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Electricity Pricing

Mr. Barry Jones: To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will order an inquiry into the electricity pool pricing system; and if he will make a statement. [32900]

Mr. Page: This is a matter for the Director General of Electricity Supply, who keeps the operation of the pool under review and publishes reports and other papers from time to time.

Nuclear Generating Stations, Scotland

Mr. Eric Clarke: To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will publish detailed information on all nuclear generating stations in Scotland with special reference to safety, structural soundness, security, and good working practice, before privatisation. [31689]

Mr. Eggar: Detailed information on British Energy's nuclear generating stations, including those in Scotland at the Hunterston B site and at Torness, is contained in the British Energy pathfinder prospectus issued on 10 June and will also be included in the publicly available full retail prospectus which will be published on 26 June. That prospectus will also contain detailed information about the legislative and regulatory regimes which British Energy must comply with to operate. Magnox Electric's nuclear generation station at the Hunterston A site in Scotland has closed.

EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT

Schools (Parental Choice)

Mr. Blunkett: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many complaints under section 269 of the Education Act 1993 have been received by the ombudsman from parents failing to obtain a place for their child in the school of their choice in respect of (i) grant-maintained schools, (ii) voluntary-aided schools and (iii) special agreement schools for each year since the Act came into force. [32600]

Mrs. Gillan: This information is not held by the Department for Education and Employment. The annual report of the local government ombudsman for 1994-95 notes that 1,187 complaints concerning education were

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received in that year, and that 45 investigation reports were issued. The report does not state how many of these concerned school admissions.

Muslim Community Schools

Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what is the number of Muslim community schools in England. [32872]

Mr. Robin Squire: There are currently 44 Muslim schools in England which are registered independent schools, and none in the maintained sector.

SHL Software

Mr. Redmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list the contracts his Department and his agencies have with SHL software computer systems; what is the current cost; when each contract ends; and what are the penalties involved should he seek early termination of the contract. [32914]

Mr. Robin Squire: The Department and agencies do not have any contracts with any company under the name of SHL software systems, nor have we been able to identify a company in this name.

Employment Service

Mr. Campbell-Savours: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment (1) what progress has been made on the privatisation of services provided by placement assessment and counselling teams in the Employment Service; and if he will make a statement; [32310]

(2) what progress has been made on the privatisation of local occupational psychology services within the Employment Service; and if he will make a statement; [32311]

(3) what progress has been made in the privatisation of functions carried out by the ability development centre in the Employment Service; and if he will make a statement. [32312]

Mr. Forth: Responsibility for the subject of the questions has been delegated to the Employment Service agency under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from Mike Fogden to Mr. Dale Campbell-Savours, dated 17 June 1996:

The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your Parliamentary Question about the privatisation of placing, assessment and counselling teams, local occupational psychology services and Ability Development Centres. As all of these relate to the market testing programme and to disability services, this letter seeks to respond to all three questions.
As a Next Steps Agency, the Employment Services (ES), is subject to systematic and periodic examination in the form of a Prior Options Review. This review, conducted in early 1995 examined all of the services provided by ES including the feasibility of abolition, privatisation, strategic contracting out and, where these were rejected, market testing or the maintenance of current arrangements. Following the review, the then Secretary of State announced via a written Parliamentary Question that the services delivered by placing, assessment and counselling teams (PACTS) should be market tested in one or two ES regions on a pilot basis.

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Market testing is a means of identifying whether the private sector can take forward work currently undertaken by the public sector at better value for money. This is done by allowing a team drawn from within the in-house service to compete with private sector bidders for the contract to do the work. Privatisation on the other hand entails a firm decision that the service should no longer be undertaken by the public sector, but should be contracted directly with the private sector. In this case we are clearly engaged in a market test, not a privatisation.
As a consequence of preliminary research into how the Secretary of State's recommendations could be taken forward, ES senior managers decided that the market test should cover the whole of the ES Disability Service within the North West region. This includes the services provided within the Ability Development Centre (ADC) and the local occupational psychology service in addition to the PACTs service. This decision was taken to ensure that ES clients would continue to receive fully integrated service and would not suffer any disadvantage as a result of how the market test had been packaged.
The market test was advertised in the "Disability Now" publication, and various national papers. As a consequence expressions of interest were received from private and voluntary sector organisations and also one from a team representing the in-house service. Organisations (including the in-house service provider) who wish to pursue their interest further have been asked to send an outline of how they would propose to deliver the Disability Service in the North West region, to ES by 28 June 1996. These proposals will be evaluated and shortlisted during July, with the aim of negotiating the detailed delivery proposals with the shortlisted organisations throughout the autumn. Final decisions on the outcome of the market test and the award of contract/service level agreement are planned for April/May 1997.
Local Occupational Psychology Services (LOPS) in each of the ES regions were subjected to market testing in 1994. In each case the in-house service providers were successful. Our decision, noted above, to market test the whole of the North West Disability Services has resulted in the LOP services in North West being included in that test. Except for that region, our plans are that these services will continue to be delivered under the present arrangements for the full duration of the current service level agreements. These are scheduled to run until September 1999.
This year we asked consultants to undertake a review of the functions of Ability Development Centres (ADCs) and how they were delivered. The review concluded that all the functions of ADCs should continue to be carried out. However, it also made a number of recommendations to allow them to be delivered more flexibly and improve their effectiveness. Senior management in ES accepted the recommendations and is currently considering how best to implement them. Within North West region, since ADC functions are within the scope of the market test, the way in which these functions will be carried out here in the future will depend on the outcome of the test.
I hope this is helpful.

Customer Charters

Mr. Donohoe: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will list (a) the customer charters which are currently in use within her Department and its executive agencies and (b) the charters which have been withdrawn. [32824]

Mr. Robin Squire: The Department and its executive agencies publish the following charters:

the parents charter,
the jobseekers charter,
the further education charter,
the higher education charter.

No charters have been withdrawn.

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Class Sizes

Mr. Blunkett: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what number and percentage of children in (a) primary and (b) secondary maintained schools in England have been in classes of (i) 30 or more and (ii) 40 or more in 1996; and if she will give the percentage change since 1995. [32964]

Mr. Robin Squire: I will write to the hon. Member at the end of June, when provisional information on class sizes in January 1996 will be available.

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