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Public Bodies
Dr. Wright : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list those responsible for making appointments of (a) chairs and (b) members of the boards to each of the executive non-departmental public bodies sponsored by his Department.
Mr. Redwood : Responsibility for appointing (a) chairs and (b) members of the boards of the executive non-departmental public bodies sponsored by the Welsh Office rests with the Secretary of State for Wales, with the exception of the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments whose appointments are made under royal warrant. My ministerial colleagues and senior officials assist in interviewing and selecting suitable candidates.
Council Tax
Mr. Richards : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many council tax appeals have been received in Wales.
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Mr. Gwilym Jones : As at 30 November 53,623 proposals for the alteration of the valuation list had been received by the Valuation Office Agency. This represents 4.4 per cent. of all dwellings in the valuation lists. Of these 10,600 had already been settled. The Welsh Office is considering the arrangements for dealing with outstanding appeals with the agency and representatives of the valuation tribunal service.
Appointments (Women)
Mr. Richards : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many of the appointments made by him are held by women.
Sir Wyn Roberts : An updated list of appointments at 1 December 1993 has been placed in the Library of the House. Women hold 200--25 per cent.-- appointments out of a total of 784 ; there are 14 vacancies.
EDUCATION
Grant-maintained Schools
Mr. Straw : To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will place in the Library tables showing in respect of each local education authority the number of school pupils of primary and secondary age who are resident within the local education authority area but who are educated in maintained schools outside the local education authority area, and the numbers of pupils educated in maintained schools within the local education authority area who are resident outside the area with the resident and receivintg local education authority area specified in each case.
Mr. Robin Squire : The information requested will be placed in the Library, together with an explanatory guide. The data are provisional and based on the position at January 1993.
Head Teachers
Mr. Dunn : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what are the current average salaries for primary school head teachers, secondary school head teachers, primary school teachers and secondary school teachers.
Mr. Robin Squire : The new earnings survey recorded the average salary of all primary school teachers, including head teachers, in Great Britain at 1 April 1993 as £19,760 and of all secondary school teachers, including head teachers, as £21,663. The average salary of a primary school head teacher is estimated as £26,316 and a secondary school head teacher as £35,891.
Public Bodies
Dr. Wright : To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will publish a table showing, in 1992-93 prices, the gross public spending for each year since 1990-91 and the projected expenditure for each year to 1995 -96 for each executive non-departmental public body sponsored by his Department, as listed in "Public Bodies 1992".
Mr. Boswell : Details of the Department's funding for these bodies, in 1992-93 prices, are shown in the table. Planning allocations for 1995-96 will be announced as soon as possible.
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£'000s
|1990-91 outturn |1991-92 outturn |1992-93 outturn |1993-94 current |1994-95 plans
|Estimates provision
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Business and Technology Education Council Self funding. Became wholly independent and ceased to be NDPB sponsored by DFE
1 October 1993
Central Bureau for Educational Visits and |3,336 |3,632 |3,848 |3,955 |3,896
Exchanges Merged with British Council
1 December 1993: FCO now
sponsor but DFE pays grant
Council for Information on Language Teaching |591 |677 |949 |782 |775
and Research
Council for National Academic Awards Self-funding. Wound up 31 March 1993 - -
Education Assets Board |609 |519 |858 |2,609 |2,516
Further Education Unit 4,274 3,249 3,545 Funding responsibility transferred to
Further Education Funding Council
1 April 1993
National Council for Educational Technology |5,145 |5,151 |5,658 |4,790 |4,563
National Curriculum Council |8,104 |7,994 |8,135 |2,954 |-
Wound up 30 September 1993
National Youth Agency |Established |1,911 |1,495 |1,304 |1,298
|1 April 1991
Polytechnics and Colleges Funding Council 1,219,255 1,031,285 1,034,601 Wound up 31 March 1993
School Examinations and Assessment Council |8,535 |10,936 |12,383 |4,010 |-
Wound up 30 September 1993
Teaching as a Career Unit |1,642 |1,456 |1,407 |1,145 |1,112
Universities Funding Council 2,027,988 1,850,557 1,806,426 Wound up 31 March 1993
Dr. Wright : To ask the Secretary of State for Education if heell : The Secretary of State makes the initial appointments of members of boards of governors of higher education corporations. Subsequent appointments are for the boards themselves to determine. In certain circumstances the appointment of independent members may be made by the existing independent members of the board. Chairs of boards, in relation to either initial or subsequent appointments, are appointed by the boards of governors from among their members.
Dr. Wright : To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will list those responsible for making appointments of (a) chairs and (b) members of the boards of governors for grant-maintained schools.
Mr. Robin Squire : Chairmen of self-governing (grant-maintained) schools are elected by the governing body as a whole at the first meeting of every school year. Every governing body must include parent governors, teacher governors, the head teacher and either first governors (in the case of former county schools) or foundation governors (in the case of former voluntary schools).
Parent and teacher governors are elected respectively by parents of registered pupils at, and teachers employed by, the school. First governors are appointed by the governing body, while foundation governors continue to be appointed by those so entitled when the school had voluntary status.
Dr. Wright : To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will list those responsible for making appointments of (a) chairs and (b) members of the boards to each of the executive non-departmental public bodies sponsored by his Department.
Mr. Boswell : The information required is as follows :
Central Bureau for Educational Visits and Exchanges
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Chairman and members appointed by the Secretary of State for Education.Centre for Information on Language Teaching
Chairman and 10 members appointed by the Secretary of State for Education.
One member appointed by the Secretary of State for Scotland. Education Assets Board
Chairman and members appointed by the Secretary of State for Education.
(Appointment to the post of chief executive will in future be made by the board subject to the approval of the Secretary of State for Education.)
Further Education Funding Council for England
Chairman and members appointed by the Secretary of State for Education.
Further Education Unit Board of Management
Chairman and members appointed by the Secretary of State for Education after consultation with the Secretary of State for Wales. Higher Education Funding Council, England
Chairman and members appointed by the Secretary of State for Education.
National Council for Educational Technology
Twelve appointments made by the Secretary of State for Education. One appointment made by the Secretary of State for Wales. One appointment made by the Secretary of State for Scotland. One appointment made by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
National Youth Agency Management Committee
Chairman and members appointed by the Secretary of State for Education.
Schools Curriculum and Assessment Authority
Chairman and members appointed by the Secretary of State for Education.
Teaching as a Career Unit Board
Director and members appointed by the Secretary of State for Education.
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Dr. Wright : To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will list those responsible for making appointments of (a) chairs and (b) members of the boards of governors of further education corporations.
Mr. Boswell : The members of each further education corporation are responsible for appointing a chairman from among their number. Initial appointments were made by virtue of the instruments of government in the case of FE corporations to conduct former FE colleges and by the Secretary of State in the case of corporations to conduct former sixth form colleges. New or additional members are normally appointed by the corporation.
Dr. Wright : To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will list those responsible for making appointments of (a) chairs and (b) members of the boards of governors of city technology colleges.
Mr. Robin Squire : City technology colleges are charitable companies and under the model scheme of government the members of the companies are responsible for appointing the chairs and members of the boards of governors.
Student Loans
Mr. John D. Taylor : To ask the Secretary of State for Education from which European Community countries students enrolled in United Kingdom universities qualify for the students loans schemes.
Mr. Boswell : European Community students may be eligible for a student loan if they have been ordinarily resident in the British islands for three years before the start of their course ; or are refugees ; or have established migrant worker status.
Student Grants
Mr. David Nicholson : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what representations he has received indicating that students falsely claim elements of grant for living
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away from home ; what estimates he has of the amounts of money involved ; and if he will make a statement on the measures he has in place to check this fraud.Mr. Boswell : Mandatory awards are paid by local education authorities. The responsibility for ensuring that adequate controls and systems are in place, and operate satisfactorily, rests with them. Authorities receive grant from my right hon. Friend on their lawful expenditure on mandatory awards, and their annual certificates of expenditure must be endorsed by independent auditors. My right hon. Friend has received no representations of the kind to which my hon. Friend refers.
Schools Funding
Mr. Clifton-Brown : To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will review the system of funding for all primary and secondary schools to take account of their age and structural condition.
Mr. Robin Squire : My right hon. Friend has no plans to do so.
Stratford School
Mr. Tony Banks : To ask the Secretary of State for Education how Mr. Mark Prisk became a governor of Stratford school ; who nominated him ; what are his local qualifications ; when he was made a governor ; and when he became chairman of the governors.
Mr. Robin Squire : All questions concerning the appointment of individual governors at Stratford school are a matter for the governing body.
Departmental Offices (Heating Bills)
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will list by location the annual fuel heating bills for each of his Department's offices for the last four years, and for this year to date.
Mr. Boswell : The information is set out in the table :
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Fuel heating costs for DFE in financial years and by location
£000s
|1989-90 |1990-91 |1991-92 |1992-93 |<1>1993-94
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sanctuary Buildings, SW1<2> (occupied December 1991) |- |- |19.1 |30.4 |16.7
Elizabeth House, SE1 (vacated March 1993) |38.7 |60.1 |36.0 |30.5 |-
Lading House, WC2 |2.3 |2.2 |2.5 |3.0 |2.0
Canons Park, Middlesex (minimal occupation from April 1992) |8.0 |9.5 |10.4 |- |-
Orange Street, WC2<2> (vacated 1992-93) |3.3 |2.5 |2.0 |- |-
Mowden Hall, Darlington |11.3 |18.8 |18.6 |23.0 |7.4
Vincent House, Darlington (occupied December 1991) |- |- |0.3 |2.4 |4.5
Corporation House, Darlington (occupied April 1990) |- |6.0 |5.2 |5.7 |1.0
Enterprise House, Darlington |0.6 |1.3 |1.2 |1.1 |0.2
Stead House, Darlington (occupied 1992) - - Space taken within Inland Revenue building
HMI local offices (transferred to OFSTED April 1992) |18.6 |15.6 |24.4 |- |-
<1>Data covers main gas and oil heating only except for Lading House which is electrically heated.
<2>Electricity consumption by air-conditioning systems (where installed) cannot be separated from consumption on other plant,
equipment and lighting and is therefore not included.
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Teachers (Citizenship)
Mr. Win Griffiths : To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will list by local education authority the number of teachers employed who are not EU citizens ; and if he will set out their nationality, qualifications and type of post occupied.
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Mr. Robin Squire : The information requested is not centrally available.
Theological Colleges
Mr. Roger Evans : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what public funding is made available for theological colleges in England ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Boswell : Fees are payable under the Education (Mandatory Awards) Regulations for eligible students holding mandatory awards attending designated courses at theological colleges. Fees are paid at varying rates for students at colleges which are part of publicly funded universities. Designated courses at other theological colleges attract fees of £715 per student.
Final Examinations (Deferment)
Dr. Lynne Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what means of publicly funded support are available to students who defer final examinations due to illness or personal circumstances.
Mr. Boswell : The financial support available to students who defer final examinations will depend on the arrangements made by individual institutions for students to take their examinations.
When the student holds a mandatory award and is absent from the course for a short period the local authority which bestowed the award has power to continue to make such payments of the award as they consider appropriate. If the student has to repeat some or all of the final year of the course he may receive payments of the award, at the discretion of the LEA, and a student loan, depending on the amount of time he is in attendance at the institution ; and he can apply for help from the access funds. After 28 weeks of certified sickness a student may claim income support and housing benefit.
RAF Chivenor
Mr. Harvey : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what additional support he intends to allocate to Devon county council and schools in Braunton to cope with the funding implications of the Government's announcement that it proposes to run RAF Chivenor down to a care maintenance regime.
Mr. Robin Squire : The Government set the framework for the distribution of resources through the standard spending assessment (SSA) system in a way which takes account of the number of pupils for whom local authorities are financially responsible. Allowing for local authority changes of function, the underlying increase in Devon's provisional education SSA for 1994-95 is 3.3 per cent.--a higher than average increase. Devon county council is responsible for determining its spending priorities and for allocating resources to schools through its scheme of local management. It will be free to take account of changes at RAF Chivenor.
Expenditure
Mr. French : To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will list for each local authority for the last five years (a) the education component per pupil of the
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standard spending assessment, (b) net institutional expenditure per pupil and (c) the relationship of one figure to the other expressed as a percentage.Mr. Robin Squire : The information is not available in the form requested. I will write to the hon. Member.
TRADE AND INDUSTRY
Price Marking Order
Sir Donald Thompson : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what is the current status of the Price Marking (Bargain Offers) Order.
Mr. McLoughlin : The Price Marking (Bargain Offers) Orders 1979 was revoked in 1989. Its provisions were replaced by the provisions of part III of the Consumer Protection Act 1987, which make it an offence to give a misleading price indication by any means, and the code of practice for traders on price indications issued under section 25 of that Act.
Milk Marketing Board
Mrs. Peacock : To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will immediately refer for examination by the Office of Fair Trading the methods employed by the Milk Marketing Board in seeking to establish Milk Marque as its private monopolistic successor.
Mr. Neil Hamilton : The Office of Fair Trading has been consulted on the reorganisation scheme which the Milk Marketing Board has submitted to my right hon. Friends the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Secretary of State for Wales. My right hon. Friends have recently completed public consultation on the scheme. They will have regard to whether the scheme takes account of the interests of consumers and producers of milk and to whether the structure of the new arrangements contemplated by the scheme is such as to allow for the development of competition in milk marketing in deciding whether to approve it.
The wholesale supply of milk is at present excluded from the monopoly reference powers of the Director General of Fair Trading under the provisions of the Fair Trading Act 1973, but I propose to make an order withdrawing this exclusion from the date reorganisation takes place. The Director General of Fair Trading will then have a responsibility to monitor developments in the milk market and will be able to make a reference to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission if he deems it appropriate.
EC Programmes
Mr. Wigley : To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will discuss with the European Commission what measures should be introduced to replace the integrated operations and RECHAR programmes after 31 December ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Sainsbury : I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply I gave to the hon. Member for Leeds, Central (Mr. Fatchett) on 9 December, Official Report, column 348.
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Vehicle Tracker Devices
Mr. French : To ask the President of the Board of Trade how many (a) United Kingdom manufacturers and (b) United Kingdom suppliers of vehicle tracker devices are known to his Department.
Mr. Sainsbury : We know of no United Kingdom manufacturers and only one supplier of this imported device.
Thorp
Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the President of the Board of Trade when Her Majesty's Government first provided Euratom with a full set of design details of the thermal oxide reprocessing plant to assist in the preparations of safeguards and nuclear materials security arrangements.
Mr. Eggar : Such information is supplied to Euratom by the plant operator, BNFL, in confidence. However, a general description of the interaction of BNFL with Euratom on this subject is given in the paper "THORP : The route to a safeguardable plant", presented in May 1993 at the European Safeguards Research and Development Association, 15th annual symposium on safeguards and nuclear materials management held in Rome, Italy.
Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what was the cost to Her Majesty's Government for the assistance afforded to Euratom in its design verification of the thermal oxide reprocessing plant and attendant facilities in preparing its nuclear safeguards arrangements for THORP.
Mr. Eggar : The cost of undertaking design verification of the THORP plant was met by the Euratom safeguards directorate and BNFL.
Departmental Offices (Heating Bills)
Mr. Redmond : To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will list by location the annual heating fuel bills for each of his Department's offices for the last four years, and for this year to date.
Mr. Eggar : The information is not available in the form requested.
Accounts Services Agency
Mr. Alex Carlile : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what measures he is planning to take to retain the Accounts Services Agency in the public sector ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Eggar : I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 13 December, Official Report, column 493.
Insolvency Service
Mr. Garrett : To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will place in the Library the report by Stoy Hayward, "Options for the Insolvency Service".
Mr. Neil Hamilton : I am currently considering what further work needs to be done following the Stoy Hayward review and shall announce to the House in due course what the next steps will be, including any plans for making public the contents of Stoy Hayward's report.
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Advertising
Mr. Matthew Taylor : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what the cost of advertising by his Department has been for each year since 1979 and for each of the last 12 months.
Mr. Eggar : Expenditure in each of the last 12 months was as follows :
|£000
--------------------
1992
December |12
1993
January |14
February |31
March |781
April |15
May |8
June |4
July |11
August |155
September |28
October |11
November |3
For expenditure in earlier years I refer the hon. Member to previous answers :
To the hon. Member for The Wrekin (Mr. Grocott) on3 December 1993, Official Report, column 765, which contains the details for 1992-93 ; and to the hon. Member for Holborn and St. Pancras (Mr. Dobson) on 2 June 1992, Official Report, column 496-97, which has figures for 1991-92 and references to Official Report answers containing information for the earlier years.
Brewers
Mr. Fatchett : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what investigation his Department has carried out to find out whether the minimum purchasing limit is being implemented by brewers in line with his Department's policy as set out in the Beer Orders ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Neil Hamilton : The Beer Orders require brewers owning more than 2,000 pubs to permit their tenants to purchase a guest beer. Imposition by the brewers of minimum purchase orders for their own beer is not necessarily incompatible with that requirement. The Director General of Fair Trading is responsible for monitoring compliance with the Beer Orders and anyone who believes they have evidence of a breach of the orders should write to him.
Business Link Projects
Mr. Fatchett : To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will set out for each business link project (a) the amount of public sector money scheduled to be spent in 1993-94 and (b) the amount of private sector funding which has been attracted.
Mr. McLoughlin : My Department has made formal offers of, on average, £984,233 pump-priming grant to three business link companies payable over three years. The level of each offer depends upon the level of assistance the business link needs to help business in its area. Each business link company may also receive public sector funds from other sources such as local authorities or via TECs. The total DTI pump-priming grant to business links
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