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Written Answers to Questions

Friday 29 March 1996

NORTHERN IRELAND

Primary Education

Mr. Worthington: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what percentage of children at (a) primary level and (b) post-primary level are in integrated education in Northern Ireland. [22559]

Mr. Ancram: The percentage of children in integrated education is (a) 1.6 per cent. at primary level and (b) 1.8 per cent. at post-primary level.

Education (Cross-community Contact)

Mr. Worthington: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what sums of money were spent in each of the education and library board areas of

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Northern Ireland on education for mutual understanding and cross-community contact in each of the last five years. [22563]

Mr. Ancram: Expenditure is not available by board area. However, overall expenditure on cross-community contact in the last five years was as follows:

Financial year	Expenditure £
1991-92	391,571
1992-93	856,507
1993-94	1,265,268
1994-95	1,579,327
1995-96 (Estimated)	1,721,000

Support for education for mutual understanding as a cross-curricular theme is provided by the curriculum advisory and support services operated by the education and library boards, separate costs are not available.

Mr. Worthington: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will list the number of (a) primary schools and (b) secondary schools in each of the education and library board areas in Northern Ireland which have participated in the cross-community contact scheme in each of the last three years. [22562]

Mr. Ancram: The information requested is as follows:

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Education and Library Board	1992-93		1993-94		1994-95
	Primary	Secondary	Primary	Secondary	Primary	Secondary
Belfast	44	24	69	30	82	31
Western	47	31	76	30	82	28
North-Eastern	42	45	63	39	75	30
South-Eastern	57	41	107	26	104	29
Southern	52	36	91	34	99	38

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Education Expenditure

Mr. Worthington: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will list the expenditure on education in Northern Ireland as a percentage of the total expenditure in Northern Ireland for each of the last five years. [22560]

Mr. Ancram: The information is set out in the table:

Year	Department of Education, Northern Ireland expenditure(1)	As of NI(2) expenditure (percentage)
1990-91	1,004	18.2
1991-92	1,124	18.7
1992-93	1,203	18.3
1993-94	1,248	17.6
1994-95	1,295	17.5

(1)Youth training programme expenditure has been excluded as responsibility for this activity transferred to Department of Economic Development from 1992-93.

(2)Includes Northern Ireland Office expenditure.

Orders

Mr. Win Griffiths: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many orders under the negative

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resolution procedure have been brought into effect on the day they have been made since January 1995. [23312]

Sir John Wheeler: Since January 1995, six orders--statutory rules or orders--under the negative resolution procedure have been brought into effect on the day that they have been made.

Social Fund

Mr. Nigel Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the Northern Ireland social fund discretionary budget will be for 1996-97. [24345]

Mr. Moss: I am pleased to announce that the social fund gross discretionary budget for 1996-97 will be £36.71 million. Some £9.76 million will be allocated to grants; £26.85 million to loans; and £0.1 million will be held as a contingency reserve. The new allocations represent an increase nearing £5 million over the gross budget set at April 1995.

Details of the individual district budget allocations, together with a note explaining the basis on which they have been made, will be placed in the Library today.

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NATIONAL HERITAGE

Orders

Mr. Win Griffiths: To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage how many orders under the negative resolution procedure have been brought into effect on the day they have been made since January 1995. [23317]

Mr. Sproat: None.

National Lottery

Mr. David Nicholson: To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage if she will make statement about the breach of its 1994-95 running costs limit by the Office of the National Lottery. [24289]

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley: The gross running cost limit for the Office of the National Lottery within class XI, vote 8 will be decreased by £130,000 from £2,440,000 to £2,310,000. The decrease arises from the imposition of a penalty following the breach of the gross running costs limit in the previous year, 1994-95. Oflot did not exceed its overall cash limit. Running costs were exceeded because of the difficulty in accurately estimating the costs associated with the launch of the national lottery. The Office of the National Lottery has reported that it has reviewed its systems and procedures to prevent a recurrence of the breach.

TRANSPORT

Road Building

Mr. Allen: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many new starts on road building have been made (a) by the Highways Agency and (b) under the design, build, finance and operate programme in each of the financial years for which figures are available. [22758]

Mr. Watts: For the two financial years 1994-95 and 1995-96 that the Highways Agency has been in existence, 13 conventionally funded schemes started in 1994-95 and one in 1995-96. No design, build, finance and operate projects were let in 1994-95 but four DBFO projects have so far been let in 1995-96.

Railtrack Incident Logs (Staffordshire)

Ms Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will place in the Library copies of the Railtack incident logs for incidents occurring in Staffordshire in the last six months. [23087]

Mr. Watts: Railtrack incident logs are internal documents and are not for publication. All statutorily reportable accidents and incidents are reported to the Health and Safety Executive's railway inspectorate.

Train-mounted Cranes (Staffordshire)

Ms Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many train-mounted cranes are currently available in Staffordshire; and what is the estimated response time of the cranes for an incident occurring at Stoke-on-Trent station. [23088]

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Mr. John Watts: Railtrack does not currently have any train-mounted cranes based in Staffordshire. However, the nearest crane is based at Crewe and the estimated response time for an incident occurring at Stoke-on-Trent Station is one to two hours.

Railway Staff (Safety)

Ms Short: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what checks the Health and Safety Executive makes on the working practices of safety-critical rail staff. [23118]

Mr. Watts: Inspecting officers of Her Majesty's railway inspectorate frequently visit railway sites such as signalboxes, maintenance depots, track work and signalling installations. At such times, and when travelling in driving cabs, they consider, among many other matters, the competence of, and working arrangements for, persons carrying out safety-critical work. In addition, they look at managers' arrangements for monitoring compliance with the Railways (Safety Critical Work) Regulations 1994, and provide advice and guidance.

Ms Short: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what measures are taken by Railtrack to ensure that staff carrying out designated safety-critical work, employed by Railtrack or its contractors, are fit to do so. [23119]

Mr. Watts: The Railways (Safety Critical Work) Regulations 1994 place responsibility on employers for ensuring that their employees are competent and fit to undertake safety-critical work.

Railtrack has railway group standards in place which set out competence and medical fitness standards, and which apply to its own staff, staff of train and station operators and staff of infrastructure contractors, who carry out safety-critical work on the Railtrack network. Group standards require employers to monitor fitness for work on a regular basis. Periodic re-examination of medical fitness and reassessment of competence is also mandatory.

Railtrack's safety and standards directorate carries out audits of compliance with group standards by the Railtrack zones, and operators and contractors.

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