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Coal Industry
Mr. Hardy : To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will state the maximum level of dust measured at each colliery operated by British Coal during each of the last three years.
Mr. Eggar : This information is held by British Coal. I have asked the chairman to write to the hon. Member.
Fire Safety
Mr. Hinchliffe : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what recommendations the inter-departmental scrutiny team has made to Ministers regarding the provisions of the Children Act 1989 and the Registered Homes Act 1984.
Mr. Neil Hamilton : My right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Trade announced the publication of the report of the inter-departmental review of fire safety legislation and enforcement on 22 June, Official Report, columns 228-29.
The report makes a number of recommendations for change, including some proposals which may affect the operation of the Children Act 1989 and the Registered Homes Act 1984 or premises covered by them. As my right hon. Friend made clear on 22 June, the Government are committed to full consultation with all interested parties before any changes are made to existing arrangements.
Electricity Industry
Mr. Tipping : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what recent discussions he has had with the industry's regulator about the profits of regional electricity companies.
Mr. Eggar : Ministers meet the Director General of Electricity Supply regularly to discuss a wide range of issues. I understand that the director general will take the
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financial circumstances of the companies into account as part of his review of the regional electricity companies' distribution price controls.EDUCATION
Public Bodies
Mr. Kilfoyle : To ask the Secretary of State for Education (1) if he will list those of his Department's advisory non-departmental public bodies which the Government are required to consult prior to legislation proposals ; and in respect of which bodies the Government must publish their response to advice supplied by them ;
(2) if he will list the advisory non-departmental public bodies sponsored by his Department which have a statutory base ; (3) if he will list the advisory non-departmental public bodies sponsored by his Department which are required to lay their annual reports before Parliament ;
(4) if he will list his Department's advisory non-departmental public bodies which are required to produce annual reports ; (5) if he will list his Department's advisory non-departmental public bodies which are required to publish their advice to Government.
Mr. Boswell : On the assumption that the hon. Member is using the definition of an advisory non-departmental public body adopted for the document "Public Bodies 1993", there are no such bodies which fall to be listed.
Mr. Kilfoyle : To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will list any advisory bodies which he has set up in his Department since the publication of "Public Bodies 1993."
Special Educational Needs
Dr. Lynne Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what is the effect of his Department's funding of the Special Educational Needs Tribunal on other education budgets.
Mr. Forth : None. The running costs of the tribunal will be met by this Department, which will itself benefit from some consequent savings in its own running costs. The Welsh Office will contribute in respect of the tribunal's activities in Wales.
Bullying
Mr. Llwyd : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what action his Department is taking on bullying in primary schools ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Forth : My right hon. Friend is concerned to ensure that all schools treat the issue of bullying seriously and take steps to combat it promptly and firmly wherever and whenever it occurs. We have taken a number of measures to help schools to tackle bullying. In 1992, the Department issued the "Action Against Bullying" pack to all schools in England. We have stressed the importance of effective action on bullying in the guidance on pupil behaviour and discipline, published on 27 May as part of the "Pupils With Problems" series of
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circulars. We have recently published leaflets of guidance for pupils and parents on the theme of "Don't Suffer in Silence", and will be making available soon to all television channels a public information film on the same theme. In addition, we intend to publish in the autumn further practical guidance for schools in England based on DFE-funded research at Sheffield university into strategies against bullying.Nursery Education
Mr. Bayley : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what proportion of three and four-year-old children attend a state-run nursery school or nursery class in each local education authority area in Yorkshire and Humberside.
Mr. Robin Squire : Information on pupils under five being taught in maintained nursery schools and nursery classes in primary schools in each local education authority in Yorkshire and Humberside in January 1993 is shown in the table.
Provision of education for under fives in maintained nursery
schools
and nursery classes in primary schools
or each LEA in Yorkshire and Humberside
January 1993
Percentage of
population at
31 December 1992
Local Education |Nursery |Nursery
Authority
|schools |classes in
|primary
|schools
----------------------------------------------------------------
Barnsley |3 |47
Doncaster |0 |41
Rotherham |6 |39
Sheffield |7 |38
Bradford |4 |40
Calderdale |0 |34
Kirklees |5 |36
Leeds |1 |45
Wakefield |5 |45
Humberside |5 |34
North Yorkshire |2 |19
Primary Schools
Mr. Robert Banks : To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many primary schools there are of fewer than 20 pupils in each of the English county authorities.
Mr. Robin Squire : The number of maintained primary schools with fewer than 20 pupils in each of the non-metropolitan counties in England in January 1993 is shown in the table.
Maintained primary schools with less than 20 pupils in non-metropolitan counties in England in January 1993 LEA |Number ------------------------------------- Avon |1 Bedfordshire |1 Berkshire |0 Buckinghamshire |2 Cambridgeshire |0 Cheshire |0 Cleveland |0 Cornwall |3 Cumbria |1 Derbyshire |3 Devon |3 Dorset |0 Durham |0 East Sussex |0 Essex |0 Gloucestershire |2 Hampshire |0 Hereford and Worcester |0 Hertfordshire |0 Humberside |0 Isle of Wight |0 Isles of Scilly |2 Kent |0 Lancashire |3 Leicestershire |0 Lincolnshire |1 Norfolk |5 North Yorkshire |5 Northamptonshire |1 Northumberland |9 Nottinghamshire |1 Oxfordshire |1 Shropshire |3 Somerset |0 Staffordshire |2 Suffolk |1 Surrey |2 Warwickshire |0 West Sussex |0 Wiltshire |1
Mr. Robert Banks : To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many primary schools of fewer than 20 pupils were judged to have failed to meet educational standards in inspections during 1993.
Mr. Robin Squire : This is a matter for Her Majesty's chief inspector of schools, who heads the indpendent Office for Standards in Education. I have asked Professor Sutherland to write the hon. Member.
National Curriculum
Mr. Hain : To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will publish a table outlining the costs of implementing the national curriculum ; what are the costs so far of the current review procedure ; and what is the forecast cost of the national curriculum subjects to be implemented in September 1995.
Mr. Robin Squire : The main elements of direct Government expenditure since 1988 on developing and implementing the national curriculum in England are as follows (in £ million) :
|1988-94 |1994-95
|(outturn) |(estimate)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Grants for Education, Support and
Training (GEST): |457 |93
Government grants to:
National Curriculum Council: |37 |-
School Examinations and
Assessment Council: |66 |-
School Curriculum and
Assessment Authority: |21 |32
Direct expenditure by the
Department for Education: |29 |8
|------- |-------
Totals |611 |133
Notes:
1. GEST is mainly in respect of books, equipment, training and
assessment related to the basic curriculum as a whole (that is the
National Curriculum, including information technology plus
religious education and sex education).
2. Grants to the NCC and SEAC cover the period from 15 August 1988
to 31 December 1993. The grant to SEAC includes some elements
attributable to Wales.
3. Grants to SCAA cover the period from 1 October 1993 to 31 March
1995. The grant in 1993-94 includes some elements attributable to
Wales.
4. Direct expenditure by the DFE excludes staff costs and grants
to the NCC, SEAC and SCAA.
The cost of the review of the national curriculum in England is estimated at £9.3 million. This includes :
(i) £755,000 for the interim and final Dearing reports on the national curriculum,
(ii) £528,000 for work on slimming down the curriculum by SCAA and its advisory groups (excluding SCAA internal staff costs), (
(iii) an estimated £2 million for the current consultation on the revised curriculum proposals (including the cost of publishing and distributing the consultation documents and a report on the outcome of consultation), and
(iv) an estimated £6 million for the publication and distribution of the final subject documents in January 1995 (excluding staff costs).
These estimates are subsumed within the expenditure figures for NCC, SCAA and DFE above.
Grant-maintained Schools
Mr. Byers : To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many complaints were received by his Department about (a) the Government's advertisements for grant-maintained status which appeared in January and February and (b) the information published by governing bodies about grant- maintained status in the run-up to a ballot taking place.
Mr. Robin Squire : The Department has received 61 letters concerning the advertising campaign, of which 54 have been letters of complaint. These figures include letters from correspondents who have written on more than one occasion.
Over the past 18 months, the Department has received 13 complaints about the accuracy of information disseminated by governing bodies prior to school ballots for grant-maintained status.
Assessment and Testing
Mr. French : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what his plans are for the assessment and testing of seven, 11 and 14-year-olds in 1995 ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Patten : High educational standards are of crucial importance for our children and to improve our international competitiveness. The chairman of the School Curriculum and Assessment Authority, Sir Ron Dearing, has confirmed that the tests are educationally sound and the independent school inspectorate, Ofsted, has found that they are raising standards. The Government are determined that these benefits should be extended to all state schools in 1995. To that end, I propose to introduce next year a system of external marking and, where appropriate, additional supply cover. These arrangements will ensure that the tests are marked to tough and objective standards by outside agencies and that the results are made available quickly. The 1995 assessment and testing arrangements
Detailed proposals for assessing and testing seven, 11 and 14-year-olds next year are set out in a consultation
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document to be published today. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales is making parallel and appropriate arrangements. We shall continue with mandatory tests for seven and 14-year-olds and, as already announced, introduce mandatory national tests for 11-year-olds following this summer's large-scale pilot. As an integral part of these arrangements, teachers will also make their own assessment of pupils' progress in English, mathematics and science to set alongside the test results.The tests focus on the vital basics of English, mathematics and science and are therefore unaffected by changes to the curriculum. There has been extensive teacher involvement in their development, which will ensure that the tests are fair and appropriate for all pupils, while remaining rigorous.
Teachers' work load
In order to meet concerns about work load, the tests have already been streamlined. The time taken up by testing was halved in 1994 compared with the year before and the marking and administration were greatly simplified.
However, I intend to take more radical action. I propose to : introduce external marking for the tests of 11 and 14-year-olds. fund supply cover for teachers of seven-year-olds engaged on administering tests and for any teachers of 11 and 14-year-olds responsible for administering practical classroom tests to the least able pupils in these age groups ;
end mandatory external audit of teachers' own assessments of classroom work --although audit of teachers' marking of the English and mathematics tests for seven-year olds will continue.
Taken together, these steps mean that there can be no possible defensible case for industrial action against the tests. The ending of mandatory audit of teachers' own assessments places increased reliance on their professional judgment so far as their own direct area of responsibility is concerned. Although many more schools carried out the tests this year, a substantial number did not, allegedly on the grounds that they involved excessive work load. The arrangements for external marking and supply cover will now remove any vestige of a case on work load grounds for not carrying out the tests in 1995. Parents will not understand if, with no plausible argument based on work load, the demonstrable benefits of testing are denied to pupils because of ideological opposition by some teachers who refuse, in clear breach of their contractual duties, to simply hand out papers and invigilate examinations.
Accountability
A key function of the assessments and tests is to promote accountability to parents. In line with the parents charter, schools will therefore be required to report children's results to parents and to publish the school's overall results in all prospectuses and governers' annual reports. The new arrangements will ensure that schools receive results of their pupils' performance in the tests promptly. The results of seven and 14-year -olds will not be included in school performance tables. It remains the Government's policy that results of 11-year-olds should be included once the tests are established.
Results in national curriculum assessments provide an objective and reliable measure of a school's performance. That is the kind of hard information that I need when considering how to allocate scarce public resources. The results also complement the detailed published Ofsted
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reports on individual schools. If they are not available, I shall have to discuss with Her Majesty's chief inspector of schools the future format and pattern of inspections.This is a package designed to raise standards. It will ensure that all pupils are tested in the basics at seven, 11 and 14. It will ensure that tests are marked objectively and rigorously. It will ensure that parents receive prompt and robust information about the strengths and weaknesses of their children's performance.
FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS
Yemen
Mr. Worthington : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what international action is being taken to protect and care for civilian casualties of the Yemeni war in Aden.
Mr. Douglas Hogg : The Security Council of the United Nations adopted on 29 June a second resolution, No. 931, expressing its deep concern at the humanitarian situation and requesting the Secretary-General to urgently address the needs of those affected by the conflict, in particular the inhabitants of Aden. The International Committee of the Red Cross is active in Yemen, including Aden, and we have responded to its appeal for donations.
Israel
Mr. Worthington : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations he has made to the Israeli Government about the effect of new Israeli settlements in the Golan Heights on the peace process.
Mr. Douglas Hogg : We regularly raise the issue of settlements with our Israeli interlocutors. We welcome recent signs of progress on the Syrian track and Prime Minister Rabin's statements that his Government are prepared to dismantle settlements for peace. We consider all settlements in the occupied territories to be illegal and an obstacle to peace.
SOCIAL SECURITY
Invalidity Benefit
Mr. Bradley : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many individuals over retirement age are in receipt of an invalidity addition to their pension.
Mr. Scott : At 4 April 1992, the latest date for which information is available, there were 47,000 invalidity benefit recipients over pension age also receiving an invalidity allowance . At 30 September 1993, the latest date for which information is available, there were 128,000 retirement pensioners receiving an increase of retirement pension for invalidity under section 47 of the Social Security (Contributions and Benefits) Act 1992 .
Based on a 1 per cent. sample of claimants in Great Britain, rounded to the nearest thousand.
Based on a 10 per cent. sample of retirement pensioners, rounded to the nearest thousand.
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Child Support Agency
Mr. Lidington : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what plans he has to publish details of the performance and targets of the Child Support Agency ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Lilley : The Child Support Agency's annual report for 1993-94 and business plan for 1994-95 will be published on Monday 4 July. Copies will be available in the Vote Office from 10.30 am.
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Mine Workers
Mr. Hardy : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many applications have been considered under the scheme to provide compensation for former mine workers who suffer from serious bronchitis and emphysema ; how many of those have been accepted ; and how many were secured and accepted in each region.
Mr. Scott : The information is not available in the form requested. The following table gives the information by Benefits Agency area directorate as at 19 June 1994, not all the claims received would have been decided by that date:
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Chronic Bronchitis and Emphysema (PD D12) by Area Directorate
Area |Claims |<1>Disallowed on|<2>Disallowed on|<3>Assessed at
|received |employment |medical |14 per cent.
|grounds |grounds |or over disabled
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
South
Anglia |24 |4 |4 |3
Chilterns |22 |5 |3 |0
South East |449 |28 |304 |31
West Country |147 |8 |41 |4
Wales and Central England
East Midlands |5,328 |109 |3,791 |461
Greater Manchester |313 |13 |225 |29
Lancashire and Cumbria |2,165 |116 |1,418 |123
Merseyside |472 |22 |329 |35
Midlands South West |624 |26 |449 |48
Wales |8,696 |543 |5,469 |1,152
West Mercia |3,532 |180 |2,318 |324
Scotland and North
East Scotland |2,366 |79 |1,867 |85
Glasgow |233 |12 |94 |8
North and West Yorkshire |2,511 |83 |1,757 |339
North, Central and West Scotland |1,870 |84 |1,520 |49
South Yorkshire and Humberside |6,272 |141 |4,504 |671
Tyne Tees |6,889 |135 |5,555 |517
|------- |------- |------- |-------
Grand Total |41,913 |1,588 |29,648 |3,879
<1>Claims disallowed on employment grounds are those where the customer had not worked underground in a coal mine for
a period of at least 20 years.
<2>Claims disallowed on medical grounds include-customers with insufficient lung function loss; where category 1
pneumoconiosis has not been diagnosed, and those where chronic bronchitis and/or emphysema has not been diagnosed.
<3>Claims assessed at 14 per cent. or more will result in an award of benefit.
Note:
Not all claims received would have been decided by 19 June 1994.
Based on a 100 per cent. count and subject to amendment.
OVERSEAS DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION
Desertification
Mr. Dafis : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how much additional funding will be made available by the United Kingdom to assist in the implementation of the international convention to combat desertification.
Mr. Lennox-Boyd : We are currently providing substantial funding to assist developing countries to combat desertification. The provision of any additional funding will depend on the extent to which those of our developing country partners that ratify the convention implement the approaches it promotes. Funding decisions will also depend on the degree of priority that they give to such activities in relation to other projects and programmes proposed by them for our support.
Column 750
Mr. Dafis : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on progress in the implementation of the international convention to combat desertification.
Mr. Lennox-Boyd : The text of the convention was adopted on 18 June. It is likely to come into force next year.
Mr. Dafis : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what plans the United Kingdom has to ratify the international convention to combat desertification.
Mr. Lennox-Boyd : We are studying the provisions of the convention. No decision has been taken on signature or ratification.
Nigeria
Mrs. Ann Winterton : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make it his policy to resist the imposition by the European Community
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and other international bodies of further economic and political sanctions against Nigeria ; and if he will make a statement.Mr. Lennox-Boyd : I refer my hon. Friend to the replies that I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Surrey, North-West (Sir M. Grylls) and to her on 29 June, Official Report, columns 684-85.
Mrs. Ann Winterton : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what information he has concerning the extent to which repressive press decrees imposed following the annulment of the June 1993 presidential election in Nigeria have now been repealed ; and what response he has made to such repeals.
Mr. Lennox-Boyd : Most of the repressive press decrees have been repealed ; we welcomed those moves. However, two publishing houses were shut down by the military Government in the run-up to the anniversary of the 12 June 1993 election. We are concerned by this, and urge the military to reverse this repressive action.
TREASURY
Trade Statistics
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) if he will publish a table showing for (a) each year since 1987, (b) each quarter since 1991 and (c) each month since October 1992 the value, volume and unit value for United Kingdom imports and exports of manufactures with EEC, non-EEC countries and world trade in semi-manufactures, finished manufactures and manufactures on a balance of payments basis to take account of the latest statistical revisions ;
(2) if he will publish a table showing for each year since 1987, each quarter since 1991 and each month since October 1992 the levels of United Kingdom overseas trade in consumer goods, intermediate goods and capital goods with EC, non-EC countries and total trade on a balance of payments basis to take account of the latest statistical revisions ;
(3) if he will publish a table showing for (a) each year since 1987, (b) each quarter since 1991 and (c) each month since October 1992 the value of United Kingdom imports and exports of consumer goods, intermediate goods and capital goods with EEC, non-EEC countries and total trade on a balance of payments basis to take account of the latest statistical revisions.
Mr. Nelson [holding answer 30 June 1994] : The information requested is available on the Central Statistical Office database, which can be accessed through the Library of the House.
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish a table showing for 1968, 1973, 1979 and 1988 the ratio of exports to sales of manufactures of consumer goods, intermediate goods and capital goods as described in table B6 of the "Monthly Review of External Trade Statistics" on the same statistical basis as in ratio 3 of table 15.10 of the April 1991 "Monthly Digest of Statistics" together with his best estimate of the corresponding figures for the years 1989 to 1993 and this year to date.
Mr. Nelson : The information requested is not available.
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Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) if he will publish a table showing for countries other than the EC 12 for 1968, 1973, 1979 and 1988 the ratio of imports to home demand for manufactures on the same basis as in ratio 1 of table 15.10 of the April 1991 "Monthly Digest of Statistics" together with his best estimate of the corresponding figures for the years 1989 to 1993 and this year to date ;
(2) if he will publish a table showing for countries other than the EC 12 for 1968, 1973, 1979 and 1988 the ratio of exports to sales of manufactures on the same basis as in ratio 3 of table 15.10 of the April 1991 "Monthly Digest of Statistics" together with his best estimate of the corresponding figures for the years 1989 to 1993 and this year to date ;
(3) if he will publish a table showing for the EC Twelve for (a) 1968, (b) 1973, (c) 1979 and (d) 1988 the ratio of imports to home demand for manufactures on the same basis as in ratio 1 of table 15.10 of the April 1991 monthly digest of statistics together with his best estimate of the corresponding figures for each year since 1989 and the current year to date.
Mr. Nelson [holding answer 30 June 1994] : The information requested is not available.
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish a table showing for 1968, 1973, 1979 and 1988 the ratio of imports to home demand for manufactures on the same basis as in ratio 1 of table 15.10 of the April 1991 "Monthly Digest of Statistics" together with his best estimate of the corresponding figures for the years 1989 to 1993 and this year to date.
Mr. Nelson : This ratio was first published by the Central Statistical Office in an article published in the August 1977 edition of Economic Trends, presenting data on this and other ratios for the period 1968 and 1976. Comparable estimates for later periods have already been published in CSO "Business Monitor MQ12--Import Penetration and Export Sales Ratios for Manufacturing Industry," as well as in the "Monthly Digest of Statistics." Copies of both are available in the House of Commons Library. However, calculation of the ratio involves the use of quarterly sales information from manufacturing industry. The collection of such information was stopped in line with recommendations made in the 1989 review of Department of Trade and Industry statistics. As such, the most recent estimates for the ratio cover the 12-month period to end-June 1989, and are as published in the April 1991 edition of the "Monthly Digest of Statistics" Estimates for more recent periods are not available.
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish a table showing for (a) each year since 1987, (b) each quarter since 1991 and (c) each month since October 1992 the volume of United Kingdom imports and exports of consumer goods, intermediate goods and capital goods with EEC, non-EEC countries and total trade on a balance-of- payments basis to take account of the latest statistical revisions.
Mr. Nelson [holding answer 30 June 1994] : The information requested is being placed in the House of Commons Library in a table entitled "Volume Indices of Exports of Consumer, Intermediate and Capital Goods--Balance of Payments Consistent."
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Market Testing
Mr. Radice : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if Departments which achieve savings through market testing and contracting out will be able to apply those savings for the benefit of their programmes.
Local Authority Expenditure
Mr. Straw : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer which international rules and conventions require United Kingdom local authority self-financing expenditure to be categorised as public expenditure ; and which states adhere to these rules and conventions.
Mr. Portillo [holding answer 30 June 1994] : Local authorities are part of the public sector and their expenditure is public expenditure. All local authority expenditure, including self-financed expenditure, in the United Kingdom has, for many years, been included in general Government spending under international conventions. These conventions were restated most recently in the "System of National Accounts", published jointly by the Commission of the European Communities, International Monetary Fund, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, United Nations and World Bank at the end of last year. It is expected that all European Union and European Free Trade Association countries will produce accounts on this basis.
HOME DEPARTMENT
Drug Addiction
Ms Primarolo : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many notifications were made of drug addiction for London and for England in each of the last five years.
Mr. Maclean : The information requested is published in table A3 of the Home Office statistical bulletin, issue 10/94, "Statistics of Drug Addicts Notified to the Home Office, United Kingdom 1993 (Area Tables)". A copy of this publication is in the Library.
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