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Miss Widdecombe [holding answer 28 April 1994] : The figures are shown in the table :
|Number
-----------------------------
October 1991 |22
November 1991 |24
December 1991 |19
January 1992 |19
February 1992 |15
March 1992 |16
April 1992 |2
May 1992 |6
June 1992 |12
July 1992 |41
August 1992 |6
September 1992 |18
October 1992 |34
November 1992 |37
December 1992 |24
January 1993 |53
February 1993 |57
March 1993 |16
April 1993 |25
May 1993 |30
June 1993 |34
July 1993 |52
August 1993 |1
September 1993 |0
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Labour Statistics, Scotland
Mrs. Fyfe : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many employees in Scotland are in part-time jobs.
Mr. Stewart [holding answer 28 April 1994] : I have been asked to reply. For December 1993, the latest date for which information is available, it is estimated that 542,000 employees in employment in Scotland worked part-time.
EDUCATION
School Transport
Ms. Walley : To ask the Secretary of State for Education (1) if he will extend to all local education authorities the dispensation agreed with Strathclyde council education authority in respect of finance of seat belt installation in school minibuses and buses ; and if he will make a statement ;
(2) if he will make it his policy to apply to local education authorities in England the same rules on school transport as are applied by Strathclyde regional council ; and if he will make a statement ;
(3) if he will publish the guidance issued by his Department to local education authorities in respect of the safety of schoolchildren in transit ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Forth : My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Transport has national responsibility for vehicle safety matters. The Department for Education has already published general advice on school transport to all local education authorities in a circular letter on 21 January 1994. A copy is in the Library. It recommended that seat belts should be worn where fitted, and reminded authorities that home-to-school transport which they provide or arrange must carry pupils in reasonable safety and comfort. It also advised authorities to encourage contractors to observe the school transport safety code to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, which was issued with the endorsement of the Secretary of State in 1991. Copies were distributed to all education authorities and schools.
Sex Education
Mr. Alan Howarth : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what steps he is taking to ensure that the skills of those responsible for teaching sex education in schools are co-ordinated with those of health education professionals in the Department of Health.
Mr. Forth : The forthcoming circular on sex education will offer schools advice on liaison with, and the use made of, external sources of help, including health service professionals.
Mr. Alan Howarth : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what plans he has to set up an inter-departmental working group to share, develop and co-ordinate good practice in the delivery of sex education in schools.
Mr. Forth : My right hon. Friend has no such plans. The forthcoming draft circular will give schools comprehensive advice on the discharge of their statutory responsibilities for sex education. Further guidance is already available from a variety of sources.
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Mr. Alan Howarth : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what plans he has to ensure that all schools are able to take advantage of training for delivering sex education, in the period prior to the implementation of the Education Act 1993.
Mr. Forth : The grants for education support and training programme for 1994-95 extends the specific grant already available to support the basic curriculum and assessment to cover teacher in-service training and materials associated with the new arrangements for sex education. Schools are free to use this grant as they judge fit.
Special Educational Needs
Mr. James Hill : To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will make it his policy that children with special educational needs should be educated as near to their home as possible ; and what account is taken of the wishes of children and parents in this matter.
Mr. Forth : The Education Act 1993 requires local education authorities to comply with any preference of parents of a child with a statement of special educational needs regarding the maintained school they want their child to attend. This duty applies unless the school is unsuitable to the child's needs or the child's placement would be incompatible with the interests of other children already in the school or with the efficient use of the LEA's resources. The draft code of practice on the identification and assessment of special educational needs, which we expect to be debated in both Houses shortly, contains extensive guidance on the placement of children with special educational needs, emphasising the importance of parents' views and that, so far as possible, the views of the child are taken into account during the statutory assessment and in the statement.
Mr. James Hill : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what consideration has been given to the use of financial incentives to local education authorities for them to reduce the proportion of children with statements of special educational needs ; what link has been made between the amount of money that a local authority receives from Government sources and the reduction of provision in places in special needs schools ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Forth : The draft code of practice on the identification and assessment of special educational needs, which we expect to be debated in both Houses shortly, sets criteria aimed at ensuring that statutory assessments and statements are made only when necessary. It also emphasises the role of mainstream schools in making special educational provision for the majority of pupils with special educational needs.
LEAs may receive capital allocations following the approval of statutory proposals involving surplus place reduction in maintained special schools. Any such allocation will depend on the authority's need for capital expenditure to implement the proposals. My right hon. Friend always takes into account value for money and capital costs when determining such proposals.
Mr. James Hill : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what steps he is taking to ensure that provision
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for special educational needs places is made a consequence of the informed judgment of parents, education psychologists, teachers and social services as to what is the most desirable education that a child with special needs should receive, and to avoid influence by statistical targets for the percentage of children with special needs in the local authority.Mr. Forth : The draft code of practice on the identification and assessment of special educational needs, which we expect to be debated in both Houses shortly, offers guidance designed to help teachers, LEA officers and other professionals work together with parents to ensure that every child receives the educational provision appropriate to his or her individual special educational needs.
Mr. James Hill : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what is his policy governing the percentage of children with statements of special educational needs in a local authority in maintained schools ; and in what form this policy is conveyed to local authorities.
Mr. Forth : The Government's policy is set out in the Education Act 1993 and the draft code of practice on the identification and assessment of special educational needs, which we expect to be debated in both Houses shortly, and which, subject to parliamentary approval, will be distributed to all maintained schools and local education authorities. The policy is that children with statements of special educational needs should, subject to the wishes of their parents, be educated alongside their peers in mainstream schools, so long as this would be compatible with the child receiving the special educational provision he or she needs ; the interests of other children already in the school ; and the efficient use of resources. The placement of an individual child is a matter for judgment by the local education authority in the light of a statutory assessment of the child : where appropriate and subject to the views of parents, placement might be made in a school not maintained by the LEA.
Assisted Places Scheme
Mr. Donohoe : To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many schools in England received (a) more than £1 million and (b) more than £250,000 per annum from his Department under the operation of the assisted places scheme ; and if he will list the 50 schools which received most money from his Department under the assisted places scheme, in order, along with the total amounts which they received in the last year for which figures are available.
Mr. Forth : The information for parts (a) and (b) is as follows : (a) 4 ; (b) 161. The other information requested is shown in the table :
Assisted places schemes
1992-93 academic year
|Fees/expenses
|remitted by DFE
School name |£ thousands
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dulwich College |1,291
Wisbech Grammar school |1,148
St. Edward's College Liverpool |1,104
Emanuel school |1,046
Latymer Upper school |972
Alleyn's school Dulwich |902
Haberdasher's Aske's Boys school |851
Royal Grammar school Worcester |826
Newcastle-under-Lyme school |815
Hereford Cathedral school |806
Bristol Grammar school |759
Wolverhampton Grammar school |749
Bolton school (Boys) |734
Queen Elizabeth Grammar school Blackburn |726
James Allen's Girls school |721
St. Mary's College Crosby |720
Manchester Grammar school |714
King Edward VI school Southampton |705
Kings school Worcester |701
Wellington school Somerset |692
St. Bede's Manchester |682
Bolton school (Girls) |673
Plymouth College |671
Brighton College |645
William Hulme's Grammar school Manchester |629
King Edward's school Birmingham |624
Godolphin and Latymer school |621
Bradford Grammar school |620
Batley Grammar school |588
Liverpool College |584
Edgehill College |583
Colfe's school |579
Birkenhead High school (GPDST) |564
Hampton school |563
Merchant Taylor's Boys Liverpool |553
City of London school |552
Exeter school |548
Stockport Grammar school |547
St. John's College Southsea |547
Denstone College |541
Malvern College |540
Kingston Grammar school |533
Queen Mary school |532
Bury Grammar school (Girls) |530
Pocklington school |530
Royal Grammar school Guildford |516
Trinity School of John Whitgift Croydon |513
King Edward VII school Lytham |512
Old Palace school |511
Royal Grammar school Newcastle |508
Parliamentary Questions
Mr. Meacher : To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many parliamentary questions, in the period November 1992 to March 1993, were answered with the response that the information requested is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost ; and how many were referred on to an agency chief executive.
Mr. Boswell : The number of answers given to parliamentary questions by the Department for the period requested recorded in the POLIS database as including a reference to the information being available only at disproportionate cost was 56. The number of questions answered recorded by the POLIS database as including a reference to the question being referred to an agency chief executive was two.
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TRANSPORT
Executive Agencies
Mr. Dunn : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what targets he has set for the executive agencies in his Department.
Mr. MacGregor : I have set the following key targets for 1994-95 for the Department of Transport's executive agencies.
The key targets for the Coastguard Agency are to :
Discharge my responsibility for maritime search and rescue (SAR), through the agency's own or dedicated assets, by maintaining a 24 hours SAR co- ordinating capability within, and including the coasts and shoreline of, the United Kingdom search and rescue region (UKSRR) and by maintaining a comprehensive radio reception and transmission coverage of the UKSRR which enables SAR co-ordination action for the duration of incidents without interruption or equipment malfunction ;
Determine through the United Kingdom SAR and local SAR Committees the availability, readiness, capability and responsiveness of SAR resources, to seek agreements with the appropriate controlling authorities for improvements as necessary and to report to me, identifying any improvements, by March 1995 ;
Pursue an SAR prevention strategy through training, patrols, and public relations endeavours, including a safety campaign to be launched by 30 April (costing £25,000) designed to reduce incidents involving sea canoeists ;
Maintain a fully operational 24 hours channel navigation information service covering the Dover strait traffic separation scheme, in concert with the appropriate French authorities ; Discharge my responsibility for the prevention of marine pollution by the maintenance of a national contingency plan, and in particular to test the effectiveness of the plan by undertaking a major exercise and to report to me on the outcome by 31 March 1995, and where appropriate to activate the plan within 30 minutes of an incident and commence action at sea to deal with a spill of dispersible oil within four hours of notification of an incident ;
Carry out 500 hours of aerial surveillance of the sea area for which the United Kingdom has responsibility, to detect or deter incidents of marine pollution, including illegal discharges from ships ;
Make a running costs efficiency gain of 3 per cent.; and ; Investigate, and report to me by December 1994, on a means of measuring awareness of, and satisfaction with, the services provided by the agency.
The key targets for the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency are : To meet or better an overall efficiency improvement of 4 per cent.;
Deliver 95 per cent. of ordinary driving licence cases to customers within 12 working days of receipt and deliver medical cases within 22 working days of receipt ;
Deliver 95 per cent. of vocational driving licence cases within 10 working days of receipt and deliver medical cases within 30 working days of receipt ;
Deliver 95 per cent. of first provisional driving licence cases within 11 working days of receipt ;
Deliver 95 per cent. of cases involving changes to vehicle registration documents within 13 working days of receipt ; Deliver 95 per cent. of registration documents for new vehicles within 13 working days of receipt ;
Answer 80 per cent. of telephone enquiries within 30 seconds ; Deliver answers to 95 per cent. of written enquiries within eight working days of receipt ; and
Complete successfully 457,000 VED enforcement cases by imposition of penalties and recover through penalties and duty from induced relicensing at least £2.60 for every £1 (full costs) spent by DVLA on VED enforcement.
The targets and key tasks for the Highways Agency are to :
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Report, using existing management information systems, on the agency's internal unit costs for the management and supervision of new construction schemes over £3 million in value, compared to costs in the last three years ;Develop an information system for attributing all staff and other costs to the agency's outputs, identifying those attributable to motorways and other trunk roads separately wherever possible, so as to extend the coverage of unit costs beyond the new construction of national schemes, and enable comprehensive targets for reductions in unit costs to be set in future years ;
Meet the aims and targets enshrined within The Citizen's Charter, The Road User's Charter and the agency's charter standard statement Your Home and Trunk Road Proposals ;
Develop systems for measuring the performance of the network, including quality of service indicators, and introducing targets for 1995-96 ;
Reach scheme milestones designated with the prioritised roads programme and listed in The National Roads Programme : Summary and Milestones as follows : complete 18 schemes ; start works on 22 schemes ; and reach 85 per cent. of the other scheme milestones ; State in the agency's Annual Report the average time taken to complete schemes that are completed in 1994-95, compared with the performance in recent years, and the average time between milestones for all those schemes that reach milestones in 1994-95, and compare this with previous years' performance ;
Complete all schemes within the approved scheme brief (that is, on time and to budget) and, with the central Department, devise appropriate performance measures ;
Monitor, and state in the Annual Report, the benefit-cost ratio for the national roads programme based on the scheme briefs ; and agree with the central Department a target level for 1995-96 and following years , below which the average should not fall ;
Monitor, and state in the annual report, the unit cost of new construction ;
Carry out up to five post-scheme evaluations as agreed with the central Department ;
Maintain the trunk road network effectively by planning a programme of capital maintenance to ensure that the target of reducing the percentage of the road network past the critical condition to 7 to 8 per cent. by the year 2000 is achieved and that all bridges on the network are able to carry the full assessment loading for vehicles of 40 tonne maximum gross vehicle weight by the end of 1998, by (in 1994-95) : reconstructing 137 nearside lane kilometres (nlks) of trunk road and 40 nlks of motorway ; overlaying a further 394 nlks of trunk road and 227 nlks of motorway ; assessing the structural capacity of 795 bridges and strengthening 177 bridges ; and monitoring, and stating in the annual report, the unit cost of road maintenance ;
Contribute to the Government's target of reducing road casualties by one third by the year 2000, compared to the annual average for 1981-85 ;
Publish, as part of the agency's annual report, a section reporting its activities to promote road safety, including the accident rate on motorways and trunk roads ;
Publish as part of the agency's annual report a report on environmental matters ; and
Produce certified appropriation accounts by August 1995, and unaudited financial statements in an annual report by October 1995. The key targets for the Marine Safety Agency are to :
Complete by 30 November the calculations for the phase-in criteria for ro ro passenger ferries built before 1990 and implement the first stage of the North West European ro ro passenger stability agreement and the related United Kingdom regulations by 30 November 1994 ; Submit to me an interim report by 31 October 1994 reviewing the fishing vessel safety provisions legislation including the progress made, in consultation with the industry, towards a fishing vessel safety code of practice for vessels under 12 metres in length ; Complete by 31 March 1995 technical negotiations within the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to secure amendments to chapter one (general provisions) and for the introduction of mandatory ships' routing and reporting under chapter V (safety of navigation) of the safety of life at sea
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convention, including the drafting of any statutory instruments to give effect to the adopted amendments in United Kingdom law ; Provide technical input to the European Community (EC) negotiations on the proposed directives dealing with convergent application of IMO rules and resolutions and specifically on segregated ballast tanks, ship safety equipment, transit and access in EC waters, and standards for vessels not covered by the safety of life at sea convention ; Establish by 31 March 1995 mechanisms to allow the delegation of further survey and certification work to the private sector and the arrangements for its audit ; and to audit by 31 March 1995 two organisations already authorised to undertake survey and certification work ;Undertake port state control inspections, including operational aspects, of 30 per cent. of the foreign flagged vessels using United Kingdom ports ;
Achieve a running costs efficiency gain of 3 per cent. ; and As part of a two year programme of deregulation, produce proposals by 31 December 1994 for a first round of revocations of regulations. The key targets for the Transport Research Laboratory are to : Cover full costs with income from customers while meeting the net control total in the 1994-95 Supply Estimates ;
Ensure direct fee-earning costs as a percentage of total operating costs are greater than 57 per cent.;
Achieve average staff utilisation in research resource centres of at least 1300 hours per year on direct fee-earning work ; and Ensure that at least 94 per cent. of completed projects assessed by customers are rated as satisfactory or better
The key targets for the Vehicle Certification Agency are to : Issue 90 per cent. of whole vehicle and system and component certificates by dates agreed with customers ;
Ensure that at least 98 per cent. of certificates issued are free of errors caused by the agency and where errors do occur to issue corrected documents within three working days in 75 per cent. of cases ;
Audit at least 50 per cent. of the agency's approved quality procedures and to achieve a satisfactory appraisal report on technical performance from my Department's chief mech-anical engineer ;
Achieve, or better, a net output unit cost of £71.29 ;
Achieve a Treasury accounts direction for the agency's 1994-95 accounts ;
Implement a new data system for job and product line costing ; Deliver legislation, enforcement and information pro-grammes required by the Department to timetables and within budget ; and Develop a model contract for the provision of testing services by agents and to begin a trial of that contract with at least one agent.
The key targets for the Vehicle Inspectorate trading fund are to :
Achieve an efficiency improvement of 5 per cent. as measured by the agency's aggregate cost efficiency index ;
Break even while achieving a 6 per cent. real rate of return on capital employed ;
Achieve an HGV/PSV test exemption rate of less than 0.01 per cent. ;
Achieve an HGV/PSV test error rate of less than 0.47 per cent. ; Achieve a roadworthiness prohibition error rate of 0.5 per cent. ; Return 95 per cent. of maintenance assessments for "O" licence renewals and variations within six weeks and 99 per cent. within 12 weeks ;
Decide 99 per cent. of all MOT statutory appeals against refusal to issue test certificates within five working days ;
Produce 95 per cent. of Traffic Commissioners reports within four weeks unless another deadline has been agreed, and to produce 95 per cent. within the agreed deadline ;
Examine a minimum of 1.4 million HGV and 145,000 PSV tachograph charts ;
Weigh a minimum of 115,000 goods vehicles ; and
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Have at least 90 per cent. of weighbridge equipment available nationally.With regard to key targets for the Driving Standards Agency, I refer my hon. Friend to the reply my hon. Friend the Minister for Roads and Traffic gave on 12 April 1994 at column 83.
These targets are set out in the agencies' business plans which also include management objectives and performance indicators, where appropriate to the agencies' business. Copies of the business plans of the Coastguard Agency, Highways Agency, Marine Safety Agency and Vehicle Certification Agency have been placed in the Library of the House. The business plans of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency and the vehicle inspectorate will be placed in the Library shortly. The business plan of the Transport Research Laboratory is commercially confidential.
Metropolitan Traffic Area Office
Mrs. Dunwoody : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport in which month and year the Metropolitan traffic area office moved to Charles house, London ; and in which month and year it closed.
Mr. Key : The Metropolitan traffic area office moved from Bromyard avenue to Charles house between July and September 1988. The Metropolitan traffic area office in Charles house was closed in May 1991 as part of the restructuring of the traffic areas.
Tunnel House, Clayton
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what discussions his Department has had with British Rail about preserving the 1836 Tunnel house at Clayton built over the London-Brighton line ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Freeman : None, the future of the Clayton Tunnel house is a matter for Railtrack. I understand however, that Railtrack is currently assessing what repairs if any are required to this grade II listed building.
BR Land (Trepass)
Mr. Morley : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many cases in respect of trespass and endangering safety of persons on railway lines were brought by the British Transport police and the Crown Prosecution Service in each year since 1991.
Mr. Freeman : The information requested is as follows :
|Trespass|Endanger
|safety
------------------------------------
1991 |4,149 |386
1992 |5,150 |344
1993 |7,010 |543
Mr. Morley : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many incidents of hunts trespassing on British Rail property were recorded in (a) 1991, (b) 1992 and (c) 1993.
Mr. Freeman : There were three recorded incidents of hunts trespassing on British Rail property in 1991, 10 in 1992 and 11 in 1993.
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Mr. Morley : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what advice his Department issues to British Rail regarding trespass on BR property.
Mr. Freeman : The Department does not issue advice to BR or Railtrack regarding trespass on their property.
Traffic Area Offices
Mrs. Dunwoody : To ask the Secretary of State for Tranpsort, pursuant to his answer of 7 February, Official Report, column 97, how much was spent in the financial year 1993-94 on publishing the traffic area office annual report and the traffic area office customer service guides ; and what are the costs of the customer service guides as a percentage of the running costs of traffic area co-ordination division and the traffic area office network.
Mr. Key : The cost of publishing the traffic area annual report and the customer service guides during the financial year 1993-94 was £3, 500. The costs of the customer service guides represented less than 0.5 per cent. of running costs of traffic area co-ordination division and the traffic area office network.
Mrs. Dunwoody : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Don Valley (Mr. Redmond) of 28 February, Official Report, column 563, what plans he has to make available information about how to complain about goods or public service vehicles at places other than traffic area offices ; and what plans he has to publicise the existence of traffic area offices.
Mr. Key : Complaints about goods vehicles and public service vehicles may be addressed to a number or organisations depending on the nature of the complaint. The two main organisations within my Department are the Vehicle Inspectorate and the local traffic area office. Both these organisations have published or are about to publish codes of practice which will explain how to make complaints. The code of practice for traffic area offices which came into effect on 1 April 1994 explains the operator licensing and bus registration services they provide their customers. This code will shortly be printed in leaflet form for general distribution and will include a map showing the eight traffic area offices, their areas of responsibility, addresses and telephone numbers. A press notice will be issued to publicise the leaflet.
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