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Home-school Contracts

Mr. Blunkett: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if the views she expressed on 18 June in her meeting with the Campaign for State Education, on the undesirability of home-school contracts, represents Government policy; and if she will state her policy in respect of home-school contracts. [34497]

Mr. Robin Squire: My right hon. Friend has made very clear her belief that home-school contracts can be extremely effective in strengthening partnerships between schools and parents. My noble Friend the Minister of State emphasised this point when he met the Campaign for State Education on 18 June.

DEFENCE

Contracts

Mrs. Roche: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list (a) the average value of contracts awarded by his Department, (b) the value of (i) the smallest and (ii) the largest contract awarded, (c) the number of contracts with a value of (1) £0 to £999, (2) £1,000 to £9,999, (3) £10,000 to £49,999, (4) £50,000 to £99,999, (5) £100,000 to £499,999, (6) £500,000 to £999,999 and (7) above £1,000,000 and (d) the total number of contracts awarded in 1995-96. [34143]

Mr. Arbuthnot: Although information for MOD headquarters contracts is held on a central database, those records do not include details of low-value "local purchase" contracts placed by a number of outstations or contracts placed by the defence agencies. That information could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. However, the details for the categories in the question for MOD HQ contracts are as follows:

(a) £214,390


(b) (i) £1


(ii) approximately £2,000 million (to provide a more precise figure may infringe commercial confidentiality)


(c) (1) £9,295


(2) £15,181


(3) £7,227


(4) £1,731


(5) £2,237


(6) £522


(7) £665


(d) £36,858.

Nuclear Weapons

Mr. Llew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what requests the United States Government have made in respect of the transfer of nuclear weapons

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information obtained from the United Kingdom to France under the US-France nuclear co-operation agreement signed on 4 June. [34100]

Mr. Arbuthnot: No requests have been made by the United States.

Bosnia

Dr. David Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to his answer of 26 January, Official Report, columns 468-69, on charges for British bases, if his Department has now received figures for the renting of sites in (a) Lipa, (b) Sipovo, (c) Bugojno, (d) Sanski Most, (e) Mrkonjic Grad, (f) Banja Luka and (g) Vitez where rental prices were previously unavailable. [34049]

Mr. Soames [holding answer 21 June 1996]: The latest information on the sites in question is as follows:

Lipa
No lease has been negotiated for the site at this location. Therefore no costs have been incurred.
Sipovo
Three factories, a sawmill and a hotel are occupied. As yet no owners have been identified, so no costs have been incurred.
Bugojno
The factory site is due to be vacated at the end of this month. An owner has now been identified and discussion is under way about retrospective rental payments.
Sanski Most
Two sites are occupied. The costs of one, £8,000 per month, were given in my answer of 21 May, Official Report, column 108. The cost of the second site has yet to be established.
Mrkonjic Grad
Two factories, a sawmill and dam are occupied. The owner of one factory has been identified and rental negotiations are under way. Other site owners remain to be identified.
Banja Luka
A factory site and two officers are occupied. The cost of the factory, £38,000 per month, was given in my answer of 21 May. The lease of the other two sites has been agreed at a cost of £17,650 per month.
Vitez
Negotiations for the use of the school building in Vitez are continuing, but this is state-owned and we aim to secure its use at no cost to the Department. There are a significant number of minor sites around the school which are occupied by British forces. Taken together, their rental amounts to some £11,100 per month. (Not all the costs of these sites were available for inclusion in my reply of 21 May). Costs to the BFI site were given in my answer of 26 January.

Where no lease exists at present, my Department will aim to negotiate one when the owners of the site are identified and proof of ownership is established.

SCOTLAND

Health and Safety

Mr. Ian McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what was the cost in each of the past five years of (a) sick pay and (b) compensation paid to employees of his Department or their families, or members of the public, as a result of (i) minor, (ii) major and (iii) fatal injuries related to the work of his Department, detailing incidents involving information technology and those involving expenditure of more than £5,000. [33510]

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Lord James Douglas-Hamilton: The information requested could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

Mr. McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what was the cost in each of the past five years of rectifying working conditions that were the responsibility of his Department and its agencies, to bring them up to acceptable health and safety standards, detailing incidents involving information technology and those involving expenditure of more than £5,000.[33511]

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton: Until this year, large parts of the Scottish Office estate were looked after by Property Holdings. Its maintenance costs did not separately identify the costs of meeting health and safety standards. I am sorry that I cannot therefore supply the information requested.

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Higher Education

Mrs. Liddell: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) what was public expenditure in higher education in Scotland excluding public expenditure on student maintenance in (a) cash terms, (b) real terms and (c) expressed as a percentage of United Kingdom gross domestic product for the financial years 1989-90 to 1995-96; and what is planned for 1996-97, 1997-98, and 1998-99; [34249]

(2) what was public expenditure in higher education in Scotland including public expenditure on student maintenance (a) in cash terms, (b) in real terms and (c) expressed as a percentage of United Kingdom gross domestic product for the financial years 1989-90 to 1995-96; and what is planned for 1996-97, 1997-98, and 1998-99. [34248]

Mr. Raymond S. Robertson: The information requested on expenditure in higher education in Scotland, both including and excluding expenditure on student maintenance, is as follows:

£ million

	1989-90	1990-91	1991-92	1992-93	1993-94	1994-95	1995-96(26)	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99
Expenditure excluding student maintenance(22)
Cash	183	228	296	345	632	669	674	663	657	651
Real terms (1994-95)(23)	229	264	323	361	644	669	656	628	607	588
GDP (Cash)	0.04 per cent.	0.05 per cent.	0.06 per cent.	0.06 per cent.	0.10 per cent.	0.10 per cent.	0.09 per cent.	0.08 per cent.	0.08 per cent.	0.07 per cent.
GDP (Real terms 1994-95)(23)	0.04 per cent.	0.04 per cent.	0.05 per cent.	0.06 per cent.	0.10 per cent.	0.10 per cent.	0.09 per cent.	0.09 per cent.	0.08 per cent.	0.08 per cent.
Expenditure including student maintenance(24)
Cash	263	324	428	505	831	897	921	946	937	919
Real terms (1994-95)(23)	329	405	536	632	846	897	896	921	912	894
GDP (Cash)	0.05 per cent.	0.06 per cent.	0.07 per cent.	0.08 per cent.	0.13 per cent.	0.13 per cent.	0.13 per cent.	0.13 per cent.	0.12 per cent.	0.11 per cent.
GDP (Real terms 1994-95)(23)	0.05 per cent.	0.06 per cent.	0.08 per cent.	0.10 per cent.	0.13 per cent.	0.13 per cent.	0.13 per cent.	0.13 per cent.	0.12 per cent.	0.12 per cent.
GDP Cash (£ million)(25)	516,994	556,781	580,518	605,156	639,681	676,179	712,000	754,000	795,000	836,000
GDP Real terms (1994-95 prices)(25)	646,968	645,046	633,031	634,096	651,437	676,179	692,944	714,180	734,649	755,536

(22) The figures provided relate to grants to SOEID-funded institutions prior to 1993 and to SHEFC after 1993.

(23) Description of real terms is based on 1994-95 prices.

(24) The figures provided relate to grants to SOEID-funded institutions prior to 1993 and to SHEFC after 1993, and to student awards, loans, access fund and tuition fees paid by the Student Award Agency for Scotland but not including SAAS DRCs.

(25) GDP figures are take from the Treasury 'GDP and GDP Deflators at Market prices' table dated 9 April 1996.

(26) Figures for 1995-96 are provisional.

Source:

1989-90 'Serving Scotland's Needs' March 1995, CMD 2814.

1990-91 to 1998-99 'Serving Scotland's Needs' March 1996, CMD 3214.

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Figures for 1992-93 and later years are not directly comparable because funding for teaching and research at the eight universities in Scotland previously funded by the Universities Funding Council was the responsibility until 31 March 1993 of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education.

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