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Knife-related Assaults

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many knife-related assaults were recorded in nightclubs in the last year; and how many of those assaults caused fatal injury. [4779]

Mr. Maclean: The information requested is not collected centrally.

Operation Whitewash

Mr. Mullin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he expects to receive a report by the

18 Dec 1995 : Column: 970

Hampshire police inquiry Operation Whitewash; and if he will make a statement. [5358]

Mr. Maclean: We have not requested any such report.

Criminal Offences

Mr. Grocott: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the total number of recorded criminal offences in (a) 1979, (b) 1985 and (c) the latest year for which figures are available. [5136]

Mr. Maclean: The information requested is published in table 2.2 of "Criminal statistics, England and Wales 1994", Cm 3010. The latest information for the 12 months to June 1995 is published in Home Office statistical bulletin 19/95. Copies of both these publications are available in the Library.

Data Protection

Mr. Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answers of 7 December, Official Report, column 362, what discussions he plans with the Secretary of State for Health and the Secretary of State for Social Security before the publication of his Department's review of the Office of Data Protection Registrar. [5892]

Mr. Sackville: We have no problems at present for discussions on the review with my right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for Health and for Social Security. Should such discussions be needed, I shall have them. All Departments will be involved in discussions on the implementation of the European Union data protection directive.

EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT

Student Loans

Mr. Bryan Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment, pursuant to her answer on 7 December, Official Report, column 396, if she will provide a breakdown of how the provisional assumptions as to net savings arising from the introduction of subsidised private sector loans have been calculated, indicating (a) the annual number of eligible students taking out subsidised private sector loans and (b) the level of public sector subsidy per annual loan. [5776]

Mr. Forth: As I made clear in my answer of 7 December, the figures for the net savings that would arise from the introduction of subsidised private sector loans to students were provisional. However, they were based on the assumption that by 1998-99 some 25 per cent. of eligible students would be taking out private sector loans.

Colleges (VAT)

Mr. Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how much VAT has been paid by (a) sixth form colleges and (b) further education colleges in each year since 1991. [4536]

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Mr. Paice: Information on the payment of VAT by colleges in the further education sector is not held centrally.

Chauffeur-driven Cars

Mr. MacShane: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what the cost of chauffeur-driven cars used by her Department was in each of the past five years. [5851]

Mr. Robin Squire: The information requested in respect of the former Department for Education and the former Employment Department is contained in the following table:

Year	Employment Department £	Department for Education £
1990-91	201,910	134,191
1991-92	222,886	241,215
1992-93	261,151	217,197
1993-94	287,476	288,121
1994-95	282,851	274,377

Departmental Expenditure

Mr. Ian McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what is the total expenditure on (a) buildings, (b) furniture and (c) uniforms by the former Department of Employment since 1979 for each region. [5356]

Mr. Robin Squire: No information is available before the 1991-92 financial year. The following table gives total expenditure on (a) buildings, (b) furniture and (c) uniforms for the former Department of Employment group from 1991-92.

Total expenditure for the financial years from 1991-92 to 1995-96 (£000)

	Buildings	Furniture	Uniforms
Employment Service Regions
Northern	33,257,821	4,108,025	n/a
Yorkshire and Humberside (including HO)	87,234,044	7,858,553	n/a
East Midlands	49,565,846	5,237,058	n/a
London and South East	256,432,427	25,083,915	n/a
South West	52,445,990	5,650,311	n/a
Wales	36,073,758	3,198,818	n/a
West Midlands	61,346,176	3,250,969	n/a
North West	66,733,432	6,677,156	n/a
Scotland	68,526,970	4,111,674	n/a
(Total for all regions)	711,616,464	65,176,479	n/a
Remainder of the De Group
ACAS(31)	15,627,938	884,350	n/a
Employment Department (including TEEd)(32)	202,114,723	8,115,771	118,051
Health and Safety Executive	113,865	6,191	931
De Group Total	929,492,990	74,182,791	118,982

Notes:

(31) ACAS--Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service.

(32) TEED--Training Enterprise and Education Directorate.

n/a = Not available.

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Special Advisers

Mr. Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many (a) special advisers and (b) press or public relations officers are employed by her Department; and what is the total annual salary bill for (a) and (b) above. [5291]

Mr. Robin Squire: The Department employs two special advisers and 18 press officers. The salaries for special advisers are negotiated individually, in relation to their previous earnings and are confidential. They are, however, normally paid on a special advisers' salary spine of 34 points ranging from £19,503-£67,609. Appointments are non-pensionable and the salary spine reflects this. The annual salary bill for the press officers is some £532,000.

Teachers Redundancies

Mr. Callaghan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what representations she has had regarding teacher redundancies for the year 1995. [7010]

Mr. Robin Squire: Several letters on this subject have been received in the Department.

Private Finance Initiative

Mr. Betts: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment (1) if she will provide revenue forecasts for the current year and the next five years of expenditure on schemes provided under the PFI; [5712]

(2) if she will provide for schemes so far agreed under the PFI the level of financing costs above the current costs of Government borrowing for the scheme with (a) the highest financing costs and (b) the lowest costs. [5713]

Mr. Forth [holding answer 14 December 1995]: Decisions on spending in education are for the institutions of local authorities concerned. That information, therefore, is not held centrally. For PFI in the Employment Service, I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to him on 6 December, Official Report, column 311. It is a fundamental principle when considering schemes under the private finance initiative that what is assessed is the overall best value for money over the whole life of the project. It is not possible, therefore to provide information about the financing costs of any scheme in the form requested.

Mr. Betts: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will provide a breakdown of administration costs incurred to date and forecast for the future on PFI work. [5711]

Mr. Forth [holding answer 14 December 1995]: The Department has a dedicated private finance division employing six staff full-time. Costs to date for the division, which was established as a separate unit in June, have amounted to some £106,000 and are budgeted to amount to £223,000 for 1995-96 in total. The budget, both for 1995-96 and for future years, will be kept under review in line with the work load. In addition, staff in the further and higher education and youth training and schools directorates and the Employment Service work on a part-time basis to encourage private finance in their

18 Dec 1995 : Column: 973

specialist areas. The information directorate also includes the private finance initiative within its portfolio. Costs for such part-time work are not accounted for separately.

Assisted Places Scheme

Mr. Donohoe: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will list for the academic year 1994-95 for each school covered by the assisted places scheme in descending order what sums the school received from the scheme, how many pupils were covered by the scheme at each school, the total numbers of pupils on the school's roll and the proportion of the school's roll made up of pupils covered by the scheme; what level of fees was charged for pupils covered by the scheme at each school; and what sums were received by each school under the scheme. [5871]

Mrs. Gillan [holding answer 14 December 1995]: The information is contained in a number of tables, copies of which have been placed in the Library.

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