Written Answers to Questions
Thursday 5 November 2009
Leader of the House
Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy
I hope that motions to establish the new Joint Committee will be put to the House soon.
Treasury
Advertising
Spending on advertising in 2008-09 by HM Treasury, its agencies and HMRC is shown in the following table:
Organisation Purpose of advertising Net spending (ex vat) £000 HM Treasury Recruitment advertising 445 Promoting the 'Moneymadeclear' service in autumn 2008 and the Money Guidance pathfinder, which offers free impartial generic advice on personal finance 2,250 DMO Gilt auctions, recruitment 158 OGC Government Procurement Graduate recruitment scheme 38 HMRC Child Trust Fund, Compliance, Health in Pregnancy Grant, Money Laundering, Products of Animal Origin, Self Assessment, Students, Tax Credits, Tax for Business 17,890
Alcohol: Excise Duties
No assessment has been made of the likely effects on levels of fraud in respect of alcohol duty of the setting of minimum prices for alcohol.
Climate Change
Treasury Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery. As was the case with previous Administrations, it is not the Government’s practice to provide details of all such meetings.
Coinage: Counterfeit Manufacturing
The following counterfeit £1 coins have been returned to the Royal Mint:
Total withdrawals 2003-04 85,000 2004-05 117,500 2005-06 84,500 2006-07 153,800 2007-08 97,000 2008-09 891,956
The Treasury does not have figures on withdrawals prior to 2003, when the counterfeit rate was estimated to be less than 1 per cent.
The most recent survey conducted by the Royal Mint found that its sample contained a £1 coin counterfeit rate of 2.52 per cent. or
approximately £37 million.
The Royal Mint does not currently undertake regular surveys for other denominations. It is widely believed (by the Royal Mint, the Serious Organised Crime Agency and industry partners) that there is not a significant counterfeit issue with any other denominations.
Some £2 counterfeit coins have been returned to the Mint but the quantities are minimal and they are of a poor quality.
Council Tax: Valuation
An electronic version, in Excel format, has been placed in the Freedom of Information Disclosure Log on the Valuation Office Agency's website. A link to the information is as follows:
www.voa.gov.uk/publications/access-to-information/Dwellings_assigned_with_each_individual_dwellinghouse_code_ 2-09-09.xls
Departmental Internet
(2) how much his Department spent on maintaining its Twitter feed in the last 12 months. [297160] (297159)
The maintenance of these services is carried out as part of the e-communication team’s management of the Treasury’s websites. Therefore, no specific costs are apportioned to these services.
The maintenance of HM Treasury's YouTube channel is carried out as part of the e-communication team's management of HM Treasury's web sites. Therefore, no specific costs are apportioned to these services. I also refer the right hon. Member to the answers earlier today.
Equitable Life Assurance Society
The Government, jointly with the Financial Services Authority, are piloting a free money guidance service, called ‘Moneymadeclear’, in the north-west and north-east of England. The Government intend for the service to be rolled out nationally from spring 2010. The pilot is being delivered by a number of partner organisations including those used and trusted by older people, such as Age Concern and Citizens Advice. Covering a wide range of personal finance topics, money guidance aims to help people make informed financial decisions. It can also refer people on to more specialist sources of help such as the Pensions Advisory Service or independent financial advice.
Excise Duties: Biofuels
(2) whether his Department has carried out an impact assessment of the proposed removal of the 20 pence per litre duty differential on biofuel from April 2010; and if he will make a statement;
(3) whether his Department has conducted an environmental impact assessment of the Government’s proposal to remove the 20 pence per litre duty differential on biofuel from April 2010; and if he will make a statement.
The Chancellor sets environment and transport tax rates in the normal Budget process based on the overall fiscal judgment. In making these decisions, he takes all relevant fiscal, economic, social and environmental factors into account. HM Treasury keeps all taxes under review.
It is Government policy that proposals imposing or reducing recurrent administrative costs on businesses or the third sector require publication of an impact assessment. A change in tax rate does not impose or reduce administrative costs and therefore an impact assessment is not usually published.
Table 6.2 of Budget 2008 sets out the environmental impact of Budget measures
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/bud08_chapter6.pdf
Financial Services: Regulation
Under section 41(2) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA), the Financial Services Authority (FSA) is required, when giving or varying permission, or imposing or varying any requirement, to ensure that the person concerned will satisfy, and continue to satisfy, the threshold conditions in relation to all of the regulated activities for which he has or will have permission.
The threshold conditions, defined in section 41(1), include the requirement that the person concerned is “fit and proper” in all the circumstances (schedule 6, paragraph 5). The FSA may raise the standards by which this criteria is tested and apply the new criteria to advisers who are already authorised under FSMA. Indeed, section 41(3) expressly states that the FSA, as the authority and having due regard to its duty under section 41(2), may take:
“such steps as it considers are necessary, in relation to a particular authorised person, in order to secure its regulatory objective of the protection of consumers.”
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 19 October 2009, Official Report, column 1285W.
Financial Services: Standards
(2) how many fines levied by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) against companies for failing to treat customers fairly have been (a) paid in full and (b) reduced under the FSA’s executive settlement procedures since the implementation of the treating customers fairly initiative; which companies paid reduced amounts; and how much each such company paid;
(3) how many final notices have been issued by the Financial Services Authority against companies in relation to failures to treat customers fairly since the implementation of the treating customers fairly initiative; on what date each such notice was issued; and if he will make a statement;
(4) against which companies fines have been levied by the Financial Services Authority for failing to treat customers fairly since the implementation of the treating customers fairly initiative; what fine was levied in each case; and if he will make a statement;
(5) how many customer redress programmes mandated as a consequence of a Financial Services Authority (FSA) assessment that a company has failed to treat customers fairly are underway; which companies are undertaking such programmes; what proportion of customers assessed by the FSA as eligible for redress under each programme have (a) made applications for and (b) received redress; how much was (i) claimed and (ii) awarded in each case; and if he will make a statement.
The matters raised in these questions are the responsibility of the Financial Services Authority, whose day-to-day operations are independent from Government control and influence.
Members: Correspondence
Receipt of the original correspondence of 10 August 2009 could not be traced. Following discussions with the hon. Member’s office on 29 October 2009, a copy was provided. A reply will be sent as soon as possible.
Taxation: Aviation
Since 1994, privately owned aircraft are exempt from APD provided they do not carry passengers for reward.
The inclusion of aviation in the EU emissions trading scheme has now been agreed for 2012. Most aircraft, including private jets, with a certified maximum take-off mass of 5.7 tonnes or greater will be required to participate in the scheme.
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Floods: West Midlands
The implementation of the Environment Agency’s River Tame Flood Risk Management Strategy will reduce flood risk to 2,850 residential and commercial properties. Capital works in other locations including Upton upon Severn at Worcester, Prestbury at Cheshire, Horsbere Brook at Gloucester, Badsey Brook at Worcester and Bedworth near Coventry are also a priority.
To ensure maintenance funding is directed to where it is needed most, a target has been introduced for high flood-risk areas. 96 per cent. of flood defence assets (including those owned by third parties) must be in a serviceable condition by the end of March 2010 in high risk areas. The Environment Agency’s maintenance budget is driven by the need to achieve this target.
Hydrochlorofluorocarbons
The UK is working closely with its EU partners to achieve an international HFC emissions reduction arrangement as one of the outcomes of the Copenhagen climate conference next month. Such an arrangement would include the fluorinated greenhouse gases used in refrigeration units. Under this arrangement, the parties to the Montreal protocol would undertake the detailed negotiation of dates by when phase-down must be achieved during their meetings next year.
River Trent: Pollution
The Environment Agency is still assessing the environmental impact of the recent discharge into the river Trent and identifying any further clean-up or restoration work required. The cost of this work is not yet known but will be calculated in due course. If a successful prosecution results from the Environment Agency’s investigation into the cause of the discharge, it will be seeking to recover some if not all of its costs from those responsible in order to minimise the cost to the public purse.
Seeds: Imports
Seedlings and transplants of the genus Fraxinus L (Ash) may be imported into the UK from any country provided that they meet the requirements of the EC Plant Health Directive (2000/29/EC). The directive requires that ash seedlings and transplants imported from a third country must be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate, to confirm that specific conditions have been met, such as freedom from certain pests and diseases, soil, plant debris, leaves, flowers and fruit. Plants are also checked at import by inspectors from the Food and Environment Research Agency (in England and Wales). When ash seedlings and transplants are introduced from another EU member state they must be from a place of production known to be free from certain pests and diseases.
If the ash seedlings and transplants are intended for forestry purposes, then the requirements of the Forest Reproductive Materials Directive 1999/105/EC would also apply. These are the responsibility of the Forestry Commission in Great Britain.
Trees: Disease Control
Seedlings and transplants of the genus Fraxinus L (Ash) may be imported into the UK only if they meet the requirements of the EC Plant Health Directive (2000/29/EC). The directive requires that ash seedlings and transplants imported from a third country must be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate, to confirm that specific conditions have been met, such as freedom from certain pests and diseases, soil, plant debris, leaves, flowers and fruit. Plants are also checked at import by inspectors from the Food and Environment Research Agency (in England and Wales). When ash seedlings and transplants are introduced from another EU member state they must be from a place of production known to be free from certain pests and diseases.
Transport
A50: Repairs and Maintenance
The concrete surface that is in place for the A50 Doveridge bypass was designed to last a minimum of 40 years. The bypass was constructed between 1996 and 1998 and is expected to last until at least 2036-38.
The condition of the bypass is monitored regularly and we do not expect the bypass to be resurfaced until it has reached its design life.
No official cost estimate has been made for the cost of resurfacing the bypass.
Air Transport Users’ Council: Finance
The Air Transport Users’ Council is not funded by the Government. It receives its funding from the Civil Aviation Authority via a specific charge which the authority makes on airlines. Its budget for 2009-10 is £750,000.
Aviation: Carbon Emissions
The inclusion of aviation in the EU emissions trading system (EU ETS) enables the aviation sector to take responsibility for its carbon dioxide emissions in the most cost-effective way. All flights departing from and arriving at EU airports will be included in the EU ETS from 2012. The EU ETS caps total emissions to a fixed limit, with operators required to surrender allowances for each reporting year to cover their total emissions. Any increase in emissions above these levels must be matched by emissions reductions elsewhere within the aviation sector or in another sector within the wider ETS. Aircraft operators will be encouraged to reduce their CO2 emissions through investment in greener aircraft technology and by developing the use of alternative fuels. In the UK, the Environment Agency will regulate the aviation EU ETS in England and Wales, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency regulating operators in Scotland and Northern Ireland respectively. Aircraft operators covered by the EU ETS must monitor their CO2 emissions from 1 January 2010 and each year have this information independently verified, then report data to their regulator.
In January of this year, the Government announced a target to bring UK aviation CO2 emissions in 2050 to below 2005 levels and has asked the Committee on Climate Change to advise on this. The committee is due to report by December 2009. Once the Government have received the committee’s advice, they will determine the best basis for taking the target forward.
The European Commission is considering the utility of different options for EU-wide measures that address aviation emissions of NOx (oxides of nitrogen). Certification standards for NOx emissions are set by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). The UK takes a leading role in this forum and expects a tightening of these standards to be agreed next year. ICAO has published guidance on emission charges related to local air quality. The Civil Aviation Act 2006 permitted such charges to be levied and the operators of Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton now impose a charge related to the certification performance of landing aircraft to incentivise the use of cleaner aircraft.
Bus Services: Hertfordshire
Between 1996-97 and 2008-09 the number of local bus passenger journeys in England increased by 20 per cent. Over the same time period the number of local bus passenger journeys in Hertfordshire increased by 15 per cent. (these should be treated with caution as data quality varies between local authorities). Figures for the St. Albans parliamentary constituency are not compiled. Year by year figures are available in the table.
The aggregation and estimation techniques used in compiling these statistics are currently under review. Figures until 2006-07 are based on an old calculation method, whereas those for 2007-08 and 2008-09 use a newer method. This is still being tested and therefore the data are provisional. Upon completion of this review data for earlier years may be revised.
(a) England (b) Hertfordshire Journeys (million) Year on year change (percentage) Journeys (million) Year on year change (percentage) 1996-97 3,844 — 27 — 1997-98 3,859 0.4 35 28 1998-99 3,808 -1.3 31 -12 1999-2000 3,804 -0.1 35 15 2000-01 3,842 1.0 35 -1 2001-02 3,881 1.0 34 -1 2002-03 3,964 2.1 31 -10 2003-04 4,087 3.1 31 -1 2004-05 4,140 1.3 30 -4 2005-06 4,196 1.3 27 -9 2006-07 4,470 6.5 29 8 2007-081 4,530 1.3 27 -9 2007-081,2 4,522 — 26 — 2008-092 4,594 1.6 31 18 1 2007-08 figures for both the old and new method of calculating passenger journeys are shown, in order to show how the growth rate between 1996-97 and 2008-09 is calculated. 2 Provisional. Note: Blank row indicates break in series.
Bus Services: Peterborough
The Department for Transport does not maintain records of how many people in local authorities are eligible for concessionary bus passes as concessionary travel is administered locally by Travel Concession Authorities (TCAs).
All older people aged 60 and over are entitled to receive a concessionary bus pass. The Department does not hold figures specifically for Peterborough constituency but work that was conducted by the Department prior to the implementation of the national bus concession suggested that as of August 2007, there were 29,894 older people eligible for a concessionary bus pass in Peterborough city council.
Dartford-Thurrock Crossing: Tolls
The eligibility criteria for the local discount scheme are that applicants should be residents of the local authorities of Dartford or Thurrock. It was decided that the Dartford and Thurrock local authorities should be eligible as these areas are most affected by the Dartford crossing. Our decision also reflected the factors which underpinned the reasons behind the previous regime, whereby a proportion of revenues from the crossing was made available to deliver integrated transport policies in the Dartford and Thurrock areas.
The Department for Transport and the Highways Agency have within the last six months received 12 representations requesting a change to these criteria.
Departmental Visits Abroad
Overnight accommodation expenditure, exceeding £500, for Department for Transport Ministers (a) are available on the Cabinet Office website:
http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/propriety_and_ethics/ministers/travel_gifts.aspx
Expenditure on overnight accommodation by Department for Transport officials (b) can be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Exhaust Systems
The United Kingdom does not have an opt-out from directive 92/97/EEC. The directive sets voluntary standards for the type approval of replacement silencers. These standards are designed to ensure access to market in EU member states where specific approval requirements for replacement silencers are imposed. The UK does not impose such approval requirements.
Integrated Transport Smartcard Organisation: Finance
The Department for Transport's records show that payments to the Integrated Transport Smartcard Organisation Ltd started in 2000 when the company was incorporated. It became ITSO Ltd. in 2004. Up to the end of the last financial year, the total payments to the organisation were as follows:
Total spend (£) exc. VAT 2000-01 25,000 2001-02 20,000 2002-03 1,104,647 2003-04 2,732,884 2004-05 345,756 2005-06 529,947 2006-07 228,158 2007-08 769,884 2008-09 130,650
The payments cover contracts for developing the ITSO specification and environment, providing technical advice, support for developing schemes, attendance at international standards meetings and annual membership fees.
In 1999, the Department awarded a contract to Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive that contributed £104,000 to a project carried out by the Integrated Transport Smartcard Organisation (prior to its incorporation as a limited company) to develop common specifications for contactless smartcard applications.
Railways: Franchises
Prior to July 2005 the Strategic Rail Authority was responsible for making decisions about payments associated with net losses of franchising operators arising from industrial action. Since then the Department for Transport has made one payment, which was in October 2006.
Roads: Safety
A key comparison between local areas has been the percentage reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured (KSIs) achieved since the 1994 to 1998 period. This measure corresponds to the headline target in the 2000 national road safety strategy.
The table shows the percentage change from the 1994 to 1998 annual average number of KSIs to the 2006 to 2008 annual average number in each of the four areas. It also shows the averages for the regions they are within:
Local authority Region LA is within Durham -23 -26 (NE region) North Yorkshire -31 -23 (YH) Swindon -25 -24 (SW) Barnet -44 -43 (London) Great Britain average -34
Speed Limits: Cameras
The Department for Transport holds only information about speed and red light cameras operating under the National Safety Camera Programme which started in 2001 and ended on 31 March 2007. The number of fixed penalty notices issued per fixed camera were not collected. Neither were details of the fines paid.
This information is not held by the Department for Transport. Since 1 April 2007 the deployment of safety cameras has been the responsibility of individual local road safety partnerships. The partnerships are responsible for the purchase, installation and operation of cameras within their areas.
This information is not held by the Department for Transport. The deployment of safety cameras is the responsibility of individual local road safety partnerships. There is no requirement for local road safety partnerships to inform the Department when they propose to introduce average speed cameras. The Department is not itself sponsoring any trials of average speed cameras in urban areas.
Sustrans: Finance
The Fallowfield Path has been funded from a number of sources including the New Opportunities Fund grant to Sustrans from the Lottery, Manchester City Council Planning and Local Transport Plan (LTP) money via the Greater Manchester Metropolitan Area funding, and Sustrans' own resources.
The Department for Transport has given no money for the maintenance of the Path over the last five years as this has been carried out by Sustrans at its own expense.
Culture, Media and Sport
Departmental Information and Communications Technology
My Department does not have any exclusivity agreements in place for (a) hardware or (b) software.
Film
I have regular discussions about matters of departmental interest with Cabinet colleagues.
As the Prime Minister announced on 16 October 2009, the Government have committed £45 million to the British Film Institute (BFI) National Film Centre to be built on London’s south bank.
Local Press: Government Assistance
I have been asked to reply
The measures the Government have taken during and following the development of the Digital Britain White Paper to help regional newspapers include:
1. An OFT review of the merger regime for newspapers. This concluded that the existing merger framework as it applies to media in general and local and regional newspapers in particular, is sufficiently robust and flexible to take into account the various considerations that need to be brought to bear;
2. An Audit Commission study of the prevalence and value for money of local authority publicity; and
3. The introduction of independently funded news consortia initially on a pilot basis in England, Wales and Scotland.
The Government are committed to a strong, viable and diverse news media in the nations, locally and in the regions. Ministers continue to welcome meetings from representatives from all parts of the press to discuss their issues at first hand.
Playing Fields
Sport England’s role as a statutory consultant on playing fields only extends to those planning applications for developments affecting existing playing fields. They are not therefore consulted on all planning applications for new playing fields and this data are not held centrally.
Sport England’s statistics for the total number of playing field consultations and outcomes since 2001 can be found on their website at:
http://www.sportengland.org
Work and Pensions
Attendance Allowance: Appeals
In order to improve and reduce the length of time for processing all cases for these customers, we have identified and submitted a small number of lead cases for tribunal hearings. We have approached the Tribunal Chair requesting staying of appeal on other “linked cases” until the lead cases are finally determined by either the First-tier Tribunal or on further appeal to the Upper Tribunal or a further appellate court, where applicable.
Around 500 customers have currently submitted appeals relating to the past presence test and/or our approach to requests for reinstatement of benefit.
Incapacity Benefit
Current forecasting models do not distinguish between different reasons for people exiting benefit.
However, historic data can be used to give an indication of the number of benefit claims that might be terminated due to death of the claimant. These indicate that approximately 5 per cent. of off-flows are due to the death of the claimant, or between 8,000 and 9,000 per year.
Jobseeker’s Allowance
I have been asked to reply.
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Jil Matheson, dated October 2009:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking how many people in Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey constituency were receiving jobseeker's allowance in each of the last 24 months. (297392)
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) compiles the number of claimants of Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) from the Jobcentre Plus administrative system. Table 1 shows the number of persons claiming JSA resident in the Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey constituency for each of the last 24 months.
National and local area estimates for many labour market statistics, including employment, unemployment and claimant count are available on the NOMIS website at:
http://www.nomisweb.co.uk
Number October 2007 720 November 2007 735 December 2007 730 January 2008 845 February 2008 885 March 2008 835 April 2008 740 May 2008 765 June 2008 735 July 2008 785 August 2008 870 September 2008 925 October 2008 985 November 2008 1,110 December 2008 1,250 January 2009 1,450 February 2009 1,700 March 2009 1,760 April 2009 1,665 May 2009 1,640 June 2009 1,645 July 2009 1,620 August 2009 1,600 September 2009 1,455 Note: Data rounded to the nearest five. Source: Jobcentreplus Administrative System
Pensioners: Winter Fuel Payments
It is estimated that the average percentage of pensioners' energy bills likely to be met by the winter fuel payment in 2009-10 in (a) the UK and (a) Scotland, are as follows:
Age 60 to 79 Age 80 and over Age 60 to 79 Age 80 and over Winter Fuel Payment amounts (£) 250 400 250 400 Percentage of annual energy bill met by the Winter Fuel Payment 24 41 23 38 (c) The information requested is not available. Additional support is available through Cold Weather Payments for regions that suffer particularly cold weather. Notes: 1. The Family Spending Survey 2008 is used to determine household expenditure on fuel by age. 2. The difference in energy bills in Scotland and the UK, is calculated by looking at the percentage difference an average household spent on energy bills in 2007. 3. The fuel and light inflation rate, published by the ONS, is used to estimate the energy bills as at September 2009. 4. The Winter Fuel Payment figures include the additional payments for 2009-10.
Social Security Benefits: Disabled
Most customers who wish to claim employment and support allowance (or incapacity benefit where there was entitlement before 27 October 2008) do so by making a phone call to a Jobcentre Plus contact centre. For customers who have difficulty making a claim by phone, a claim form can be completed instead. Face to face assistance with this is available at Jobcentre Plus offices.
When designing the employment and support allowance claim form, an external research company was commissioned to conduct research on potential customers, Jobcentre Plus advisers and intermediaries. Their findings informed the final design of the form.
In April 2007 the Department introduced a new format disability living allowance claim form for customers aged 16 to 65. Extensive consultation with customer representative groups and rigorous customer research took place during the design, development and testing of the form. The feedback did not indicate any specific concerns regarding the suitability of the form for young people (or any other age group). The new format reached the Plain English Campaign's accreditation standard and consequently attained the Crystal Mark. Subsequent improvements and refinements to the claim form have been based on feedback from customers and their representatives. The latest version was published in September 2008.
We have a regular cycle of review and a commitment to continuous improvement for claim forms.
State Retirement Pensions: Overseas Residence
The information has been placed in the Library.
Unemployed: Young People
I have been asked to reply.
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Jil Matheson, dated October 2009:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking how many young people aged between the ages of 18 and 24 years were unemployed in (a) the UK, (b) Scotland and (c) the Highlands in each of the last 24 months. (297390)
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) compiles unemployment statistics for local areas from the Annual Population Survey and its predecessor the annual Labour Force Survey (LFS) following International Labour Organisation (ILO) definitions.
Table 1 shows the number of persons aged between 18 and 24 years resident in the UK and Scotland who were unemployed for the 12 month periods ending June 2007 to the latest available period ending March 2009.
Estimates of unemployment for the requested age band are not available for the Highland local authority due to small sample sizes. As an alternative, in Table 2, we have provided the number of persons, aged between 18 and 24, claiming Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) in the Highland local authority along with UK and Scotland, from the Jobcentre Plus administrative system. For comparison purposes, the data have been provided from January 2007 to the latest available period of September 2009.
The unemployment estimate given for the UK has been compiled from the APS to be consistent with the estimate for Scotland, and will therefore differ from the headline unemployment estimates published in the Labour Market Statistical Bulletin.
The estimates in Table 1 are for a subset of the population and are therefore subject to margins of uncertainty. A guide to the quality of the estimates is given in Table 1.
National and local area estimates for many labour market statistics, including employment, unemployment and claimant count are available on the NOMIS website at:
http://www.nomisweb.co.uk
Thousand 12 months ending United Kingdom Scotland June 2007 496 40 September 2007 488 40 December 2007 485 36 March 2008 487 37 June 2008 498 37 September 2008 515 39 December 2008 557 43 March 20091 *590 **44 Note: Coefficients of Variation have been calculated for the latest period as an indication of the quality of the estimates. See Guide to Quality below. Guide to Quality: The Coefficient of Variation (CV) indicates the quality of an estimate, the smaller the CV value the higher the quality. The true value is likely to lie within +/- twice the CV—for example, for an estimate of 200 with a CV of 5 per cent. we would expect the population total to be within the range 180-220. Key Coefficient of Variation (CV) (%) Statistical Robustness * 0 ≤ CV<5 Estimates are considered precise ** 5 ≤ CV <10 Estimates are considered reasonably precise *** 10 ≤ CV <20 Estimates are considered acceptable **** CV ≥ 20 Estimates are considered too unreliable for practical purposes. Source: Annual Population Survey.
Highland Scotland United Kingdom January 2007 740 24,705 284,185 February 2007 780 25,715 294,445 March 2007 715 25,175 289,365 April 2007 620 23,525 273,300 May 2007 580 22,605 262,950 June 2007 545 21,935 251,630 July 2007 600 23,135 258,355 August 2007 570 23,400 264,020 September 2007 450 20,860 257,165 October 2007 465 19,380 242,990 November 2007 485 18,920 233,900 December 2007 525 19,245 235,210 January 2008 555 20,840 246,560 February 2008 635 22,455 260,585 March 2008 605 22,250 259,610 April 2008 510 21,520 253,030 May 2008 485 20,975 249,455 June 2008 505 21,640 249,605 July 2008 580 23,995 269,195 August 2008 570 25,765 292,715 September 2008 565 24,235 300,895 October 2008 625 24,475 302,300 November 2008 735 26,240 322,920 December 2008 795 28,140 348,015 January 2009 925 31,240 379,535 February 2009 1,115 36,335 443,200 March 2009 1,130 37,735 460,420 April 2009 1,000 37,130 460,590 May 2009 955 36,660 453,505 June 2009 945 37,650 448,735 July 2009 1,000 40,525 468,990 August 2009 975 41,765 489,630 September 2009 900 37,860 487,880 Notes: 1. Data rounded to nearest 5. 2. Age data are only available for computerised claims, which account for 99.7 per cent. of all claims. Source: Jobcentre Plus Administrative System.
Unemployment
I have been asked to reply.
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Jil Matheson, dated November 2009:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question on the number of households in (a) England, (b) the North East, (c) Tees Valley and (d) Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency which had no-one in employment in each year since 1997. (297145).
The available information is provided in the attached tables. Estimates for England and the North East are provided from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) household datasets, for the years 1997 to 2009, covering the three months to June in each year, the period at which specially designed household datasets are available.
This information is taken from the annual Statistical Bulletin titled, “Work and worklessness among households” which can be found here:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/Product.asp?vlnk=8552
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/Product.asp?vlnk=8552
Estimates for areas within the North East are not available from the LFS household datasets.
Estimates for Tees Valley & Durham and Middlesbrough South & East Cleveland have been provided from the Annual Population Survey (APS), which combines four quarters of the LFS and sample boosts, to produce an annual estimate. Estimates on this basis are available from 2004, the first year the household datasets are available, to 2008, for the calendar year January to December.
Figures for households are based on working age households. A working-age household is a household that includes at least one person of working-age, that is a woman aged 16 to 59 or a man aged 16 to 64.
Thousand April to June each year England North East 1997 2,503 180 1998 2,482 192 1999 2,396 192 2000 2,315 176 2001 2,338 182 2002 2,368 177 2003 2,330 173 2004 2,292 179 2005 2,370 173 2006 2,296 148 2007 2,482 153 2008 2,388 168 2009 2,508 186 1 A working-age household is a household that includes at least one person of working-age, that is a woman aged 16 to 59 or a man aged 16 to 64. Notes: 1. Figures have not been adjusted to include estimates for households with unknown economic activity 2. Excludes households with unknown economic activity status. Source: ONS Labour Force Survey
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
British Overseas Territories: Remembrance Day
[holding answer 2 November 2009]: The Government fully recognise the contribution and sacrifice made by citizens of the Overseas Territories during time of conflict. After careful consideration and consultation across relevant Whitehall Departments it has been decided that there should be no change to existing arrangements at the Remembrance Sunday Service.
My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary will continue to lay a wreath on behalf of all the British Overseas Territories at the Cenotaph Service on Remembrance Sunday.
Colombia: Political Prisoners
No, but we have pointed out to the Colombian authorities that those charged with crimes should have their legal rights fully respected, including to a fair trial.
Colombia: Trade Unions
The last time we made formal representations on the detention of Andres Gil was in July 2009. We have received no response to date and will make further representations accordingly.
Departmental Visits Abroad
This information is not held centrally, and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost. Travel by Ministers and civil servants is undertaken in accordance with the Ministerial Code and the Civil Service Management Code respectively.
Hakluyt
This information is not held centrally and collating it would incur disproportionate cost.
Honduras: Politics and Government
The UK strongly condemned the forcible removal of President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras. Since June 2009, the UK and our EU partners have continued to support a regional resolution and have welcomed in particular the role that President Arias of Costa Rica and the Organisation of American States have played in seeking to find a peaceful, negotiated resolution to the crisis.
The EU has issued a number of statements about the situation in Honduras (21, 25, 31 July, 7 August and 22 September 2009) which have publicly supported these processes. The EU has also applied a number of diplomatic measures, including restrictions on political level contacts with members of the de facto regime, and suspending budgetary support.
We hope that the signing by representatives of President Zelaya and the de facto Government of an accord on 30 October 2009 will lead to a return to democratic government and constitutional order in the country.
Kenya: Foreign Relations
The Government have good relations with the Government of Kenya. Our two countries are bound together by strong historic links, reinforced by a Kenyan diaspora of an estimated 130,000 in the UK. We support the Kenyan Government's political reform process and stress the importance of credible action to strengthen governance. We are one of the largest bilateral aid donors to Kenya and also have strong trade, investment, tourism and military relationships. We share common interests in tackling regional and international security issues. Kenya’s progress on political and socio-economic reform has an impact on the vitality of these relationships. That is why we are encouraging and supporting the National Accord which sets out a framework of action to address issues that threaten Kenya’s stability and prosperity. These include constitutional, electoral, police and judicial reform, while tackling the entrenched culture of impunity related to corruption and violence.
We work closely with EU partners to coordinate support and engagement with the Kenyan Government and others active in the reform process. My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary attended the EU General Affairs Council Meeting in Brussels in late July 2009 where Council Conclusions on Kenya were agreed. The conclusions highlighted the need for faster implementation of reforms vital to the interests of the Kenyan people, while acknowledging the importance of Kenya’s partnership with the EU in addressing issues of regional significance, such as piracy. With our EU partners and other like-minded countries we are continuing to support Kenya’s political reform process.
Members: Correspondence
I replied to my right hon. Friend on 29 October 2009.
Middle East: Peace Negotiations
[holding answer 2 November 2009]: From my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister down, we work closely with the Israeli and Palestinian authorities, and our international partners, to promote efforts towards a comprehensive peace in the middle east. We are also working on the ground to improve the capacity of the Palestinian Authority to provide security and services for Palestinians and to support economic growth. Both through political engagement and practical assistance we are seeking to make progress towards a two-state solution.
Passports: Embassies
The number of emergency passports issued in each country over the last five financial years is provided in the following table:
Country 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 Afghanistan 11 6 10 8 14 Albania 4 8 2 3 5 Algeria 0 2 3 6 0 Angola 1 2 9 10 13 Antigua and Barbuda 14 3 7 10 0 Argentina 3 8 4 20 6 Armenia 0 0 2 1 3 Australia 189 67 68 46 81 Austria 6 4 13 24 23 Azerbaijan 1 0 6 1 2 Bahrain 0 0 0 0 3 Bangladesh 11 13 8 12 6 Barbados 23 8 5 12 3 Belarus 1 0 3 2 0 Belgium 61 52 71 129 150 Belize 1 0 0 0 2 Bosnia and Herzegovina 16 11 7 4 0 Botswana 5 0 4 7 6 Brazil 9 21 26 20 23 Brunei 1 0 3 1 1 Bulgaria 93 108 76 87 27 Cambodia 14 5 0 3 1 Cameroon 6 8 2 5 0 Canada 149 110 114 110 116 Cayman Islands 0 0 0 2 0 Chile 1 1 5 8 48 China 44 53 37 42 46 Colombia 1 0 1 4 4 Congo (Democratic Republic) 3 0 0 0 1 Costa Rica 2 7 4 3 10 Croatia 36 34 31 24 5 Cuba 56 59 74 52 38 Cyprus 47 65 118 170 19 Czech Republic 345 64 102 34 2 Denmark 30 6 21 46 22 Dominican Republic 14 17 16 23 18 Ecuador 2 3 4 0 5 Egypt 19 29 38 32 14 Eritrea 0 0 3 2 0 Estonia 16 1 0 5 1 Ethiopia 7 6 24 26 4 Fiji 5 0 2 2 0 Finland 15 7 8 12 10 France 489 446 685 745 590 Georgia 1 0 2 3 4 Germany 304 214 308 257 273 Ghana 23 23 15 16 6 Greece 563 388 305 395 309 Grenada 11 2 6 0 0 Guatemala 26 0 6 7 0 Guyana 1 0 6 1 2 Hungary 83 57 50 21 12 Iceland 3 0 3 5 1 India 30 47 51 51 37 Indonesia 10 2 9 10 0 Iran 0 0 16 3 0 Iraq 28 17 22 0 23 Ireland 2 0 1 1 1 Israel 15 13 20 13 1 Italy 380 331 492 449 331 Jamaica 110 85 37 43 27 Japan 2 5 2 3 6 Jerusalem 9 9 11 12 9 Jordan 2 8 3 7 1 Kazakhstan 7 0 1 4 1 Kenya 17 21 13 22 16 Kuwait 3 0 1 0 0 Laos 17 0 0 0 0 Latvia 23 23 9 4 12 Lebanon 0 1 45 1 3 Libya 0 3 0 2 0 Lithuania 6 14 12 7 4 Luxembourg 9 16 12 7 9 Macedonia 2 1 8 2 2 Madagascar 10 0 0 0 0 Malawi 3 9 7 3 4 Malaysia 21 3 9 2 5 Mali 0 0 0 3 0 Malta 44 26 25 24 41 Mauritius 8 8 19 11 5 Mexico 31 31 43 22 13 Mexico 23 24 29 37 37 Moldova 6 3 0 0 2 Mongolia 0 1 0 0 0 Montenegro 0 0 0 0 8 Morocco 21 53 29 5 23 Mozambique 3 4 1 0 1 Namibia 5 0 0 3 1 Nepal 0 2 3 0 2 Netherlands 11 95 202 206 241 Nigeria 60 53 54 83 11 Norway 10 4 1 14 7 Oman 0 1 5 3 5 Pakistan 153 61 61 83 40 Panama 1 2 1 0 1 Papua New Guinea 0 0 0 1 0 Paraguay 1 0 0 0 0 Peru 8 9 30 3 2 Philippines 11 9 13 16 1 Poland 34 6 31 3 13 Portugal 518 372 495 582 643 Romania 32 8 4 14 0 Russia 32 19 5 8 13 Rwanda 0 4 2 3 2 Saudi Arabia 3 5 2 0 1 Senegal 2 8 2 7 1 Serbia 1 11 23 56 15 Seychelles 2 3 2 1 0 Sierra Leone 2 0 18 7 5 Singapore 17 17 30 34 24 Slovakia 21 46 41 19 26 Slovenia 11 5 12 18 16 Solomon Islands 0 0 1 0 1 South Africa 117 102 48 61 109 South Korea 1 2 2 1 7 Spain 4,596 4,468 5,423 6,188 5,700 Sri Lanka 12 8 24 9 22 St. Lucia 2 0 3 1 13 St. Vincent and the Grenadines 3 1 1 0 0 Sudan 3 4 12 0 1 Swaziland 4 0 0 0 0 Sweden 29 29 24 43 17 Switzerland 147 209 160 143 100 Syria 3 0 10 8 3 Tanzania 1 0 8 16 10 Thailand 318 260 341 202 105 The Bahamas 9 4 7 9 3 The Gambia 28 11 15 18 5 Trinidad and Tobago 26 9 22 19 3 Tunisia 34 14 16 4 4 Turkey 136 186 195 224 276 Turkmenistan 1 0 0 0 0 Uganda 0 1 16 4 9 Ukraine 2 4 11 10 12 United Arab Emirates 7 0 5 3 5 Uruguay 4 10 3 9 5 USA 1,430 462 482 586 751 Uzbekistan 3 2 0 0 0 Vanuatu 1 0 0 0 0 Venezuela 5 0 0 3 1 Vietnam 2 7 11 8 15 Yemen 7 0 0 7 2 Zambia 8 0 12 7 6 Zimbabwe 3 3 5 3 0 Global Total 11,485 9,212 11,138 11,956 10,806
South America
My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary and Ministers from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) regularly meet representatives of Governments of the above-mentioned Latin American countries during the duties of essential business.
Previous meetings include:
Brazil: Minister for Europe Chris Bryant in October 2009; Secretary of State David Miliband in September 2009; former Minister for Africa, Asia and the UN, Lord Mark Malloch-Brown in February 2009; former Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Gillian Merron in December 2008; former Minister of State, Kim Howells in March 2008 and May 2008.
Argentina: Minister for Europe Chris Bryant in September 2009; and former Minister for Africa, Asia and the UN, Lord Mark Malloch-Brown in February 2009.
Venezuela: Minister for Europe Chris Bryant in September 2009, and in October 2009.
Ecuador: No FCO ministerial bilateral meetings with representatives of the Ecuadorian Government during 2008 and 2009.
Chile: Minister for Europe Chris Bryant in October 2009; the Foreign Secretary in November 2008; former Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Gillian Merron in October 2008; former Minister of State, Kim Howells in March 2008 and April 2008.
Cuba: Minister for Europe Chris Bryant in October 2009; the Foreign Secretary in April 2009; former Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Gillian Merron in November 2008; former Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State Meg Munn in April 2008 and June 2008.
Bolivia: former Minister of State Kim Howells in January 2008 and May 2008.
Paraguay: former Minister of State, Kim Howells in September 2008.
Additionally, the Foreign Secretary met with all Latin American Ambassadors to London in April 2009 for a round-table discussion.
Tanzania: Overseas Investment
UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) is the Government Department, made up of staff from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Department for Business Innovation and Skills, which helps UK companies to export and attracts foreign investment into the UK.
UKTI does not promote UK investment overseas, including to Tanzania; this is the responsibility of the Tanzanian government through the Tanzanian Investment Centre and the country’s diplomatic missions. However, should they be asked to do so, UKTI staff in Dar es Salaam brief potential UK investors on the business environment in Tanzania and provide them with local business and government contacts. While these briefings do not provide specific details of previous UK investors in Tanzania, such as the Silverdale Farm case, they provide advice on issues such as local bureaucracy, regulations, licensing and taxation. They also recommend that potential investors considering going into business with a Tanzanian partner conduct thorough due diligence into their prospective local partner, and take specialist legal advice before entering into any form of partnership agreement. This information can also be found via the UKTI website:
www.ukti.gov.uk
Written Questions: Government Responses
These questions were answered on 3 November 2009, Official Report, column 935W and column 931W respectively.
I apologise for the delay in replying to these two questions.
Wales
Forensic Science Service: Chepstow
I have discussed this issue with both the Home Secretary and with the hon. Member for Newport East. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State also visited the Chepstow laboratory in September to discuss the transformation with staff there.
I can assure the hon. Member that the Government will work closely through Jobcentre Plus and others with those affected by the Forensic Science Service Transformation program to give them all the support they need at this unsettling time.
Olympics
Olympic Games 2012: Pay
The information is as follows:
(a) In order for the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) to achieve or exceed specific time and cost-based targets, incentive payments are made to its delivery partner CLM for the achievement of key performance indicators for the delivery of programme milestones and cost targets. The amounts payable to CLM in respect of performance are disclosed at note 19 to the ODA's Annual Report and Accounts 2008-09, a copy of which is available in the House Library:
£ million 2007-08 16.133 2008-09 60.180
The ODA, working with CLM, achieved significant savings of £390 million. CLM's contract is heavily incentivised and payment to them is dependent on meeting strict performance measures tied to delivering on time, to budget and to a high standard.
(b) The ODA incentivises contractors on the Olympic Park to deliver on time and on budget. Incentive payments have therefore been included as part of the contracting process. Payments to date are as follows and are included in the figures published quarterly to Parliament. The project remains on-track and on-budget.
Company Project Payable for Amount (£ million) Sir Robert McAlpine Stadium Piling and roof trusses 1.048 Balfour Beatty Aquatics Centre Completion of design procurement and erection of steel trusses 1.000 ISG Velopark Completion of piling 0.593 Carillion IBC/MPC Completion of foundations 0.165 Morrison Enabling Works Delivery of works to timetable 9.144 Nuttall Enabling works Delivery of works to timetable 10.120 Atkins Enabling Works Percentage of the incentive payment to Morrison and Nuttall 2.189
Prime Minister
Environment Protection: Work Experience
I have been asked to reply.
The Department is currently drawing up plans to deliver green work placements. A full announcement on plans to implement the programme will be made shortly.
Communities and Local Government
Community Relations
The Government have announced £12 million this financial year to help neighbourhoods feeling the pressure from recession most acutely and address the legitimate fears which, if neglected, can prove fertile territory for extremism and those who would divide our communities. Neighbourhoods have been identified by examining a range of hard and soft data around cohesion, deprivation and crime, perceived unfairness in the allocation of resources and feedback from people working locally. Although there are modest additional resources available for support specific to the individual area, the focus will be on working through mainstream government programmes operating in the target areas. The aim is for local authorities to ensure people are aware of opportunities and services and have the opportunity to influence what happens in their local area. This is one element of wider work to understand and tackle perceptions of unfairness and disaffection, reduce tensions which threaten community cohesion, and build resilience in communities to resist negative messages from extremists and far-right groups.
Community Relations: Faith Schools
The Department has commissioned no such research.
Departmental Consultants
The Department spent £322,613 (excluding VAT) on consultancy services to support establishment of the Homes and Communities Agency. The consultants used were Stanton Marris LLP, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Bridget Skelton Ltd., Turner and Townsend and Blake Lapthorn.
PricewaterhouseCoopers provided commercial expertise to support development of our interventions to prevent repossessions, in particular to inform negotiations with lenders on their forbearance policies and liaison with the money advice sector, and advise on the interface with the regulatory framework. The total cost was £1,143,883 (excluding VAT). Statistics from the Financial Services Authority show that by June 2009, over 135,000 borrowers were benefiting from forbearance offered by their lender, an increase of 74 per cent. on the previous year.
Departmental Energy
Communities and Local Government has no strategy for local authorities to encourage voltage optimisation in the estate of local authorities.
Departmental Recruitment
All civil servants in the Department provide policy advice to Ministers as necessary and regardless of job title.
According to the Department's Staff Directory, 87 staff currently have policy adviser within their job title and no staff have departmental adviser within their job title.
The information is as follows:
Homes and Communities Agency
The board appointments recruitment processes for the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) and the Tenants Service Authority (TSA) were to some extent run in combination and it is not possible to break these costs down further between the two organisations or the individual members. The total amounts spent were:
The Department hired a Human Resources expert on a consultancy basis to advise on and oversee the entire recruitment process for both the HCA and TSA chairs, board members and the TSA chief executive. The cost of this expert was £89,000. It is not possible to break down this cost further between the agencies or across the various individual appointments he was involved in.
For the recruitment of the HCA chair, the cost of hiring a recruitment agency, including advertising costs, was £58,000. The cost of engaging an independent assessor was £876.
Recruitment of board members for the HCA and the TSA was run as a joint exercise. The cost of the recruitment agency including advertising and expenses was £79,000. The cost cannot be broken down between HCA and TSA or between individual board members. The cost of engaging an independent assessor was £3,499 and again cannot be split between the HCA and TSA or between individual appointments.
National Housing and Planning Advice Unit
The total amount spent on recruitment of the Board of the National Housing and Planning Advice Unit was £94,535, of which £91,300 was incurred on recruitment agency fees, and £3,235 on engaging an Independent Appointments Assessor. It is not possible to breakdown these costs further to identify amounts which specifically related to the recruitment of individuals, as the process was conducted as a total recruitment package for a Board of five Members and one Chairperson.
Departmental Staffing
I refer the hon. Member to the answers given to him today, (PQs 297831 and 297832).
A further detailed breakdown could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Fire Services
The Department receives regular representations from fire and rescue authorities about the level of funding and support available for work carried out locally on the FiReControl project. Most recently, representations have been received from Dorset FRA, Cumbria FRA and the South West Regional Management Board.
There are no set criteria for participation by fire and rescue services in the pilot High Potential Leadership Programme. 13 fire and rescue services are participating in the pilot and are doing so on a voluntary basis.
Specific background experience, academic or vocational qualifications will not be required for eligibility to apply for the pilot programme either for existing operational and non-operational staff or for new entrants to the participating fire and rescue services.
Fire Services: Finance
Spending on fire is a devolved matter. The amount spent on fire and rescue authorities in England is a decision taken by individual authorities. The Government do not hold this information centrally.
In most cases, fire and rescue services are delivered by single-purpose authorities (combined and metropolitan county fire and rescue authorities). Formula Grant of £796.9 million was allocated to be spent on fire and rescue by these authorities in the provisional local government finance settlement for 2010-11, which the Government published at the same time as the 2009-10 settlement. The final 2010-11 settlement will be published according to the usual timetable.
In addition, £119 million of specific grants are anticipated to be made to fire and rescue authorities in 2010-11.
Decisions about Government funding from 2011-12 will be taken as part of the next spending review.
(2) how much funding (a) in total and (b) per resident was given to the fire and rescue service in (i) England, (ii) the West Midlands and (iii) Shropshire in 2008;
(3) how much funding was given to the fire and rescue service in (a) England, (b) the West Midlands and (c) Shropshire in (i) 2006 and (ii) 2007.
It is not possible to provide figures for Government funding for the fire and rescue service in England as a whole, as it is provided principally through Formula Grant, an unhypothecated block grant. In some areas, fire and rescue is the responsibility of the county council, which receives Formula Grant in respect of its services as a whole. However, figures are available for the West Midlands and Shropshire, which are both single-purpose fire and rescue authorities.
The Formula Grant distribution system takes into account the relative needs of each local authority and the relative potential income that can be provided through council tax for each local authority, relative to all other authorities providing the same services. There is also a central allocation and the floor damping mechanism.
The following includes funding from Formula Grant and specific grants:
£ 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 West Midlands 32.94 34.73 38.30 Shropshire 16.13 16.72 21.11
£ million 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 West Midlands 85.2 89.9 99.6 Shropshire 7.3 7.6 9.5
Homes and Communities Agency: Consultants
The Homes and Communities Academy has employed external consultants for the following projects:
New products and programmes
Brownfield Skills
Accelerating roll out of current programmes
National and Regional Delivery Structure
Skills Action Plan
Leadership of Place
Leaders’ Network
Endorsement Framework
Benchmark and Tool Kit
Practical knowledge to support delivery
High Profile Events
Programme Staff Costs.
Housing: Prices
Average house prices by property type and location are available from HM Land Registry. HM Land Registry data is not available for 1991 or by town or by bedroom.
Regional Planning and Development: West Midlands
The independent panel report identifies a number of districts where green belt adjustments may be required. The references to green belt are numerous and propose detailed changes to the wording of the submitted draft RSS; most of the references can be found in Chapter 8 of the report. The Secretary of State is considering the recommendations in preparing his proposed changes to the RSS.
Tenants Rights
The English Housing Survey (which is a unified successor to the English Housing Condition Survey and the Survey of English Housing) contains questions directed at private tenants about their length of tenure and reasons for ending a tenancy. Further questions will be directed to landlords as part of the related Landlords Survey. Drawing on this research Julie Rugg’s independent review of the private rented sector found that, in spite of the standard assured shorthold tenancy only having a minimum fixed period of six months, the majority of tenancies last considerably longer. The review found that 55 per cent. of tenants had been at their current address for over one year and over 21 per cent. for over five years and that only 6 per cent. of tenancies are ended early by landlords mostly because of non-payment of rent. So this research and the status of the sector as a flexible form of tenure for both tenants and landlords, would suggest there does not appear to be the need to change the legislation governing the security of tenure in the private rented sector.
International Development
Departmental Telephone Services
The Department for International Development (DFID) does not operate any helplines.
Rwanda: Overseas Aid
The Department for International Development’s (DFID) support for humanitarian action is based on an assessment of need, without regard to political or other considerations and is targeted where the threat to life is most severe, where the extent and depth of suffering is greatest and the response capacities of host communities and authorities are most limited.
In recent years Rwanda has not met these criteria to an extent that would necessitate humanitarian aid. DFID supports Rwanda through a £50 million (2009-10) aid programme which is focused on improving education, health, governance and economic growth.
Energy and Climate Change
International Co-operation
I refer my hon. Friend to the reply given by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State to my hon. Friend the Member for Tamworth (Mr. Jenkins) earlier today.
I refer my hon. Friend to the reply given by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State to my hon. Friend the Member for Tamworth (Mr. Jenkins) earlier today.
Gas Storage
National Grid’s published figures show that, this week, our storage capacity was around 99 per cent. full.
Carbon Dioxide Emissions
The UK’s carbon dioxide emissions were reduced by 2.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (MtCO2), or 0.4 per cent., between 2002 and 2007, the latest year for which we have final figures. On the basis of the provisional figure for 2008, UK CO2 emissions were reduced by 24.4 MtCO2, or 4.4 per cent., between 2003 and 2008.
Electricity Generation
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State regularly receives representations from stakeholders and members of the public regarding the contribution of onshore wind to the UK’s electricity generation capacity.
In 2008, the installed capacity of onshore wind in the UK was 2,820 MWe, the most of any renewable energy technology and enough to power 1.4 million homes. This represents more than a doubling since 2005.
Nuclear Power
Ministers and officials regularly engage with a wide range of stakeholders including industry, environmental groups and the unions. Nuclear has an important role to play in the energy mix and the Government are committed to working with industry to enable new nuclear power stations to be built. The Office for Nuclear Development (OND) aims to enable investment in the UK from the earliest possible date and with no cap on the amount of new build. It aims to build and maintain the UK as the best market in the world for companies to invest in nuclear.
Global Temperature
The Met Office Hadley Centre and Climate Research Unit deliver near-surface temperature series going back to the mid-19th century. These temperature series are almost identical to two other similar data series generated by climate centres in the U.S. and all are robust in representing global and regional temperature changes over this period.
Departmental Public Expenditure
DECC has a target to find £20 million of savings in 2010-11 as part of the £5 billion Operational Efficiency Programme (OEP). £17.5 million of this will be found from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s non-programme budgets and £2.5 million from core-DECC budgets. These targets will be met through a combination of innovation and strict control of expenditure. DECC has also contributed to the OEP work on the benchmarking of back office costs.
My noble Friend the Minister of State has been appointed as DECC’s Value for Money (VfM) Minister and as such participated in a Treasury-led seminar in the summer. DECC officials are members of the cross-government VfM Group. Additionally, a wide range of learning and development opportunities are available for officials, many of which are focused on driving VfM.
Energy Supply
The following tables show the central scenario produced by modelling carried out for the July 2009 Low Carbon Transition Plan. It should be stressed that this is one of many possible scenarios based upon a number of assumptions. There are necessarily significant uncertainties around this scenario, and a range of sensitivities could be considered. Ultimately the level of fuel demand will be determined by the market.
Million tonnes of oil equivalent 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Coal 29.4 26.9 26.9 25.6 25.6 22.7 24.6 23.1 21.0 22.7 20.3 19.1 Oil 0.8 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7 Gas 29.3 27.5 28.4 29.1 28.2 28.9 25.8 24.5 25.6 21.5 21.3 18.3
Million tonnes of oil equivalent 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Solids 35.7 33.1 33.0 31.7 31.8 28.8 30.6 29.0 26.9 28.5 26.1 24.7 Oil 80.1 80.6 81.1 81.5 81.5 81.1 80.7 80.3 79.9 79.5 79.0 78.6 Gas 89.1 85.7 85.3 85.0 83.3 83.1 79.0 76.9 76.9 71.9 70.6 66.1
The category “solids” consists of mainly coal, but includes a small amount of solid manufactured fuel.
Modelling results from the DECC Energy Model may differ slightly from the results of other DECC analysis. See for example, the analysis for the Renewable Energy Strategy which shows an illustrative mix of renewable technologies for meeting the 2020 RES target:
www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/what_we_do/uk_supply/energy_mix/renewable/res/res.aspx
The DECC energy projections published alongside the Low Carbon Transition Plan can be found at:
http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/statistics/projections/projections.aspx
The following tables show the results of the central scenario modelled for the July 2009 Low Carbon Transition Plan. It should be stressed that this is just one possible scenario based on a number of assumptions. There are necessarily significant uncertainties around this scenario, and a range of sensitivities could be considered.
Ultimately, the future generation mix will be determined by the market.
Percentage 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Coal 32 30 30 29 29 25 28 26 24 26 23 22 Oil 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 Gas 41 39 41 41 40 42 38 37 39 33 33 29 Wind 2 3 3 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 Solar 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Nuclear 16 19 16 16 16 15 12 11 8 8 7 8 Notes: 1. The percentages shown in the table are those fuels specifically referred to in the question and the shares of other sources of supply make up the balance of 100 per cent. 2. Figures are rounded to the nearest per cent.
Percentage 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Coal 16 15 15 14 14 13 14 14 13 14 13 12 Oil 35 36 37 37 37 37 37 38 38 38 38 38 Gas 39 38 38 38 38 38 37 36 36 34 34 32 Wind 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 3 3 Solar 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Nuclear 6 7 6 6 6 6 5 5 3 3 3 4 Notes: 1. Primary energy demand is measured in terms of fuel inputs and is equal to the sum of final consumption, energy industry demand, transformation demand and energy losses. 2. The percentages shown in the table are those fuels specifically referred to in the question and the shares of other sources of supply make up the balance of 100 per cent. 3. Figures are rounded to the nearest per cent.
Modelling results from the DECC Energy Model may differ slightly from the results of other DECC analysis. See for example, the analysis for the Renewable Energy Strategy which shows an illustrative mix of renewable technologies for meeting the 2020 RES—Renewable Energy Strategy—target:
www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/what_we_do/uk_supply/energy_mix/renewable/res/res.aspx
The DECC energy projections can be found at:
http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/statistics/projections/projections.aspx
Fossil Fuels
As part of the Renewable Energy Strategy, published in July this year, we provided an estimate of the potential impact of the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) levy on consumers.
The RHI subsidy costs are expected to be passed on to consumers of fossil fuels used for heat through price increases on them.
Initial work to estimate the impact of the policy, assuming all costs fall on gas prices, is summarised as follows. These numbers are based on the costs figures presented in the impact assessment which accompanied the Renewable Energy Strategy (RES). The impact assessment set out ranges which reflect different possibilities for providing support for technologies and sectors under the RHI. The upper end of these ranges is used as the central estimate in the overall RES impact assessment.
Based on these assumptions, under our lead scenario in the RES (that in 2020 12 per cent. of heat comes from renewable sources), bill increases in the domestic sector in 2020 are expected to be in the order of 16 to 23 per cent. corresponding to an average domestic bill increase of around £120 to £172.
However, the eventual cost of the RHI and its actual impact on bills will depend on a series of policy decisions which are still to be taken and external variable factors. For example, whether the support will be paid over a short or long period, how we differentiate support across the different technologies, changes in fossil fuel prices, and likely rates of return. The forthcoming consultation on the Renewable Heat Incentive, will be the next step in this process, and be accompanied by a further Regulatory Impact Assessment.
Fuel Poverty
It is difficult to reduce the carbon emissions and heating bills of park homes due to the lack of scope for key energy efficiency measures, such as cavity wall and loft insulation. Where scope does exist, such as through draught-proofing and high efficiency lights and appliances, assistance is available to park homes residents through schemes such as the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target and Warm Front.
Warm Front is currently working in partnership with a gas distributor and a local residents association to enable 61 residents of Elm Tree caravan park in Hartlepool to be connected to the mains gas network. This project meant these homes, previously utilising liquid petroleum gas, coal or forms of electric heating, reduced their likely energy bills and likely carbon consumption. The project considerably reduced the otherwise prohibitive cost that had prevented each park home individually connecting to the gas network.
Warm front will be undertaking a piloting exercise of insulation technologies for park homes. Technologies will be assessed against a variety of criteria, including cost of installation, energy savings and customer satisfaction. Details of the pilot, including the specific technology types and target areas, are currently being finalised.
The fuel poverty charity, National Energy Action, has developed expertise in addressing the problems of treating park homes. Any treatment will, however, require a coordinated response involving the park home residents' association and the site operator.
Free expert advice on practical ways to save energy in the home is also available through the Act on CO2 advice line.
Green Hydrogen
Hydrogen, unlike natural gas, is not a primary energy source. Like electricity, it is an energy carrier, which requires the use of a primary energy source for its production. Green hydrogen is hydrogen produced using low or zero carbon sources. The Department of Trade and Industry commissioned a study which reported in December 2004—A strategic framework for hydrogen energy in the UK. This examined the circumstances under which it would make sense for the UK to deploy hydrogen, including green hydrogen. It concluded that the main potential application would be as a transport fuel for use in fuel cell powered vehicles. While hydrogen might have some niche applications as a heating fuel—for example, in remote islands with no available alternative fuel and with substantial renewable energy resources—the study concluded that, in general, the energy loss associated with the production of hydrogen would not be justified where the direct conversion of primary sources to heat was feasible. The Government broadly accept that conclusion.
Natural Gas: Storage
National Grid’s published figures show that, this week, our storage capacity was around 99 per cent. full.
Wind Power
The relevant data are set out in the following table:
Number of schemes MW UK 263 3,341.7 England 117 773.3 North East 19 143.2 Tees Valley District 1 2.3 Source: AEA Technology
Wind Power: Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty
I have received a recent representation regarding a planning application for a wind farm within an area of outstanding natural beauty. I am unable to comment further on this matter as the application remains subject to the statutory planning process.
The Government's Planning Policy Statement 22 on renewable energy is clear that planning permission for renewable energy projects should be granted only where it can be demonstrated that the objectives of the designation of the area will not be compromised by the development, and that any significant adverse effects are clearly outweighed by the environmental, social and economic benefits.
Home Department
Asylum: Staffordshire
(2) how many police officers were deployed in each basic command unit of the Staffordshire police force area in (a) 1997, (b) 2001, (c) 2005 and (d) 2009 on the latest date for which figures are available.
Information on planned deployment is not collected centrally. Decisions about the number of officers, PCSOs—police community support officers—and police staff in each basic command unit and other specialist units is an operational matter for the chief constable.
The available data for the number of police officers deployed are provided in the following table. This information has been collected since April 2002.
Police force BCU 2009 2005 2001 1997 Staffordshire Chase 410 416 n/a n/a North Staffordshire 292 299 n/a n/a Stoke on Trent 547 585 n/a n/a Trent Valley 405 429 n/a n/a Central Services 557 580 n/a n/a Total 2,211 2,309 2,129 2,211 1 These figures are based on full-time equivalents that have been rounded to the nearest whole number, due to rounding there may be an apparent discrepancy between totals and the sums of constituent items. 2 Data on police strength by police basic command unit were collected centrally for the first time for the period beginning April 2002. Therefore no breakdowns by BCU are available prior to that. 3 Figures prior to 2003 are not directly comparable with figures from 2003 onwards, since figures prior to 2003 exclude staff on career breaks or maternity/paternity leave, whereas figures from 2003 onwards include them.
Burglary: Crime Prevention
[holding answer 2 November 2009]: Burglary reduction is core police business, and as such it is not possible to disaggregate what proportion of the significant investment in the police service over the past decade has been spent on this. The police and partners have experienced significant success over the past decade in bringing overall crime, including burglary, down. According to the British Crime Survey, domestic burglary has fallen by 54 per cent. since 1997.
We have provided additional support to the frontline through specific crime reduction initiatives, such as £250 million in the Crime Reduction Programme between 1999 and 2002, of which £25 million was through the Reducing Burglary Initiative. Most recently we have launched Operation Vigilance and the Safer Homes Action Against Burglary programme, which are part of a £20 million package targeting acquisitive crime such as burglary.
In addition, we are taking actions to manage offenders, including the Prolific and Priority Offender scheme, the Drug Intervention Programme and the adoption nationally of the Integrated Offender Management approach by next spring, are helping to bring down a range of crimes, including burglary.
Spending plans for the next three years are not yet finalised.
Closed Circuit Television
Between 1999 and 2003, £170 million of capital funding was made available to local authorities under the Home Office Crime Reduction programme. This resulted in 680 schemes being installed in town centres and other public places. Central funding has been spent on CCTV since 2003 through various programmes such as Communities Against Drugs, the Safer Communities Initiative and the Building Safer Communities Initiative. Central data are not held on how much has been spent or will be spent in future years on CCTV-related activity through area-based grant. ABG funding is non-ringfenced and local authorities can spend it as they see fit to support the delivery of local, regional and national priorities in their area.
Crime Prevention
[holding answer 2 November 2009]: The information is as follows:
(a) Denbighshire achieved a 22 per cent. reduction in the recorded crime British Crime Survey (BCS) Comparator during the period 2005-06 to 2007-08.
The latest published crime statistics for 2008-09 show a two per cent. increase in recorded crime BCS comparator (since 2007-08), and the Home Office Crime Team in Wales is working closely to support the Community Safety Partnership (CSP), which is very focused on tackling this increase in crime.
(b) Local partners in Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs) in England and CSPs in Wales continue to make a significant contribution to our overall progress in reducing crime.
Since 1997, crime has fallen: all crime as measured by the BCS is down 36 per cent.; domestic burglary is down 54 per cent.; all vehicle-related thefts down 57 per cent.; all household offences down 36 per cent.; all BCS violence down 41 per cent.; and all personal offences down 36 per cent.
The latest published crime statistics for 2008-09 show a seven per cent. decrease overall in recorded crime BCS comparator in England and Wales (since 2007-08).
[holding answer 2 November 2009]: The information requested is not held centrally.
Crime: Children in Care
The information requested is not collected centrally. From the recorded crime statistics collected by the Home Office it is not possible to identify either the age of the alleged offender or their individual circumstances.
Crimes of Violence: Care Homes
This information is not collected centrally.
Drugs: Arrests
The arrests collection held by the Home Office covers arrests for recorded crime (notifiable offences) only, broken down at a main offence group level, covering categories including drug offences.
Information on arrests for drug offences covering the years 2002-03 (previous years data not available) to 2007-08 (latest available) is provided in the following table. It is not possible to separately identify the number of ‘drug related’ arrests for other offence groups (such as violence against the person or sexual offences) from the information on arrests reported to the Home Office.
Arrests in Teesside and Middlesbrough south cannot be separately identified as the data reported to the Home Office are broken down by police force area level only.
Information for Scotland is a matter for the Scottish Executive and information for Northern Ireland is a matter for the Northern Ireland Office.
Area 2002-032 2003-04 2004-053 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 England 109,359 102,492 76,050 82,809 81,327 98,271 North East Region1 7,932 8,243 5,381 7,087 6,451 5,781 Cleveland police force area 1,970 1,818 — 1,470 1,130 1,211 1 The North East Region includes three police force areas; Cleveland, Durham and Northumbria. 2 Data for 2002-03 excludes Durham as they were unable to supply arrests data for that year. 3 Data for 2004-05 excludes Cleveland as they were unable to supply arrests data broken down by offence group for that year.
Entry Clearances: Religious Persons
Imams, like all Ministers of religion from other faiths, from outside the EEA who wish to preach in the UK must apply under our new points-based system. They can only do so if they have a job offer from an organisation that has been licensed by the UK Border Agency to act as a sponsor.
The Tier 2 (Minister of Religion) category requires migrants to have a high standard of English language skills. This ensures that they are able to speak to and for the religious communities that they will represent, and in particular that they are able to communicate effectively with the younger generation. The level of English required is equivalent to level B2 on the Council of Europe’s Common European Framework of Reference.
In addition, imams, as with all migrants applying for leave to enter or remain in the UK, are subject to checks against their immigration history, criminal records, and any other factors that may mean their exclusion from the UK would be conducive to the public good.
Fireworks
I have been asked to reply.
The legislation on the misuse of fireworks has been reviewed as part of implementation of the Pyrotechnics Directive due to be implemented early in 2010. Fireworks ordered over the internet are governed by the same legislation as shop sales. UK companies either deliver to a pick-up point, or to the buyer by special carrier; they are not allowed to deliver through the Royal Mail.
Forensic Science Service
[holding answer 27 October 2009]: The information is as follows:
Year ended 31 March Travel Other 2005 6,744 4,014 2006 16,886 3,291 2007 6,961 3,180 2008 6,796 4,376 2009 11,583 5,841
Since August 2007, the role of CEO has been the responsibility of the executive chairman. From this date to October 2009, the figures outlined above relate to the duties carried out to support the CEO role.
Forensic Science: Digital Technology
No information is collected centrally on the time taken by police forces or forensic service providers to process forensic evidence contained on computers and other digital media.
The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) e-crime strategy published in May 2009 includes work on the development of forensic triage, which is being taken forward by ACPO.
Gun Sports: Olympic Games 2012
[holding answer 2 November 2009]: Section 5 authorities have been issued to 13 potential competitors as identified by British Shooting.
[holding answer 2 November 2009]: The Home Office will be responding shortly to a request from British Shooting for section 5 authorities to be amended to allow holders to train with their pistols at Bisley prior to the London 2012 Olympics.
Identity Cards: Fraud
Identity cards are issued to foreign nationals after a decision has been made to grant them a period of leave to remain in the UK. No cards have been withdrawn after issue.
Immigration Controls
No sponsor licence applications have been processed without payment of the appropriate fee since the launch of the points-based system in November 2008.
The number of full-time equivalent members of staff engaged on processing sponsor applications in each of the months that the points- based system has been in operation are as follows. Separate figures for each tier are not available. Staff are deployed across the tiers as demand dictates.
Month and year Number of full-time staff March 2008 45 April 2008 45 May 2008 45 June 2008 46 July 2008 46 August 2008 49 September 2008 48 October 2008 48 November 2008 48 December 2008 84 January 2009 69 February 2009 62 March 2009 74 April 2009 60 May 2009 60 June 2009 62 July 2009 63 August 2009 63 September 2009 62
The following table show the number of sponsor licence applications received each month since the start of the scheme.
Number 2008 March 10 April 60 May 45 June 100 July 140 August 365 September 1,270 October 3,260 November 995 December 1,530 2009 January 1,680 February 1,815 March 1,695 April 1,315 May 1,155 June 1,440 July 1,295 August 930 September 1,065 Up to 19 October 545 Note: The figures quoted are not provided under National Statistics protocols and have been derived from local management information and are therefore provisional and subject to change.
The UKBA started issuing sponsor licences in May 2008. Since then a total of 37 licences have been suspended. We do not collect the data by month.
The figure quoted is not provided under National Statistics protocols and has been derived from local management information and is therefore provisional and subject to change.
Visits to sponsors began in January 2008. The available information for the period January 2008 to September 2009 is as follows:
Number of visits undertaken 2008 January 5 February 2 March 22 April 94 May 133 June 119 July 130 August 165 September 276 October 309 November 237 December 269 2009 January 347 February 341 March 533 April 387 May 301 June 204 July 275 August 363 September 313
This information is not centrally recorded and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
There were 280 students studying in the UK, whose sponsor under Tier 4 of the points-based immigration system has had their licence revoked or suspended, up to and including 16 October 2009.
Notes:
Figure is rounded to nearest five.
The figure quoted is not provided under National Statistics protocols and has been derived from local management information and is therefore provisional and subject to change.
The UK Border Agency carries out checks on users of the sponsor management system but details of any security checks undertaken is not made available for reasons of security.
Users of the sponsor management system have their access denied when their licence is revoked. The number of sponsors whose licence was revoked and the reasons for revocation are as follows:
Number July Failure to meet sponsor obligations 4 Sponsor not accredited 3 Sponsor ceased trading 1 Total 8 August Failure to meet sponsor obligations 3 Authorising officer not an employee 1 Sponsor in liquidation 1 Total 5 September Sponsor in administration 2 Sponsor in liquidation 1 Failure to meet sponsor obligations 1 Total 4 4 October Sponsor not accredited 2 Sponsor in liquidation 1 Total 3
When a prospective sponsor applies for a licence they must name those individuals who will act as the authorising officer, level 1 users and key contact. Checks are made on whether the named individuals are eligible to carry out the responsibilities of these roles. If an application is refused, it is the application for a sponsor licence that is refused.
There have been three occasions when the sponsor management system was temporarily unavailable for unscheduled periods since the system became operational.
UK Border Agency staff and external contractors are subject to a number of security checks but details of any security checks undertaken is not made available for reasons of security.
Immigration Controls: Ministers of Religion
Sponsor licences for this category were first issued in September 2008. Information for the period September 2008 to September 2009 is as follows:
Number September 2008 5 October 2008 5 November 2008 40 December 2008 70 January 2009 40 February 2009 25 March 2009 55 April 2009 30 May 2009 40 June 2009 50 July 2009 65 August 2009 45 September 2009 65 Notes: 1. Figures are rounded to nearest 5. 2. The figures quoted are not provided under National Statistics protocols and have been derived from local management information and are therefore provisional and subject to change.
Immigration: Unpaid Fines
The Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 has, since it came into force on 29 February 2008, allowed the UK Border Agency to issue civil penalties of up to £10,000 per worker to employers who are found to be liable for employing illegal migrant workers.
Internal management information shows that for the period 29 February 2008 to 19 October 2009, no civil penalties have been issued to public bodies. 3,164 penalties have been issued to employers and 1,301 have yet to be paid.
These figures do not constitute part of National Statistics as they are based on internal management information. The information has not been quality assured under National Statistics protocols, should be treated as provisional and is subject to change.
Independent Safeguarding Authority
The Vetting and Barring Scheme was established to vet all individuals who want to work or volunteer with vulnerable people. The scheme is delivered by the partnership of the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) and the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB). The Home Office leads implementation of the Scheme.
The expected running costs of (a) the ISA and (b) the total costs of the VBS in the years 2010-15, based on the most recent reports to the VBS, are set out in the following table.
ISA budget allocation VBS budget allocation (inclusive of ISA budget) 2010-11 13.1 42.8 2011-12 13.3 40.7 2012-13 13.6 43.9 2013-14 13.8 45.3 2014-15 14.3 47.1
Members: Correspondence
I wrote to my right hon. Friend on 3 November 2009.
Passports: Gibraltar
(2) how many UK passports have been issued by the Gibraltar Government in each of the last three years.
I have been asked to reply.
The issuing of passports is a matter for the Government of Gibraltar and so we recommend my hon. Friend contacts them directly.
Passports: Northern Ireland
The following figures are passport application intake for Belfast in each calendar year from 2005 to 2008 for the Identity and Passport Service.
New Renewal 2005 78,790 181,686 2006 79,035 204,669 2007 61,512 161,236 2008 52,668 159,496 Total 272,005 707,087
Police: Libya
Assistance was provided in the period between 1 November 2004 and 31 October 2009, as outlined:
2004: three police officers and one member of police staff from West Yorkshire police delivered a three-week programme on drugs investigation. This was part of a project coordinated by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime;
2008: one police officer from South Wales police delivered a two-week Major Incident Command Programme organised by the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA);
2008: two police staff members of the NPIA delivered a two-week forensic awareness training programme;
2009: two police officers (one seconded to the NPIA) from the Police Service of Northern Ireland delivered a three-week Silver Command and Control Programme.
Preventing Violent Extremism Community Leadership Fund
I have been asked to reply.
The Community Leadership Fund was launched in 2007 and the following table shows how much has been spent in each category since then:
£ Strand 2007-08 2008-09 2009-101 Capacity building 422,303.00 802,641.00 636,141.00 Supporting young people n/a 640,943.00 392,000.00 Supporting women 40,000.00 164,862.50 274,124.16 Local forums n/a 17,800.00 18,925.00 Supporting faith leaders n/a 163,430.00 285,750.00 Leadership capacity 418,247.00 n/a n/a Total 880,550.00 1,789,676.50 1,664,940.16 1Allocations for 2009-10, of which the following funding has been released so far: Capacity building—£438,835.00 Supporting young people—£151,000.00 Supporting women—£174,427.00 Local forums—£18,925.00 Supporting faith leaders—£96,050.00 Total—£879,237.00
Prostitution: Olympic Games 2012
[holding answer 19 October 2009]: No such estimate has been made at this time. However, we remain vigilant and have measures in place to deal with any potential increase in the demand for prostitution as a result of the Olympics. We are assessing intelligence on a quarterly basis through the Olympics Organised Crime Threat Assessment, which includes prostitution.
Radicalism: Internet
We do not hold statistics in relation to the spread of violent extremism on the internet—data collected on terrorism prosecutions do not differentiate between online and off-line actions and we are unable accurately to separate all web based terrorism prosecutions from other terrorism prosecutions, in which the internet may have played a part.
UK Border Agency: Contracts
The UK Border Agency currently does not directly contract with any companies employing fewer than five people for outsourced services or IT systems.
The UK Border Agency, with the rest of the Home Office, is currently participating in a Government wide exercise to benchmark corporate services under the Operational Efficiency Programme. The Government will publish this information in due course.
The UK Border Agency participates in Home Office shared services for IT, estates, payroll, and for transactional finance, procurement and HR activities.
In addition, the UK Border Agency also receives services, including IT and estates, from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for Agency staff located overseas. Following the transfer of HMRC staff to the Border Agency, shared services for IT, estates, payroll and HR transactional activities continue to be provided to those staff on a transitional basis.
The information requested could be obtained only by the detailed examination of individual records at disproportionate cost. As such this information has not been provided.
High level categories for items purchased via catalogue are:
Office Supplies
Professional and Administrative Services
Personal Protective Items/Equipment
Professional Services (Building)
UK Border Agency: Information and Communications Technology
I am unable to provide the figures for the calendar years 2008 and 2009 as the accounts operate on a fiscal financial year basis.
Vetting
[holding answer 12 October 2009]: The table details the number checks undertaken by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) which were the subject of a dispute since the launch of the disclosure service in 2002.
Information is not held to enable a breakdown of the number or percentage of disputes that relate to either the applicant or the employer.
Total number of disputes Total number of disclosures issued Percentage of disputes 2002-03 1,111 1,437,094 0.077 2003-04 1,887 2,284,688 0.082 2004-05 2,291 2,430,937 0.094 2005-06 2,379 2,770,265 0.085 2006-07 2,112 3,277,957 0.064 2007-08 2,288 3,323,251 0.068 2008-09 2,509 3,855,881 0.065 2009-10 743 1,747,710 0.042
The contents of a disclosure can be disputed for a number of reasons, such as:
The record relates to someone with the same details as the applicant and based on the information available the CRB was unable to dissociate the applicant from the record.
Where locally held information is released the applicant feels it is either inaccurate, misleading or is otherwise inaccurate in the opinion of the applicant and as a result the police agree to amend the information.
Where someone has had their identity stolen or cloned.
CRB quality assurance procedures are targeted at eliminating errors. In 2008-09, the accuracy rate for CRB Disclosures was 99.96 per cent.
[holding answer 12 October 2009]: The following table illustrates the number of applications made for standard and enhanced checks to the Criminal Records Bureau by people on List 99 since the bureau's inception in 2002.
Financial year disclosure issued1 Standard disclosure Enhanced disclosure Total List 99 matches 2002-03 3 21 24 2003-04 7 50 57 2004-05 6 47 53 2005-06 6 57 63 2006-07 7 62 69 2007-08 3 82 85 2008-09 10 112 122 2009-10 5 41 46 1 April to March.
Northern Ireland
EC Action
This is a matter for the Northern Ireland Administration.
EC Budget
This is a matter for the Northern Ireland Administration.
EC Grants and Loans
(2) how much was allocated to Northern Ireland from each EU programme in each year since 2005.
These are matters for the Northern Ireland Administration.
Defence
Afghanistan: Peacekeeping Operations
Between 7 October 2001 (the start of operations) and 1 November 2009 224 UK troops have been killed as a result of operations in Afghanistan.
Information on fatalities for the current operation in Afghanistan are published on the MOD website, and updated whenever a fatality occurs, at:
http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/FactSheets/OperationsFactsheets/OperationsInAfghanistan BritishFatalities.htm
Between 7 October 2001 (the start of operations) and 15 October 2009 (the latest date for which casualty information is available) 136 UK troops have been very seriously injured and 154 have been seriously injured.
Fatality and casualty statistics for UK military and civilian personnel in Afghanistan are routinely updated for each fortnight on the MOD website. The tables can be found at:
http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/FactSheets/OperationsFactsheets/OperationsInAfghanistan BritishCasualties.htm
Armed Forces: Deployment
The endorsed force levels for UK military operations are set out in the following table by location.
Location Endorsed number (at 26 October 2009)1 Afghanistan 29,500 Iraq 3100 At sea 41,050 Falklands/South Atlantic 1,500 Qatar 250 Cyprus 300 Kuwait 5<50 Kosovo <50 Bahrain 6150 Oman 150 Bosnia <50 Other6 100 1 Rounded to 50. 2 On 14 October 2009, my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister, announced an increase in the number of troops deployed on Operation Herrick to 9,500. This new force level will be put into effect once three conditions are met: the Afghan Government demonstrates its commitment to bring forward the Afghan troops to be trained and to fight alongside our forces; UK troops are fully equipped for the operations they are asked to undertake; and that our commitment is part of an agreed approach across the international coalition, with all countries bearing their fair share. 3 On 15 June 2009, Official Report, column 21, the Prime Minister set out for Parliament, the current number of UK military personnel we expect to remain in Iraq to conduct Navy training and Maritime support after the withdrawal of the bulk of our forces from southern Iraq and Baghdad. The UK/Iraq agreement has been ratified by the Presidency Council, and upon exchange of diplomatic notes between the UK and Iraq Governments, the UK will reinsert up to 100 personnel into Iraq to deliver its mandate. 4 Numbers at sea in support of Operations Telic and Calash. 5 In support of UK’s mandate in Iraq. 6 Small scale deployments in support of EU and UN missions, headquarters liaison officers and capacity building activities.
The precise number of personnel in each theatre fluctuates on a daily basis for a variety of reasons, including mid-tour rest and recuperation, temporary absence for training, evacuation for medical reasons, the roulement of forces, visits and a range of other factors. We do not therefore publish actual figures for personnel deployed in theatre.
Armed Forces: Families
The information is not held in the format requested and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. The Ministry of Defence provides support to service families in many ways, using both internal and external organisations. Where the MOD engages with third sector organisations several funding methods are used, including contracts, grants in aid and both funded and unfunded voluntary work. However, an estimate of the funding provided to the HIVEs, establishments providing information to service families, and the Service Families Federations for the last three years are provided in the following table.
2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 RN HIVES 259 215 238 Families Federation 145 149 185 Army HIVES 1,099 1,126 1,147 Families Federation 291 293 300 RAF HIVES 527 540 566 Families Federation 246 252 268
Armed Forces: Housing
Single living accommodation (SLA) is graded by its physical condition and ‘scale’. The best available data indicate that as at October 2009, overseas SLA was at the following grade.
Grade Number of SLA bed-spaces Percentage 1 2,278 12 2 1,399 7 3 3,860 20 4 11,403 59 Not graded 265 2
Service family accommodation (SFA) is assessed for its standard for condition (SfC), a measure of the physical condition of a property. As at October 2009, overseas SFA was at the following SfC.
SfC Number of SFA properties Percentage S1fC 4,390 29 S2fC 3,930 26 S3fC 4,152 27 S4fC 2,848 18 Not yet assessed 99 Less than 1
A new condition survey of service family accommodation (SFA) properties in England and Wales is currently being undertaken and is due to be completed by April 2010. Of those properties surveyed, at October 2009 the following are at each standard for condition (SfC):
SfC Number of properties Percentage S1fC 12,412 37 S2fC 19,825 59 S3fC 1,191 4 S4fC 217 Less than 1
Similar surveys of SFA in Scotland and Northern Ireland (NI) will be earned out in due course. At present no SfC data are available for NI SFA, however current data for Scotland SFA are as follows:
SfC Number of properties Percentage S1fC 3,134 97 S2fC 93 3 S3fC 1 Less than 1
Single living accommodation (SLA) is graded for its physical condition and ‘scale’. As at December 2008, the latest date for which data is available, UK SLA was at the following grade:
Grade Number of SLA bed-spaces As a percentage 1 34,933 25 2 19,498 14 3 22,101 16 4 60,745 45
Modern Housing Solutions (MHS) is responsible for the repair and maintenance of some 44,000 service family accommodation properties in England and Wales, attending 200,000 response repair jobs each year.
The following table details the number of complaints received regarding the maintenance and repair in each month in 2009 for which figures are available:
Month Complaints January 534 February 465 March 497 April 532 May 480 June 497 July 573 August 518 September 584
Armed Forces: Training
The figures requested are provided in the following tables.
Division Unit Required strength Actual strength Number fit for task Guards 1 Grenadier Guards 632 586 525 1 Coldstream Guards 626 606 522 1 Scots Guards 753 665 580 1 Irish Guards 633 629 554 1 Welsh Guards 626 608 508 SCOTS 1 SCOTS 630 556 461 2 SCOTS 627 518 455 3 SCOTS 630 625 535 4 SCOTS 686 584 528 5 SCOTS 657 542 492 Queens 1 Princess of Wales Royal Regiment 755 722 655 2 Princess of Wales Royal Regiment 671 600 553 1 Royal Regt Fusiliers 660 573 491 2 Royal Regt Fusiliers 626 548 472 1 Royal Anglian 713 734 673 2 Royal Anglian 629 628 565 Kings 1 LANCS 757 721 635 2 LANCS 612 622 582 1 YORKS incl. Gurkha Reinforcement Company 3 686 605 533 2 YORKS 623 493 393 3 YORKS 751 608 539 Prince of Wales 1 Mercian incl. Gurkha Reinforcement Company 1 731 648 622 2 Mercian 623 614 526 3 Mercian 678 606 540 1 Royal Welsh 623 611 559 2 Royal Welsh 751 687 579 RIFLES 1 RIFLES 623 712 614 2 RIFLES 623 730 611 3 RIFLES 623 662 580 4 RIFLES 711 752 662 5 R1FLES 752 770 679 Royal Irish 1 Royal Irish 650 586 531 PARA 2 PARA 650 624 545 3 PARA 650 625 547 Royal Gurkha Rifles 1 Royal Gurkha Rifles 643 619 594 2 Royal Gurkha Rifles incl. Gurkha Reinforcement Company 2 758 658 620
In addition to the battalions shown above there are three incremental Guards companies which are primarily for public duties but which can also be used to augment the other Guards battalions. This information is provided in the following table.
Unit Required strength Actual strength Number fit for task Nijmegen Coy Grenadier Guards 108 107 96 7 Coy Coldstream Guards 108 97 92 F Coy Scots Guards 110 106 92
The figures in both tables include personnel filling all roles within each battalion, not just infantrymen.
“Required strength” has been interpreted as the maximum number of posts in a battalion’s peace time configuration.
“Actual strength” has been interpreted as the number of personnel assigned to a battalion for its planned duties. It will also include augmentees who are temporarily assigned if needed to support the role of the battalion, for operational military tasks and events that cannot be achieved within required strengths. Similarly, the figures exclude those assigned out of the battalion to augment other units.
“Fit for task” has been interpreted as fit to deploy for any form of duty on deployment, including personnel listed as having limited deployability. The difference between the actual strength and number fit for task represents those who are non-deployable because they are non-available for a combat role or non-effective (for example, due to medical reasons).
Army: Marines
For the British Army, the Defence Analytical Services and Advice (DASA) organisation produce these figures yearly in the UK Defence Statistics Publication—Chapter 4 Formations, Vessels, Aircraft and Vehicles of the Armed Forces, table 4.2, which is available on the DASA website at the following address:
http://www.dasa.mod.uk/modintranet/UKDS/UKDS2009/c4/table402.html
For your convenience, UKDS table 4.2 is shown as follows:
Table 4.2: Number of regiments, infantry battalions and major headquarters, in the Regular and Territorial Army, at 1 April each year 1990 1997 2003 2004 2005 20061 2007 2008 2009 Combat arms Armour Regular Army Regiments 19 11 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 Territorial Army Regiments 5 6 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 Infantry Regular Army Battalions 55 40 40 40 40 36 36 36 36 Territorial Army Battalions 41 33 15 15 15 15 14 14 14 Home Service Forces Battalions 11 7 4 4 4 — — — — Special Forces Regular Army2 Regiments 1 1 * * * * * * * Territorial Army2 Regiments 2 2 * * * * * * * Aviation Regular Army3 Regiments 4 5 * * * * * * * Territorial Army3 Regiments n/a 1 * * * * * * * Combat support Artillery Regular Army4 Regiments 22 15 15 14 14 14 14 14 14 Territorial Army5 Regiments 7 6 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 Engineers Regular Army Regiments 13 10 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 Territorial Army Regiments 8 9 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 Signals Regular Army Regiments 13 11 12 11 11 11 12 12 12 Territorial Army Regiments 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 65 Combat service support Equipment support Regular Army Battalions n/a 6 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 Territorial Army Battalions n/a 5 4 4 4 4 4 72 2 Logistics Regular Army Regiments n/a 24 21 21 22 17 17 17 17 Territorial Army Regiments n/a 19 17 17 17 15 17 17 17 Medical Regiments/Field Hospitals8 Regular Army Number 16 12 8 8 8 11 8 8 8 Territorial Army Number 17 18 15 15 15 13 13 13 13 Corps, Division and Brigade HQ9 NATO Corps HQ n/a n/a 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Division/District HQ Deployable n/a n/a 2 2 2 2 2 2 102 Non-deployable n/a n/a 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 Brigade HQ Deployable n/a n/a 9 9 9 8 8 7 7 Non-deployable n/a n/a 13 13 13 10 9 9 9 1 The numbers for 2006 reflect the Army’s implementation of the Future Army Structure (FAS), announced on 16 December 2004. 2 From 1 April 2000 these units form part of Direct Special Forces. See Table 4.4. 3 From 1 April 2000 these units form part of the Joint Helicopter Command. See Table 4.4. 4 Excludes 14th Regiment Royal Artillery. 5 Includes the Honourable Artillery Company. 6 As a result of Planning Round 2009, six R Signals Regts (V) were removed from the force structure. 7 Restructuring of royal electrical and mechanical engineers was announced in 2008. 8 Field ambulance structures have been subsumed into the Medical Regiment concept as part of structural changes across the medical services. Field ambulances still exist in the Territorial Army. 9 Does not include temporary structures such as six Division HQ or 11 Light Brigade. 10 There are three divisional HQs this year. Only two are complete divisions; a third, six division HQ, was created for a specific operational task, and will then fold. Source: MOD Resources and Plans.
The Royal Marines has one regiment—Commando Logistics Regiment, and no battalions.
Further information on the Royal Marines structure is available on the Royal Navy website at the following address:
http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/royalmarines/units-and-deployments/3-commando-brigade/
BAE Systems
(2) what visits he has made to BAE factories in the last three months.
I have not visited any BAE Systems sites in the last three months. I met Ian King, chief executive officer of BAE Systems on 17 June 2009, to discuss defence procurement matters.
My predecessor held the following discussions with BAE Systems representatives, and also visited their Barrow site on 24 March and Warton and Samlesbury sites on 8 April.
Name Position 6 November 2008 Ian King Chief Executive Officer BAE 22 January 2009 Murray Easton Managing Director Barrow-in-Furness Shipyard 23 January 2009 Alison Russell-Stevenson Head of Communications BAE Systems Submarines 22 April 2009 Murray Easton Managing Director Barrow-in-Furness Shipyard
Ian King also attended meetings of the National Defence Industries Council chaired by my predecessor on 25 February and 3 June 2009.
Civil Contingency Reaction Force
£1.8 million per year was allocated to the Civil Contingency Reaction Force between 2002 and March 2009 to fund role—specific training. The Civil Contingency Reaction Force was never mobilised, primarily because regular forces have been able to respond to crises in a shorter timescale, and its role has therefore now been discontinued. A framework of Joint Regional Liaison Officers and Brigade Reinforcement Teams continues to ensure effective liaison between regional army headquarters, local authorities and the emergency services.
Colombia: Armed Forces
I refer my hon. Friend to the answer given on 12 March 2009, Official Report, column 621W, by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to the hon. Member for Aylesbury (Mr. Lidington).
Departmental Official Visits
I visited the following Royal Navy ships in the last six months:
Date Royal Navy ship 18 May 2009 HMS Victorious SSBN 9 July 2009 HMS Illustrious Aircraft Carrier 24 October 2009 HMS Portland T23 Frigate 24 October 2009 HMS Vengeance SSBN
Departmental Telephone Services
There are no current plans to accredit helplines with any organisation. Should there be a business need to do so, we will consider the merits of all organisations, including the Helplines Association, that offer accreditation.
Members: Correspondence
It is MOD’s aim to procure equipment, including printers, with sustainable development aims firmly in mind. The MOD is rolling out a single Defence-wide information technology infrastructure called the Defence Information Infrastructure (DII) to some 2,000 sites worldwide. As DII rolls out, it is providing printers that automatically facilitate two-sided printing by default. This encourages two-sided printing at all times when appropriate, and reduces the amount of paper used. However, there are of course occasions when two-sided printing is not appropriate for the task.
On the issue of ministerial correspondence, I have considered the possibility of using two-sided printing, and have concluded that in this particular process, the probability of more wastage is likely to outweigh the benefit.
Somalia: Piracy
Since January 2009 the Royal Navy has seized, and where appropriate disposed of, a total of 25 weapons (19 assault rifles, three rocket propelled grenades and three pistols), a quantity of ammunition, five ladders, several grappling hooks, numerous fuel barrels and four skiffs.
South America: Foreign Relations
The Minister for the Armed Forces met with the Brazilian Minister for Long Term Planning on 18 March 2008. He met to discuss defence relations and other topics with the Colombian ambassador on 20 July 2009, and he met with Brazilian Government representatives during his visit to Brazil from 2-4 September 2009. The Minister for International Defence and Security met with a delegation from Chile, headed by the Chilean Under-Secretary of Defence for the Chilean Air Force, on 7 July 2009; she also hosted a dinner in the evening.
Territorial Army: Training
As the Secretary of State for Defence announced on 28 October 2009, Official Report, column 354, £20 million has been found from the Treasury to ensure that the full range of normal training activities, including drill nights, can now continue for TA members.
Trident
[holding answer 3 November 2009]: Work on the Concept Phase for the future deterrent programme is progressing well. The Defence Board will be considering this work later this year. As we have previously said, we will update Parliament after the Concept Phase has been completed. We are currently planning on an In Service Date of 2024.
Health
Cancer
We have made no such response. To help primary care trusts (PCTs) improve the quality of their decision-making on the funding of drugs and treatments, including off-label treatments, where there is no positive National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidance, we have commissioned a number of measures to support the introduction of improved local processes:
a set of public-facing principles to inform PCT decision-making was published in January 2009 available at:
www.npc.co.uk/policy/local/guiding_principles.htm
a set of Directions to PCTs making explicit their public law responsibilities for putting in place processes for making decisions on new drugs and treatments, came into force on 1 April 2009 available at:
www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsLegislation/DH_096067
a handbook of good practice guidance for the national health service was published in March 2009, covering both funding policies on new drugs and processes for considering individual funding requests available at:
www.npc.co.uk/policy/local/constitution_handbook.htm
and
strategic health authorities have been asked to review the way in which PCTs in their area collaborate to support effective decision-making on new drugs.
In addition, the National Prescribing Centre has embarked on a major programme of work to provide support and a bespoke and continuing training package for key PCT staff, to help ensure that local processes are able to develop in the way we want.
Cancer: Consultants
Medical and clinical oncology staff numbers within England and the North East Strategic Health Authority (SHA) from 1997-2008 are shown in the following table.
Data for the two primary care trusts (PCTs) and one NHS trust, which make up the Middlesbrough, South and East Cleveland constituency are also shown as far back as numbers are available.
Data are not collected by general geographical area, only by administrative entities (PCTs/trusts/special health authorities) and SHA area, therefore it is not possible to give numbers for Tees Valley.
Headcount 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 England All staff 918 1,003 1,073 1,115 1,211 1,289 1,399 1,524 1,572 1,653 1,669 1,776 of which: Consultants 376 401 415 440 480 500 549 593 653 715 731 768 North East SHA All staff 49 47 52 55 58 64 66 66 72 70 73 73 of which: Consultants 23 22 24 27 32 31 32 32 41 42 36 40 Middlesbrough PCT1 All staff n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 of which: Consultants n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Redcar and Cleveland PCT1 All staff n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 of which: Consultants n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 South Tees Hospitals NHS Trust2 All staff 3— 3— 3— 3— 3— 10 15 14 18 17 15 15 of which: Consultants 3— 3— 3— 3— 3— 6 8 8 12 12 8 11 n/a = Not applicable 1 These PCTs were created in 2002. 2 This organisation was created in 2002. It was created from two organisations, one of which merged only in part; due to this part merger equivalent data for years prior to 2002 are not available. 3 Not available. Source: The Information Centre for Health and Social Care Medical and Dental Workforce Census
Cancer: Death
The following table shows 2008-09 primary care trust scores for the Care Quality Commission’s ‘Reduction in cancer mortality rate in people age under 75’ indicator.
The definitions used by the Care Quality Commission to determine the scores for this indicator are:
Achieved = Performance consistent with plan;
Underachieved = Performance poorer than plan;
Failed = Performance poorer than plan by a clear margin (two standard deviations).
Trust name 2008-09 trust scores Ashton, Leigh and Wigan Primary Care Trust Achieved Barking and Dagenham Primary Care Trust Achieved Barnet Primary Care Trust Achieved Bedfordshire Primary Care Trust Achieved Berkshire East Primary Care Trust Achieved Berkshire West Primary Care Trust Achieved Bexley Care Trust Achieved Birmingham East and North Primary Care Trust Achieved Blackburn with Darwen Primary Care Trust Achieved Blackpool Primary Care Trust Achieved Bradford and Airedale Teaching Primary Care Trust Achieved Brent Teaching Primary Care Trust Achieved Bristol Primary Care Trust Achieved Bromley Primary Care Trust Achieved Buckinghamshire Primary Care Trust Achieved Calderdale Primary Care Trust Achieved Cambridgeshire Primary Care Trust Achieved Central and Eastern Cheshire Primary Care Trust Achieved Central Lancashire Primary Care Trust Achieved City and Hackney Teaching Primary Care Trust Achieved Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Primary Care Trust Achieved County Durham Primary Care Trust Achieved Coventry Teaching Primary Care Trust Achieved Croydon Primary Care Trust Achieved Cumbria Teaching Primary Care Trust Achieved Darlington Primary Care Trust Achieved Derbyshire County Primary Care Trust Achieved Devon Primary Care Trust Achieved Doncaster Primary Care Trust Achieved Dorset Primary Care Trust Achieved Dudley Primary Care Trust Achieved East and North Hertfordshire Primary Care Trust Achieved East Lancashire Teaching Primary Care Trust Achieved East Riding of Yorkshire Primary Care Trust Achieved East Sussex Downs and Weald Primary Care Trust Achieved Eastern and Coastal Kent Primary Care Trust Achieved Enfield Primary Care Trust Achieved Gateshead Primary Care Trust Achieved Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust Achieved Great Yarmouth and Waveney Primary Care Trust Achieved Greenwich Teaching Primary Care Trust Achieved Halton and St. Helens Primary Care Trust Achieved Hammersmith and Fulham Primary Care Trust Achieved Hampshire Primary Care Trust Achieved Harrow Primary Care Trust Achieved Heart of Birmingham Teaching Primary Care Trust Achieved Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Primary Care Trust Achieved Hillingdon Primary Care Trust Achieved Hounslow Primary Care Trust Achieved Hull Teaching Primary Care Trust Achieved Islington Primary Care Trust Achieved Kensington and Chelsea Primary Care Trust Achieved Kingston Primary Care Trust Achieved Kirklees Primary Care Trust Achieved Knowsley Primary Care Trust Achieved Leeds Primary Care Trust Achieved Leicestershire County and Rutland Primary Care Trust Achieved Lewisham Primary Care Trust Achieved Luton Primary Care Trust Achieved Manchester Primary Care Trust Achieved Medway Primary Care Trust Achieved Mid Essex Primary Care Trust Achieved Milton Keynes Primary Care Trust Achieved Newcastle Primary Care Trust Achieved Newham Primary Care Trust Achieved Norfolk Primary Care Trust Achieved North East Essex Primary Care Trust Achieved North East Lincolnshire Care Trust Plus Achieved North Lancashire Teaching Primary Care Trust Achieved North Lincolnshire Primary Care Trust Achieved North Somerset Primary Care Trust Achieved North Staffordshire Primary Care Trust Achieved North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust Achieved Northumberland Care Trust Achieved Nottingham City Primary Care Trust Achieved Nottinghamshire County Teaching Primary Care Trust Achieved Oldham Primary Care Trust Achieved Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust Achieved Peterborough Primary Care Trust Achieved Plymouth Teaching Primary Care Trust Achieved Redbridge Primary Care Trust Achieved Redcar and Cleveland Primary Care trust Achieved Richmond and Twickenham Primary Care Trust Achieved Rotherham Primary Care Trust Achieved Sandwell Primary Care Trust Achieved Sefton Primary Care Trust Achieved Sheffield Primary Care Trust Achieved Solihull Care Trust Achieved South Birmingham Primary Care Trust Achieved South Staffordshire Primary Care Trust Achieved South Tyneside Primary Care Trust Achieved Southampton City Primary Care Trust Achieved Stockport Primary Care Trust Achieved Suffolk Primary Care Trust Achieved Sutton and Merton Primary Care Trust Achieved Swindon Primary Care Trust Achieved Telford and Wrekin Primary Care Trust Achieved Torbay Care Trust Achieved Wakefield District Primary Care Trust Achieved Waltham Forest Primary Care Trust Achieved West Essex Primary Care Trust Achieved West Hertfordshire Primary Care Trust Achieved West Kent Primary Care Trust Achieved Westminster Primary Care Trust Achieved Wirral Primary Care Trust Achieved Wolverhampton City Primary Care Trust Achieved Barnsley Primary Care Trust Underachieved Bassetlaw Primary Care Trust Underachieved Bath and North East Somerset Primary Care Trust Underachieved Bournemouth and Poole Teaching Primary Care trust Underachieved Camden Primary Care Trust Underachieved Derby City Primary Care Trust Underachieved Hartlepool Primary Care Trust Underachieved Hastings and Rother Primary Care Trust Underachieved Havering Primary Care Trust Underachieved Herefordshire Primary Care Trust Underachieved Isle of Wight NHS Primary Care Trust Underachieved Middlesbrough Primary Care Trust Underachieved North Tyneside Primary Care Trust Underachieved Northamptonshire Teaching Primary Care Trust Underachieved Salford Primary Care Trust Underachieved Somerset Primary Care Trust Underachieved South East Essex Primary Care Trust Underachieved Southwark Primary Care Trust Underachieved Stockton-on-Tees Teaching Primary Care Trust Underachieved Stoke on Trent Primary Care Trust Underachieved Sunderland Teaching Primary Care Trust Underachieved Surrey Primary Care Trust Underachieved Walsall Teaching Primary Care Trust Underachieved Warrington Primary Care Trust Underachieved West Sussex Primary Care Trust Underachieved Western Cheshire Primary Care Trust Underachieved Worcestershire Primary Care Trust Underachieved Bolton Primary Care Trust Failed Brighton and Hove City Primary Care Trust Failed Bury Primary Care Trust Failed Ealing Primary Care Trust Failed Haringey Teaching Primary Care Trust Failed Lambeth Primary Care Trust Failed Leicester City Primary Care Trust Failed Lincolnshire Teaching Primary Care Trust Failed Liverpool Primary Care Trust Failed Portsmouth City Teaching Primary Care Trust Failed Shropshire County Primary Care Trust Failed South Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust Failed South West Essex Primary Care Trust Failed Tameside and Glossop Primary Care trust Failed Tower Hamlets Primary Care Trust Failed Trafford Primary Care Trust Failed Wandsworth Primary Care Trust Failed Warwickshire Primary Care Trust Failed Wiltshire Primary Care Trust Failed
Cancer: Drugs
Strategic health authorities are working with their primary care trusts to support collaborative commissioning in their areas. Guidance on collaborative approaches to decision-making is also included in “Supporting rational local decision-making about medicines (and treatments): A handbook of good practice guidance” available at:
www.npc.co.uk/policy/local/constitution_handbook.htm
and this references the example of the North East cancer drugs group.
The Department’s guidance on NHS patients who wish to pay for additional private care, published in March 2009, emphasised the importance of providing high quality written information to patients who wish to pay for additional private care. A copy has already been placed in the Library. The guidance makes clear that patients should be given full information about the potential benefits, risks, burdens and side effects of any treatment before being asked to consent to treatment.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
The Medical Research Council (MRC) is one of the main agencies through which the Government support medical and clinical research. The MRC is an independent body which receives its grant in aid from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
The MRC's total expenditure on chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) research amounted to £730,000 in 2008-09.
Over the 10 years to 2008-09, a large part of the Department's total expenditure on health research was devolved to and managed by national health service organisations. Details of individual NHS supported research projects undertaken during that time, including a number concerned with CFS/ME, are available on the archived national research register at:
https://portal.nihr.ac.uk/Pages/NRRArchiveSearch.aspx.
(2) what recent discussions his Department has had with officials from myalgic encephalomyelitis charities and campaign groups on proposals to make myalgic encephalomyelitis a notifiable illness in schools.
We have no plans to make chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) a notifiable illness in schools.
Since 2007, the Department has received a large number of requests from many organisations, including CFS/ME stakeholders, campaigning for their disease or condition to be recognised as a notifiable disease. The Department's position remains that this classification should be used only for a relatively small number of infectious diseases where monitoring is required to identify sources of infection, and not as a means for collecting statistical information on the prevalence of specific conditions.
Commissioning Support Appraisals Service
(2) what the cost to the public purse of the Commissioning Support Appraisals Service has been since its inception;
(3) on what date (a) Ministers and (b) officials of his Department were first informed of the operations within the NHS of the Commissioning Support Appraisals Service; and if he will make a statement;
(4) what representations he has received on the operation of the Commissioning Support Appraisals Service; and if he will make a statement;
(5) what involvement his Department had in the establishment of the Commissioning Support Appraisals Service in the NHS;
(6) what meetings (a) Ministers and officials of his Department and (b) officials of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence have had with the Commissioning Support Appraisals Service.
The Department had no involvement in the establishment of the Commissioning Support Appraisals Service. Ministers and officials became aware of its operation in October 2009.
No information is held centrally on the cost of the Commissioning Support Appraisals Service. We understand that it receives its funding from participating national health service organisations. No assessment of its operation has been made by the Department.
No representations have been received and there have been no meetings between Ministers or officials and representatives of the Commissioning Support Appraisals Service. Meetings with the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence are a matter for the institute.
A copy of the Department’s statement to the Daily Mail has been placed in the Library.
Community Nurses: Manpower
The numbers of community nurses working as district nurses, health visitors and general practice nurses at 30 September 2008, the latest date for which figures are available, are shown in the following table:
Community nurses as at 30 September 2008 Headcount District Nurses 10,446 Health Visitors 11,190 Practice Nurses 22,048 Source: The NHS Information Centre for Health and Social Care Non-Medical Workforce Census.
Cosmetics: Health Hazards
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) deals with skin-whitening products that contain cortico-steroids as this makes such a product a medicine by definition and therefore subject to the controls of the Medicines Act 1968 and associated legislation.
Hydroquinone and mercuric iodide in skin-whitening products are controlled under Cosmetics (Safety) Regulations 2008, as amended, which is the jurisdiction of Trading Standards. Kojic acid is not controlled by medicines legislation or cosmetics legislation and therefore does not fall under the jurisdiction of the MHRA or Trading Standards.
Since 2008, the MHRA has conducted 16 visits often with Trading Standards to retail outlets in the United Kingdom, which have resulted in the removal and seizure of hundreds of illegal skin-whitening creams to a value in excess of £65,000.
In addition, since 2006, the MHRA has conducted six successful prosecutions, five of which have been jointly with Trading Standards. This has resulted in suspended prison sentences and fines to the value of £247,400 for breaches of the Medicines Act, the Cosmetics Product (Safety) Regulations and Consumer Protection Act. There are two further joint prosecutions currently under way.
None. The Department has not commissioned research into the effects of skin-whitening products on human health.
Information on hospital admissions following the use of skin-whitening products is not collected centrally.
Dental Services: St Albans
Information is not available in the format requested.
However, expenditure on primary dental care services in West Hertfordshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) 2006-07 to 2008-09 is as follows:
Financial year Expenditure type Gross expenditure Dental charges paid by patients Net expenditure 2006-07 actual 24,697 4,889 19,808 At 2008-09 prices 26,034 5,154 20,880 2007-08 actual 26,307 5,755 20,552 At 2008-09 prices 26,952 5,896 21,056 2008-09 actual 30,813 5,352 25,461 Notes: 1. As the data reflect the contract framework for primary dental care services introduced from 1 April 2006, they include all relevant service costs, and are based on the PCT areas introduced from 1 October 2006, they are not directly comparable with the available pre-2006 data. 2. Actual expenditure figures have been converted into 2008-09 prices using the gross domestic product deflator index as at 29 September 2009. Source: Calculated from details of gross primary dental care expenditure, and income from dental charges, recorded in the notes to the PCT’s accounts.
Drugs
My right hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull, West and Hessle (Alan Johnson), the then Secretary of State for Health, asked Professor Mike Richards to take this work forward. Good progress is being made and Professor Richards expects to report to Ministers in early 2010.
Drugs: Side Effects
For both generic and branded medicines the composition, with respect to the primary active ingredient and any other ingredients which may have a pharmacological effect is declared on product labelling together with any appropriate warnings. The patient leaflet included in the packaging will also declare all ingredients in the composition and repeat any warnings necessary.
A full qualitative composition including all ingredients in the medicine is given in the patient leaflet and in the prescribers data sheet, otherwise know as a Summary of Product Characteristics, together with a description of any adverse reactions which have been observed with the medicine and others which may possibly occur. These reference documents for branded medicines are available in published compendia in book form and online.
Because generic medicines are licensed as therapeutically equivalent to the original branded versions then the risks of adverse reactions caused by the active ingredient should be the same.
General Practitioners: St Albans
Information is not held in the format requested.
The St. Albans constituency is contained within and serviced by West Hertfordshire Primary Care Trust (PCT). At 30 September 2008 there were 360 general practitioners within this PCT.
Health Services: Reciprocal Arrangements
The Department considers it important that all of the United Kingdom's bilateral health agreements with other countries are evidence based, continue to be relevant and represent value for money for the British taxpayer.
The Department ended the bilateral agreement with the Channel Islands (including Jersey and Guernsey) and gave notice on the agreement with the Isle of Man, as it considers that they are out of place considering the wide availability of travel insurance, and there is little robust data to justify the business case and value for money for the national health service. The agreement with the Channel Islands ended on 31 March 2009 and the agreement with the Isle of Man will terminate on 31 March 2010. Following the end of these agreements, the UK will no longer provide allocations to fund referrals to the UK. Visitors from these islands will be subject to the same NHS charging regulations as all other overseas visitors, so they are advised to have travel insurance when visiting the UK to avoid incurring health care costs. Following termination of these agreements, UK travellers to the islands are also advised to have travel insurance.
Health Services: Yorkshire and the Humber
The following table shows the amounts spent by North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust (PCT), South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and York Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust on healthcare in each of the last three years.
2008-09 2007-08 2006-07 North Yorkshire and York PCT 1,046,418 989,278 976,675 York Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust n/a n/a 180,536 South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 417,778 384,063 358,292 Notes: 1. The figures provided for the PCT represent the total expenditure on the purchase of healthcare from providers for its own resident population (with the exception of dental and ophthalmic services where there is no need for PCTs to distinguish between spend on residents or non-residents). The figures include healthcare commissioned from the PCT’s own provider function. 2. National health service trusts are not funded directly by the Department. Money voted to the Department by Parliament is allocated to PCTs who act as commissioners to ensure that the health needs of their local populations are addressed. 3. NHS trusts are not required to disclose separately their spend on healthcare and non-healthcare items in their summarisation schedules or accounts. The data provided are the trusts’ total operating expenses. Source: Audited summarisation schedules.
Health: Screening
A copy of the Central Office of Information research management summary has been placed in the Library.
Influenza
General practices will receive an additional payment of £5.25 for each dose of swine flu vaccine they administer to patients in the clinically at-risk priority groups announced by the Department’s chief medical officer on 13 August 2009. In addition, NHS Employers, on behalf of the Government, are discussing with the British Medical Association’s General Practitioners Committee arrangements for supporting practices in the event of there being a significant increase in the number of patients suffering from swine influenza.
Influenza: Herefordshire
As of 2 November 2009 6.2 million doses of H1N1 vaccine have been delivered into the Department’s central warehouse. This vaccine is in the process of being delivered to trusts and general practitioner (GP) surgeries. So far, 17,100 doses have been sent to locations within Herefordshire Primary Care Trust. The remainder of scheduled deliveries will be completed in November.
Vaccine manufacturers have advised the Department that 15.3 million doses of seasonal influenza vaccine are available in the United Kingdom for the 2009-10 influenza season. Seasonal influenza vaccine is ordered by GP practices direct from the manufacturers. The Department is not involved in the ordering process and does not have information about amounts ordered for particular localities. Seasonal influenza vaccine is distributed from mid-September onwards, with most GP practices starting vaccination from early October.
Influenza: Vaccination
In calculating those identified to receive the H1N1 and seasonal flu vaccines, planning estimates have been used and figures have been rounded up to the nearest 0.25 million at a national level and nearest 5,000 at a local level.
The total estimated number of people in England who fall into a priority group for H1N1 influenza vaccination (excluding frontline health and social care workers) is up to 9.5 million.
In Herefordshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) the estimated figure for those who fall into a priority group for H1N1 influenza vaccination is around 30,000.
Frontline health and social care workers can also receive the H1N1 vaccine. This applies to over 2 million individuals in England and around 5,000 in Herefordshire.
The total estimated number of people in England in the at risk groups, who are eligible for the seasonal influenza vaccination this year, is up to 13 million.
The total estimated number of people in Herefordshire PCT in the at risk group who are eligible for seasonal influenza vaccination this year, is around 45,000.
Staff involved in direct patient care are also recommended to receive a seasonal flu vaccine.
Malnutrition
There have been no discussions between the Department and the Equality and Human Rights Commission on the incidence of malnutrition in national health service hospitals and care homes.
The importance of good quality food for patients is recognised, both in terms of improving their health and in relation to their overall experience of services. Clinicians have a duty to ensure patients receive appropriate treatment for any condition. This includes malnutrition.
NHS: Drugs
Good progress is being made in improving the timeliness of National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) technology appraisal guidance, supported by increased investment in appraisal capacity and the introduction of new, simpler arrangements for identifying the topics that NICE will appraise. Progress will be monitored through routine performance monitoring arrangements between the Department and NICE.
Article 81 of directive 2001/83/EC requires that marketing authorisation holders and distributors of their medicines for human use ensure, within the limits of their responsibilities, appropriate and continuous supplies of the medicines so that the needs of patients are covered. This requirement was transposed into United Kingdom medicines legislation in 2005 and guidance was issued by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the enforcement authority for the UK.
The MHRA is aware of concerns that the parallel export of medicines may contribute to shortages in the UK. The MHRA however, has no evidence that licensed wholesalers are failing to meet this obligation.
The Department and the MHRA are working with other key organisations and industry to produce a guidance document concerning the issue of medicines shortages and industry obligations under article 81.
(2) what recent discussions he has had on shortages in the supply of medicines; and if he will make a statement.
The Department, in conjunction with the pharmaceutical industry, has published joint best practice guidelines, entitled “Notification and Management of Medicines Shortages”. They are designed to help minimise the impact of any medicine shortage. These guidelines can be found on the Department’s website at:
www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_063330
A copy has already been placed in the Library.
I recently met with my hon. Friend the Member for Watford (Claire Ward) to discuss among other things, possible medicines shortages, on 21 October. Also present were SIGMA Pharmaceuticals and Carter Chemist. Departmental officials have frequent contact with manufacturers, wholesalers and health care professionals about shortages and discontinuations of medicines.
NHS: Finance
Directions came into force on 1 April 2009, which require primary care trusts to put in place robust and transparent processes for making decisions on new drugs and treatments. We have no plans to conduct a specific assessment of primary care trust compliance with these nor to ask the Care Quality Commission to do so.
NHS: Pay
The Department has not directed NHS trusts to implement the joint statement, which was published in October 2005. The Department continues to work to ensure employers are fully aware of the joint statement, to promote implementation of this national agreement and to help resolve issues where appropriate by issuing best practice guidance, writing to the national health service and working with employers and unions where issues arise.
This information is not collected centrally. Where the Department is made aware of local difficulties, we encourage local resolution. We are not aware of any specific difficulties with implementation of the joint statement in the South East.
NHS: Private Sector
We have received a number of inquiries about how the guidance applies in particular circumstances but no formal representations since the Department’s guidance on national health service patients who wish to pay for additional private care was published in March 2009.
North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust: Manpower
The information requested is shown in the following table:
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 All NHS staff 7,053 7,095 7,042 6,844 6,999 Of which: Managers 188 183 159 115 136 Senior managers 38 37 33 20 19 Managers 150 146 126 95 117 Nurses 2,078 2,063 2,033 1,969 1,957 Qualified nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff 1,703 1,712 1,641 1,577 1,565 GP Practice Nurses 375 351 392 392 392 Administrative and Clerical Staff 719 816 738 693 766 Central Functions 416 476 447 400 461 Hotel, Property and Estates 1 2 3 3 4 Scientific, Therapeutic and Technical Staff 18 18 6 25 7 Clinical Support 284 320 282 265 294 All Doctors 741 762 761 795 784 General Practitioners 624 639 633 663 655 HCHS Doctors 117 123 128 132 129 Notes: 1. North Yorkshire and York PCT was formed in October 2006 from a complete merger of Craven, Harrogate and Rural District PCT, Hambleton and Richmondshire PCT, Scarborough, Whitby and Ryedale PCT and Selby and York PCT. Figures for 2004 and 2005 are an aggregate of these predecessor organisations. 2. Examples of staff in central functions are staff in human resources, informatics, payroll, and library staff. Examples of staff in hotel, property and estates are clerical laundry staff, domestic services and home wardens. Examples of staff in science, therapeutic and technician support are clerical staff in audiology, haematology, dietetics and microbiology. Examples of staff in clinical support are clerical staff in medical records, patient services, medical secretaries. 3. North Yorkshire and York PCT have not submitted a return GP practice staff since 30 September 2006. 4. Excludes medical hospital practitioners and medical clinical assistants, most of whom are GPs working part time in hospitals. 5. Data Quality Workforce statistics are compiled from data sent by more than 300 NHS trusts and PCTs in England. The NHS Information Centre for health and social care liaises closely with these organisations to encourage submission of complete and valid data and seeks to minimise inaccuracies and the effect of missing and invalid data. Processing methods and procedures are continually being updated to improve data quality. Where this happens any impact on figures already published will be assessed but unless this is significant at national level they will not be changed. Where there is impact only at detailed or local level this will be footnoted in relevant analyses. Source: The NHS Information Centre for health and social care.
North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust: Pay
The information is not available in the format requested. However, the following table shows the staffing costs of (a) managers and senior managers, (b) nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff, (c) medical staff and (d) administrative and clerical staff at the North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust (PCT) in each of the last five years.
£000 Managers and senior managers Nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff Medical staff Admin and clerical staff 2008-09 10,233 50,079 17,485 14,234 2007-08 10,442 54,628 15,420 12,076 2006-07 11,709 56,930 14,359 10,427 2005-06 12,587 57,258 13,376 10,570 2004-05 12,582 48,260 12,619 9,314 Notes: 1. The figures provided are for total expenditure on staff and will include social security costs, pension contributions and early retirement costs. Redundancy costs are not included. The figures also include staff not directly employed by the organisation, such as agency staff. 2. Information is from the financial returns of national health service bodies. The data are not audited but are validated to the audited summarisation schedules. 3. North Yorkshire and York PCT was formed in October 2006 as a result of the merger of the Hambleton and Richmondshire PCT, the Craven, Harrogate and Rural District PCT, the Scarborough, Whitby and Ryedale PCT and the Selby and York PCT. Therefore, the figures reported for 2005-06 and 2004-05 are the sum of the four predecessor PCTs. Source: Financial Returns.
Pain: Drugs
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is not developing guidance specifically on the treatment of complex regional pain syndrome.
NICE is developing a short clinical guideline on the pharmacological management of neuropathic pain in adults in non-specialist settings and recently published draft guidance for consultation. The published scope for this guideline, which details the treatments it will cover, is available on NICE’s website at:
www.nice.org.uk/guidance/index.jsp?action= download&o=44204
Prescriptions: Fees and Charges
The following table provides an estimate of direct and overhead costs for the administration of prescription pre-payment, maternity exemption and medical exemption certificates for the last three complete financial years in England. These costs are the only elements of the prescription charging system that can be separately identified.
National health service prescription charge administrative process £000 2006-07 3,300 2007-08 3,800 2008-09 3,900
Costs for processing prescription charges cannot be provided, because they are processed as part of the reimbursement arrangements for dispensers in England and are not separately identifiable. Costs cannot be provided for the pursuit of prescription charge fraud as it is not possible to separately identify this from the cost of tackling other types of NHS fraud.
There are additional costs associated with the issuing of NHS tax credit certificates and assessment of eligibility for the NHS Low Income Scheme. These are not included in the table because the English costs cannot be isolated from costs for the devolved Administrations. In addition these certificates do not solely relate to prescription charges as NHS tax credit certificates and the NHS Low Income Scheme also provides help with the cost of NHS dental treatment, sight tests, a voucher towards the cost of glasses or contact lenses, NHS wigs and fabric supports, the cost of travel to receive NHS treatment, as well as help with NHS prescription charges.
Private Patients
We have no plans to issue further guidance. Individual cases are a matter for primary care trusts to determine.
South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: Manpower
The information requested is shown in the following table:
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 All NHS staff 4,546 4,419 4,481 4,405 4,574 of which: Managers 88 82 79 86 86 Senior managers 22 22 19 22 29 Managers 66 60 60 64 57 Nurses 2,334 2,283 2,325 2,300 2,369 Qualified nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff 2,334 2,283 2,325 2,300 2,369 GP practice nurses n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a Administrative and clerical staff 1,444 1,324 1,318 1,232 1,318 Central functions 509 459 433 397 455 Hotel, property and estates 40 33 34 34 27 Scientific, therapeutic and technical staff 186 168 164 134 139 Clinical support 709 664 687 667 696 Ambulance service support 0 0 0 0 1 All doctors 680 730 759 787 801 General practitioners n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a HCHS doctors 680 730 759 787 801 n/a= Not applicable Notes: 1. General practitioners (GPs) work for primary care trusts (PCTs) which operate within strategic health authorities (SHAs), no GPs are employed directly by NHS trusts. General practice nurses are employed by the individual GP partnerships. 2. Examples of staff in central functions are staff in human resources, informatics, payroll, and library staff. Examples of staff in hotel, property and estates are clerical laundry staff, domestic services and home wardens. Examples of staff in scientific, therapeutic and technical support are clerical staff in audiology, haematology, dietetics and microbiology. Examples of staff in clinical support are clerical staff in medical records, patient services, medical secretaries. 3. Data Quality: Work force statistics are compiled from data sent by more than 300 NHS trusts and PCTs in England. The NHS Information Centre for health and social care liaises closely with these organisations to encourage submission of complete and valid data and seeks to minimise inaccuracies and the effect of missing and invalid data. Processing methods and procedures are continually being updated to improve data quality. Where this happens any impact on figures already published will be assessed but unless this is significant at national level they will not be changed. Where there is impact only at detailed or local level this will be footnoted in relevant analyses. Source: The NHS Information Centre for health and social care
South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: Pay
The information is not available in the format requested. However, the following table shows the staffing costs of (a) managers and senior managers, (b) nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff, (c) medical staff and (d) administrative and clerical staff at the South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in each of the last five years.
£000 Managers and senior managers Nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff Medical staff Administrative and clerical staff 2008-09 8,461 90,659 78,478 26,064 2007-08 7,605 84,990 74,135 23,496 2006-07 7,561 82,324 71,547 22,802 2005-06 7,639 76,729 66,993 22,150 2004-05 8,445 73,282 65,820 23,915 Notes: 1. The figures provided are for total expenditure on staff and will include social security costs, pension contributions and early retirement costs. Redundancy costs are not included. The figures also include staff not directly employed by the organisation, such as agency staff. 2. Information is from the financial returns of national health service bodies. The data are not audited but are validated to the audited summarisation schedules. 3. The South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was licensed as a foundation trust in May 2009. Source: Financial Returns.
Speech Therapy: Manpower
The following table contains the number of qualified speech therapists per head of population in each primary care trust.
Speech therapists per 100,000 population North East Strategic Health Authority Newcastle PCT 5D7 5.8 North Tyneside PCT 5D8 20.8 Hartlepool PCT 5D9 28.3 North Tees PCT 5E1 9.4 Darlington PCT 5J9 62.7 Gateshead PCT 5KF 16.8 South Tyneside PCT 5KG 17.1 Redcar and Cleveland PCT 5QR 19.4 Northumberland Care Trust TAC 8.4 North West Strategic Health Authority Blackburn with Darwen PCT 5CC 32.7 Salford PCT 5F5 14.5 Stockport PCT 5F7 11.0 Ashton, Leigh and Wigan PCT 5HG 11.4 Bolton PCT 5HQ 14.8 Warrington PCT 5J2 14.8 Knowsley PCT 5J4 17.9 Oldham PCT 5J5 15.9 Bury PCT SJX 10.9 Tameside and Glossop PCT 5LH 10.8 Cumbria PCT 5NE 13.9 North Lancashire PCT 5NF 14.5 Central Lancashire PCT 5NG 16.1 East Lancashire PCT 5NH 9.4 Sefton PCT 5NJ 10.2 Wirral PCT 5NK 10.7 Liverpool PCT 5NL 11.3 Halton and St. Helens PCT 5NM 8.4 West Cheshire PCT 5NN 13.2 Central and Eastern Cheshire PCT 5NP 9.2 Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale PCT 5NQ 14.5 Trafford PCT 5NR 15.0 Manchester PCT 5NT 18.1 Yorkshire and the Humber Strategic Health Authority North Lincolnshire PCT 5EF 14.8 Rotherham PCT 5H8 11.8 Barnsley PCT 5JE 11.5 Leeds PCT 5N1 15.2 Kirklees PCT 5N2 6.2 Wakefield District PCT 5N3 8.7 Sheffield PCT 5N4 16.7 North Yorkshire and York PCT 5NV 7.9 East Riding of Yorkshire PCT 5NW 18.2 Bradford and Airedale Teaching PCT 5NY 9.0 East Midlands Strategic Health Authority Derbyshire County PCT 5N6 11.3 Nottinghamshire County Teaching PCT 5N8 21.1 Lincolnshire Teaching PCT 5N9 6.7 Leicestershire County and Rutland PCT 5PA 4.1 Leicester City Teaching PCT 5PC 24.8 Northamptonshire Teaching PCT 5PD 7.9 West Midlands Strategic Health Authority Herefordshire PCT 5CN 10.0 South Birmingham PCT 5M1 27.0 Walsall Teaching PCT 5M3 12.5 Coventry Teaching PCT 5MD 18.1 Telford and Wrekin PCT 5MK 25.9 Wolverhampton City PCT 5MV 8.9 Heart Of Birmingham Teaching PCT 5MX 0.4 Dudley PCT 5PE 22.2 Sandwell PCT 5PF 11.8 Birmingham East and North PCT 5PG 1.5 North Staffordshire PCT 5PH 19.8 South Staffordshire PCT 5PK 10.0 Worcestershire PCT 5PL 9.1 Warwickshire PCT 5PM 13.9 Solihull Care Trust TAM 8.7 East of England Strategic Health Authority South East Essex PCT 5P1 3.9 Bedfordshire PCT 5P2 11.0 East and North Hertfordshire PCT 5P3 12.6 West Hertfordshire PCT 5P4 11.1 Peterborough PCT 5PN 17.7 Cambridgeshire PCT 5PP 12.4 Norfolk PCT 5PQ 11.8 Great Yarmouth and Waveny Teaching PCT 5PR 12.7 Suffolk PCT 5PT 9.7 West Essex PCT 5PV 9.0 North East Essex PCT 5PW 9.1 Mid Essex PCT 5PX 8.7 South West Essex Teaching PCT 5PY 6.5 London Strategic Health Authority Havering PCT 5A4 1.7 Kingston PCT SA5 16.9 Bromley PCT 5A7 12.2 Greenwich Teaching PCT 5A8 18.8 Barnet PCT SA9 14.8 Hillingdon PCT 5AT 9.9 Enfield PCT 5C1 10.4 Barking and Dagenham PCT 5C2 19.0 City and Hackney PCT 5C3 17.7 Tower Hamlets PCT 5C4 21.3 Newham PCT 5C5 15.6 Haringey Teaching PCT 5C9 5.3 Hammersmith and Fulham PCT 5H1 20.3 Ealing PCT 5HX 13.6 Hounslow PCT 5HY 13.5 Brent Teaching PCT 5K5 8.1 Harrow PCT 5K6 0.5 Camden PCT 5K7 2.1 Islington PCT 5K8 50.8 Croydon PCT 5K9 14.9 Kensington and Chelsea PCT 5LA 17.7 Westminster PCT 5LC 16.1 Lambeth PCT 5LD 12.0 Southwark PCT 5LE 15.5 Lewisham PCT 5LF 15.3 Wandsworth PCT 5LG 19.7 Richmond and Twickenham PCT SM6 9.4 Sutton and Merton PCT 5M7 12.6 Redbridge PCT 5NA 10.1 Waltham Forest PCT 5NC 22.9 Bexley Care Trust TAK 10.7 South East Coast Strategic Health Authority Medway PCT 5L3 24.8 Surrey PCT 5P5 11.4 West Sussex Teaching PCT 5P6 11.8 East Sussex Downs and Weald PCT 5P7 9.6 Hastings and Rother PCT 5P8 13.5 West Kent PCT 5P9 5.6 Eastern and Coastal Kent Teaching PCT 5QA 9.2 South Central Strategic Health Authority Milton Keynes PCT 5CQ 13.5 Portsmouth City Teaching PCT 5FE 30.0 Southampton City PCT 5L1 18.8 Hampshire PCT 5QC 2.0 Buckinghamshire PCT 5QD 13.8 Oxfordshire PCT 5QE 12.7 Berkshire West PCT 5QF 14.6 Berkshire East Teaching PCT 5QG 9.2 Isle of Wight Healthcare PCT 5QT 5.7 South West Strategic Health Authority South Gloucestershire PCT 5A3 1.2 Plymouth Teaching PCT 5F1 26.1 Bath and North East Somerset PCT 5FL 20.5 Swindon PCT 5K3 19.2 North Somerset PCT 5M8 0.5 Gloucestershire PCT 5QH 9.8 Bristol Teaching PCT 5QJ 1.7 Wiltshire PCT 5QK 6.8 Somerset PCT 5QL 10.7 Bournemouth and Poole PCT 5QN 23.8 Cornwall and Isles of Scilly PCT 5QP 10.1 Devon PCT 5QQ 6.8 Notes: 1. Figures are based on headcount qualified speech and language therapist figures. 2. Figures for individual PCTs do not include qualified speech and language therapists employed by NHS trusts. Nationally 20 per cent. of such staff are employed by trusts. 3. Figures are rounded to one decimal place. Sources: The NHS Information Centre for health and social care Non-Medical Workforce census. Primary Care Organisation Mid Year Final Population Estimates 2001 Population Census Based. Office of National Statistics Population Estimates.
The following table contains the number of speech and language therapy commissions in each of the last five years.
Source Speech therapy 1996-97 BS 74 1997-98 A/R 75 1998-99 A/R1 455 1999-2000 Revised Q4 457 2000-01 QMR Q4 558 2001-02 QMR Q4 553 2002-03 QMR Q4 597 2003-04 QMR Q4 630 2004-05 QMR Q4 740 2005-06 QMR Q4 797 2006-07 QMR Q4 758 2007-08 QMR Q4 770 2008-09 QMR Q4 79 1 Unvalidated 1998-99 outturn. Note: BS = Balance Sheet. A/R = non-medical education and training (NMET) accountability report. QMR = NMET quarterly monitoring reports. Source: NHS Pay Review body.
The last national health service vacancy survey showed that at March 2008 there were 30 vacancies in speech and language therapy that trusts had actively been trying to fill.
A table giving the number of trained speech therapists as at September 2008 is as follows.
Speech and language therapy Qualified staff 7,115 Consultant therapist 12 Manager 313 Therapist 6,676 Scientist — Scientific officer — Technician — Instructor/teacher 112 Tutor 2
Swine Flu: Vaccination
The distribution of swine flu vaccine is currently organised through external contractors Movianto, who handle the distribution of all national health service vaccine supplies. Movianto were provided with criteria that each primary care trust location should receive vaccine throughout the estimated three to four week period needed to distribute the vaccine. Based on their experience of scheduling vaccine for the national childhood programme they have planned deliveries to achieve the most efficient way of getting vaccine delivered.
The distribution of vaccine to support the swine flu vaccination programme across England will take around three to four weeks to complete delivery of the first supplies to all general practitioner (GP) practices. This part of the programme started on 26 October 2009. The timing of our overall delivery schedule is reliant on predicted supplies from the manufacturer.
GPs order seasonal influenza vaccine directly from the manufacturer and are responsible for managing their own stock.
In the letter of 15 October from the Chief Medical Officer to all GPs, the arrangements for checking delivery dates of swine flu vaccine were clearly identified. GPs were informed that they would be able to find out the expected day of delivery of their first supplies of swine flu vaccine by checking with their primary care trust immunisation co-ordinator or by consulting the www.immform.dh.gov.uk website themselves.
Tuberculosis: Drugs
Medicines for the treatment of paediatric tuberculosis patients are available and we are not aware of any supply problems.
Whipps Cross Hospital
This information is not held centrally.
York Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: Manpower
The information requested is shown in the following table:
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 All NHS staff 2,528 2,651 2,890 2,890 2,672 Of which: Managers 106 106 123 35 74 Senior managers 21 20 21 5 29 Managers 85 86 102 30 45 Nurses 1,245 1,335 1,327 1,344J 1,290 Qualified nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff 1,245 1,335 1,327 1,344 1,290 GP Practice nurses n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a Administrative and Clerical Staff 835 848 1,048 1,110 908 Central Functions 256 237 219 291 365 Hotel, Property and Estates 42 41 60 74 41 Scientific, Therapeutic and Technical Staff 80 79 77 71 86 Clinical Support 457 491 692 674 416 All Doctors 342 362 392 401 400 General Practitioners n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a HCHS Doctors 342 362 392 401 400 n/a = Not applicable. Notes: 1. General practitioners (GPs) work for primary care trusts (PCTs) which operate within strategic health authorities (SHAs), no GPs are employed directly by NHS trusts. General practice nurses are employed by the individual GP partnerships. 2. Examples of staff in central functions are staff in human resources, informatics, payroll, and library staff. Examples of staff in hotel, property and estates are clerical laundry staff, domestic services and home wardens. Examples of staff in scientific, therapeutic and technical support are clerical staff in audiology, haematology, dietetics and microbiology. Examples of staff in clinical support are clerical staff in medical records, patient services, medical secretaries. 3. Data Quality: Workforce statistics are compiled from data sent by more than 300 NHS trusts and PCTs in England. The NHS Information Centre for health and social care liaises closely with these organisations to encourage submission of complete and valid data and seeks to minimise inaccuracies and the effect of missing and invalid data. Processing methods and procedures are continually being updated to improve data quality. Where this happens any impact on figures already published will be assessed but unless this is significant at national level they will not be changed. Where there is impact only at detailed or local level this will be footnoted in relevant analyses. Source: The NHS Information Centre for health and social care
York Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: Pay
The information is not available in the format requested. However, the following table shows the staffing costs of (a) managers and senior managers, (b) nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff, (c) medical staff and (d) administrative and clerical staff at the York Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust from 2004-05 to 2006-07. The Trust was licensed as a foundation trust on 1 April 2007. The Department does not collect these data from foundation trusts.
£000 Managers and senior managers Nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff Medical staff Admin and clerical staff 2008-09 n/a n/a n/a n/a 2007-08 n/a n/a n/a n/a 2006-07 7,406 42,090 34,372 11,901 2005-06 7,565 38,145 29,686 11,393 2004-05 6,921 33,027 27,149 10,623 Notes: 1. The figures provided are for total expenditure on staff and will include social security costs, pension contributions and early retirement costs. Redundancy costs are not included. The figures also include staff not directly employed by the organisation, such as agency staff. 2. Information is from the financial returns of national health service bodies. The data are not audited but are validated to the audited summarisation schedules. Source: Financial Returns
Yorkshire and the Humber Strategic Health Authority: Finance
(2) what the budget of the (a) North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust, (b) South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and (c) York Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was in each of the last three years.
The following table shows the final revenue resource limit for the Yorkshire and the Humber Strategic Health Authority (SHA), the North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust (PCT), the York Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in each of the last three years for which data are available.
2008-09 2007-08 2006-07 Yorkshire and the Humber SHA 735,624 735,480 663,361 North Yorkshire and York PCT 1,046,199 969,396 881,661 York Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust n/a n/a 180,026 South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 436,711 409,156 364,589 Notes: 1. The final revenue resource limit represents the total amount of expenditure that a PCT or SHA can incur in a financial year. 2. The figures provided for acute trusts represent total income for the year. National health service trusts do not have a revenue resource limit. In contrast to PCTs, NHS trusts are not funded directly by the Secretary of State from sums voted by Parliament, and their accounts are not consolidated into the Department’s resource account. NHS trusts are semi-autonomous organisations whose income derives from the provision of services to PCTs through what might be described as trading activity. 3. The NHS trust regime has similarities to the regime for Government trading funds, where expenditure for Government activity is met from income from third parties, rather than direct funding from resources voted to the Department. 4. York Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was licensed on 1 April 2007, therefore no data are provided for the 2008-09 and 2007-08 financial years. The Department does not collect data from Foundation Trusts. Source: Audited summarisation schedules
Yorkshire and the Humber Strategic Health Authority: Manpower
The information requested is shown in the following table.
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 All NHS staff 684 526 540 402 379 Of which: Managers 250 246 214 237 247 Senior managers 29 28 21 24 28 Managers 221 218 193 213 219 Nurses 1 2 1 2 5 Qualified nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff 1 2 1 2 5 GP Practice nurses n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a Administrative and clerical staff 414 262 320 154 121 Central functions 413 258 314 154 121 Hotel, property and estates 0 0 0 0 0 Scientific, therapeutic and technical staff 0 0 1 0 0 Clinical support 1 4 5 0 0 All doctors 19 16 5 9 6 General practitioners n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a HCHS Doctors 19 16 5 9 6 n/a = Not applicable. Notes: 1. Data are for the Yorkshire and Humber strategic health authority (SHA) administrative organisation and not the SHA area. 2. General practitioners (GPs) work for primary care trusts (PCTs) which operate within SHAs, no GPs are employed directly by SHAs. General practice nurses are employed by the individual GP partnerships. 3. Examples of staff in central functions are staff in human resources, informatics, payroll and library staff. Examples of staff in hotel, property and estates are clerical laundry staff, domestic services and home wardens. Examples of staff in science, therapeutic and technician support are clerical staff in audiology, haematology, dietetics and microbiology. Examples of staff in clinical support are clerical staff in medical records, patient services, medical secretaries. 4. When referring to published data, the figures for this organisation in 2007 will not match. Subsequent to the publication of the 2007 census, data for this organisation were found to be incorrect. An exercise was undertaken to obtain correct 2007 data which are shown in the table. The change at national level was not significant therefore published data were not revised. 5. Data Quality: Workforce statistics are compiled from data sent by more than 300 NHS trusts and PCTs in England. The NHS Information Centre for health and social care liaises closely with these organisations to encourage submission of complete and valid data and seeks to minimise inaccuracies and the effect of missing and invalid data. Processing methods and procedures are continually being updated to improve data quality. Where this happens, any impact on figures already published will be assessed but unless this is significant at national level they will not be changed. Where there is impact only at detailed or local level this will be footnoted in relevant analyses. Source: The NHS Information Centre for health and social care.
Yorkshire and the Humber Strategic Health Authority: Pay
The information is not available in the format requested. However, the following table shows the staffing costs of (a) managers and senior managers, (b) nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff, (c) medical staff and (d) administrative and clerical staff at the Yorkshire and the Humber Strategic Health Authority (SHA) in each of the last five years.
£000 Managers and senior managers Nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff Medical staff Admin and clerical staff 2008-09 16,315 0 1,665 2,225 2007-08 17,210 0 2,025 2,018 2006-07 21,163 0 2,639 2,928 2005-06 19,504 134 1,687 3,323 2004-05 18,822 85 1,596 6,865 Notes: 1. The figures provided are for total expenditure on staff and will include social security costs, pension contributions and early retirement costs. Redundancy costs are not included. The figures also include staff not directly employed by the organisation, such as agency staff. 2. Information is from the financial returns of national health service bodies. The data are not audited but are validated to the audited summarisation schedules. 3. The Yorkshire and the Humber SHA was formed in July 2006 following the merger of the North and East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire SHA, West Yorkshire SHA and South Yorkshire SHA. Therefore, the figures provided for 2005-06 and 2004-05 are the sum of the three predecessor SHAs. Source: SHA Financial Returns.
Justice
Coroner Service
There is no provision in the Scottish legal system for coroners’ inquests and fatal accident inquiries cannot be held into deaths outwith Scotland. However, we are committed to ensuring that the death of every serviceman or woman overseas is subject to an independent inquiry and therefore inquests into the deaths of Scotland-based service personnel in military operations overseas are conducted by the coroner for Wiltshire and Swindon. We recognise the burden this places on bereaved families, in having to travel to Wiltshire to attend inquests. As a result, earlier this year UK Ministers met with Scottish Ministers to ask them to agree that we should enable fatal accident inquiries to be held in Scotland into the deaths abroad of service personnel on active service, where the bereaved family is based in Scotland. The Government have subsequently amended the Coroners and Justice Bill, which is currently before Parliament, to facilitate this.
Crime
At present there is no central system that routinely records the number of prosecutions and convictions for new offences created across Whitehall.
However, this information is currently being collated and I will write to the hon. Member as soon as it is available. A copy will be placed in the House Library.
Departmental Postal Services
The Ministry of Justice currently has no formal contracts for mail services. However, it has a number of local agreements with both Royal Mail and DX limited. We recognise that the absence of established contracts is not satisfactory and are in the process of completing a further competition against the Buying Solutions Postal Framework. It is expected that we will have a formal contract in place by January 2010.
Electoral Systems: Armed Forces
I have been asked to reply.
There are 4,551 service personnel under the age of 18 years.
The following table, based on declared nationality, gives the number of service personnel not eligible to vote in general elections other than citizens of the UK, Commonwealth countries and the Republic of Ireland:
Nationality Grand total Afghan 1 Albanian 1 Citizen of the Central African Republic 3 Colombian 1 Foreign 4 French 1 German 7 Greek 1 Nepalese 4,143 Norwegian 1 Slovenian 1 Swazi 18 United States citizen 5 Ukrainian 2 Yugoslavian 1 No Nationality Recorded 928 Total 5,119
Legal Aid: Immigration
In 2008 the Legal Services Commission (LSC) set out its plans for procuring Civil Legal Aid contracts in the consultation paper Civil Bid Rounds for 2010 Contracts. The paper proposed minimum contract sizes, measured by “new matter starts” (NMS). The aim was to make sure there was good access to advice, and to ensure providers gain sufficient experience in the areas of law in question to give clients a good service. This is particularly important in asylum where there is little or no private market to ensure specialist knowledge and expertise is maintained in a frequently changing legal environment.
The proposed minimum for asylum was 100 NMS and for immigration was 50 NMS. When setting minimum new matter start sizes LSC took into account the existing pattern of provision, and whether one full time fee earner could meet the contract requirement. That ensures that smaller bodies are able to bid for contracts.
There were concerns raised in consultation that minimum matter start sizes had been set too high in immigration and asylum. As a result LSC reduced the levels for both. LSC have also responded to calls for greater recognition of geographical issues by setting the minimum matter start size at 70 for asylum and 30 for immigration in London, and at 35 for asylum and 15 for immigration in areas outside London.
In London there is already a good level of access to legal representation and there is a high demand for the service. For that reason LSC have set a higher minimum matter start size in London.
The information in Table 1 shows active legal aid providers in the London procurement area for financial years 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09 delivering immigration and/or asylum work.
Financial year 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 A C S Solicitors Yes Yes Yes A. B. Law Yes Yes No Abiloye & Co. Yes Yes Yes Aden & Co. Solicitors Yes Yes No Afrifa & Partners Yes Yes Yes Afro-Asian Advisory Service Yes Yes Yes Agape Solicitors Yes Yes No Aman Solicitors Advocates Yes Yes Yes Andrews Yes Yes Yes Anthony Louca Solicitors Yes Yes Yes Antons Solicitors Yes No No Arden Solicitors Yes Yes Yes Asylum Aid Yes Yes Yes A-Z Law Yes Yes Yes Azam & Co. Solicitors Yes Yes Yes Baker Jayacodi Solicitors Yes No No Barnes Harrild & Dyer Yes Yes Yes Barnet Law Service Yes Yes Yes Bart-Williams & Co. Yes Yes Yes Battersea Law Centre Yes Yes Yes Bermondsey citizens advice bureau Yes Yes Yes Bindman & Partners Yes Yes Yes Birnberg Peirce & Partners Yes Yes Yes Blavo & Company Solicitors Yes Yes Yes Brent CAB Yes Yes Yes Brent Community Law Centre Yes Yes Yes CAB - Whitechapel Yes Yes No Camden Community Law Centre Yes Yes Yes Cardinal Solicitors Yes Yes Yes Central London Law Centre Yes Yes Yes Charles Allotey & Co. Yes Yes Yes Charles Annon & Co. Ltd Yes Yes Yes Charles Simmons Yes Yes No Chartwell & Sadlers Yes Yes Yes Chinese Information & Advice Centre Yes Yes Yes Chipatiso & Co. Yes Yes Yes Christian Gottfried & Co. Solicitors Yes Yes Yes Christian Khan Yes Yes Yes CK Solicitors Yes Yes Yes Cleveland & Co. Solicitors Yes Yes Yes Clore & Co. Yes Yes No Community Law Clinic Solicitors Yes Yes Yes Corbin & Hassan Ltd. Yes Yes Yes Crimson Phoenix Solicitors Yes Yes Yes Croydon & Sutton Law Centre Yes Yes Yes CT Emezie Solicitors Yes Yes No Dare Emmanuel Solicitors Yes Yes Yes Deighton Guedalla Yes Yes Yes Devonshires RE Lawson Turner & Gilbert Yes No No Devonshires RE Phoenix Nova Sols Yes No No Dhillon & Co. Solicitors plc Yes Yes Yes Doves Solicitors Yes Yes Yes Duncan Lewis & Co. Yes Yes Yes Duncan Lewis (SB) No No Yes Duncan Lewis Solicitors Yes Yes Yes Edmunds Solicitors Yes Yes Yes Elder Rahimi Solicitors Yes Yes Yes Enfield Law Centre Yes Yes Yes Eve Wee Yes Yes No Fadiga & Co. Solicitors Yes Yes Yes Figueiredo & Bailey Solicitors Yes Yes Yes Fisher Meredith Yes Yes Yes Fletcher Dervish & Co. Yes Yes Yes Freemans Yes Yes Yes Geeta Patel & Co. Yes Yes Yes Genga & Co. Solicitors Ltd. Yes Yes No Gillman-Smith Lee Yes Yes Yes Glazer Delmar Yes Yes Yes Goldkorn Mathias Gentle Yes Yes No Greenland Solicitors LLP Yes Yes No Greenwich Community Law Centre Yes Yes Yes Gupta and Partners (Harleseden) Yes Yes No H C L Hanne & Co. Yes Yes No H S Kang & Co. Yes Yes Yes Hackman Solicitors Yes Yes Yes Hackney Community Law Centre Yes Yes Yes Hameed & Co. Yes Yes Yes Hammersmith & Fulham Community Law Centre Yes Yes Yes Haringey CAB Yes Yes Yes Harrow Solicitors & Advocates Yes Yes Yes Havillands & Co. Solicitors Yes Yes Yes Hayat & Co. Yes Yes Yes Hereward & Foster Yes Yes Yes Hersi & Co. Yes Yes Yes Hiace Solicitors Yes Yes Yes Hillingdon Law Centre Yes Yes Yes Hoshi & Co. Solicitors Yes Yes Yes Hounslow Law Centre Yes Yes Yes Howe & Co. Yes Yes Yes Ikie Yes No No Immigration Advisory Service No Yes Yes Immigration Advisory Service (Hounslow) No Yes Yes Immigration Advisory Service (London) Yes Yes Yes Irving & Co. Yes Yes Yes Islington Law Centre Yes Yes Yes J D Spicer & Co. Yes Yes Yes J R Jones Yes Yes Yes Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants Yes Yes Yes Kensington CAB Yes Yes — Kenwright & Lynch Yes Yes Yes Kibedi & Co. Yes — — Kingston & Richmond Law Centre Yes Yes Yes Knights Solicitors Yes Yes Yes Knox & Co. Solicitors Yes Yes Yes Lambeth Law Centre Yes Yes Yes Law For All—Acton Law Shop Yes Yes Yes Lawrence & Co. Yes Yes Yes Lawrence Lupin Solicitors Ltd. Yes Yes Yes Lawson Adefope Solicitors Yes No No LB & Co. Solicitors Yes Yes Yes Leslie & Co. Yes Yes Yes Lewisham Law Centre Ltd. Yes Yes Yes Leytonstone CAB Yes Yes Yes Luqmani Thompson & Partners Yes Yes Yes Mang & Co. Yes Yes Yes Marziano Khatry & Mak Solicitor Yes Yes Yes Merton Racial Equality Partnership No No Yes Migrants Resource Centre Yes Yes Yes Moss, Beachley Mullem & Coleman Yes No No Mountain Partnership Solicitors Yes Yes Yes Nag & Co. Yes No No Nandy & Co. Solicitors Yes Yes Yes Nathaniel & Co. Solicitors Yes Yes No Newham CAB Yes Yes Yes Noden & Co. Intervention Yes Yes No North Kensington Law Centre Yes Yes Yes Nucleus Yes Yes Yes O'Keeffe Solicitors Yes Yes No Ovo Solicitors Yes Yes Yes Owen White & Catlin Yes Yes Yes Oxford House in Bethnal Green Yes Yes Yes Ozoran Turkan Solicitors Yes Yes Yes P. Krama & Company Yes Yes Yes Paddington Law Centre Yes Yes Yes Palis Solicitors Yes Yes Yes Patricks Solicitors Yes Yes Yes Pearson & Winston Solicitors Yes Yes No Perera & Co. Yes Yes Yes Pinidiya Solicitors LLP Yes Yes Yes Polpitiya & Co. Ltd. Yes Yes Yes Powell & Co. Yes No No Powell Spencer and Partners Yes Yes No Popkin & Co. Solicitors No No Yes Rahman & Co. Yes Yes Yes Raja & Co. Yes Yes Yes Ratna & Co. Yes Yes Yes Refugee Legal Centre (London Region)1 Yes Yes Yes Ross Simon & Co. Yes No No S C Pelentrides & Co. Yes Yes Yes S J Solicitors Yes No No S S Basi & Co. Yes Yes Yes Salfiti & Co. Yes Yes No Sam & Co. Solicitors Yes Yes Yes Samars Solicitors Yes Yes Yes Samuel & Co. Yes Yes Yes Sasdev & Co. Yes Yes Yes Scott-Moncrieff Harbour & Sinclair Yes Yes No Scudamores Solicitors Yes Yes Yes Shahid Rahman Yes No No Shan & Co. Yes Yes Yes Sharma & Co. Solicitors Yes Yes No Sheikh & Co. Yes Yes Yes Sheikh & Co. Solicitors Ltd. Yes Yes Yes Shergill & Co. Yes Yes No Simman Solicitors Yes Yes Yes Simply Legal Solicitors No No Yes Southwark Law Centre Yes Yes Yes Southwark Race & Equalities Council Yes Yes Yes Spence & Horne Yes Yes Yes Sriharans Yes Yes Yes Stanley and Co. Yes Yes Yes Sutovic & Hartigan Yes Yes Yes Tamil Welfare Association (Newham) UK Yes Yes Yes Tayo Arowojolu Solicitors Yes No No Terrence Higgins Trust Advice Centre (FAO Jean Foreman) Yes Yes Yes Thakrar & Co. Yes Yes Yes Thamesmead Law Centre Yes Yes Yes Theva & Co. Yes Yes Yes Thompson & Co. Yes Yes No Tower Hamlets East CAB No No Yes Tower Hamlets Law Centre Yes Yes Yes Trivedy & Virdi Yes No No Trott & Gentry Yes Yes Yes Vahib & Co. Yes No No Walthamstow CAB Yes Yes Yes Wandsworth & Merton Law Centre Yes Yes Yes Waran & Company Yes Yes Yes Warnapala & Co. Ltd. Yes Yes Yes Westminster Citizens Advice Yes Yes Yes White Ryland Yes Yes No Wick & Co. Yes Yes Yes Wilson & Co. Yes Yes Yes Wilson Houlder & Co. Yes Yes Yes Yanakas Votsis Associates Yes Yes Yes YVA Solicitors No No Yes Zelin & Zelin Yes Yes Yes Ziadies Yes Yes Yes 1 The Refugee Legal Centre (London Region) is now known as Refugee & Migrant Justice.
Table 2 shows immigration and asylum cases started in financial year 2008-09. To protect commercial interests of the providers involved, the table has been anonymised and is not reflective of order in Table 1 above.
2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 Asylum NMS Immigration NMS Asylum NMS Immigration NMS Asylum NMS Immigration NMS Firm 1 1,176 92 1,523 177 2,825 677 Firm 2 1,024 402 1,044 358 1,770 388 Firm 3 495 2,073 1,075 3,093 1,337 4.281 Firm 4 1,202 1,668 1,320 1,575 1,294 1.675 Firm 5 1,994 122 902 76 1,085 157 Firm 6 211 514 277 486 907 700 Firm 7 980 150 840 100 865 25 Firm 8 317 66 423 45 722 84 Firm 9 657 1,413 282 293 670 8 Firm 10 331 916 334 709 582 766 Firm 11 230 229 579 367 505 284 Firm 12 525 120 354 90 442 95 Firm 13 525 641 386 406 436 529 Firm 14 385 182 271 165 421 138 Firm 15 284 160 435 145 370 142 Firm 16 290 46 245 73 366 83 Firm 17 281 105 261 67 357 111 Firm 18 462 354 359 363 333 214 Firm 19 172 251 183 211 284 154 Firm 20 277 55 291 74 282 104 Firm 21 224 101 176 114 277 79 Firm 22 11 153 34 26 270 165 Firm 23 97 115 102 85 267 162 Firm 24 104 963 66 1,017 221 1,152 Firm 25 141 149 195 91 209 137 Firm 26 128 30 46 12 206 12 Firm 27 134 328 228 379 203 471 Firm 28 177 76 157 90 203 86 Firm 29 114 127 126 58 197 58 Firm 30 115 80 137 33 185 56 Firm 31 114 306 147 325 178 356 Firm 32 527 5 257 0 177 62 Firm 33 82 139 96 150 171 148 Firm 34 119 62 54 38 158 73 Firm 35 348 324 350 309 156 360 Firm 36 188 138 273 184 154 111 Firm 37 121 37 87 21 151 35 Firm 38 77 19 72 43 148 78 Firm 39 128 170 18 114 138 270 Firm 40 48 108 60 119 136 206 Firm 41 388 28 87 22 135 40 Firm 42 88 172 87 166 133 179 Firm 43 0 0 0 0 131 1 Firm 44 118 100 101 60 125 71 Firm 45 168 25 93 9 125 3 Firm 46 151 1 154 0 120 0 Firm 47 75 136 42 70 116 120 Firm 48 141 193 96 126 115 128 Firm 49 32 68 63 80 110 65 Firm 50 112 15 34 1 105 7 Firm 51 75 82 107 124 102 144 Firm 52 75 107 75 100 95 107 Firm 53 53 68 55 82 95 90 Firm 54 129 75 98 76 92 63 Firm 55 58 17 49 9 87 16 Firm 56 79 19 91 22 80 16 Firm 57 60 19 42 9 79 0 Firm 58 18 118 5 49 77 77 Firm 59 57 67 46 61 75 46 Firm 60 15 3 17 4 74 43 Firm 61 276 95 136 69 73 112 Firm 62 61 470 14 320 72 396 Firm 63 51 47 51 19 71 20 Firm 64 163 61 88 57 68 69 Firm 65 58 7 43 5 68 9 Firm 66 0 0 0 0 66 317 Firm 67 181 39 76 28 64 17 Firm 68 24 176 30 108 63 195 Firm 69 57 51 46 47 61 62 Firm 70 75 8 78 34 59 34 Firm 71 23 53 5 2 59 4 Firm 72 25 40 32 44 53 29 Firm 73 37 38 27 20 53 10 Firm 74 57 140 44 89 52 191 Firm 75 108 24 36 18 52 19 Firm 76 76 151 65 130 50 112 Firm 77 32 131 40 103 50 149 Firm 78 49 136 16 132 50 191 Firm 79 17 34 9 24 50 58 Firm 80 23 18 23 10 48 10 Firm 81 25 65 54 81 47 70 Firm 82 69 35 34 20 47 31 Firm 83 54 86 35 84 45 119 Firm 84 17 101 76 88 44 93 Firm 85 95 61 63 137 43 176 Firm 86 32 20 26 13 43 21 Firm 87 48 43 56 42 42 26 Firm 88 37 24 27 16 41 11 Firm 89 105 405 52 360 37 329 Firm 90 10 49 22 71 36 86 Firm 91 66 52 31 42 35 42 Firm 92 22 56 19 36 31 68 Firm 93 19 54 12 28 31 84 Firm 94 35 110 30 55 30 7 Firm 95 30 230 101 180 29 51 Firm 96 20 126 17 142 29 93 Firm 97 39 138 35 80 28 79 Firm 98 17 125 11 73 27 84 Firm 99 15 87 18 47 26 84 Firm 100 12 32 4 15 26 19 Firm 101 38 38 25 56 24 39 Firm 102 8 17 4 18 23 32 Firm 103 10 240 54 218 22 224 Firm 104 117 0 97 34 17 18 Firm 105 13 51 16 41 17 30 Firm 106 19 83 13 57 16 96 Firm 107 19 64 16 6 15 55 Firm 108 6 55 5 36 15 19 Firm 109 3 144 2 216 15 327 Firm 110 0 0 0 0 15 0 Firm 111 42 619 90 545 13 505 Firm 112 7 113 0 80 13 229 Firm 113 28 48 21 35 12 26 Firm 114 7 78 8 54 11 72 Firm 115 9 113 10 117 10 105 Firm 116 16 1 16 1 9 0 Firm 117 16 8 7 1 9 3 Firm 118 6 100 6 81 9 82 Firm 119 12 130 3 128 9 138 Firm 120 5 19 23 26 8 20 Firm 121 34 59 14 17 8 18 Firm 122 24 92 11 37 8 78 Firm 123 17 36 6 19 8 3 Firm 124 4 31 4 17 8 9 Firm 125 33 91 20 77 7 40 Firm 126 4 16 6 8 7 13 Firm 127 12 100 6 69 6 38 Firm 128 2 1 0 1 6 8 Firm 129 37 75 16 45 5 91 Firm 130 4 235 8 177 5 271 Firm 131 17 50 8 50 4 71 Firm 132 8 1 5 1 4 o Firm 133 7 49 10 34 3 84 Firm 134 3 270 3 301 3 265 Firm 135 34 110 15 25 2 11 Firm 136 22 59 9 16 2 50 Firm 137 3 31 4 13 2 0 Firm 138 34 144 7 81 1 58 Firm 139 24 16 3 10 1 28 Firm 140 0 46 3 58 1 135 Firm 141 1 139 0 128 1 163 Firm 142 721 1,011 449 402 0 0 Firm 143 181 82 85 25 0 0 Firm 144 379 145 82 14 0 0 Firm 145 112 88 73 65 0 0 Firm 146 202 3 55 5 0 0 Firm 147 58 60 26 66 0 2 Firm 148 80 0 24 0 0 0 Firm 149 47 205 21 85 0 48 Firm 150 20 58 8 25 0 0 Firm 151 16 31 4 7 0 0 Firm 152 11 30 4 4 0 0 Firm 153 9 60 4 19 0 0 Firm 154 3 1 2 0 0 1 Firm 155 24 34 1 12 0 0 Firm 156 2 21 1 6 0 11 Firm 157 208 349 0 156 0 0 Firm 158 48 16 0 0 0 0 Firm 159 31 64 0 0 0 0 Firm 160 25 30 0 0 0 0 Firm 161 24 9 0 0 0 0 Firm 162 23 34 0 1 0 0 Firm 163 18 6 0 0 0 0 Firm 164 17 38 0 0 0 0 Firm 165 14 12 0 0 0 0 Firm 166 13 7 0 0 0 0 Firm 167 10 26 0 0 0 0 Firm 168 7 26 0 0 0 0 Firm 169 6 47 0 0 0 0 Firm 170 5 15 0 0 0 0 Firm 171 3 6 0 1 0 0 Firm 172 2 12 0 0 0 0 Firm 173 1 0 0 0 0 0 Firm 174 1 10 0 0 0 0 Firm 175 0 0 0 0 0 0 Firm 176 0 0 0 0 0 0 Firm 177 0 0 0 0 0 o Firm 178 0 0 0 0 0 0 Firm 179 0 0 0 0 0 0 Firm 180 0 0 0 0 0 0 Firm 181 0 0 0 0 0 0 Firm 182 0 0 0 0 0 0 Firm 183 0 0 0 0 0 0 Firm 184 0 0 0 0 0 0 Firm 185 0 0 0 0 0 0 Firm 186 0 0 0 0 0 0 Firm 187 0 0 0 0 0 0 Firm 188 0 42 0 0 0 0 Firm 189 0 0 0 0 0 0 Firm 190 0 0 0 0 0 0 Firm 191 0 0 0 0 0 0 Firm 192 0 0 0 0 0 0 Firm 193 0 0 0 0 0 0 Firm 194 0 0 0 0 0 0 Firm 195 0 0 0 0 0 0 Firm 196 0 0 0 0 0 0 Firm 197 0 0 0 0 0 0 Firm 198 0 0 0 0 0 0 Firm 199 0 0 0 0 0 0 Total 21,893 24,070 18,402 19,847 24,002 23,001 Notes: 1. Though anonymised, the data read across the years for each firm. 2. The offices of the Immigration Advisory Service and the Refugee Legal Centre (London Region) have been summed together into one entry each. 3. NMS (new matter starts) figures are the number of new matters reported at the end of the relevant financial year. 4. Some firms reported zero NMS though they held a contract in these categories of law.
Magistrates Courts: Closures
The following table provides details of the magistrates court closures (broken down into HMCS Criminal Justice Areas) which have taken place since 1997. Officials estimate that 240 magistrates courts were closed from 1979-97 and 124 from 1997 to date.
Courthouse closed Criminal justice area 1997 Ellesmere Port Cheshire and Merseyside 1997 Hampstead London North and West 1997 Marylebone London Central and South 1997 Otley North and West Yorkshire 1997 Stokeley North and West Yorkshire 1997 Thorne Humber and South Yorkshire 1997 Hebburn Cleveland, Durham and Northumbria 1997 Seaham Cleveland, Durham and Northumbria 1997 South Shields (Kepple Street) Cleveland, Durham and Northumbria 1997 Bromsgrove Black Country, Staffs and West Mercia 1997 Ledbury Black Country, Staffs and West Mercia 1997 Chippenham (Market Place) Dorset, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire 1997 Ashton under Lyne (Manchester Road) Cumbria and Lancashire 1997 Duckinsfield Cumbria and Lancashire 1997 Braintree Bedfordshire, Essex and Hertfordshire 1997 Clacton on Sea Bedfordshire, Essex and Hertfordshire 1997 Pontardawe South East Wales 1997 Bargoed South East Wales 1997 Monmouth South East Wales 1997 Pontlttyn South East Wales 1997 Pontypool South East Wales 1998 Malton North and West Yorkshire 1998 Ripon North and West Yorkshire 1998 Marlborough Street London Central and South 1998 Clerkenwell London North and West 1998 Saffron Walden Bedfordshire, Essex and Hertfordshire 1998 Bishop’s Stortford Bedfordshire, Essex and Hertfordshire 1998 Hatfield Bedfordshire, Essex and Hertfordshire 1998 Hitchin Bedfordshire, Essex and Hertfordshire 1998 Market Rasen Leicestershire, Lincoln and Northamptonshire 1998 Lutterworth Leicestershire, Lincoln and Northamptonshire 1998 Chertsey Surrey and Sussex 1998 Farnham Surrey and Sussex 1998 Oxted Surrey and Sussex 1998 Sheerness Kent 1998 West Malling Kent 1998 Barnard Castle Cleveland, Durham and Northumbria 1998 Lytham Cumbria and Lancashire 1998 Corwen North Wales 1998 Diss Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk 1998 Felixstowe Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk 1998 Haverhill Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk 1998 Saxmundam Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk 1998 Stowmarket Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk 1998 Newmarket Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk 1998 March Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk 1999 Christchurch Dorset, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire 1999 Stow on the Wold Dorset, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire 1999 Abingdon Thames Valley 1999 Henley on Thames Thames Valley 1999 Windsor Thames Valley 1999 Morley North and West Yorkshire 1999 Pudsey North and West Yorkshire 2000 Ampthill Bedfordshire, Essex and Hertfordshire 2000 Biggleswade Bedfordshire, Essex and Hertfordshire 2000 Dunstable Bedfordshire, Essex and Hertfordshire 2000 Leighton Buzzard Bedfordshire, Essex and Hertfordshire 2000 Lichfield Black Country, Staffs and West Mercia 2000 Keighley North and West Yorkshire 2000 Keswick Cumbria and Lancashire 2000 Windermere Cumbria and Lancashire 2000 Wigton Cumbria and Lancashire 2000 Appleby Cumbria and Lancashire 2000 Gravesend Kent 2000 Wootton Bassett Dorset, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire 2000 Abergele North Wales 2001 Alfreton Nottingham and Derbyshire. 2001 Ashbourne Nottingham and Derbyshire 2001 Bakewell Nottingham and Derbyshire 2001 Matlock Nottingham and Derbyshire 2001 Middleton Nottingham and Derbyshire 2001 Leigh Greater Manchester 2001 Womborne Black Country, Staffordshire and West Mercia 2001 Leek Black Country, Staffs and West Mercia 2001 Worcester Black Country, Staffs and West Mercia. 2001 Warrington Patten Hall Cheshire and Merseyside 2001 Macclesfield Park Green Cheshire and Merseyside 2001 Bideford Devon and Cornwall 2001 Exmouth Devon and Cornwall 2001 Kingsbridge Devon and Cornwall 2001 South Molton Devon and Cornwall 2001 Teignmouth Devon and Cornwall 2001 Tavistock Devon and Cornwall 2001 Axminster Devon and Cornwall 2001 Tiverton Devon and Cornwall 2001 Newquay Devon and Cornwall 2001 Southampton (Commercial Road) Hampshire and Isle of Wight 2001 Gillingham Dorset, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire 2001 Bridlington Humber and South Yorkshire 2001 Brough Humber and South Yorkshire 2001 Driffield Humber and South Yorkshire 2001 Hull (Guildhall) Humber and South Yorkshire 2001 Hull (Lowgate) Humber and South Yorkshire 2001 Pocklington Humber and South Yorkshire 2001 Withensea Humber and South Yorkshire 2001 Arundel Surrey and Sussex 2002 Bridgnorth Black Country, Staffordshire and West Mercia 2002 Leominster Black Country, Staffordshire and West Mercia 2002 Evesham Black Country, Staffordshire and West Mercia 2002 Fakenham Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk 2002 Tunbridge Wells Kent 2002 Beaconsfield Thames Valley 2002 Buckingham Thames Valley 2003 Thame Thames Valley 2003 Droitwitch Black Country, Staffordshire and West Mercia 2003 Rugeley Black Country, Staffordshire and West Mercia 2003 Whitchurch Birmingham, Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire 2003 Machynlleth North Wales 2003 Lampeter Mid and West Wales 2003 Tenby Mid and West Wales 2003 Camberley Surrey and Sussex 2003 Trowbridge Dorset, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire 2003 Chester Le Street Cleveland, Durham and Northumbria 2003 Long Sutton Leicestershire, Lincoln and Northamptonshire 2003 Caistor Leicestershire, Lincoln and Northamptonshire 2003 Horncastle Leicestershire, Lincoln and Northamptonshire 2004 Richmond North and West Yorkshire 2004 Stourbridge Birmingham, Coventry, Solihull and Coventry 2005 — — 2006 Bow Street London Central and South 2007 Flax Bourton Avon and Somerset 2007 Marylebone London Central and South 2008 Aldridge Black Country, Staffordshire and West Mercia 2008 Pickering North and West Yorkshire 2009 Devizes Dorset, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire Note: Since the creation of HMCS in 2005 the number of HMCS criminal justice areas has reduced from the original 42. The above table should enable the reader to identify the relevant county relating to the closure.
Up until 1 April 2005, magistrates courts were the responsibility of locally managed magistrates courts committees who were statutorily independent. My Department does not hold information on the number of magistrates courts prior to 2005, as they were not required by statute to inform the Department of closures that were not subject to an appeal under section 56(3) of the Justices of the Peace Act 1997 (now repealed).
Research suggests that there were in the region of 650 magistrates courts in the late 1970s. Between 1979 and 1997 an estimated 171 magistrates courts were closed: from 1997, an estimated 125 magistrates courts have been closed. Estimates of the number of magistrates courts in operation since 1997 are included in the following table:
Number 1997 479 1998 458 1999 433 2000 426 2001 413 2002 383 2003 376 2004 363 2005 361 2006 361 2007 360 2008 358 2009 to date 355
Members: Correspondence
I replied to the hon. Member's letters of 30 June and 14 August on 21 October. I apologise for the delay. My hon. Friend the Member for Lewisham, East (Bridget Prentice) replied to the hon. Member's letters of 3 June and 17 July during August.
Offenders: Electronic Tagging
Information is collected on the number of electronic tagging orders made rather than the number of offenders tagged. The following table details the number of orders made since the electronic monitoring service began in 1999.
Financial year Number of orders 1998-99 3,452 1999-2000 19,012 2000-01 19,947 2001-02 21,488 2002-03 35,186 2003-04 41,811 2004-05 46,987 2005-06 51,396 2006-07 54,877 2007-08 65,099 2008-09 69,895 April 2009—September 2009 34,574
About 18,800 subjects are being electronically monitored at any one time, of which 25 per cent. are on bail, 58 per cent. on a court-ordered community sentence, and the remaining 17 per cent. on release from prison on licence.
Since 1999, over 550,000 people have been monitored on a range of electronic monitoring programmes, in the vast majority of cases without incident.
Penalty Notices for Disorder
Information showing the number of persons aged 16 and over issued with a penalty notice for disorder (PND) in a police station and on the street, in England and Wales, 2007 (latest available) can be viewed in the table. Data for 2008 are planned for publication at the end of January 2010.
PNDs were introduced under the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 to provide the police with a simple financial punishment to deal with minor antisocial and nuisance offending either at a police station or on the street. Operational guidance to forces issued by the Secretary of State for Justice sets out the criteria which should be considered by officers in deciding where to issue a PND.
Police station Street PND issued 115,939 91,605 Percentage 56 44 1 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 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. Source: OCJR E&A (Office for Criminal Justice Reform, Evidence and Analysis Unit), Ministry of Justice.
Prison Service: Counselling
(2) what evaluation of the Prison Service's Counselling Assessment Referral Advice and Throughcare scheme has been undertaken.
The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) has kept figures on the total budget allocation for Counselling, Assessment, Referral, Advice and Throughcare services (CARATs) since it was established in 1999. These are set out in the following table.
Total (£ million) 1999-2000 5.5 2000-01 8.8 2001-02 12.9 2002-03 14.3 2003-04 17.4 2004-05 22.3 2005-06 126.8 2006-07 130.3 2007-08 132.1 1 This includes NOMS funding for the integrated drug treatment system
CARATs is based on good practice and industry guidelines (such as the National Treatment Agency's Models of Care) which are evidenced as effective in a community setting.
A comprehensive CARATs review was conducted in 2003 which involved participation of over 500 stakeholders. The review was concluded in 2005 resulting in a new service specification, new CARATs casework file and the production of a CARATs Practice Manual.
A further review of the CARATs service is planned which will examine the current delivery of the CARAT service.
Prisoners Release
Of the prisoners released on licence and subsequently recalled to prison between 1 January 1997 and 30 June 2009, a total of 741 had not been returned to custody as at 16 October 2009.
This figure is based on the data in table 1 of an information release published on 30 October 2009 and available on the Ministry of Justice website under “Licence recalls and returns to custody: audit of licence revocation—Ministry of Justice”:
These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
Assessment of risk on release is embedded in the 14 categories of offence or offender which excludes a prisoner from eligibility for ECL. Those include serious violent offences, registered sex offenders and prisoners without a release address. Full details of the scheme including advice on risk is given in Prison Service Instruction 42/2007 a copy of which is available in the Libraries of the House and on the following website:
http://psi.hmprisonservice.gov.uk/PSI_2007_42_end_of_custody_licence.doc
Prisons are instructed that they should take appropriate action in response to any information they have received that a prisoner poses a risk of domestic violence or to a specific victim on release. That information should be provided to the police and, where appropriate, submitted to the Multi Agency Pubic Protection Panel, in line with routine risk management arrangements.
Prison governors will not release those prisoners who will be subject to supervision on release to an address prohibited by their offender manager in the supervision licence. In such cases ECL release will only take place if a suitable alternative address is provided. Where prisoners are subject to supervision on release, any conditions included on the normal supervision licence must also be included on the ECL licence.
There are no current plans to make any changes to the scheme. When prison population concerns allow, the scheme will be ended.
Probation
The trend on completion rates for court orders is improving. The performance for the financial year 2008-09 was 71 per cent. successful completion and from April to September 2009 the rate is currently 74 per cent.
The budget settlement for 2010-11 is likely to maintain this upward trend. The settlement was recently announced via a written ministerial statement, indicating a £26 million increase for probation above the original indicative budget.
Nevertheless probation areas/trusts, like other parts of the criminal justice system, are introducing efficiency savings to maximise the value for money that they provide. These efficiency savings are focused on reducing back office functions and management overheads and should not reduce resources for front-line delivery. As such, the budget settlement will not impact negatively on the completion rate for court orders.
Offenders classified as tier 4 present the highest risks of harm and likelihood of re-offending and therefore require a high level of probation expertise and resource. National guidance on tiering (Probation Circular 65/2005 and 8/2008) makes it clear that staff must be trained and competent for the roles they discharge but does not prescribe that tier 4 cases must be managed by a particular grade of staff or that staff should hold a particular qualification. Information about the management of individual cases is held locally by individual probation areas and trusts.
Young Offenders
The following table shows the disposals given to those between the ages of 10 and 12 years-old at the point of sentence, from 1997-2007. The data are presented on the principal offence basis: where an offender has been sentenced for more than one offence the principal offence is the offence for which the heaviest penalty was imposed; where the same sentence has been imposed for more than one offence the principal offence is the one for which the statutory maximum is most severe.
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Absolute discharge 0 1 1 0 2 3 7 5 8 5 6 Conditional discharge 59 61 89 42 47 13 10 9 5 4 3 Fine 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 Community sentence 89 100 112 161 209 274 270 285 255 254 290 Immediate custody 6 3 5 6 24 12 9 12 9 5 6 Violent offences1 Otherwise dealt with 2 5 4 8 18 14 6 5 3 6 5 Total 157 171 212 217 301 317 302 316 260 274 310 Absolute discharge 9 15 11 15 18 55 78 69 61 43 53 Conditional discharge 519 798 809 574 317 113 80 71 60 56 59 Fine 40 54 79 76 76 34 11 18 14 10 10 Community sentence 364 452 642 794 1,027 1.199 1,099 1.130 1,142 1,010 1,108 Immediate custody 6 8 14 38 38 21 13 18 15 8 10 Non-violent offences Otherwise dealt with 11 22 75 63 108 43 37 12 14 19 8 Total 949 1,349 1,630 1,560 1,584 1,465 1,318 1,318 1,306 1,146 1,248 1 Included within Violent offences are: Violence against the person, Sexual offences and Robbery. Included in non violent offences are all other indictable offences. Summary offences are not included as they comprise both violent and non-violent offences that cannot be separated. Note: 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. Source: OMS Analytical Services, Ministry of Justice
Young Offenders: Education
In 2008-09 in young offender institution (YOI) and juvenile establishments, an average of 15.5 hours per weekday was spent in cells per prisoner per day including sleeping time. An average of 1.79 hours per day was spent in education and training, with a further 0.71 hours spent on physical education activities both educational and recreational. An average of 2.57 hours per day was spent in free association. The remaining 3.43 hours can be spent on other activities such as chapel visits, work, offending behaviour programmes or sentence planning activities which would be considered purposeful and are therefore recorded. Prisoners may take part in various other activities which are not defined as purposeful under the purposeful activity criteria and are therefore not recorded.
An average of 4.89 hours per week was spent on education and training at HMP Reading in 2008-09, an average of 3.85 hours per week was spent on exercise at HMP Reading in 2008-09 and an average of 18.81 hours per week was spent on free association in 2008-09.
Young People: Remand in Custody
The decision as to whether to remand a young person under 18 to custody is entirely for the courts. The following tables set out the number of occasions on which young people have been remanded into secure training centres from each Youth Offending Team between September 2007 and August 2009. The data have been provided by the Youth Justice Board and are drawn from administrative computer systems and as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing and may be subject to change over time. The data are given by Youth Offending Team, rather then local authority, as data are not recorded by local authority.
Youth offending team Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Barking and Dagenham 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Barnet 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 Barnsley 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Bath and North East Somerset 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Bedfordshire 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Bexley 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 Birmingham 1 0 0 1 1 2 0 0 0 1 0 1 Blackburn with Darwen 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Blackpool 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 Blaenau, Gwent and Caerphilly 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Bolton 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Bournemouth and Poole 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Bracknell Forest 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Bradford 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 Brent 1 2 1 0 1 1 2 0 1 1 0 1 Bridgend 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Brighton and Hove 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 Bristol 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 Bromley 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 Buckinghamshire 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Bury 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 Calderdale 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Cambridgeshire 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Camden 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Cardiff 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Carmarthenshire 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Ceredigion 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Cheshire 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Conwy and Denbighshire 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Cornwall 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Coventry 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 Croydon 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 Cumbria 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Darlington 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Derby 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Derbyshire 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 Devon 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Doncaster 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Dorset 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Dudley 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Durham 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Ealing 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 East Riding of Yorkshire 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 East Sussex 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 Enfield 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 Essex 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 Flintshire 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Gateshead 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 Gloucestershire 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Greenwich 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 Gwynedd Mon 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Hackney 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 Halton and Warrington 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Hammersmith and Fulham 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 Haringey 0 0 1 1 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 Harrow 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 Hartlepool 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 Havering 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Hertfordshire 0 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 Hillingdon 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 Hounslow 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 Islington 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 Kensington and Chelsea 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Kent 0 1 1 0 2 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 Kingston-upon-Hull 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Kingston-upon-Thames 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 Kirklees 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Knowsley 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Lambeth 1 0 3 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 Lancashire 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Leeds 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 Leicester City 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 Leicestershire 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 Lewisham 0 0 1 0 2 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 Lincolnshire 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Liverpool 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 Luton 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Manchester 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 Medway 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Merthyr Tydfil 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Merton 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 Milton Keynes 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Monmouthshire and Torfaen 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 Neath Port Talbot 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Newcastle-upon-Tyne 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 Newham 1 1 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 1 Newport 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Norfolk 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 North East Lincolnshire 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 North Lincolnshire 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 North Somerset 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 North Tyneside 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 North Yorkshire 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 Northamptonshire 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Northumberland 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 Nottingham 1 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 Nottinghamshire 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 Oldham 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Oxfordshire 1 0 0 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 Pembrokeshire 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Peterborough 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Plymouth 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 Powys 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Reading 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 Redbridge 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Rhondda Cynon Taff 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 Richmond-upon-Thames 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Rochdale 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Rotherham 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Salford 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 Sandwell 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 Sefton 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Sheffield 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 1 0 Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Slough 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Solihull 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Somerset 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 South Gloucestershire 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 South Tees 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 South Tyneside 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Southend-on-Sea 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Southwark 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 2 1 St. Helens 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Staffordshire 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Stockport 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Stockton-on-Tees 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Stoke-on-Trent 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 Suffolk 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Sunderland 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 Surrey 1 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 Sutton 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 Swansea 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Swindon 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 Tameside 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Thurrock 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Torbay 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Tower Hamlets and City of London 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 1 Trafford 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 Vale of Glamorgan 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Wakefield 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Walsall 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Waltham Forest 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 Wandsworth 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 Warwickshire 0 0 0 1 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 Wessex 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 2 0 1 2 0 West Berkshire 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 West Sussex 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Westminster 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 Wigan 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 Wiltshire 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Windsor and Maidenhead 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Wirral 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Wokingham 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Wolverhampton 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 Worcestershire and Herefordshire 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 Wrexham 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 York 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 Total 16 14 21 21 29 30 20 12 18 17 29 35
Youth offending team Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Barking and Dagenham 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 Barnet 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Barnsley 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Bath and North East Somerset 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Bedfordshire 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 Bexley 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 Birmingham 0 1 3 0 2 2 1 2 3 3 0 0 Blackburn with Darwen 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Blackpool 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 Blaenau, Gwent and Caerphilly 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Bolton 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Bournemouth and Poole 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Bracknell Forest 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Bradford 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 Brent 1 1 0 0 3 1 1 0 1 0 0 3 Bridgend 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 Brighton and Hove 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Bristol 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 Bromley 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 Buckinghamshire 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Bury 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 Calderdale 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Cambridgeshire 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 Camden 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Cardiff 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Carmarthenshire 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Ceredigion 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Cheshire 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 Conwy and Denbighshire 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 Cornwall 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 Coventry 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Croydon 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 3 1 Cumbria 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Darlington 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Derby 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 Derbyshire 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 Devon 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Doncaster 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 Dorset 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Dudley 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Durham 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 Ealing 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 3 1 1 East Riding of Yorkshire 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 East Sussex 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 Enfield 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Essex 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Flintshire 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Gateshead 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 Gloucestershire 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 Greenwich 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 Gwynedd Mon 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Hackney 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 Halton and Warrington 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 Hammersmith and Fulham 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 Haringey 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 Harrow 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 Hartlepool 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Havering 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 Hertfordshire 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 Hillingdon 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 Hounslow 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 Islington 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 Kensington and Chelsea 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 Kent 1 2 1 0 1 0 2 0 3 1 0 1 Kingston-upon-Hull 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 Kingston-upon-Thames 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 3 0 Kirklees 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 Knowsley 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 Lambeth 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 2 0 0 Lancashire 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 Leeds 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 Leicester City 1 2 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 2 0 Leicestershire 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 Lewisham 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 Lincolnshire 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 Liverpool 0 1 2 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 Luton 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Manchester 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 1 1 1 0 0 Medway 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Merthyr Tydfil 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Merton 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Milton Keynes 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Monmouthshire and Torfaen 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Neath Port Talbot 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Newcastle-upon-Tyne 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 Newham 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 Newport 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Norfolk 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 North East Lincolnshire 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 North Lincolnshire 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 North Somerset 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 North Tyneside 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 North Yorkshire 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Northamptonshire 1 2 2 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 Northumberland 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Nottingham 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 Nottinghamshire 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 Oldham 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 Oxfordshire 2 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 Pembrokeshire 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Peterborough 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 Plymouth 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Powys 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Reading 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 Redbridge 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 Rhondda Cynon Taff 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Richmond-upon-Thames 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Rochdale 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Rotherham 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 Salford 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 1 Sandwell 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 2 0 0 0 Sefton 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Sheffield 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 Slough 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Solihull 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Somerset 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 South Gloucestershire 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 South Tees 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 South Tyneside 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Southend-on-Sea 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Southwark 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 St. Helens 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Staffordshire 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Stockport 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 Stockton-on-Tees 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 Stoke-on-Trent 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 Suffolk 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 Sunderland 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 Surrey 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Sutton 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Swansea 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Swindon 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Tameside 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Thurrock 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Torbay 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 Tower Hamlets and City of London 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Trafford 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 Vale of Glamorgan 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Wakefield 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Walsall 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 Waltham Forest 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 Wandsworth 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 Warwickshire 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 Wessex 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 3 2 1 2 West Berkshire 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 West Sussex 0 2 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 Westminster 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 Wigan 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Wiltshire 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Windsor and Maidenhead 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Wirral 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Wokingham 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Wolverhampton 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 Worcestershire and Herefordshire 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Wrexham 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 York 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Total 24 37 29 17 38 30 32 27 37 40 34 29
Women and Equality
Equality and Human Rights Commission
As at 30 October 2009, pay gap figures for the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) are as follows:
Percentage Gender 3.04 Ethnic minority 9.66 Disability 8.90
The figures take into account significant changes at the EHRC since November 2008 including the transfer of individuals under TUPE from SITEL into the commission, harmonisation of pay and grading structures and the reorganisation of its helpline.
Children, Schools and Families
Children in Care
A “former relevant child” is a young person aged 18+ (i.e. legally adult) who was either a looked after child before reaching legal adulthood or a child who had left care after the age of 16 but before the age of 18, who would be entitled to continuing leaving care support from their responsible local authority.
Information on the number of former relevant care leavers for England only can be found in the statistical first release titled “Children looked after in England (including adoption and care leavers) year ending 31 March 2008”:
http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000810/index.shtml
Table LAG1 shows the number of looked after children now aged 19 years old and who were looked after on 1 April 2005 then aged 17 years old (in their 17th year) by local authority. This table can be found in the excel link titled (3rd set of additional tables).
Statistics on Children Looked After in Wales are produced annually by the Local Government Data Unit and the Welsh Assembly Government. Data for the period up to the end of March 2009 were released on 26 August 2009 and can be found at the following link:
http://wales.gov.uk/topics/statistics/headlines/health2009/hdw200908262/?lang=en
Table 7 shows a time series for the number of care leavers on their 19th birthday.
The following link is to the Statistical First Release “Children looked after in England (including adoption and care leavers) year ending 31 March 2009”:
http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000878/index.shtml
Table LAG1 for the year ending 31 March 2009 will be available by the end of this year.
Children: Social Services
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 Libraries.
Letter from Christine Gilbert:
Your recent parliamentary question has been passed to me, as Her Majesty's Chief Inspector, for response.
Ofsted has now received 21 serious case reviews relating to child deaths cited in the report “Learning Lessons, taking action: Year 2”, which covered the period April 2008 to April 2009, These relate to 27 children.
Ofsted is awaiting three serious case reviews relating to child deaths cited in the report and two of these are likely to be submitted to Ofsted imminently. The third is due to be completed by 31 December 2009 and is therefore expected in January 2010. Each of these relates to one child.
Seven Local Safeguarding Children Boards informed Ofsted that a decision had been made not to conduct a serious case review in relation to child deaths cited in the report. Each of these related to one child. One further Local Safeguarding Children Board is still awaiting the final results of the post mortem in order to consider whether the criteria for instigating a serious case review are met. This case also relates to one child.
A copy of this reply has been sent to Rt Hon Dawn Primarolo MP, Minister of State for Children, Young People and Families, and will be placed in the library of both Houses.
Education Maintenance Allowance: Peterborough
This is a matter for the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) who operate the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) for the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF). Geoffrey Russell the LSC’s Acting Chief Executive, will write to the hon. Member for Peterborough with the information requested and a copy of his reply will be placed in the House Libraries.
Faith Schools: Islam
The Government are committed to a diverse system of schools driven by, and responsive to, parental needs and aspirations but decisions on the establishment of individual maintained schools are taken locally under established decision making arrangements with no direct role for Ministers in individual cases.
Similarly, local demand will dictate whether there is a need for an independent school and provided it can meet the regulatory standards required for entry on to the register of independent schools, an independent school can be established to meet parental needs.
We highly value the contribution that all maintained faith schools make to education in the maintained sector but do not distinguish between different faiths. The Government will accordingly continue to support the establishment of new schools including faith schools in the maintained sector where the local decision making process shows that is what parents and the local community want and where the school is willing and able to comply with the requirements on all maintained schools. However, we do not have any centrally driven targets for the establishment of new faith schools of any type.
Schools: Playing Fields
The Department does not hold estimates of the numbers of schools that do not have their own playing fields, this is a matter for local authorities.
Schools are required to have access to team game playing fields proportionate to their pupil numbers and type.
School playing fields are protected by Section 77 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998.
Sure Start Programme
There have been no recent representations about increasing the number of Sure Start Children's Centres.
Local authorities are responsible for rolling out Sure Start Children's Centre programmes in their areas so that by March 2010 there are at least 3,500 centres, one for every community. We are on track to achieve this target.
Local authorities determine changes in their portfolio of Sure Start Children's Centres in discussion with Together for Children (TfC), the Government's delivery partner supporting the rollout of children's centres.
Young People: Social Services
(2) what estimate he has made of the average cost of training a detached youth social worker in the latest 12-month period for which figures are available;
(3) what the average cost of recruiting a detached youth social worker was in the latest 12-month period for which figures are available;
(4) what the average (a) starting salary and (b) salary of a detached youth social worker was in the latest 12-month period for which figures are available.
The Department does not collect any specific information on the pay and pay-related costs, training costs, recruitment and salary levels of “detached youth social workers”.
However, the 2008 Joint Negotiating Committee for Youth and Community Workers, Pay and Workforce Survey shows that youth support workers with NVQs and VRQs at Levels 2 and 3 will normally work in posts with a starting salary of around £15,000, whilst professional youth worker posts command a starting salary of around £22,000. Posts with more responsibility have salaries ranging from £27,000 to £34,000. The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) shows that in 2008, the gross annual pay of all full-time youth workers averaged £24,219 p.a.
Cabinet Office
Death
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Jil Matheson, dated November 2009:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many deaths attributed to (a) horse riding and (b) ecstasy were recorded in the last 10 years. (297922)
Table 1 below provides (a) the number of deaths where the underlying cause was an accident to a rider of an animal or an occupant of an animal-drawn vehicle, in England and Wales, for the years 1999 to 2008 (the latest year available).
Information on the cause of death recorded at death registration by a medical practitioner or coroner is coded using the World Health Organization International Classification of Diseases (Ninth Revision for the years 1999 to 2000, and Tenth Revision from 2001 onwards). Although there are ICD codes to identify deaths where the underlying cause was an accident to a rider of an animal or an occupant of an animal-drawn vehicle, these codes are not specific to the type of animal involved in the accident. It is therefore not possible to say definitively that all deaths presented in Table 1 were related to horse riding.
Table 2 below provides (b) the number of deaths where the underlying cause was drug poisoning, and ecstasy was mentioned on the death certificate, either alone or together with other substances, in England and Wales, for the years 1999 to 2008.
ONS figures on drug-related deaths identify all substances that were mentioned on the death record. Where more than one substance was mentioned, it is not possible to state which of them was primarily responsible for the death.
Deaths (persons) 1999 19 2000 19 2001 15 2002 19 2003 20 2004 24 2005 19 2006 11 2007 9 2008 12 1 Cause of death was defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) codes E827 and E828 for the years 1999 and 2000, and Tenth Revision (ICD-10) code V80 for the years 2001-2008. 2 Figures for England and Wales include deaths of non-residents. 3 Figures are for deaths registered in each calendar year.
Deaths (persons) Ecstasy mentioned alone Ecstasy mentioned with other substances 1999 6 21 2000 10 28 2001 26 55 2002 24 56 2003 29 50 2004 24 43 2005 33 58 2006 27 48 2007 28 47 2008 15 44 1 Cause of death was defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) for the years 1999-2000, and Tenth Revision (ICD-10) for the years 2001-2008. Deaths were included where the underlying cause was due to drug poisoning (corresponding ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes are shown in Box 1 below), and where ecstasy was mentioned on the death certificate, either alone or together with other substances. 2 Figures for England and Wales include deaths of non-residents. 3 Figures are for deaths registered in each calendar year.
Description ICD-9 ICD-10 Mental and behavioural disorders due to drug use (excluding alcohol and tobacco) 292, 304, 305.2-305.9 F11-F16, F18-F19 Accidental poisoning by drugs, medicaments and biological substances E850-E858 X40-X44 Intentional self-poisoning by drugs, medicaments and biological substances E950.0-E950.5 X60-X64 Assault by drugs, medicaments and biological substances E962.0 X85 Poisoning by drugs, medicaments and biological substances, undetermined intent E980.0-E980-5 Y10-Y14
Death: Prostate Cancer
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Jil Matheson, dated November 2009:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking what the level of mortality from prostate cancer was in Ashford constituency in each of the last five years. (297609)
The attached table provides the number of deaths where prostate cancer was the underlying cause of death, in Ashford parliamentary constituency, for the years 2004 to 2008 (the latest year available).
Males 2004 19 2005 18 2006 19 2007 27 2008 17 1 Cause of death for prostate cancer was defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) code C61. 2 Based on boundaries as of 2009. 3 Figures are for deaths registered in each calendar year.
Hakluyt
The information requested for the Cabinet Office is not readily available and may not be obtained without incurring disproportionate costs.
Jobseeker’s Allowance
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Jil Matheson, dated November 2009:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking what the average length of time was for which claimants resident in Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey constituency were in receipt of jobseeker's allowance in (a) each of the last 12 months and (b) each of the last five years. (297825)
The number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) is taken from the Jobcentre Plus administrative system. The length of a claim has been defined as the time between the start of an individual's claim and the count date in each reference month. Table 1 shows the median length of live claims during the last 12 months up to the latest available period in September 2009, and for September of each of the last five years.
National and local area estimates for many labour market statistics, including employment, unemployment and claimant count are available on the NOMIS website at:
http://www.nomisweb.co.uk
Median length of claim (months) September 2004 10.1 September 2005 10.9 September 2006 10.9 September 2007 9.4 September 2008 8.2 October 2008 8.0 November 2008 8.2 December 2008 8.6 January 2009 9.1 February 2009 9.0 March 2009 9.7 April 2009 10.6 May 2009 11.4 June 2009 12.0 July 2009 12.1 August 2009 12.2 September 2009 12.5 1. Length of claim data is only available for computerised claims, which account for 99.7 per cent. of all claims. Source: Jobcentre Plus Administrative System
Ministers: Training
Information on training undertaken by Ministers is not held centrally.
Training is provided to Ministers as necessary in order to carry out their duties effectively under the Ministerial Code.
Unemployment: Bexley
I have been asked to reply.
Table 1 as follows shows the number and percentage of people aged1 16 to 24 not in education, employment or training (NEET) in the local education authority (LEA) of Bexley from 2000 to 2008. These estimates are from the Annual Population Survey.
Complete training and education data are unavailable prior to 2000 so estimates of people not in education, employment or education are not available for 1997.
Due to small sample sizes, estimates cannot be provided for areas smaller than LEAs such as constituencies. Please note that these estimates are subject to sampling variability and should be viewed in conjunction with their confidence intervals (CIs), which indicate how accurate an estimate is. For example, a CI of +/- 0.6pp means that the sampling variability ranges from 0.6pp above the estimate and 0.6pp below the estimate. Confidence intervals have been provided in table 1 as follows.
Number Percentage Confidence intervals 20002 2,000 12 +/- 7.7 20012 3,000 13 +/- 7.4 20022 3,000 11 +/- 5.6 20032 2,000 9 +/- 6.4 2004 2,000 8 +/- 6.1 2005 2,000 7 +/- 5.2 2006 4,000 17 +/- 8.3 2007 3,000 12 +/- 6.7 2008 3,000 14 +/- 7.6 1 Age used is the respondents’ academic age, which is their age at the preceding 31 August. 2 Estimates prior to 2004 are from the Annual Local Area Labour Force Survey, the predecessor to the Annual Population Survey. It covers the period from March in the given year to February in the next. Note: Numbers have been rounded to the nearest thousand.
Business, Innovation and Skills
Apprentices
The adult Apprenticeship budget is not separated according to the level of the framework undertaken. The total adult budget available for Apprenticeships for 2009-10 is £390 million.
Apprentices: Finance
Our records show that in 2007-08, £202,000 was spent by the Learning and Skills Council on funding level four or higher-level apprenticeship places. This includes new learners who started an apprenticeship that year and funding those who had started their programme in the previous year. Prior to 2006-07, level four apprenticeships were not available. A higher-level apprenticeship is not an award/qualification and as such the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) is unable to capture data regarding provision of that nature.
Higher-level apprenticeships are only available in a limited number of areas, such as engineering and ICT. The Department will shortly publish the Specification of Apprenticeship Standards for England (SASE), which will for the first time set out the essential components and standards for all apprenticeship frameworks. The SASE will require that all frameworks include clear career progression routes, including higher-level apprenticeships and other routes through further and higher education.
Apprentices: Greater London
Data about the total number of apprentices made redundant are not currently held centrally. We have put in place for this academic year, from 1 August 2009, arrangements to record the number of apprentices who are made redundant. We expect these data to be available from early in 2010.
Apprentices: North West
(2) how many government-funded apprenticeship places were available in each local authority area in the North West in each of the last five years.
Apprenticeship funding for further education (FE) colleges and providers is set out in a maximum contract value (MCV). This amount reflects the anticipated cost for an academic year of supporting learners continuing on programmes from earlier years as well as new starts. We do not fund on the basis of expected places rather the number of total learners that can be supported in a given year with the funds available.
Planning assumptions for funded apprenticeship places for the 2009/10 academic year were published in the Grant Letter to the Learning and Skills Council (November 2008). Further to this, we announced a £140 million package to deliver 35,000 extra apprenticeship places over 2009/10. Although information on apprenticeship places is not available, we do publish the number of apprenticeship starts in each academic year, at both a national and sub-national level.
Apprenticeship Starts for 2003/04 to 2007/08 were published in a statistical first release (SFR) on 25 June:
http://www.thedataservice.org.uk/statistics/sfrjun09.
Supplementary table 5.1 shows apprenticeship starts by constituency, local authority, Government office region and England for 2003/04 to 2007/08.
Supplementary table 11.1 shows provisional apprenticeship starts for the first nine months of 2008/09. Provisional full-year figures for 2008/09 were published in a statistical first release on 22 October:
http://www.thedataservice.org.uk/statistics/sfroct09.
Supplementary geographic breakdowns will be available shortly after the main release.
Bank Services: Fraud
On 2 July the Government published the Consumer White Paper “A Better Deal for Consumers: Delivering Real Help Now and Change for the Future”. The Paper details plans for more effective enforcement at those that deliberately set out to defraud consumers, often targeting the most vulnerable and to empower consumers through better enforcement and information.
The Office of Fair Trading takes the lead on tackling mass scams. The OFT and Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) lead on the development of the “National Fraud Strategy” in partnership with a wide range of other enforcement, consumer and industry bodies which launched on 19 March 2009. The strategy sets out the UK’s strategic priorities to tackle fraud and will provide a framework and long term commitment to making the UK the world’s hardest target for fraudsters.
In addition, the Government have invested £7.5 million over three years (in 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11) for specialist Trading Standards scambuster teams in Scotland, Wales and every region of England. These are dedicated teams working across local authority boundaries focusing on the hardest-to-tackle scams and rogue trading practices. To date, the teams have uncovered an estimated £30 million worth of fraud, made an estimated £6.5 million of consumer savings, and seized £4.5 million of criminal assets.
Broadband
While there is currently no figure for the number of households in the United Kingdom connected to high speed broadband internet, approximately 12 million households are within reach of fast broadband via Virgin Media's cable network. This covers approximately 50 per cent. of all UK households. BT announced its plans to invest £1.5 billion in a fibre-based super-fast broadband network. They plan to have the service available to one million households by March 2010 and the service should be available to around 40 per cent. of the UK's homes and businesses by 2012. They are currently rolling out superfast broadband to 10,000 homes in Ebbsfleet and have a 40Mbps service pilot scheme to 15,000 homes in Muswell Hill and Whitchurch.
Other high speed broadband developments include H20's Fibrecity scheme to 88,000 homes in Bournemouth and Dundee and Redstone's scheme serving 5,000 homes in Belfast.
Competition
There is no set criteria, however all decisions on recommendations made to Government by the competition authorities are considered very carefully. Although it is the role of this Department to formally respond, Government collectively will weigh up a number of factors which include costs and benefits and the impact on the wider economy. The factors taken into account will vary according to the market and the recommendation in question. In addition Government would not want to prejudge or rule out the range or type of issue that might be raised by stakeholders during any consultation that followed.
Since the Enterprise Act 2002 came into force, the Competition Commission (CC) and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) published the following market study investigations and market studies respectively which made recommendations to government: These are listed as follows:
CC market investigations
Supply of Groceries in the UK
Supply of Airport Services by BAA in the UK
Rolling Stock Leasing.
OFT market studies
Pharmacies
Private dentistry in the UK
Regulation of Licensed Taxi and PHV services in the UK
Estate Agency in England and Wales
Doorstep Selling
Public Subsidies
Property Searches
Care Homes
Opium Derivatives
Commercial Use of Public Information
UK Airports
Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme
Medicines Distribution
Home Building
Sale and Rent back.
Further details about the CC and OFT reports are available at the following website links:
http://www.oft.gov.uk/advice_and_resources/resource_base/market-studies/
http://www.competition-commission.org.uk/inquiries/current/index.htm
In addition, the Secretary of State (SoS) has intervened in nine merger cases on public interest grounds. In such cases, final decisions are taken by the SoS based on reports received from competition authorities. A list giving further details can be found at the following website link:
http://www.berr.gov.uk/whatwedo/businesslaw/competition/mergers/public-interest/index.html
Employment Tribunals Service
This information is not collected by either the Department or the Higher Education Funding Council for England.
Framework for Excellence
Since becoming Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, I have received no representations from any further education college about the Framework for Excellence. The framework was one of several topics covered in a letter (15 June 2009) from the Association of Colleges (AoC), which I replied to on behalf of my right hon. and noble Friend the Secretary of State. It was also part of a subsequent discussion I had with Martin Doel, Chief Executive of the AoC, during our introductory meeting on 8 July.
Further Education
(2) how many adult further education students are studying (a) full-time and (b) part-time;
(3) how many 19 to 24 year-olds in adult further education are studying (a) full-time and (b) part-time.
Table 1 shows students in LSC funded-provision by age group.
Age Learner numbers Learner (%) Under 19 1,061,700 22 19-24 743,900 16 25-34 895,000 19 35-44 887,900 19 45-59 802,300 17 60+ 336,600 7 Unknown 27,200 1 Total 4,754,700 100
Table 2 shows LSC-funded further education participation by mode of attendance, for learners of all age groups.
AH Learners Learner numbers Full-Time Full-Year 816,400 Full-Time Part-Year 187,700 Part-Time 3,745,600 Unknown 5,100 Total 4,754,700
Table 3 shows LSC-funded further education participation by mode of attendance, for learners aged between 19 and 24.
19-24 year old Learners Learner numbers Full-Time Full-Year 90,500 Full-Time Part-Year 32,500 Part-Time 620,000 Unknown 900 Total 743,900 Notes: 1. Source data includes ASL, LR and ERILR datasets. 2. Figures have been rounded to the nearest hundred, and may not sum to total due to rounding. 3. Age is based on academic age at the 3 August of the academic year. 4. Part-time Part Year includes part-time Distance Learning, Open Learning, E-Learning and Evening Learning. 5. FE Students classified for statistical purposes as full-time are defined as those enrolled on programmes of at least 450 guided learning hours per year, or for at least 150 guided learning hours per tri-annual period or more than 16 guided learning hours per week for shorter courses. Full-time students who enrol on a programme of at least 450 guided learning hours per year are classified as full-time full-year. This includes those students who withdraw from the programme during the year and actually attend for less than 450 guided learning hours. Also counted as full-time full-year are students who enrol on programmes of less than 450 guided learning hours but stay longer than expected and actually attend for more than 450 guided learning hours. Full-time students who are not classified as full-time full-year are classified as other full-time. All other students are classified as part-time.
Higher Education: Botany
(2) how many PhDs in botany have been awarded by universities in England in each of the last five years.
The latest information from the Higher Education Statistics Agency is shown in the following table. Figures for the 2008/09 academic year will be available in January 2010.
Academic years 2003/04 to 2007/08 Academic year Doctorate First degree Other undergraduate 2003/04 65 80 55 2004/05 60 60 60 2005/06 55 65 40 2006/07 60 60 55 2007/08 65 45 50 1 Covers qualifiers of all domiciles from both full-time and part-time courses. Note: Figures are based on a qualifications obtained population and have been rounded to the nearest five. Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA)
Insolvency
Official statistics for company insolvencies are not available at local authority level, however figures for England and Wales as a whole are available on the Insolvency Service website.
The number of insolvent individuals in England and Wales is available broken down by the equivalent of local authority levels; these official statistics can be found on the Insolvency Service website here:
http://www.insolvency.gov.uk/otherinformation/statistics/regionalstatisticsmenu.htm
Job Creation
I have been asked to reply.
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Jil Matheson:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question on the number of new jobs created in (a) England, (b) the North East, (c) Tees Valley and (d) Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency in each year since 1997. (297330).
While statistics of new jobs created are not available explicitly, statistics from surveys enable comparisons to be made of net changes in employment from year to year.
The Office for National Statistics compiles employment statistics for local areas from the Annual Population Survey (APS), and its predecessor the Annual Labour Force Survey, following International Labour Organisation definitions.
Table 1 attached provides estimates where they are available based on people aged 16 and over, in employment, and resident in (a) England, (b) the North East, (c) Tees Valley and (d) Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency in each year since 1997.
The employment estimates presented in Table 1 for England have been compiled from the APS to be consistent with the regional statistical bulletin estimates for the North East and lower level geographies. Therefore, these estimates differ from headline LFS employment estimates.
Estimates provided for 1997 to 2003, using the Annual Labour Force Survey are for the twelve months from March each year. Estimates for 2004 to 2008, using the APS are for the twelve months ending December in each year. The most recent estimates also use the APS, but are for the twelve months ending March 2009.
As with any survey, results from the APS at a small geographical area are subject to a margin of uncertainty.
Thousand, not seasonally adjusted Date England North East Tees Valley and Durham2 Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland 19974 22,193 1,057 — 43 19984 22,511 1,050 — 41 19994 22,784 1,046 — 43 20004 22,994 1,071 — 39 20014 23,269 1,072 — 40 20024 23,387 1,079 — 41 20034 23,671 1,091 480 43 20045 23,826 1,119 502 46 20055 24,103 1,135 506 44 20065 24,274 1,146 521 47 20075 24,491 1,165 527 49 20085 24,627 1,160 521 44 20096 *24,585 *1,158 **520 ***44 1 Includes those full-time and part-time on New Deal. 2 Estimates are not currently available at this level of geography before 2003. 3 2005 parliamentary constituency boundary revision. 4 Based on the Annual Labour Force Survey (LFS) covering the 12 months from March in each year presented. 5 Based on Annual Population Survey (APS) covering the 12 months to December in each year presented. 6 Based on the Annual Population Survey (APS) covering the 12 months to March in the year presented. Notes: 1. As some of these estimates are for a subset of the population in a small geographical area, they are based on small sample sizes, and are therefore subject to large margins of uncertainty. 2. Coefficients of Variation have been calculated for the latest period as an indication of the quality of the estimates. See Guide to Quality below. Guide to Quality: The Coefficient of Variation (CV) indicates the quality of an estimate, the smaller the CV value the higher the quality. The true value is likely to lie within +/- twice the CV—for example, for an estimate of 200 with a CV of 5 per cent. we would expect the population total to be within the range 180-220 Key Coefficient of Variation (CV) (%) Statistical Robustness * 0 ≤ CV<5 Estimates are considered precise ** 5 ≤ CV <10 Estimates are considered reasonably precise *** 10 ≤ CV <20 Estimates are considered acceptable **** CV ≥ 20 Estimates are considered too unreliable for practical purposes Source:Annual Population Survey and Annual Labour Force Survey
Learning and Skills Improvement Service: Finance
In 2009-10 BIS funding is expected to be around £98 million which represents 73 per cent. of the total LSIS income for the year.
Liverpool John Moores University: Manpower
We have received no representations on this matter. However, as we made clear in Higher Ambitions, published on 3 November, Government will not become involved in decisions about staffing matters made by universities.
Publications
The UK-commissioned PricewaterhouseCoopers Due Diligence report on the sale by General Motors to Magna of a majority stake in its European division contains information where release may be damaging to international relations, formulation of Government policy and commercial interests. It also contains information provided in confidence. Therefore, it will not be placed in the Libraries of the House.
Students: Finance
83 per cent. of student finance applications from Suffolk were approved by 18 October, this compares with 88 per cent. at the equivalent point in the previous year. This excludes applications approved but awaiting student signature. Separate figures are not available for loans and grants, which are covered by the same application form. Higher education institutions have different start dates, so data is not available on applications processed in time for the start of the academic year.
2008/09 2009/10 Position 18 October 2008 Position 18 October 2009 Number of applications Percentage Number of applications Percentage Approved 9,700 88 10,100 83 Of which: Course started prior to 18 October and attendance confirmation received 9,100 82 9,400 77 Course started prior to 18 October and no attendance confirmation yet 500 5 600 5 Course start after 18 October 2— 2— 2— 2— Approved awaiting student signature 300 3 400 4 In progress 500 4 800 6 Online application not completed 200 2 300 3 Ineligible/cancelled 300 3 500 4 Withdrawn/suspended 2— 2— 2— 2— Total applications 11,100 100 12,200 100 1 Application figures rounded to nearest 100. 2 Less than 50 applications. Source: Student Loans Company.
After the application has been assessed and approved, a student who applied online will then need to sign a declaration form. If they are a new student, their national insurance number will need to be verified with the Department for Work and Pensions. Thereafter payment will be released once confirmation of attendance has been received from the higher education institution.
80 per cent. of student finance applications from Richmond-upon-Thames were approved by 18 October, this compares with 86 per cent. at the equivalent point in the previous year. This excludes applications approved but awaiting student signature. Separate figures are not available for loans and grants, which are covered by the same application form. Higher Education Institutions have different start dates, so data is not available on applications processed in time for the start of the academic year.
2008-09 2009-10 Position at 18 Oct 08 Position at 18 Oct 09 Applications % Applications % Approved 3,300 86 3,300 80 Course started prior to 18 October and Attendance Confirmation of which: Received 3,100 80 3,200 76 Course started prior to 18 October and no Attendance Confirmation yet 200 5 200 4 Course Start after 18-10-2008 2— 2— 2— 2— Approved awaiting student signature 200 4 300 6 In Progress 300 7 300 7 Online not Completed 100 2 100 3 Ineligible/Cancelled 100 2 200 4 Withdrawn/Suspended 2— 2— 2— 2— Total Applications 3,900 100 4,100 100 1 Application figures rounded to the nearest 100. 2 Less than 50 applications Source: Student Loans Company
After the application has been assessed and approved, a student who applied on-line will then need to sign a declaration form. If they are a new student their National Insurance Number will need to be verified with the Department for Work and Pensions. Thereafter payment will be released once confirmation of attendance has been received from the Higher Education Institution.
England figures on applications in academic years 2008-09 and 2009-10 are available from the SLC website at
www.slc.co.uk/statistics/facts_figures.html
My right hon. and noble Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills has announced that the Independent Review of Variable Tuition Fees will be launched this autumn.
It is too early to say precisely how long the review will last, but it will be dealing with complex issues and will require adequate time to consult with the many stakeholders.
Office for Fair Access (OFFA) collects information annually about bursary payments and publishes a report. OFFA has already published the figures for 2006-07 and 2007-08, and will publish those for 2008-09 in May next year.
Students: Lancashire
80 per cent. of student finance applications from Lancashire were approved by 18 October, this compares with 79 per cent. at the equivalent point in the previous year. This excludes applications approved but awaiting student signature. Separate figures are not available for loans and grants, which are covered by the same application form. Higher Education Institutions have different start dates, so data is not available on applications processed in time for the start of the academic year.
2008/09 2009/10 Position at 18 October 2008 Position at 18 October 2009 Applications Percentage Applications Percentage Approved 20,200 79 21,400 80 Of which: Course started prior to 18 October and attendance confirmation received 18,900 74 20,000 75 Course started prior to 18 October and no attendance confirmation yet 1,300 5 1,400 5 Course start after 18 October 2— 2— 2— 2— Approved awaiting student signature 1,300 5 1,100 4 In progress 3,000 12 2,000 8 Online not completed 600 2 700 3 Ineligible/cancelled 400 2 1,400 5 Withdrawn/suspended 2— 2— 2— 2— Total applications 25,600 100 26,800 100 1 Application figures rounded to the nearest 100. 2 Less than 50 applications. Source: Student Loans Company
After the application has been assessed and approved, a student who applied online will then need to sign a declaration form. If they are a new student their national insurance number will need to be verified with the Department for Work and Pensions. Thereafter payment will be released once confirmation of attendance has been received from the Higher Education Institution.
Students: Loans
Early provisional England figures for the academic year 2008/09 are available from the Statistical First Release Student Support for Higher Education in England, Academic Year 2008/09 (Provisional), available from the Student Loans Company website at
www.slc.co.uk/pdf/slcsfr052008.pdf.
This gives early figures of £2,541.2 million maintenance loans and £2,047.7 million tuition fee loans. Figures will increase with late applications. Updated figures will be published in November 2009.
Estimated early provisional figures for Coventry domiciled students, at the same point as the Statistical First Release, give around £14.7 million maintenance loans and around £11.7 million tuition fee loans in academic year 2008/09. Figures will increase with late applications.
Technology Strategy Board: Finance
During the financial year 2008-09 the Technology Strategy Board offered grant funding of £117.1 million to new projects involving UK businesses. Of this, £577,000 went to projects involving UK video games businesses.
University Centre Peterborough
I am pleased to report that the Higher Education Funding Council for England announced on 5 October 2009 that 200 new Additional Student Numbers (full time equivalent) would be made available for the university centre at Peterborough in 2010-11. HEFCE has contributed £5 million to the development of this project. However, I should make clear that under the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 I take no part in these individual funding decisions.
Vocational Training: Finance
Authority to spend or commit resource is agreed by Parliament through the estimates process which sets the expenditure limits for each Department one year at a time. Departments are not permitted to commit expenditure that exceeds these limits.
In November 2008 we set out the 2009-10 financial year allocation to the Learning and Skills Council (LSC). This showed an increase of nearly 15 per cent. in employer responsive (Train to Gain and Adult Apprenticeships) funding compared to 2008-09 financial year.
Funding allocations for 2010-11 financial year will be announced later this autumn.