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Teacher Training

Mr. Chaytor: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make it his policy to include English and maths key skills qualifications within the curriculum 2000 programme at an equivalent level to GCSE English and maths for the purpose of initial teacher training. [135929]

Ms Estelle Morris: It is for initial teacher training (ITT) providers to decide which qualifications meet the Secretary of State's entry requirements and can be accepted, including those relating to the key skills of communication and application of number. Qualifications must, however, be of the equivalent standard to a GCSE grade C, or above.

Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many trainee teachers were recruited to initial teacher training courses from 1995-96 to 2000-01, broken down between (a) primary and secondary trainees, (b) undergraduate and postgraduate

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and (c) secondary by subject; and if he will list the Government's target for teacher recruitment in each category. [134344]

Ms Estelle Morris: Data on recruitment to initial teacher training (ITT) courses starting in 2000-01 for each provider in England are not yet available. I hope they will be shortly. I will write to the hon. Member with the information as soon as possible, and will place a copy of the response in the Library.

Teacher Recruitment

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many new teachers were recruited in the last academic year. [134713]

Ms Estelle Morris: The numbers of full-time and part-time teachers recruited to the maintained sector in England during the two most recent financial years for which data are available are shown in the table:

	1997-98	1998-99
New entrants	23,000	21,200
Re-entrants	29,300	27,500
Total entrants	52,300	48,700

All numbers have been rounded to the nearest 100.

The number of retirements from teaching was unusually high in 1997-98 because of changes to the Teachers Pensions Scheme introduced by the previous Administration in 1997, which meant that more teachers than usual had to be recruited for September 1997.

The number of regular teachers in the maintained sector has increased by 6,900 since January 1998 and by 3,400 since January 1999.

The gap between the spending plans of the previous Administration and the increase in unavoidable pay, price and other pressures facing schools in 1998-99 was equivalent to employing 25,000 fewer teachers. But as a result of the extra £835 million increase in both education SSA and revenue support grant, teacher numbers (including supply teachers) increased by over 4,000.

Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many physics graduates were recruited into teacher training in 2000-01. [134348]

Ms Estelle Morris: Data on recruitment to initial teacher training (ITT) courses starting in 2000-01 for each provider in England are not yet available. I hope they will be shortly. I will write to the hon. Member with the information as soon as possible, and will place a copy of the response in the Library.

WALES

Electricity Supply

Mr. Simon Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what percentage of Welsh electricity supply was provided by nuclear power stations for each of the last 10 years. [137217]

Mrs. Liddell: I have been asked to reply.

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The electricity supply in Wales is mainly provided through the national grid and it is not possible to distinguish separately the source of the electricity.

Electricity produced by the one nuclear station in Wales (Wylfa) (the second station, Trawsfynydd, closed in 1993) may be consumed in England while nuclear electricity generated in England, Scotland or France can be consumed in Wales. In 1999 Wylfa's output to the national grid was 7.2 TWh while electricity consumption in Wales is estimated to have been 16 and 17 TWh.

Departmental Expenditure Limit

Mr. Jon Owen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what proposals there are to amend his Department's Departmental Expenditure Limit for 2000-01. [138051]

Mr. Paul Murphy: The Wales Departmental Expenditure Limit for 2000-01 will be increased by £114,572,000 from £7,693,663,000 to £7,808,235,000. The increase is a result of:

(i) the take up of end-year flexibility entitlement of £94,895,000;
(ii) net transfers to other government Departments of £252,000;
(iii) additional support of £15,309,000 for Hill Farmers and agriculture resulting from the Agriculture Minister's statement of 30 March 2000; and,
(iv) a final allocation from the Capital Modernisation Fund of £4,620,000.

The increase includes the following transfers:

(i) £1,100,000 to Class III, Vote 1 for cattle herd registration;
(ii) £1,068,000 from Class I, Vote 1 for mature student bursaries;
(iii) £150,000 from Class IV, Vote 1 for locks for pensioners;
(iv) £536,000 to Class IX, Vote 1 for Sector Challenge; and,
(v) £166,000 from Class IV, Vote 1 for Crime Prevention.

The balance will be met by a charge on the Departmental Expenditure Limit Reserve for the take-up of end-year flexibility entitlement and the additional agriculture provision. The Capital Modernisation Fund monies will be met from the central CMF budget. None of these changes will therefore add to the planned total of public expenditure.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

China

Rev. Martin Smyth: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement about the timetable and process of review of the UK/China human rights dialogue. [135766]

Mr. Battle: We conduct formal sessions of the UK/China human rights dialogue twice a year. The next session is scheduled to take place in February 2001.

We keep the dialogue process under continuous and critical review. Our object is to develop the most effective way of helping to improve human rights in China. As far as the dialogue itself is concerned, we look for ways to make it more effective, and to identify areas where we can work with the Chinese to improve the observance of human rights in specific areas.

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Rev. Martin Smyth: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when the Government will reach a decision on sponsoring a resolution on human rights in China and Tibet at the 57 United Nations Commission for Human Rights. [135769]

Mr. Battle: The Government will review their position towards a resolution on China at the 57th session of the UN Commission on Human Rights (March 2001) following the next rounds of the UK/China and EU/China human rights dialogues, both scheduled to take place in February 2001.

Rev. Martin Smyth: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations the UK Government made to the troika concerning the human rights content of the EU/China summit. [135768]

Mr. Battle: The position taken by the troika on the question of human rights in China at the EU/China Summit on 23 October was based on discussions among partners in September ahead of the EU/China Human Rights Dialogue on 29 September. The Government play an active role in setting the direction for EU policy towards the human rights situation in China, including the identification of key concerns and strategy for meetings with the Chinese authorities.

Qualified Majority Voting

Mr. Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on his policy relating to (1) (a) the balance of responsibilities between the EU and UK Government and (b) the proposals to the change to qualified majority voting in relation to the choice of Common Foreign and Security Policy representatives (Article 23(2)); [136054]

(2) (a) the balance of responsibilities between the EU and United Kingdom Government in relation to mixed agreements and (b) the proposals to change to qualified majority voting on mixed agreements (New Article 300 (8)); [136043]

(3) (a) the balance of responsibilities between the EU and UK Government and (b) the proposals to the change to qualified majority voting in relation to the Common Foreign and Security Policy international agreements (Article 24); [136053]

(4) (a) the balance of responsibilities between the EU and HM Government and (b) the proposals to the change to qualified majority voting in relation to association agreements (Article 300 (2)); [136047]

(5) (a) the balance of responsibilities between the EU and UK Government and (b) the proposals to change to qualified majority voting in relation to the co-operation measures under Title IV (Article 66). [136052]

Mr. Vaz: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the right hon. Member for Wokingham (Mr. Redwood) on 30 October 2000, Official Report, columns 234-38W.

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