Previous Section Home Page

Column 171

1995 Special Arrangements

Key Stage 3

1991 Teacher Assessment at KS3

1991 Teacher Assessment in Practice

1992 School Assessment Folder

1993 School Assessment Folder

1993 Materials to Support the End of Key Stage Tests

1993 Guidance on Special Arrangements

1993 Test Timetable

1993 Test Guidance Notes

1994 End of Key Stage Assessment Arrangements

1994 Test Timetable

1994 Guidance on Special Arrangements

1994 Test Guidance Notes

1994 Reporting and Recording Leaflet

1995 School Assessment Folder (booklet 1)

1995 School Assessment Folder (Booklet 2)

1995 Test Timetable

1995 Special Arrangements Timetable

English

Key Stage 1

1991 En 1 Speaking and Listening

1992 Children's Work Assessed

1992 Reading and Spelling Tasks

1993 Reading and Spelling Tasks

1994 Reading and Spelling Tasks

1995 Tasks

Key Stage 2

1993 Pilot Tests

1994 Pilot Tests

1995 Tasks

Key Stage 3

1992 Pupils' Work Assessed

1993 Assessing En 1

Information on the 1993 Tests

1993 English Anthology

1993 Sample Test Questions

1994 Level 1 3 Tasks

1994 Test Guidance Notes

1995 Levels 1 3 Tasks

Mathematics

Key Stage 1

1992 Optional Tasks (mathematics and science combined) 1994 Optional Mathematics Pack

1995 Mathematics Tasks

Key Stage 2

1993 Pilot Tests

1994 Pilot Tests


Column 172

1995 Tasks

Key Stage 3

1991 Teacher Assessment at KS3

1992 Pupils' Work Assessed

1992 Materials to support the Assessment of MA 1

1993 Sample Test Questions

1993 Assessing Ma 1

1993 Pupils' Work Assessed

1994 Level 1&2 Tasks

1995 Level 1&2 Tasks

History

Key Stage 1

1993 Children's Work Assessed (history and geography

combined)

Key Stage 3

1992 Teacher Assessment at KS3

1993 Pupils' Work Assessed

University Students

Mr. Sutcliffe: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what action she is taking to help university students living below the poverty line and not in receipt of social security benefit.

Mr. Boswell: The student income and expenditure survey for 1992 93 conducted on behalf of the Department revealed no evidence of widespread student poverty, for those students prepared to take the concessionary student loans on offer. The total support available through the main rates of grant and loan will increase by 2.5 per cent. for the 1995 96 academic year. Income support and housing benefit continue to be available to students in certain vulnerable groups. The access funds, which will be increased by about £1 million to around £28 million for 1995 96, can provide additional assistance to full-time students in particular need.

Public Bodies (Grants)

Mr. Blunkett: To ask the Secretary of State for Education if she will list the grants given to non-governmental organisations by her Department in each year since 1990.

Mr. Boswell: The grants given to the non-departmental public bodies sponsored by the Department are listed in the table. Those made to the research councils and to the Sports Council, formerly sponsored by the then Department of Education and Science and now by the Office of Public service and Science and the Department of National Heritage respectively, are published in the appropriation accounts, copies of which are in the Library.


Column 171


                                                         |1990-91  |1991-92  |1992-93  |1993-94  |1994-95            
                                                                   |£ million          |outturn  |estimate           
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Central Bureau for Educational Visits and Exchanges<1>   |3.021    |3.498    |3.848    |4.051    |4.184              
Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research |0.535    |0.652    |0.949    |0.857    |0.832              
National Council for Educational Technology              |4.660    |4.961    |5.658    |5.506    |5.391              
Further Education Unit<2>                                |3.871    |3.129    |3.545    |-        |-                  
National Youth Bureau<3>                                 |0.571    |-        |-        |-        |-                  
National Youth Agency<4>                                 |-        |1.840    |1.495    |1.344    |1.394              
Education Assets Board                                   |0.552    |0.500    |0.858    |0.784    |1.401              
School Examinations and Assessment Council<5>            |7.730    |10.532   |12.383   |4.139    |-                  
National Curriculum Council<5>                           |7.340    |7.698    |8.135    |3.091    |-                  
School Curriculum and Assessment Authority<6>            |-        |-        |-        |21.998   |34.000             
Teaching as a Career Unit                                |1.487    |1.402    |1.407    |1.064    |1.194              
Polytechnics and Colleges Funding Council<7>             |1,104.255|993.158  |1,034.601|-        |-                  
Universities Funding Council<7>                          |1,836.708|1,782.142|1,806.426|-        |-                  
Higher Education Funding Council for England<8>          |-        |-        |0.500    |2,810.626|3,436.076          
Further Education Funding Council<8>                     |-        |-        |24.417   |2,706.066|2,847.058          
Funding Agency for Schools<9>                            |-        |-        |-        |0.674    |237.026            
Teacher Training Agency<10>                              |-        |-        |-        |-        |1.932              
Special Educational Needs Tribunal<11>                   |-        |-        |-        |-        |0.220              
<1>Merged with British Council December 1993. Henceforth sponsored by Foreign and Commonwealth Office.               
<2>Subsumed in Further Education Funding Council grant from 1993-94.                                                 
<3>Wound up in 1991 and replaced by the National Youth Agency.                                                       
<4>Established April 1991 incorporating National Youth Bureau and Council for Education and Training in Community    
Work.                                                                                                                
<5>Wound up in 1993.                                                                                                 
<6>Established October 1993 incorporating School Examinations and Assessment Council and National Curriculum         
Council.                                                                                                             
<7>Wound up March 1993.                                                                                              
<8>Established April 1993. Preparatory costs in 1992-93.                                                             
<9>Established April 1994. Preparatory costs in 1993-94. 1994-95 estimate net of annual maintenance grants, which    
are recouped in full from local education authorities, and loan repayments.                                          
<10>Established September 1994. Preparatory costs only.                                                              
<11>Established September 1994. Programme costs only.                                                                

HEALTH

Cancer

Mr. Pawsey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps she has taken to assist cancer sufferers to live at home with the appropriate and necessary level of support.

Mr. Sackville: Health authorities are required to contract for specialist palliative care services to meet the assessed health needs of their populations. We have increased the amount of funding made available to health authorities for specialist palliative care from £8 million in 1990 91 to nearly £48 million this financial year. This financial commitment has helped to ensure that palliative care is increasingly available in all settings, including in the patient's own home. The development of the right services to enable people to live in their own homes wherever this is possible and sensible is a key objective of the new community care arrangements. The expert advisory group on cancer also recommended that treatment should be provided as close to the patient's home as is compatible with high quality, safe and effective treatment.

Energy Efficiency

Mr. Robert Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many health trusts have set energy saving targets comparable to those set by health authorities given in "Climate Change: The UK Programme".

Mr. Sackville: Some 387 national health service trusts have established energy targets for the period to March 1996 and beyond.

Mr. Robert Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress has been made by each health authority in the United Kingdom towards the energy saving target given in "Climate Change: The UK Programme".

Mr. Sackville: The national health service energy savings programme commenced in April 1991 with a target set to reduce national energy consumption by 15 per cent. over the five years to 1995 96. The broad total savings achieved in England to date amount to 7.9 per cent.


Column 174

It is not possible to give totals for each health authority or national health service trust.

Additional energy savings have been projected from April 1994 to March 1996 amounting to 8.3 per cent.

Special Transitional Grant

Mr. Hinchliffe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will list for each local authority in England the special transitional grant for 1994 95; and if she will indicate for each local authority the funding that would have been received by that authority if the distribution formula had been the same as that used for 1993 94, and indicate the difference between the two.

Mr. Bowis: I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave him on 9 March 1994, Official Report, column 308.

Long-term Care

Ms Jowell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what national criteria she has stipulated against which she will judge whether the definitions of access to long-term health care which the district health authorities will be negotiating with their local authorities next year are reasonable and equitable;

(2) what financial recompense she will require to be made to local authorities required to provide a substantial part of long-term care which is elsewhere available under the NHS.

Mr. Bowis: We shall shortly be issuing guidance to health authorities on their responsibilities for continuing health care. Under this guidance, all health authorities will be required to review their current arrangements and to ensure they are securing an adequate level of continuing health care to meet the needs of their population.

NHS Uniformity

Ms Jowell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what monitoring mechanism she has requested the National Health Service Executive put in place to ensure that there is consistency of definitions between authorities.

Mr. Sackville: The National Health Service Executive in consultation with the NHS, has commissioned national standards for the data items, including definitions, which


Column 175

all NHS authorities have agreed to collect regularly, both for local NHS management and returns to the centre. The regulation of these standards is governed by the joint Department of Health National Health Service Committee for Regulating Information Requirements.

Ms Jowell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what mechanism is in place to ensure equity between different areas of the country as regards the availability of different forms of treatment on the NHS.

Mr. Sackville: Our policy objective is to secure, through resource allocation, over time, equal opportunity of access to health care for people at equal risk. A weighted capitation formula is used as the basis for allocating hospital and community health services revenue to regional health authorities. The formula weights their population for age, need, and for geographical variation in the cost of providing services. It is for health authorities to determine, taking full account of national priorities, set out in the annual priorities and planning guidance, how best to use the resources available to them to meet local needs.

Stress-related Diseases

Mr. Mackinlay: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of deaths among (a) men and (b) women in each of the last five years were a consequence of stress-related diseases.

Mr. Bowis: Information on death certificates about causes of death is given in terms of diagnosis. Stress may be a contributory factor in deaths from a number of diseases, but is not a separate diagnostic category. It is therefore not possible to say what proportion of deaths from any disease are stress related.

Children's Homes

Ms Coffey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when the study being prepared by the social services inspectorate into unregistrable children's homes will be (a) completed and (b) published.

Mr. Bowis: I expect the report to be submitted within the next few months. A decision on publication will be made thereafter.

Children (Placement)

Ms Coffey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many children are currently placed with non-relatives under the arrangements for the Placement of Children (General) Regulations 1991; and in what percentage of these placements a taxable fee is being paid directly to the non-relative or to an agency.

Mr. Bowis: Information collected centrally relates only to children looked after by local authorities. At 31 March 1993 approximately 43,000 children looked after by local authorities were placed in foster care with non-relatives or in residential accommodation, and would have been subject to these regulations. Of these, 27,000 were in foster care. The total includes about 2,000 children with agreements for a series of short-term placements, who will not all have been so placed on that date.

Where placements are with a foster family, the percentage of foster carers that receive a taxable fee--reward payments--is very small.


Column 176

In all cases where placements are with an agency, the fee, less expenses accepted by the Inland Revenue, would be regarded as taxable income.

Conception

Mr. Alton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what surveys she has conducted to establish which scientists argue that conception in human reproduction occurs days later than fertilisation; and if she will make a statement.

Mr. Sackville: The accepted scientific view is that pregnancy does not occur until the fertilised ovum implants in the womb, which is usually around six days after fertilisation.

Laparoscopic Operations

Mrs. Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what representations she has received regarding the recently issued guidelines, by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, on the subject of laparoscopic operations; and if she will make a statement.

Mr. Sackville: No representations have been received about these guidelines, which were contained in a report of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists working party on training in gynaecological endoscopic surgery, the publication of which we welcome.

Mrs. Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will require the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists to introduce an accreditation procedure for surgeons wishing to perform laparoscopic operations.


Next Section

  Home Page