, voluntary and independent providers4 Total 3 year olds Maintained nursery and primary schools5 Maintained and private, voluntary and independent providers6 Total 4 year olds North East Region 19,300 5,300 24,700 24,500 1,700 26,200 Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland Parliamentary Constituency area 890 30 910 990 20 1,000 1 A place is equal to five or more sessions and can be filled by more than one child. 2 Figures are rounded to the nearest 100 if they exceed 1,000 and to the nearest 10 otherwise. 3 Headcount of children aged three at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Schools Census. 4 Part-time equivalent number of children aged three at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Early Years Census and the Schools Census. 5 Headcount of children aged four at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Schools’ Census. 6 Part-time equivalent number of children aged four at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Early Years Census and the Schools Census.
The latest figures on early education places for three and four-year-olds in England were published in Statistical First Release 32/2006 “Provision for children under five years of age in England—January 2006 (final)” in August, which is available on my Department’s website www.dfes.gov.uk/rsgateway/.
Primary Education: Teachers
DfES and TDA-Training and Development Agency for Schools-are working together to develop a programme of action to increase the number of men working in primary schools.
The TDA has a range of actions specifically designed to encourage men to train to be primary teachers, in particular, three day TDA funded primary teaching 'taster courses' specifically for men. TDA advertises in national newspapers rather than male-themed publications because those have been more effective in attracting potential high quality teachers. TDA advertise for able, committed and high-quality trainees, regardless of gender.
Neither TDA nor schools have targets for the recruitment of male trainees or staff. Employers must recruit the best candidate for the job. Training providers are expected to recruit the best quality candidates. The TDA aim is to improve annually on the existing 14 per cent. of male trainees accepted onto primary ITT courses. TDA does not offer teacher training courses specifically to males.
Schools are free to advertise their vacancies where they wish. No advice has been given to schools on Section 47 (1a) of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975.
The latest provisional figure available for the number of male teachers in primary schools in 2005 was 26,700.
Pupil Exclusions
The available information is shown in tables which have been placed in the Library.
Only two years of data relating to the reason for exclusion are currently available. The first year for which information on the reason for exclusion is available relates to the 2003/04 academic year. Exclusions data for 2004/05 academic year were published in June 2006.
Pupil Exclusions: Greater London
The information requested is in the following tables.
2000/01 Primary schools Secondary schools Special schools Total5 Number Percentage4 Number Percentage4 Number Percentage4 Number Percentage4 London 200 1.0 1,200 9.9 50 12.2 1,450 4.4 Inner London 80 0.5 430 4.5 20 6.0 540 2.0 Camden 10 0.1 22 0.2 * * 30 0.1 City of London 0 0.0 0 — 0 — 0 0.0 Hackney 9 0.0 21 0.3 4 1.1 30 0.1 Hammersmith and Fulham 7 0.1 33 0.5 0 0.0 40 0.2 Haringey * * 28 0.2 0 0.0 30 0.1 Islington 0 0.0 19 0.3 0 0.0 20 0.1 Kensington and Chelsea 3 0.0 13 0.4 * * 20 0.2 Lambeth 11 0.1 24 0.3 6 0.9 40 0.1 Lewisham 12 0.1 70 0.6 * * 80 0.2 Newham 8 0.0 28 0.2 0 0.0 40 0.1 Southward 15 0.1 45 0.4 3 0.6 60 0.2 Tower Hamlets * * 43 0.3 * * 50 0.1 Wandsworth 3 0.0 58 0.6 5 0.7 70 0.2 Westminster * * 27 0.3 0 0.0 30 0.2 Outer London 120 0.5 770 5.3 30 6.2 910 2.4 Barking and Dagenham 9 0.0 10 0.1 0 0.0 20 0.1 Barnet 4 0.0 50 0.2 * * 60 0.1 Bexley 16 0.1 57 0.3 6 1.5 80 0.2 Brent 5 0.0 41 0.3 3 0.7 50 0.1 Bromley 8 0.0 53 0.2 0 0.0 60 0.1 Croydon 15 0.0 101 0.6 * * 120 0.2 Ealing 4 0.0 29 0.2 0 0.0 30 0.1 Enfield 5 0.0 66 0.3 * * 70 0.1 Greenwich 10 0.0 28 0.2 * * 40 0.1 Harrow 10 0.1 58 0.7 0 0.0 70 0.2 Havering * * 30 0.2 0 0.0 30 0.1 Hillingdon 15 0.1 46 0.3 4 0.6 70 0.2 Hounslow 3 0.0 41 0.3 4 1.0 50 0.1 Kingston upon Thames * * 7 0.1 0 0.0 10 0.0 Merton 4 0.0 27 0.3 * * 30 0.1 Redbridge 3 0.0 22 0.1 3 0.7 30 0.1 Richmond upon Thames * * 30 0.4 0 0.0 30 0.2 Sutton * * 23 0.2 0 0.0 20 0.1 Waltham Forest 0 0.0 47 0.4 * * 50 0.1
Primary schools Secondary schools Special schools Total5 Number Percentage4 Number Percentage4 Number Percentage4 Number Percentage4 London 210 0.0 1,200 0.3 60 0.5 1,460 0.1 Inner London 80 0.0 390 0.3 20 0.5 490 0.1 Camden * * 24 0.2 * * 30 0.1 City of London 0 0.0 n/a n/a 0 n/a n/a n/a Hackney 9 0.0 21 0.3 3 0.8 30 0.1 Hammersmith and Fulham * * 34 0.5 * * 40 0.2 Haringey 5 0.0 27 0.2 0 0.0 30 0.1 Islington 0 0.0 12 0.2 0 0.0 10 0.1 Kensington and Chelsea 3 0.0 9 0.3 * * 10 0.1 Lambeth 9 0.0 29 0.4 0 0.0 40 0.1 Lewisham 13 0.1 51 0.4 * * 70 0.2 Newham 12 0.0 37 0.2 * * 50 0.1 Southward 14 0.1 31 0.3 5 1.0 50 0.1 Tower Hamlets * 0.0 36 0.3 * * 40 0.1 Wandsworth 9 0.1 49 0.5 7 1.0 70 0.2 Westminster * * 26 0.3 0 0.0 30 0.1 Outer London 130 0.0 810 0.3 30 0.4 970 0.1 Barking and Dagenham 10 0.1 14 0.1 0 0.0 20 0.1 Barnet 3 0.0 51 0.2 0 0.0 50 0.1 Bexley 11 0.0 45 0.3 4 1.0 60 0.1 Brent 3 0.0 34 0.2 * * 40 0.1 Bromley 6 0.0 79 0.4 0 0.0 90 0.2 Croydon 25 0.1 110 0.6 10 1.8 150 0.3 Ealing 4 0.0 59 0.4 * * 60 0.1 Enfield 6 0.0 64 0.3 * * 70 0.1 Greenwich 18 0.1 31 0.2 * * 50 0.1 Harrow 5 0.0 63 0.7 0 0.0 70 0.2 Havering * * 42 0.3 * * 50 0.1 Hillingdon 8 0.0 35 0.2 0 0.0 40 0.1 Hounslow 7 0.0 50 0.3 * * 60 0.2 Kingston upon Thames * * * * 0 0.0 0 0.0 Merton 3 0.0 18 0.2 * * 20 0.1 Redbridge * * 30 0.2 0 0.0 30 0.1 Richmond upon Thames 3 0.0 25 0.3 3 2.0 30 0.2 Sutton * * 34 0.2 0 0.0 40 0.1 Waltham Forest 7 0.0 24 0.2 4 0.6 40 0.1
Primary schools Secondary schools Special schools Total5 Number Percentage4 Number Percentage4 Number Percentage4 Number Percentage4 London 180 0.0 1,260 0.3 40 0.4 1,470 0.1 Inner London 60 0.0 390 0.3 20 0.4 470 0.1 Camden 8 0.1 22 0.2 * * 30 0.2 City of London 0 0.0 n/a n/a n/a n/a 0 0.0 Hackney 6 0.0 20 0.3 * * 30 0.1 Hammersmith and Fulham 0 0.0 32 0.4 0 0.0 30 0.2 Haringey * * 29 0.3 0 0.0 30 0.1 Islington * * 17 0.2 0 0.0 20 0.1 Kensington and Chelsea 0 0.0 15 0.4 * * 20 0.2 Lambeth 9 0.0 22 0.3 * * 30 0.1 Lewisham 8 0.0 34 0.3 * * 40 0.1 Newham 7 0.0 57 0.3 0 0.0 60 0.1 Southward 11 0.0 32 0.3 4 0.8 50 0.1 Tower Hamlets * * 42 0.3 0 0.0 40 0.1 Wandsworth * * 36 0.4 4 0.6 40 0.2 Westminster 5 0.0 30 0.4 0 0.0 40 0.2 Outer London 120 0.0 870 0.3 30 0.3 1,010 0.1 Barking and Dagenham 4 0.0 26 0.2 0 0.0 30 0.1 Barnet 5 0.0 42 0.2 * * 50 0.1 Bexley 14 0.1 56 0.3 * * 70 0.2 Brent 4 0.0 50 0.3 0 0.0 50 0.1 Bromley 11 0.0 66 0.3 * * 80 0.2 Croydon 20 0.1 99 0.5 5 0.9 120 0.3 Ealing 5 0.0 51 0.3 0 0.0 60 . 0.1 Enfield 6 0.0 47 0.2 * * 60 0.1 Greenwich 7 0.0 39 0.3 0 0.0 50 0.1 Harrow 12 0.1 56 0.6 0 0.0 70 0.2 Havering * * 32 0.2 0 0.0 40 0.1 Hillingdon 7 0.0 41 0.2 * * 50 0.1 Hounslow 4 0.0 71 0.4 * * 80 0.2 Kingston upon Thames * * 4 0.0 0 0.0 10 0.0 Merton 0 0.0 35 0.4 4 1.6 40 0.2 Redbridge 6 0.0 59 0.3 0 0.0 70 0.2 Richmond upon Thames * * 47 0.6 0 0.0 50 0.3 Sutton 0 0.0 14 0.1 0 0.0 10 0.0 Waltham Forest 4 0.0 32 0.2 * * 40 0.1
Primary schools Secondary schools Special schools Total5 Number Percentage4 Number Percentage4 Number Percentage4 Number Percentage4 London 200 0.0 1,340 0.3 50 0.4 1,590 0.2 Inner London 80 0.0 390 0.3 20 0.5 490 0.1 Camden 7 0.1 15 0.2 * * 20 0.1 City of London 0 0.0 n/a n/a n/a n/a 0 0.0 Hackney 12 0.1 26 0.4 * * 40 0.2 Hammersmith and Fulham * * 13 0.2 0 0.0 10 0.1 Haringey * * 20 0.2 0 0.0 20 0.1 Islington * * 14 0.2 0 0.0 20 0.1 Kensington and Chelsea * * 15 0.4 0 0.0 20 0.2 Lambeth 15 0.1 10 0.1 0 0.0 30 0.1 Lewisham 8 0.0 34 0.3 * * 40 0.1 Newham 10 0.0 71 0.4 0 0.0 80 0.2 Southward 9 0.0 47 0.5 10 2.1 70 0.2 Tower Hamlets * * 43 0.3 0 0.0 50 0.1 Wandsworth 0 0.0 46 0.5 6 0.8 50 0.2 Westminster 7 0.1 40 0.5 0 0.0 50 0.2 Outer London 120 0.0 950 0.3 30 0.3 1,090 0.2 Barking and Dagenham 12 0.1 37 0.3 0 0.0 50 0.2 Barnet * * 42 0.2 * 40 0.1 Bexley 8 0.0 51 0.3 * 60 0.2 Brent 7 0.0 61 0.4 * 70 0.2 Bromley 7 0.0 87 0.4 * 100 0.2 Croydon 15 0.1 88 0.5 * 110 0.2 Ealing * * 48 0.3 * 50 ' 0.1 Enfield * * 80 0.4 0.0 80 0.2 Greenwich 19 0.1 69 0.5 * 90 0.3 Harrow 8 0.0 58 0.6 * 70 0.2 Havering * * 35 0.2 0 0.0 40 0.1 Hillingdon 10 0.0 61 0.3 * * 70 0.2 Hounslow 7 0.0 76 0.5 5 1.2 90 0.2 Kingston upon Thames 0 0.0 9 0.1 0 0.0 10 0.0 Merton 0 0.0 20 0.2 0 0.0 20 0.1 Redbridge 4 0.0 53 0.3 * * 60 0.1 Richmond upon Thames * * 30 0.4 0 0.0 30 0.2 Sutton * * 20 0.1 * * 20 0.1 Waltham Forest 8 0.0 24 0.2 * * 40 0.1
Primary schools Secondary schools Special schools Total5 Number Percentage4 Number Percentage4 Number Percentage4 Number Percentage4 London 140 0.0 1,340 0.3 40 0.3 1,510 0.1 Inner London 70 0.0 340 0.3 20 0.4 420 0.1 Camden 6 0.1 8 0.1 0 0.0 10 0.1 City of London * * 0 n/a 0 n/a — — Hackney 6 0.0 17 0.2 5 1.3 30 0.1 Hammersmith and Fulham 0 0.0 15 0.2 0 0.0 20 0.1 Haringey 0 0.0 28 0.2 0 0.0 30 0.1 Islington * * 7 0.1 0 0.0 10 0.0 Kensington and Chelsea * * 15 0.4 0 0.0 20 0.2 Lambeth 19 0.1 20 0.3 * * 40 0.2 Lewisham * * 22 0.2 0 0.0 20 0.1 Newham 16 0.1 66 0.4 * * 80 0.2 Southward 6 0.0 28 0.3 * * 40 0.1 Tower Hamlets 0 0.0 41 0.3 0 0.0 40 0.1 Wandsworth * * 45 0.4 6 0.8 50 0.2 Westminster 4 0.0 30 0.4 0 0.0 30 0.2 Outer London 80 0.0 990 0.3 20 0.3 1,090 0.2 Barking and Dagenham 3 0.0 42 0.3 0 0.0 50 0.2 Barnet * * 56 0.3 0 0.0 60 0,1 Bexley 13 0.1 46 0.3 * * 60 0.2 Brent 6 0.0 79 0.5 0 0.0 90 0.2 Bromley 4 0.0 52 0.2 0 0.0 60 0.1 Croydon 3 0.0 96 0.5 3 0.5 100 0.2 Ealing 5 0.0 74 0.5 0 0.0 80 0.2 Enfield * * 61 0.3 0 0.0 60 0.1 Greenwich 15 0.1 91 0.6 4 1.0 110 0.3 Harrow * * 49 0.5 0 0.0 50 0.2 Havering 3 0.0 37 0.2 0 0.0 40 0.1 Hillingdon * * 54 0.3 * * 60 0.1 Hounslow 6 0.0 69 0.4 * * 80 0.2 Kingston upon Thames 0 0.0 6 0.1 0 0.0 10 0.0 Merton * * 32 0.4 0 0.0 30 0.1 Redbridge * * 57 0.3 * * 60 0.1 Richmond upon Thames 0 0.0 22 0.3 0 0.0 20 0.1 Sutton * * 23 0.1 * * 30 0.1 Waltham Forest 9 0.0 46 0.3 5 0.8 60 0.2 * = Less than three, or a rate based on less than three. — = Less than five, or a rate based on less than five. n/a = Not applicable (no schools of this type). 1 Figures are as confirmed by local authorities via the data checking exercise. 2 Includes middle schools as deemed. 3 Includes both maintained and non-maintained special schools. 4 The number of permanent exclusions expressed as a percentage of the number (headcount) pupils in primary, secondary and special schools, excluding dually registered pupils in special schools in January 2005. 5 Totals across all school types have been rounded to the nearest 10. Source: School Census
Sutton local authority area 2000/01 2001/02 URN Establishment name Number of permanent exclusions Percentage of excluded school population Reliability indicator—see quality note Number of permanent exclusions Percentage of excluded school population Reliability indicator—see quality note 102962 Cheam Common Junior School — — — — — — 102967 Abbey Primary School * * Marginal * * Significant 102998 Carshalton Boys Sports College 3 0.3 Marginal * * Marginal 102999 Carshalton High School for Girls * * Marginal 3 0.3 Significant 103000 Greenshaw High School — — — 3 0.2 Significant 103002 Glenthome High School * * Marginal 10 1.0 Marginal 103003 Stanley Park High School 7 0.7 Marginal 10 1.1 Marginal 131104 Overton Grange School * * Marginal * * Marginal 103007 Wilson’s School — — — * * Significant 103009 The John Fisher School 4 0.4 Marginal — — — 103010 Cheam High School 4 0.3 Marginal * * Marginal 103011 Sutton Grammar School for Boys — — — — — — 103025 Sherwood Park School — — — — — — 103026 Wandle Valley School — — — — — —
2002/03 2003/04 URN Establishment name Number of permanent exclusions Percentage of excluded school population Reliability indicator—see quality note Number of permanent exclusions Percentage of excluded school population Reliability indicator—see quality note 102962 Cheam Common Junior School — — — — — — 102967 Abbey Primary School — — — — — — 102998 Carshalton Boys Sports College * 0.1 Marginal * * Marginal 102999 Carshalton High School for Girls — — — — — — 103000 Greenshaw High School — — — * * Marginal 103002 Glenthome High School 5 0.5 Marginal 8 0.7 Marginal 103003 Stanley Park High School 6 0.6 Marginal 4 0.4 Marginal 131104 Overton Grange School * 0.2 Marginal — — — 103007 Wilson’s School — — — — — — 103009 The John Fisher School — — — * * Marginal 103010 Cheam High School * 0.1 Marginal — — — 103011 Sutton Grammar School for Boys — — — * * Marginal 103025 Sherwood Park School — — — — — — 103026 Wandle Valley School — — — * * Marginal
2004/05 URN Establishment name Number of permanent exclusions Percentage of excluded school population Reliability indicator—see quality note 102962 Cheam Common Junior School * * Marginal 102967 Abbey Primary School — — — 102998 Carshalton Boys Sports College 4 0.4 ok 102999 Carshalton High School for Girls — — — 103000 Greenshaw High School * * ok 103002 Glenthome High School 6 0.5 ok 103003 Stanley Park High School 7 0.8 ok 131104 Overton Grange School * * ok 103007 Wilson’s School * * ok 103009 The John Fisher School — — — 103010 Cheam High School — — — 103011 Sutton Grammar School for Boys * * ok 103025 Sherwood Park School * * ok 103026 Wandle Valley School — — — — = No exclusions. * = One or two exclusions or a rate based on one or two exclusions. Notes: 1. Includes maintained and non-maintained special schools. 2. The number of permanent exclusions expressed as a percentage of the number of pupils on the school roll (excluding dually registered pupils) as at January 2005. 3. In 2000/01,2001/02,2002/03 the numbers of permanent exclusions collected from schools via the Annual Schools’ Census (ASC) were known to have been under-reported and so have to be treated with some caution. As a result, a checking exercise was carried out—but this was at LEA level only. School level exclusion numbers or percentages shown here for 2000/01 are as reported In ASC. The reliability Indicator has been derived as follows: Where number of exclusions returned via ASC, aggregated to LEA level <30: If the confirmed number increased or decreased by more than five >>”SIGNIFICANT” change. If the confirmed number increased or decreased by five or less >>”MARGINAL” change. Confirmed number matches ASC number >>”ok”. Where number of exclusions returned via ASC. aggregated to LEA level>=30: If the confirmed number increased or decreased by more than 15 per cent. >>”SIGNIFICANT” change. If the confirmed number increased or decreased by 15 per cent. or less >>“MARGINAL” change. Confirmed number matches ASC number >>“ok”. 4. In 2003/04,2004/05 the numbers of permanent exclusions collected from schools via the Annual Schools’ Census (ASC) were known to have been under-reported and so have to be treated with some caution. As a result, a checking exercise was carried out—but this was at LEA level only. School level exclusion numbers or percentages shown here for 2000/01 are as reported in ASC. The reliability indicator has been derived as follows: For each school type within an LA: If the confirmed numbers increased or decreased by more than 10 >>“HIGHLY SIGNIFICANT” change. If the confirmed number increased or decreased by more than five >>“SIGNIFICANT" change. If the confirmed number increased or decreased by five or less >>“MARGINAL" change. Confirmed number matches ASC number .>>“ok”. 5. This quality check is based upon LA level returns and so can only provide a broad indication of the reliability of individual schools’ figures.
Pupil Exclusions: Hampshire
The available information is shown in the table.
Physical assault Verbal abuse/threatening behaviour Against a pupil Against an adult Against a pupil Against an adult Sexual misconduct Drug and alcohol related Total 2003/04 Hampshire 2,161 471 475 2,720 134 401 6,362 Portsmouth 807 184 173 1,012 22 53 2,251 Southampton 168 49 23 263 7 29 539 2004/05 Hampshire 2,468 449 525 3,236 127 468 7,273 Portsmouth 717 209 136 847 27 72 2,008 Southampton 592 159 100 791 11 46 1,699 1 Includes middle schools as deemed. 2 Excludes non-maintained special schools. Source: Termly Exclusions Survey
Only two years of data relating to the reason for exclusion are currently available. The first year for which information on the reason for exclusion is available relates to the 2003/04 academic year. Exclusions data for 2004/05 academic year were published in June 2006.
Pupil Referral Units
The information requested is shown in the tables.
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 White 6,550 6,560 6,970 5,900 6,130 6,330 7,450 8,510 Black Caribbean 400 470 480 380 420 440 500 590 Black African 110 120 110 90 100 110 150 150 Black Other 240 190 240 220 210 240 280 280 Indian 30 40 40 30 20 30 40 40 Pakistani 80 60 90 80 60 70 80 120 Bangladeshi 10 50 40 50 60 50 60 90 Chinese 6— 10 10 10 6— 10 10 10 Other 110 180 190 90 190 220 310 270 Classified 7,530 7,670 8,160 6,850 7,190 7,500 8,880 10,060 Unclassified 4 6— 70 110 1,630 2,100 2,450 3,130 2,980 Total pupils 5 7,530 7,740 8,260 8,480 9,290 9,960 12,010 13,040 Source: School Census
2005 2006 White 8,840 9,490 White British 8,530 9,170 Irish 40 60 Traveller of Irish Heritage 80 60 Gypsy/Roma 50 70 Any Other White Background 140 140 Mixed 570 710 White and Black Caribbean 360 400 White and Black African 50 70 White and Asian 40 50 Any Other Mixed Background 130 190 Asian 380 340 Indian 60 50 Pakistani 130 110 Bangladeshi 130 90 Any Other Asian Background 60 80 Black 890 840 Caribbean 500 460 African 270 270 Any Other Black Background 110 110 Chinese 10 10 Any Other Ethnic Group 120 130 Classified 10,810 11,520 Unclassified 4 3,660 3,720 Total Pupils 5 14,470 15,240 1 Includes solely registered pupils and those with other providers. 2 Pupils of compulsory school age and above are classified according to ethnic group. 3 The categories for recording ethnicity data in Pupil Referral Units changed in 2005 to reflect the categories used in the 2001 National population census. There is no direct mapping between this set of codes and those used in previous years which will result in some discontinuity in time series data. 4 Information was not sought or refused 5 All pupils of compulsory school age and above. 6 Less than 5 pupils Note: Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10. There may be discrepancies between totals and the sum of component parts. Source: School Census
Number of boys Number of girls Total pupils 1997 5,580 1,960 7,530 1998 5,650 2,090 7,740 1999 6,180 2,090 8,260 2000 6,370 2,110 8,480 2001 7,000 2,290 9,290 2002 7,420 2,540 9,960 2003 8,970 3,040 12,010 2004 9,830 3,200 13,040 2005 10,780 3,690 14,470 2006 11,280 3,960 15,240 1 Includes solely registered pupils and those with other providers. Note: Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10. There may be discrepancies between totals and the sum of component parts. Source: School Census
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Pupils aged: 2 and under 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3— 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3— 3— 5 50 40 30 20 50 10 40 30 30 30 6 50 40 50 40 40 30 70 50 40 40 7 60 50 60 40 80 50 70 90 60 60 8 100 90 70 60 130 90 140 130 130 100 9 120 100 110 90 140 130 210 190 170 180 10 130 150 150 130 210 180 280 260 250 360 11 150 150 210 150 210 280 280 250 230 410 12 420 450 470 530 550 590 780 840 890 810 13 830 840 980 930 1,090 1,210 1,520 1,630 1,860 1,960 14 1,680 1,640 1,830 1,990 2,170 2,430 2,800 3,220 3,650 3,870 15 3,860 3,840 4,150 4,240 4,520 4,790 5,680 6,050 6,910 7,080 16 90 360 140 240 90 130 130 230 160 230 17 10 3— 10 20 10 20 20 40 60 80 18 0 0 0 10 10 20 20 20 30 40 19 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Total all ages 7,530 7,740 8,260 8,480 9,290 9,960 12,010 13,040 14,470 15,240 1 Includes solely registered pupils and those with other providers 2 Age as at previous 31 August 3 less than 5 pupils Note: Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10. There may be discrepancies between totals and the sum of component parts. Source: School Census
Pupil Referral Units: Special Educational Needs
The information requested is not collected centrally.
The information requested is not collected centrally.
Pupils: Intimidation
[holding answer 8 May 2007]: As part of the Department’s suite of guidance on prejudice-driven bullying, we recently announced that we would be producing dedicated guidance on tackling bullying related to special educational needs and disabilities. We have begun to meet with interested lobby groups and experts and hope to start work on this guidance later in the year. We intend to work closely with the Special Educational Consortium and other charities and groups with an interest in this area, drawing on current research.
In addition, the Department’s general guidance on bullying, “Don’t Suffer In Silence”, advises schools to refer to the bullying of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities in their anti-bullying policies and suggests some strategies for addressing this type of bullying.
Pupils: Languages
(2) what funding has been made available for (a) local authorities and (b) individual schools in Cambridgeshire to deal with increasing numbers of bilingual learners.
The Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant (EMAG) is a ring-fenced grant which provides additional support for underachieving ethnic minority pupils and for pupils for whom English is an Additional Language. The total grant for 2007-08 is £179 million. Cambridgeshire will receive £104,811.
Approximately £435 million of the £24.6 billion Schools Formula Spending Share (SPSS) for 2005-06 was distributed on the basis of numbers of children for whom English is an Additional Language, and from low performing ethnic minority groups.
The Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), which replaced SPSS for 2006-07, gives local authorities allocations for multi year periods: the allocations for 2007-08 will depend on pupil numbers in schools in January 2007 and the guaranteed unit of funding for each authority set in December 2005 is influenced by the number of its children for whom English is an Additional language.
The Dedicated Schools Grant is supplied to local authorities in support of the Schools Budget. It is for the local authorities—in conjunction with their Schools Forum—to fund the schools they maintain from their Schools Budget. The Dedicated Schools Grant Guaranteed Unit of Funding for Cambridgeshire in 2007-08 is £3,622.90.
We will set indicative allocations for a three year period for 2008-09 to 2010-11, following the current consultation as part of the new school funding arrangements for 2008-09, which will be finalised when we have the pupil numbers for each year. The possibility of an Exceptional Circumstances Grant to deal with additional pressures which may fall on local authorities after we set out three year allocations is under consideration as part of our consultations.
The Government are working in partnership with local areas to spread best practice in meeting specific pressures that have arisen as a result of recent migration. In addition, we have set aside £400,000 over a two year period to fund a New Arrivals Excellence Programme to build capacity in local authorities to support schools with limited experience of teaching new arrivals with little knowledge of English.
School Disability Equality Schemes
This information is not collected centrally. However, to support schools in meeting this new responsibility, in June 2006 the Department for Education and Skills published a training resource for schools and local authorities: ‘Implementing the Disability Discrimination Act in schools and early years settings’. The materials in this resource will help schools meet their duties under the Disability Discrimination Acts 1995 and 2005.
School Meals
The Department does not collect data that allows us to report expenditure on school meals alone.
However, the Government are providing additional funding of almost £500 million between 2005 and 2011 to support the improvement of school food. This includes, between April 2005 and March 2008, £90 million for authority maintained schools (including nursery schools and pupil referral units) and £130 million for local authorities.
School Meals: Poultry
This information is not held centrally. However, the DfES is actively supporting the Public Sector Food Procurement Initiative (PSFPI) that includes objectives for increasing tendering opportunities for small and local producers and for promoting food produced to higher standards of production, which should help provide a more level playing field for domestic producers. The Department has also included the PSFPI in the remit of the School Food Trust.
School Meals: Standards
The School Meals Review Panel recommended that ‘meals should not contain more than two deep-fried products in a single week’. To ensure clarity and to maximise the impact of this standard, Ministers decided that the interpretation of ‘deep-fried’ in this context should include those products that were deep-fried in the manufacturing process.
The School Food Trust has spent just under £54,700 of its grant in aid on the production of the revised guidance on the standards for school lunches. The costs of school lunches that meet the standards are met through a combination of expenditure by local authorities, schools, parents and carers. However, this Government are investing almost £500 million between 2005 and 2011 in transitional funding to support local authorities and schools in an ambitious six-year programme to transform school food.
Schools: Twinning
The information is not collected centrally.
Schools: Accommodation
Data supplied to the Department by local authorities in 2001, 2003 and 2005 show the following numbers of temporary buildings at maintained schools in each London borough:
2001 2003 2005 Barking and Dagenham 5 9 19 Barnet 72 153 99 Bexley 190 174 44 Brent 84 70 70 Bromley 28 28 24 Croydon 126 116 110 Ealing 20 119 70 Enfield — — 65 Greenwich — — 22 Hackney 29 10 19 Haringey 7 30 7 Harrow 144 146 150 Havering — 2 22 Hillingdon 95 90 9 Hounslow 44 53 98 Islington 2 11 8 Kensington and Chelsea 3 3 3 Kingston upon Thames — — 2 Lambeth 41 41 41 Lewisham 31 32 25 Merton — 4 5 Newham 90 89 72 Redbridge — — 14 Richmond upon Thames — 16 35 Southwark 9 11 11 Sutton 99 104 84 Tower Hamlets 17 12 15 Waltham Forest — 19 19 Wandsworth 22 22 29 Westminster 4 — 2
These data are of thought to be of variable quality and completeness. Data are not held by my Department for other years since 1997.
Central Government capital support for investment in schools has increased from under £700 million in 1996-97 to £6.4 billion in 2007-08 and will rise further to £8.0 billion by 2010-11. Progress is being made year-by-year in improving the quality of the school building stock. The bulk of schools capital is now allocated by formula to authorities and schools so that they can address their local priorities, including the replacement of decayed temporary accommodation, on which we have set a high priority. Given the high levels of funding, authorities have the opportunity to replace temporary buildings where they are considered to be unsuitable.
Modern, high-quality mobile or demountable buildings provide a good environment for teaching and learning where there is short-term need. They might, for instance, be needed to cope with a short-term increase in pupil numbers, or where extensive remodelling or rebuilding of permanent accommodation means providing temporary accommodation on the school site, rather than transporting children elsewhere.
Schools: Bexley
The Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) was first introduced in 2006-07; the funding that each London borough received in 2006-07 and the indicative allocation for 2007-08 are detailed in the following table:
DSG guaranteed unit of funding per pupil Total DSG funding (£ million) DSG guaranteed unit of funding per pupil Total DSG funding (£ million) Camden 5,551.08 110.974 5,922.61 118.874 Greenwich 4,745.46 157.469 5,120.20 169.199 Hackney 5,490.66 140.069 5,906.04 151.250 Hammersmith and Fulham 5,069.52 78.825 5,413.02 81.724 Islington 5,146.07 116.438 5,555.20 124.584 Kensington and Chelsea 5,210.96 56.218 5,532.73 60.272 Lambeth 5,207.74 147.071 5,596.25 160.127 Lewisham 4,996.83 161.465 5,335.09 169.833 Southwark 5,161.89 167.665 5,525.05 173.653 Tower Hamlets 5,609.73 197.620 6,028.42 215.852 Wandsworth 4,512.85 124.128 4,891.66 135.255 Westminster 4,852.82 86.014 5,203.08 90.690 Barking and Dagenham 4,097.13 119.913 4,378.90 128.780 Barnet 4,081.12 173.792 4,344.26 186.125 Bexley 3,719.15 137.002 3,969.90 145.552 Brent 4,315.53 159.124 4,663.30 175.401 Bromley 3,525.16 156.417 3,775.05 167.060 Croydon 3,805.52 186.482 4,079.87 196.467 Ealing 4,339.44 170.813 4,634.20 183.560 Enfield 3,984.34 186.575 4,256.52 201.906 Haringey 4,481.61 144.409 4,790.71 156.829 Harrow 4,050.85 119.052 4,310.75 128.111 Havering 3,718.84 133.791 3,961.84 141.827 Hillingdon 3,918.76 148.435 4,179.20 158.629 Hounslow 4,166.68 134.705 4,457.19 144.218 Kingston upon Thames 3,826.14 73.799 4,068.61 77.964 Merton 4,004.28 87.087 4,270.05 90.552 Newham 4,526.29 215.377 4,860.15 233.900 Redbridge 3,756.81 151.437 4,027.42 163.239 Richmond upon Thames 3,880.40 80.464 4,119.38 85.895 Sutton 3,809.62 107.407 4,065.90 113.797 Waltham Forest 4,115.24 144.467 4,399.07 153.499 Notes: 1. Figures are on a cash basis 2. Prior to the introduction of the DSG, funding for nursery, primary and secondary school aged pupils was through the Education Funding System (EFS) which was part of the local government finance settlement. EFS was based on what an authority needed to fund education whereas DSG is largely based on an authority’s previous spending. EFS also included funding for an authority's central functions, this is still part of DCLG’s local government finance settlement rather than DSG. For these reasons EFS and DSG are not comparable. 3. The DSG does not represent the totality of education funding; there are other grants that support the schools budget which have not been included in the table. Source: http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/docbank/index.cfm?id=9405
Schools: Complaints
During Anti-Bullying Week 2006, the Office of the Children’s Commissioner (OCC) launched a draft report into school bullying complaints procedures. The Department is facilitating a consultation with key stakeholders on behalf of the OCC and expects to receive the final report in April/May 2007. In addition, the Local Government Ombudsman recently wrote to the Department about the possibility of extending his remit to cover the internal management of schools. No other representations have been received by the Department on school complaints procedures.
Schools: Crime
The information requested is not collected centrally.
Schools: Finance
(2) what the average funding per school pupil is in (a) Eastbourne, (b) East Sussex and (c) England in 2006-07.
The Department for Education and Skills allocates revenue funding to local authorities so the requested information is not available for Eastbourne.
The dedicated schools grant (DSG) was introduced in 2006-07, prior to this authorities’ revenue funded was from standard spending assessments (SSA) and education formula spending (EPS) which formed the education part of the local government finance settlement, plus various grants. The per pupil funding for East Sussex local authority and England from 1997-98 to 2005-06 was:
Funding per three-19 year old pupil in real terms (£)East SussexEngland1997-983,0303,0301998-993,1003,0901999-003,2203,2302000-013,4803,4802001-023,6403,6502002-033,7403,7602003-043,7903,8802004-053,9504,0202005-064,1304,230 Notes:1. Price Base: Real terms at 2005-06 prices, based on GDP deflators as at 27 September 2006.2. Figures reflect relevant sub-blocks of standard spending assessment/education formula spending (EFS) settlements and exclude the pensions transfer to EFS and LSC.3. Total funding also includes all revenue grants in DfES departmental expenditure limits relevant to pupils aged three-19 and exclude education maintenance allowances (EMAs) and grants not allocated at LEA level.4. The pupil numbers used to convert £ million figures to £ per pupil are those underlying the SSA/EFS settlement calculations plus PLASC three year old maintained pupils and estimated three-four year olds funded through state support in maintained and other educational institutions where these are not included in the SSA pupil numbers.5. Rounding: Figures are rounded to the nearest £10.6. Status: Some of the grant allocations have not been finalised. If these do change, the effect on the funding figures is expected to be minimal.
The introduction of the dedicated schools grant (DSG) in 2006-07 fundamentally changed how local authorities are funded. The 1997-98 to 2005-06 figures are based on an assessment of what local authorities needed to fund education; the 2006-07 DSG is based largely on an authority’s previous spending.
In addition, DSG has a different coverage to EFS. EFS comprised a schools block and an LEA block (to cover LEA central functions) whereas DSG only covers the school block. LEA block items are still funded through CLG’s local government finance settlement but education items cannot be separately identified. This means we have a break in our time series as the two sets of data are not comparable.
To provide a comparison for 2006-07 DSG, we have isolated the schools block equivalent funding in 2005-06; as described above this does not represent the totality of ‘education’ funding in that year. There are other grants that support the schools budget, these are not included in the provided DSG figures. The cash figures for all funded pupils aged three-15 in East Sussex and England are shown in the following table.
2005-06 Baseline 2006-07 DSG guaranteed unit of funding 2007-08 DSG guaranteed unit of funding East Sussex 3,371 3,598 3,831 England 3,41 1 3,643 3,888
Schools: Private Finance Initiative
Eco-schools hold the information about which schools have achieved (a) bronze, (b) silver and (c) green flag levels. In total, 2,633 schools have so far been awarded bronze awards, of these 1,301 have gone on to achieve a silver award; and 562 schools have been awarded a green flag.
DFES has record of 833 PFI schools in England. Of these schools, 68 have achieved Eco-schools status at one of the Eco-schools levels. All schools that were built under PFI are also maintained through a private finance contract. However there are 12 schools in Stoke-on-Trent that were not built under PFI but are maintained under a private finance contract that have achieved one of the eco-schools award levels.
Numbers of schools achieving the Eco-schools award levels Schools maintained but not built under PFI (in Stoke-on-Trent) Total number of schools built and maintained under PFI in England Bronze 12 56 Silver 2 18 Green flag 3 6
Schools: Standards
(2) how many and what percentage of (a) community schools, (b) voluntary-aided schools, (c) voluntary controlled schools, (d) foundation schools, (e) city technology colleges and (f) academies were in Ofsted category (i) special measures, (ii) serious weaknesses and (iii) underachieving in each year since 1997 (A) in total and (B) in each local authority;
(3) how many and what percentage of (a) community schools, (b) voluntary aided schools, (c) voluntary controlled schools, (d) foundation schools, (e) city technology colleges and (f) academies were in Ofsted category (i) special measures and (ii) notice to improve in 2007, broken down by local education authority;
(4) how many and what percentage of (a) community schools, (b) voluntary-aided schools, (c) voluntary controlled schools, (d) foundation schools, (e) city technology colleges and (f) academies were in Ofsted category (i) special measures and (ii) notice to improve in 2007 (A) in total and (B) in each local authority.
This is a matter for Ofsted. HM Chief Inspector, Christine Gilbert has written to the hon. Member and a copy of her reply has been placed in the House Library.
Letter from Christine Gilbert, dated 3 May 2007:
Your recent parliamentary question has been passed to me, as Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, for reply.
You asked in question number 132878 how many and what percentage of (a) community schools, (b) voluntary aided schools, (c) voluntary controlled schools, (d) foundation schools, (e) city technology colleges and (f) academies were in Ofsted categories (i) special measures, (ii) serious weaknesses and (iii) underachieving in each year since 1997, broken down by local authority.
You asked in question number 132879 how many, and what percentage of (a) community schools, (b) voluntary aided schools, (c) voluntary controlled schools, (d) foundation schools, (e) city technology colleges and (f) academies were in Ofsted category (i) special measures and (ii) notice to improve in 2007, broken down by local education authority.
The tables attached show the number and percentage of schools in a category at the end of each academic year, that is, on 31 August. In the course of any year, schools may be placed in and taken out of a category, and so the figures at any specific point during the preceding twelve months will not be the same as those for the end of the year. For the academic year 2006/07, the numbers only show schools in categories up to 31 December 2006 since these were the most recent set of schools for which we have complete inspection data.
The school type is that listed on our current database of Educational Establishments, as at April 2007.
A copy of this reply has been sent to Jim Knight MP, Minister of State for Schools, and will be placed in the library of both Houses.
Schools: Swimming Pools
Data on school swimming pools were supplied to the Department by local education authorities in 2001 and 2003. However, the completeness and quality of the data was not good enough to accurately assess the number of pools. Data are not held for other years since 1997.
Schools: Tyne and Wear
(2) how many schools were scheduled to be refurbished in Tyne and Wear in each year since 1997; and how many were refurbished.
School capital funding is allocated on a local authority basis. The Department does not maintain records of schools which are built or refurbished as prioritisation between types of build is decided at local authority level, using funds allocated by the Department and available locally.
Newcastle upon Tyne local authority currently has a wave 1 project in the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme. This includes 10 secondary schools to be rebuilt or refurbished, with a further six schools, already receiving buildings investment, allocated additional ICT investment through BSF. Total BSF investment for these schools (including PFI credits) will total some £192 million. This wave 1 project is currently due for completion in March 2011.
Besides the BSF programme, there are allocations of £29 million of capital funding during the current period, 2005-06 to 2007-08, which will be prioritised at local authority and school level.
Secondary Education: Havering
In January 2006 there were 16,594 pupils enrolled in secondary schools in Havering.
Figures for January 2007 were published on Thursday 26 April in SFR 16/2007 (http://www.dfes.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000726/index.shtml). Currently this publication contains only national level figures but local authority level tables will be added by 18 May 2007.
The information requested is not held centrally by the Department.
Secondary Education: Standards
[holding answer 23 April 2007]: Failing schools are usually considered to be those judged by Ofsted to require special measures. The following table gives the number of secondary schools that Ofsted placed into this category in each academic year since 1993/94. This was the first year that special measures judgements were made.
Academic year Number of secondary schools placed into special measures 1993/94 11 1994/95 20 1995/96 27 1996/97 28 1997/98 43 1998/99 29 1999/2000 38 2000/01 23 2001/02 19 2002/03 35 2003/04 61 2004/05 37 2005/06 32 2006/07 (to 31 March 2007) 21
Special Educational Needs
The information requested can only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Special Educational Needs: Maintained Schools
The information requested is shown in the table.
Some of the schools shown in the table will have resourced provision/units/special classes for pupils with special educational needs.
Pupils with SEN 0-0.9% 1.0-2.9% 3.0-4.9% 5.0-6.9% 7.0-9.9% 10.0-19.9% 20.0-29.9% 30.0-39.9% 40.0-49.9% 50% and over 1997 944 632 558 840 1,962 9,140 5,751 1,873 586 219 1998 310 365 426 741 1,878 9,252 6,356 2,114 698 272 1999 217 210 298 584 1,517 9,353 6,695 2,409 730 301 2000 151 178 258 492 1,304 8,965 7,131 2,610 806 327 2001 164 219 227 428 1,244 8,559 7,161 2,841 890 323 2002 268 347 347 592 1,496 8,831 6,615 2,446 757 237 20034 165 305 570 1,089 2,524 10,002 5,045 1,557 397 118 20044 151 307 576 974 2,422 9,970 5,120 1,580 428 113 20054 115 274 523 901 2,280 9,963 5,168 1,699 417 143 20064 94 224 435 755 2,079 9,614 5,577 1,892 493 161 1 Includes middle schools as deemed. 2 Excludes dually registered pupils. 3 Includes pupils with special education needs with a statement and those with special educational needs without a statement. 4 Due to changes in the classification system for SEN, the number of pupils with SEN without statements reported in 2003 and later are not directly comparable with earlier years. Source: School Census
Standard Assessment Tasks
Information on the proportion of pupils achieving the expected level at the end of each Key Stage is shown as follows:
Mathematics Reading Writing Spelling 1995 79 78 80 — 1996 82 78 79 — 1997 84 80 80 62 1998 84 80 81 66 1999 87 82 83 71 2000 90 83 84 72 2001 91 84 86 75 2002 90 84 86 78 2003 90 84 81 — 2004 90 85 82 — 2005 91 85 82 — 2006 90 84 81 — Notes: 1. 2006 figures are provisional. Figures for all other years are based on final data. 2. The spelling test was only taken between 1997 to 2002 3. For Key Stage 1 a new method of assessment, where only teacher assessments (TA) were reported, was trialled in some LAs in 2004 and fully rolled out in 2005. As a result figures for 1995-2003 are based on test/task results, 2004 figures are calculated using a combination of TA results for trial schools and test/task results for non-trial schools, 2005-06 figures are based on teacher assessment results. Hence data shown in the table for results from 2004 onwards are not directly comparable with those prior to 2004, and care is needed in interpreting trends in the data.
English Mathematics Science 1995 49 45 70 1996 57 54 62 1997 63 62 69 1998 65 59 69 1999 71 69 78 2000 75 72 85 2001 75 71 87 2002 75 73 86 2003 75 73 87 2004 78 74 86 2005 79 75 86 2006 79 76 87 Note: 2006 figures are revised. Figures for all other years are based on final data.
English Mathematics Science 1995 55 58 56 1996 57 57 57 1997 57 60 60 1998 65 59 56 1999 64 62 55 2000 64 65 59 2001 65 66 66 2002 67 67 67 2003 69 71 68 2004 71 73 66 2005 74 74 70 2006 73 77 72 Note: 2006 figures are revised. Figures for all other years are based on final data.
Students: Darlington
The latest available information is shown in the following table. Figures for 2006/07 will be available in January 2008.
Academic year Number of entrants 1996/97 550 1997/98 590 1998/99 640 1999/2000 660 2000/01 725 2001/02 805 2002/03 1,020 2003/04 985 2004/05 1,015 2005/06 990 1 Excludes the Open University. Note: Figures are on snapshot basis as at the 1 of December and are rounded to the nearest 5. Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).
Teachers: Manpower
The following table shows the number of full-time equivalent regular teachers with qualified teacher status employed in pupil referral units, mainstream nursery/primary and secondary schools and maintained special schools in England, January 1997 to 2007.
The number of teachers employed in special needs units attached to mainstream schools cannot be provided separately.
Pupil referral units2 Maintained nursery/primary and secondary schools Maintained special schools 1997 3,220 378,320 14,700 1998 3,520 376,660 14,260 1999 3,860 379,620 14,150 2000 3,960 382,740 14,120 2001 4.150 386,380 14,030 2002 4,650 389,660 13,860 2003 4,900 389,830 13,630 2004 5,220 391,040 13,750 2005 5,970 394,000 13,330 2006 6,300 397,870 13,470 20071 6,530 398,300 13,470 2Pupil referral unit teacher numbers include other teachers who work outside of mainstream primary, secondary and special schools i.e. home tutors. 1 Provisional Note: Figures are rounded to the nearest 10. Source: DfES annual survey of teachers in service and teacher vacancies,618g (Teachers)
Teachers: Occupational Health
The following table shows the number of reported work-related injuries to teachers or teaching professionals in schools in the London Government office region and the London borough of Havering in each year from 1996-97 to 2005-06 which were classed as major or required an absence from work of over three days. This information is not available for Romford constituency.
A change to the occupations coding framework from 2002/03 means that figures from this year are not directly comparable with earlier years.
London GOR (including LB of Havering) London borough of Havering Major injuries Over 3 day injuries Total Major injuries Over 3 day injuries Total 1996-97 49 92 141 0 3 3 1997-98 49 97 146 1 0 1 1998-99 47 108 155 5 7 12 1999-2000 38 116 154 1 7 8 2000-01 49 109 158 1 1 2 2001-02 36 85 121 0 1 1 2002-03 40 106 146 3 1 4 2003-04 57 123 180 1 5 6 2004-05 64 117 181 3 4 7 2005-062 64 114 178 3 6 9 1 A change to the occupations coding framework used to compile these figures from 2002/03 means that information from that year onward are not directly comparable with the earlier years. Information to 2001-02 includes teachers in primary and secondary education. Information from 2002-03 includes teaching professionals in primary and nursery, secondary, special educational needs and teaching professionals not elsewhere classified. 2 Provisional. Source: Health and Safety Executive.
Teachers: Pay
The following table shows the total expenditure on staff employed in local authority maintained nursery, primary and secondary schools and maintained special schools in England, financial years 1997-98 to 2005-06.
Expenditure for teaching staff employed in pupil referral units is not available and information for special needs units attached to mainstream schools cannot be provided separately.
£ Total expenditure by maintained schools on teaching staff (including supply teachers)1,2 Maintained nursery, primary and secondary schools Maintained special schools 1997-98 8,990,811,000 451,502,000 1998-99 9,330,524,000 457,626,000 1999-003,4 11,314,775,000 496,800,000 2000-01 12,199,008,000 533,004,000 2001-02 13,559,180,000 573,490,000 2002-032,3 14,027,268,000 582,243,000 2003-04 15,457,315,000 638,386,000 2004-05 16,037,051,000 658,115,000 2005-065 16,767,800,000 689,393,000 1 Includes teachers employed directly by the school, including supernumerary/peripatetic teachers on short-term contracts and supply teaching staff who are covering curriculum release, long-term absence, sickness absence and training absence. Relates to all contracted full- time and part- time teachers paid within the scope of the ‘The Education (School Teachers' Pay and Conditions) Order’ and includes expenditure on salaries and wages consisting of gross pay, including bonus and allowances, maternity pay and the employer's contributions to national insurance and superannuation. Also includes threshold payments and other payments relating to teacher reforms. Expenditure on supply teachers not employed directly from the school (i.e. paid via an agency or another third party) are also included. Does not include expenditure on teaching staff employed centrally by the local authority. 2 Includes all local authority maintained nursery, primary, secondary and special schools. Figures for 2002-03 exclude expenditure by local authority maintained nursery schools as these were not collected in that year. 3 1999-2000 saw a change in data source when the data collection moved from the RO1 form collected by the ODPM to the Section 52 form from the DFES. 2002-03 saw a further break in the time series following the introduction of consistent financial reporting (CFR) to schools and the associated restructuring of the outturn tables. The change in sources is shown by the blank row. 4 1999-00 figures reflect to return of grant maintained schools to local authority maintenance. 5 2005-06 data remain provisional and subject to change by the local authority. 6 Figures are rounded to the nearest £1,000.
Teachers: Overseas-Trained
[holding answer 8 May 2007]: The work permit approval letters issued by Work Permits (UK) to employers provide information on the requirement to obtain QTS within four years in order to be able to continue teaching, and instruct the employers to bring the four year rule to the attention of the overseas trained teacher.
My Department has sent out several reminders about the fact that overseas-trained teachers cannot continue to teach in schools beyond four years unless they have obtained qualified teacher status. These are sent in e-format, to schools, local authorities and also to employment agencies via the Recruitment Employment Confederation as well as information provided on the teachernet website and in ‘A Guide to the Law for School Governors’.
The most recent communication, in September 2006, also mentioned that it was intended that overseas trained teachers, who were on employment based teacher training programmes at the point of their four year anniversary, would cease to be eligible to work as teachers from September 2007.
Teaching Methods: Finance
Between 2006-08, the Department will make available £2.7 million for the Learning Outside the Classroom Manifesto. The majority of this money will support the delivery of the ‘Out and About package’—a series of training modules and supporting guidance to help teachers, school staff and providers deliver high quality learning outside the classroom experiences. Because the package is being put out for competitive tender, it is not possible to provide an exact figure for its total cost. In addition to the Manifesto funding, the government will continue to fund other projects that support learning outside the classroom, for example in 2007-08, the joint DCMS/DfES Museums and Galleries programme will be supported by £4.7 million funding and the London Challenge New Views will receive £1.6 million.
Thomas Telford School: Admissions
The Department has not had any discussions on this matter with the governing body of Thomas Telford School. Officials did contact the head teacher when the hon. Member first raised the issue in correspondence in autumn last year. The head teacher’s view was that the school did not wish to seek a change to its catchment area, but if the Admissions Forum requested a change they would consider it and if appropriate submit a request to the Secretary of State. No such request has been received.
Truancy
The percentage of half days missed due to unauthorised absence from maintained mainstream schools in (a) Suffolk, (b) Bedfordshire, (c) Cambridgeshire, (d) Essex, (e) Hertfordshire and (f) Norfolk in each year since 1997 are shown as follows:
Local authority 1997/98 1998/99 1999/2000 2000/01 2001/02 2002/03 2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 (final) Bedfordshire 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.2 0.21 0.21 0.17 0.22 0.25 Cambridgeshire 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.33 0.34 0.39 0.39 0.46 Essex 0.4 0.4 0.3 0.4 0.35 0.37 0.37 0.33 0.38 Hertfordshire 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.37 0.34 0.32 0.33 0.34 Norfolk 0.4 0.4 0.5 0.5 0.46 0.45 0.41 0.42 0.41 Suffolk 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.26 0.25 0.27 0.31 0.33 England 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.45 0.43 0.41 0.43 0.45
Local authority 1997/98 1998/99 1999/2000 2000/01 2001/02 2002/03 2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 (final) Bedfordshire 0.4 0.5 0.5 0.4 0.41 0.42 0.42 0.68 0.50 Cambridgeshire 0.7 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.77 0.81 0.80 1.04 1.02 Essex 0.8 0.9 0.9 0.8 0.90 0.84 1.00 1.09 1.07 Hertfordshire 0.6 0.7 0.6 0.7 0.91 0.75 0.75 0.77 0.75 Norfolk 0.9 0.9 0.9 1.0 1.07 1.02 1.02 1.08 1.22 Suffolk 0.5 0.5 0.6 0.6 0.89 1.08 1.32 1.29 1.34 England 1.1 1.1 1.0 1.1 1.09 1.07 1.13 1.23 1.20 1 Includes middle schools as deemed. 2 Due to local government reorganisation, regional figures are not available prior to 1998. 3 Figures for the above local authorities are available to one decimal place prior to 2001/02 and two decimal places from 2001/02 onwards.
Unauthorised absence is absence without leave from a teacher or other authorised representative of the school. This includes all unexplained or unjustified absences, such as lateness, holidays during term time not authorised by the school, absence where reason is not yet established and truancy.
Vocational Education
[holding answer 3 May 2007]: In September 2008 the Diplomas will only be available on a limited basis across the country. Other vocational qualifications will continue to be available and schools and colleges will be able to choose what to offer to young people. The impact of the introduction of diplomas on other vocational qualifications therefore will be determined by the choices that schools, colleges and ultimately young people make. We expect young people to increasingly choose a diploma or apprenticeship rather than one of the other vocational qualifications available to them, except where those vocational qualifications are part of a diploma, as we build up to the national entitlement from 2013. Our aim, as set out in the 14 to 19 White Paper, has always been to achieve a clearer set of choices for young people, each one leading to a recognised and valued qualification.
Young People: Unemployment
The following tables give estimates of the proportion of 16, 17 and 18-year-olds not in education, employment or training (i) from (A) each social class (NS-SEC) and (B) each ethnic group and; (ii) who have a disability. These are survey based estimates and have been obtained from the youth cohort study—they relate to the same cohort of young people at each age. NS-SEC is derived from parental occupation.
Percentage Population at age 16 NEET age 16 in 2004 NEET age 17 in 2005 NEET age 18 in 2006 Large employers and higher professionals 18 7 7 15 Lower professional and higher technical occupations 26 16 18 22 Intermediate occupations 22 18 21 21 Lower supervisory occupations 9 10 12 9 Semi routine and routine occupations 13 23 21 16 Other 12 26 21 17
Percentage Population at age 16 NEET age 16 in 2004 NEET age 17 in 2005 NEET age 18 in 2006 White 86 87 87 88 Black 3 2 1 2 Indian 2 1 1 1 Pakistani/Bangladeshi 3 5 5 4 Other Asian (including Chinese) 1 1— 1 1 Other ethnic group (including mixed) 3 3 2 3 Not answered 2 2 3 1
Percentage Population at age 16 NEET age 16 in 2004 NEET age 17 in 2005 NEET age 18 in 2006 Yes 4 8 7 7 No 94 89 89 93 Not answered 2 3 4 1— 1 Less than 0.5.per cent.