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Motorsport Engineering

Mr. Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make a statement on the contribution of motorsport engineering to UK manufacturing competitiveness. [90008]

Mr. Battle: The reputation of British motorsport engineering is world class. The demanding engineering and materials solutions required at the leading edge of this sport bring opportunities for technology transfer and other more mainstream industrial sectors, such as aerospace and vehicle production, have benefited from this.

Company Accounts

Mr. Canavan: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what plans he has to review the operation of company law in the matter of (a) frequency of registering accounts and (b) penalties for late registration of accounts in relation to (i) trading and (ii) non-trading companies. [91300]

Mr. Ian McCartney: The periods allowed for delivering accounts to the Registrar of Companies will be reviewed as part of the fundamental review of company law, which the Department launched in March 1998. It is due to present its final report in the Spring of 2001. Separately, Companies House is reviewing whether the current penalty bands which apply to the late filing of accounts are having the maximum effect in encouraging compliance. The penalties apply equally to trading and non-trading companies.

Car Industry

Mr. Win Griffiths: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what financial support his Department has given the car industry since May 1997. [90013]

Mr. Byers: DTI financial support is provided through Regional Selective Assistance (RSA). RSA grants totalling £71,742,000 have been made by the Department to the car industry since May 1997. This figure covers support given to both vehicle manufacturers and component suppliers.

British Nuclear Fuels Ltd.

Mr. Jack: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry for what reasons the right hon. Member for Fylde was not advised directly on 13 July of his Department's future proposals for BNFL's financial arrangements. [91710]

Mr. Byers: I understand that BNFL wrote to MPs with a constituency interest in the company about the announcement on 13 July. I have also written offering them further briefing about the announcement if they would find that helpful.

15 Jul 1999 : Column: 277

NORTHERN IRELAND

Northern Ireland Statistics and

Research Agency

Mr. Rapson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what performance targets have been set for the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency in 1999-2000. [91772]

Mr. Paul Murphy: For 1999-2000, the following key performance targets have been set for the Agency:

90-100 per cent. of key Government users of the Agency surveyed rating its overall service as satisfactory or better, with 50-55 per cent. rating it as very satisfactory.

95-100 per cent. of registered non-Government users of the Agency surveyed rating its overall service as satisfactory or better, with 55-60 per cent. rating it as very satisfactory.

To produce no fewer than 60 statistical publications and 16 ad hoc research publications during 1999-2000.

95-100 per cent. of NISRA readers rating key publications as satisfactory or better, 40-45 per cent. rating them as very satisfactory.

To process 98 per cent. of postal and personal applications for General Register Office certificates within eight and three working days respectively.

To carry out and evaluate a Census Rehearsal.

To achieve a minimum of 3 per cent. efficiency saving.

Full details are set out in the Agency's Corporate and Business Plan, copies of which will be placed in the Library of the House.

Data Series

Jackie Ballard: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what new data series separated by gender, race, disability and age have been commissioned by her Department since June 1997. [90536]

Mr. Paul Murphy: In terms of the Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS), since 1985 detailed monitoring of the workforce has been undertaken in terms of gender, religion and disability. The NICS is currently collecting, for the first time, data on disability to align with the provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. The outcomes of monitoring have been reported in the published reports of the Service's Equal Opportunity Unit, the first of which was published in 1986. The most recent report, the Sixth Report, was published in 1997 and it is intended to publish a Seventh Report later this year. Copies of the Reports are available in the Library of the House.

Since 1991, Home Civil Servants (HCS) working in the Northern Ireland Office, London, have required monitoring for ethnic origin. HCS staff have also been monitored in terms of gender and disability; and for staff working in Northern Ireland, community background.

15 Jul 1999 : Column: 278

EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT

Pupil Exclusions

Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list for each of the London education authorities the number of pupils who were excluded from school on 11 June. [90172]

Ms Estelle Morris: Information on exclusions is collected only on an annual basis. The latest available information in the form requested is for the academic year 1997-98 and is shown in the following table.

Number of permanent exclusions by type of school and Local Education Authority areaEngland 1997-98

	Number of permanent exclusions
	Primary (1)	Secondary (1)	Special (2)	Total
City of London	0	(3)--	(3)--	0
Camden	11	34	5	50
Hackney	22	21	3	46
Hammersmith and Fulham	12	39	1	52
Haringey	5	38	3	46
Islington	8	38	1	47
Kensington and Chelsea	5	33	0	38
Lambeth	15	40	7	62
Lewisham	22	50	5	77
Newham	12	42	0	54
Southwark	15	76	5	96
Tower Hamlets	5	39	5	49
Wandsworth	10	59	7	76
Westminster	3	60	0	63
Barking and Dagenham	9	38	0	47
Barnet	8	65	4	77
Bexley	11	59	2	72
Brent	7	90	0	97
Bromley	10	83	0	93
Croydon	17	85	6	108
Ealing	11	71	0	82
Enfield	10	74	3	87
Greenwich	8	48	5	61
Harrow	5	50	5	60
Havering	4	66	0	70
Hillingdon	3	52	3	58
Hounslow	8	61	2	71
Kigston-upon-Thames	0	27	2	29
Merton	4	32	0	36
Redbridge	5	29	1	35
Richmond-upon-Thames	1	53	0	54
Sutton	6	37	2	45
Waltham Forest	10	76	3	89

(1) Includes middle schools as deemed

(2) Includes maintained and non maintained special schools

(3) not applicable (no schools of this type)

Religious Education

Lorna Fitzsimons: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what considerations have been given to including Koranic teaching in schools under religious education sections in the National Curriculum. [90306]

Mr. Charles Clarke: Religious education is required to be included, alongside the National Curriculum, as part of the basic curriculum. It has equal standing in relation to the National Curriculum subjects within a school's curriculum.

It is for the Local Education Authority to convene an agreed syllabus conference for the purpose of preparing an agreed syllabus for religious education. The local

15 Jul 1999 : Column: 279

education authority shall appoint constituent bodies consisting of persons representing such Christian denominations and other religions and denominations of such religions as, in the opinion of the authority, will appropriately reflect the principal religious traditions in the area. The role of a conference is to produce and recommend an agreed syllabus for religious education which meets fully the requirements of the 1988 Act and is educationally sound. Its recommendation must be unanimously agreed by the committees constituting the conference.

The Department issued Circular 1/94 Religious Education and Collective Worship that sets out the statutory position and gives guidance to governors, local education authorities and standing advisory committees on religious education on how to carry out their functions in regard to religious education.

Grammar Schools

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many inquiries he has received about petitions for ballots on the future status of grammar schools. [91202]

Ms Estelle Morris: A number of inquiries have been made about petitions but no central log has been made of these. The ballot administration company has received formal requests to calculate the number of signatures required for any petitions submitted by 31 July in order to trigger a ballot for the following areas: Barnet, Birmingham, Kingston-upon-Thames, and Ripon. To date, no petitions have been sent to the ballot company for checking and no ballots have taken place or are scheduled to take place.

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