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Deregulation

Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will list the rules and regulations she proposes to repeal or amend by means of a reference to the Deregulation Committee before the end of 1996; and if she will make a statement. [3442]

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Mr. Robin Squire [holding answer 11 November 1996]: The Department has laid today a deregulation order relating to the distribution of school action plans. The effect of the order is to reduce unnecessary burdens on schools by allowing them to send parents a summary of the school action plan, instead of the full text. This order will be considered by the Deregulation Committee in due course.

Teachers (Early Retirement)

Mr. Steinberg: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what plans she has to restrict the number of early retirements in the teaching profession. [3417]

Mrs. Gillan: I announced on 22 October consultation on a proposal to transfer directly to employers the costs of the premature retirement of teachers from 1 April 1997. This will enable employers' contribution rates to the teachers' superannuation scheme to be reduced to 7.2 per cent. of salaries instead of raised to 8.8 per cent. It will be for employers to decide how many premature retirements they want to finance. The Government think it important that schools should retain more of their experienced teachers, so as to maintain the quality of education and reduce demands on the teacher training system.

Information to Schools

Mr. Tipping: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what was the cost of producing and circulating information sent by her Department to schools during the academic year 1995-96. [3632]

Mr. Robin Squire: To separate the cost of producing and distributing information sent to schools in 1995-96 from that sent to other educational establishments, parents, governors and the general public would involve disproportionate cost. The total cost of producing and distributing the Department's programme of education publicity in 1995-96 was some £5.4 million. Around £800,000 was spent on distribution of material from the Department's own mailing house, including some of the material covered above and a number of circulars and letters. It is not possible to disaggregate the cost of producing the latter from the Department's total copying costs.

Spanish and Portuguese Examinations

Mr. Rowlands: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many candidates sat GCSE examinations in (a) Spanish and (b) Portuguese in each of the last six years for which figures are available; how many passed in each year; and what was the breakdown of passes by grade. [3458]

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Mrs. Gillan: The numbers of candidates that sat GCSE in (a) Spanish and (b) Portuguese in each year since 1992 and their pass grades are as follows: comparable information is not available before 1992.

	1991-92	1992-93	1993-94	1994-95
(a) Spanish
Number of candidates	27,334	29,370	34,341	37,970
Number achieving pass grades
Grade A*	--	--	1,985	2,234
Grade A	7,407	7,531	6,534	6,779
Grade B	4,141	4,685	5,464	6,020
Grade C	3,764	4,102	4,899	5,841
Grade D	3,433	3,869	4,503	5,667
Grade E	2,791	2,837	3,544	3,825
Grade F	3,012	2,918	3,527	3,683
Grade G	1,514	1,987	2,154	2,014
(b) Portuguese
Number of candidates	305	250	349	318
Number achieving pass grades
Grade A*	--	--	40	39
Grade A	161	138	148	125
Grade B	51	39	53	63
Grade C	45	36	43	45
Grade D	22	18	24	18
Grade E	11	2	12	10
Grade F	4	3	11	5
Grade G	2	--	1	--

Mr. Rowlands: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many candidates sat GCE advanced level examinations in (a) Spanish and (b) Portuguese in each of the last six years for which figures are available; how many passed in each year; and what was the breakdown of passes by grade. [3512]

Mrs. Gillan: The numbers of candidates who sat GCE advanced level examinations in (a) Spanish and (b) Portuguese in each year since 1992 are as follows: comparable information is not available before 1992.

			GCE A level pass achieved
	Number of candidates	A	B	C	D	E
(a) Spanish
1991-92	4,244	877	819	779	683	535
1992-93	4,363	911	858	786	713	501
1993-94	4,260	980	858	863	649	384
1994-95	4,222	910	866	810	640	461
(b) Portuguese
1991-92	139	34	35	34	11	15
1992-93	93	31	23	15	5	9
1993-94	131	40	46	21	12	3
1994-95	120	43	26	15	14	3

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Mr. Rowlands: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many students graduated from degree courses at United Kingdom universities in which a principal subject was (a) study of the Spanish language and (b) study of the Portuguese language, in each of the last six years for which figures are available; and what projections can be made of the expected numbers in each of the next three years. [3513]

Mr. Forth: Information on students graduating in Portuguese or Spanish separately is not available for all of the years requested. The available information for the years 1990 to 1995 is given in the following table. Projections of graduates in individual subjects are not produced by the Department.

First degree graduated in Spanish, Portuguese and other Latin American languages

Year of graduation	Numbers of graduates(19)
1990	214
1991	211
1992	279
1993	294
1994	328
1995	328
of which:
Spanish	232
Portuguese	1
Other Latin American languages	95

(19) Prior to 1995, the figures cover former University Funding Council funded establishments in the UK and former Polytechnic and Colleges Funding Council funded and FE establishments in England and Wales. The figures for 1995 relate to all HE institutions in the UK.

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SCOTLAND

Maintenance Work

Mr. Geoffrey Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what is the current backlog of maintenance work in (a) education institutions, (b) prisons and police stations, (c) council housing, (d) transport infrastructure, (e) the national health service and (f) defence bases in Scotland. [2792]

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton: Recent road condition surveys would appear to indicate that the structural integrity of the trunk road network is being maintained at an acceptable level. There is therefore no evidence that there is a maintenance backlog.

The on-going programme of maintenance work in prisons is on schedule and there is no large amount outstanding.

Information on the level of maintenance work to be carried out in education institutions, police stations,

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council housing, local roads and other transport infrastructure, and the NHS in Scotland is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Defence bases in Scotland are the responsibility of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence.

Prescribed Drugs

Mr. Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what percentage of, and how many, people admitted to hospital have been suffering from adverse reactions to a prescribed drug in each of the last five years and in age bands of 10 years; and if he will make a statement. [2907]

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton: The information is shown in the table and relates to the number of discharges from hospital where an adverse reaction to "Drugs, medicaments and biological substances causing adverse effects in therapeutic use" has been recorded. It is not possible to identify centrally information relating specifically to prescribed drugs.

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Hospitalisations with a diagnosis related to the adverse effects of prescribed drugs, Scotland, calendar years 1991-95

Year	All ages	<10	10-19	20-29	30-39	40-49	50-59	60-69	70-79	80-89	90+
Numbers
1991	2,632	75	66	181	180	272	338	503	586	378	53
1992	2,603	66	84	210	190	228	336	524	566	352	47
1993	2,678	91	97	150	186	221	364	532	591	392	54
1994	3,031	87	109	200	229	283	413	579	648	416	67
1995	3,683	78	134	241	269	306	493	683	835	532	67
Percentages
1991	0.3	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.4	0.4	0.5	0.4
1992	0.3	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.4	0.4	0.3
1993	0.3	0.1	0.2	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.4	0.4	0.4
1994	0.3	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.4	0.4	0.4
1995	0.3	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.4	0.5	0.5	0.4
Total discharges(20)
1991	919,120	84,560	58,212	98,313	95,905	96,517	110,576	142,899	137,189	82,842	12,107
1992	981,213	90,766	58,506	104,040	103,456	103,672	117,262	151,669	148,656	89,595	13,537
1993	1,052,709	95,349	59,949	104,806	110,873	112,444	128,438	163,825	163,013	98,761	15,251
1994	1,097,149	96,878	61,990	105,502	117,876	119,027	136,412	171,835	169,362	102,200	16,067
1995	1,147,438	97,846	64,045	107,765	125,831	123,609	144,060	180,524	178,078	108,462	17,218

(20) Percentages are based on total discharges in each age group for each year.

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Mr. Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what estimate he has made of the average (a) number of types and (b) quantity of preparations taken by people in Scotland in each of the last five years broken down by (i) gender and (ii) age bands of 10 years; and if he will make a statement. [2885]

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton: No such estimate has been made.

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