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Ofsted Inspections
Mr. Edwards: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment (1) how many section 10 Ofsted inspections occurred in the last four school terms; [69001]
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(2) how many inspectors are currently employed by Ofsted (a) in total and (b) in the IQMD division. [69002]
Ms Estelle Morris:
These are matters for HM Chief Inspector of Schools and I have therefore asked Chris Woodhead to write to my hon. Friend and to place a copy of his letter in the Library.
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Mr. Hancock:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many people have entered the New Deal Gateway in the Unit of Delivery covering the Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council area since its inception; and how many took up each New Deal option. [66369]
Mr. Andrew Smith:
It is not possible to provide separate figures for individual towns or council areas. The latest Government Statistical Service figures for the Mid Hampshire Unit of Delivery, which covers Basingstoke and Deane, show that to the end of November 1998 (a) 267 young people had entered the Gateway and 66 have secured
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unsubsidised employment; and (b) 26 had joined one of the four options: two on the Employment option; three on the Voluntary Sector option; and 21 on the Full-Time Education and Training option. 113 young people were on the Gateway, 13 had left New Deal to claim other benefits, nine had gone to other known destinations and 40 had gone to as yet unknown destinations.
Mrs. Dunwoody:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will publish the Derwent report on the re-organisation of the Coastguard Service and the Marine Surveyors the incorporation into the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. [68055]
Ms Glenda Jackson:
The study referred to was carried out by officials and looked into the synergies between the Coastguard Agency, the Marine Safety Agency and their policy and financial sponsorship divisions in the parent Department. The output from the study was policy advice to Ministers in a previous Administration. In line with the normal convention such advice is not released.
Mr. Ottaway:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will estimate the percentage increase in revenue occurring to London Underground arising from the installation of automatic ticket barriers at stations operated by passenger train operating companies. [68518]
Ms Glenda Jackson:
As part of London Transport's Prestige PFI project, automatic ticket barriers are being installed at the vast majority of London Underground Stations. These include stations managed by London Underground that are shared with Train Operating Companies (TOCs). LT expects that this will lead to a reduction in ticketless travel and an increase in revenue. LT is discussing with Train Operating Companies (TOCs) extending gating to join stations that are managed by TOCs.
Taking a scenario in which none of the joint stations managed by TOCs on the Underground has automatic ticket barriers and comparing that with a scenario in which all of these stations had ticket barriers installed, LT estimate that the additional revenue to London Underground would be about 0.08 per cent. of total revenue or about £750,000 in one year. The calculation is based on current revenue and fares levels. There would also be revenue benefits to the TOCs, but no estimates are available.
Mr. Kidney:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what progress the Driving Standards Agency has made in locating a new test centre in Stafford. [68594]
Ms Glenda Jackson:
The provision of driving test centres in Stafford and surrounding localities is being kept under review. I am glad to say that the Agency has
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identified a suitable property in Stafford and are in negotiations with the owner. Subject to satisfactory completion of those negotiations, a new test centre could open by the Summer.
Mr. McGrady:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what progress he has made with the reduction of discharges of radioactive waste from the BNFL base at Sellafield to near zero by the year 2020; and how this target will be achieved. [68853]
Mr. Meale:
The Government are fully committed to the agreement reached at the OSPAR Ministerial Meeting in Sintra, Portugal last year, on the reduction of radioactive discharges from all sources, including reprocessing plants. Nuclear operators, in discussion with the relevant Government departments and regulatory bodies, will produce 20-year discharge strategies, to assess the options for reducing discharges to levels consistent with the OSPAR strategy. We intend this to be fully transparent process.
Mr. Waterson:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what is the total amount of (a) compensation paid to date and (b) agreed to be paid to contractors in respect of the Polegate Bypass. [68568]
Ms Glenda Jackson:
The overall levels of compensation are still being discussed with those tenders who submitted tenders for the cancelled Weald and Downland DBFO Project, which include the Polegate Bypass scheme. Interim on-account payments totalling £3.4 million have been made.
Mr. Watts:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will list for each local authority the reduction in council tax benefit subsidy, expressed (a) in cash and (b) as a proportion of the yield from the standard council tax, that will occur in the event that each authority's budgeted expenditure in 1999-2000 exceeds by an amount equal to 1 per cent. of its standard spending assessment the point at which benefit subsidy begins to be withdrawn; and if he will make the information available to local authorities in machine-readable form. [68927]
Ms Armstrong:
The information is not available.
An authority's guideline increase and its council tax increase will depend on factors such as collection fund surpluses and deficits, information on which is not currently available to my Department.
Mr. Wigley:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what recent communications (a) he and (b) other ministers have had with their counterparts in the Irish Government with regard to the crash of the Aer Lingus aircraft in 1968; and if he will make a statement. [68833]
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Ms Glenda Jackson:
Although my colleague, the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the regions has not been in contact with the Irish Government over this issue, I met Mary O'Rourke, the Minister for Public Enterprise, to discuss this, and other issues on 25 January 1999.
It was agreed at the meeting that UK officials (including British Air Accident Investigators) would meet with their Irish counterparts in order to review all the known evidence recorded about the crash. A meeting was held on 27 January 1999.
The Officials will work together to try and narrow the possible options for the cause of the crash.
Mr. Colman:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many and what percentage of candidates taking the (a) practical and (b) written driving test were arrested and charged for impersonation of the real candidate between (i) July 1996 and July 1997 and (ii) July 1997 and July 1998. [69009]
Ms Glenda Jackson:
Between 1 July 1996 and 30 June 1997, 17 practical test candidates were arrested and charged with impersonation, one other candidate admitted the offence and was convicted of the offence, and two other candidates were arrested and cautioned. Sixteen cases of suspected candidate impersonation were reported to the police at the theory test stage, which resulted in two convictions. During that period, the Driving Standards Agency conducted 1.7 million practical driving tests and 1.4 million theory tests.
In the period 1 July 1997 to 30 June 1998, seven practical test candidates and six theory test candidates were arrested and charged from a total of 1.2 million practical and 1.1 million theory tests.
These figures show that the percentage of tests where impersonations were suspected is well below 0.001 per cent. in all cases.
Mr. Baker:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many car parking spaces will be created for developments associated with the Millennium Eco-Village at Greenwich; and how many daily vehicle movements will be generated as a consequence. [69307]
Mr. Meale:
The Greenwich Millennium Village will have 1,833 car parking spaces comprising 1,721 for residents, 80 for retail use and 32 for the school and health centre. 670 peak time vehicle movements are expected for the morning and 615 in the evening.
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