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Skills Improvement
Dr. George Turner:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what steps he is taking to help businesses ensure that employees have the skills required to exploit modern communications and electronics. [100555]
13 Dec 1999 : Column: 87W
Mr. Wicks:
[holding answer 9 December 1999]: This Department funds a number of initiatives to help individuals and businesses acquire the skills needed to exploit information and communications technologies (ICT). The University for Industry (UfI) will offer new learning opportunities to individuals and businesses when it is launched in Autumn 2000--one of its priorities is ICT for the workplace. My Department is putting in place a network of up to 700 ICT Learning Centres to enable adults in the most disadvantaged areas to have access to ICT-based learning. There are a number of relevant employer-led National Training Organisations supported by my Department which offer help to employers. The IT, Communications and Electronics Skills Strategy Group, chaired by Alan Stevens, has produced a report containing options for further action in this area. We shall respond to it shortly. In addition, the Department of Trade and Industry provides support through the Information Society Initiative which aims to raise awareness, and use, of IT and related technologies amongst businesses.
Mr. Willis:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many people have had an application for an individual learning account refused; and for what reasons. [102314]
Mr. Wicks:
This year TECs/CCTEs in England have been operating local arrangements to provide individual learning accounts in advance of the national framework which will come in next year. Information is not held centrally on the number of applications refused or the reasons for the refusal. In advance of the national framework TECs/CCTEs have only been asked to provide limited numbers of accounts in 1999-2000.
Mrs. May:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment to which unit of his Department the external assessors employed as part of the proposed threshold arrangements for teachers will be allocated; what their management structure will be; and how many will be employed on (a) permanent and (b) fixed-term contracts. [102615]
Ms Estelle Morris:
External assessors will be employed by the organisation to which DfEE awards the contract for their recruitment, deployment and quality assurance. Management structure and contractual arrangements will depend upon the award of this contract. When let, the contract will be managed by DfEE's Teachers' Pay and Policy Division.
Mrs. May:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many external assessors will be employed under the proposed threshold arrangements for teachers; and what the budget is for these staff. [102614]
Ms Estelle Morris:
The deployment and remuneration of external assessors will be a matter for the organisation to which DfEE awards the contract for their management. This contract has not yet been awarded and so information on numbers and costs is not yet available.
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Mr. Gordon Prentice:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in which EU member states animal remains are used as a fuel in cement kilns; and if he will make a statement. [100576]
Ms Quin:
This Department does not hold information on this issue.
Mr. Breed:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1) what plans he has to approve further loans from the Intervention Board to companies for the purpose of converting existing incineration plants to take (a) meat and bone meal and (b) cattle carcases; [100828]
Ms Quin:
The Intervention Board's contract with Fibrogen is to incinerate 255,000 tonnes of meat and bone meal (MBM) from the Over-Thirty-Month-Scheme over a three year period at a total cost of some £16 million. Under the terms of the contract, the Government have agreed to advance part of the gate fee payable for the incineration service. The amount involved is £5.7 million, with a contingency of a further £0.5 million, to meet the cost of converting the power station and to meet the Environment Agency's requirement. The cost to the taxpayer of the advance, estimated to be £4 a tonne over the contract quantity of MBM, was fully considered in awarding the contract to Fibrogen. Even taking into account the cost of the advance, Fibrogen's gate fee to burn MBM is significantly below that negotiated with other incineration companies.
The Intervention Board has now contracted, or there is available commercially, sufficient capacity to meet its future incineration requirements, and it is unlikely that there will be a need for other contracts with advance funding.
Mr. Letwin:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what steps he is taking to improve the clarity and accuracy of country-of-origin labelling of food products in supermarkets. [100794]
Ms Quin
[holding answer 30 November 1999]: We are consulting all interested parties on guidance aimed at ensuring that country of origin markings on food labels do not mislead consumers about the true origin of the ingredients that have been used. We also intend to promote changes to European and international rules and advice to ensure that consumers are given accurate information about the true origin of the foods they are buying.
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Dr. Naysmith:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when he expects to receive the report of the Meat Industry Red Tape Working Group. [102771]
Mr. Nick Brown:
I have just received the report of the Meat Industry Red Tape Working Group and I am immediately placing copies in the Libraries of the House.
I am very grateful to the Working Group for their hard work in completing their report so quickly. I asked them to think radically and to suggest ways of doing things better. I note that a key recommendation is to modernise the approach to safeguarding meat hygiene to match the advances in food hygiene science. This supports the contention we have held for some time that the system, much of which is the subject of EU legislation, needs revision to ensure that it is effective and streamlined but at the same time provides the fullest safeguards for consumers. The Report makes a considerable number of other recommendations for both short and long term action. I shall therefore be considering the report very carefully with my colleagues. We will give our considered response in the New Year.
Mr. Don Foster:
To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, how much his Department spent on external consultants and advisers since May 1997 funded from (i) his Department's programme provision and (ii) the Lord Chancellor's Department's running costs. [99487]
Mr. Lock
[pursuant to his reply, 24 November 1999, c.147W]: I regret to inform the hon. Member that the answer given was inaccurate. This was due to a misinterpretation of the figures collated to answer the question.
The correct figures are as follows:
Mr. Lock:
The total expenditure on external consultants by the Department's agencies and non- departmental public bodies from April 1997 to end of October 1999 is £7,540,453.
13 Dec 1999 : Column: 90W
Mr. McNamara:
To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what training is being given to the judiciary on the implications for their work of the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights into United Kingdom law. [102067]
Jane Kennedy:
Judicial training is the responsibility of the Judicial Studies Board (JSB) which is an independent non-departmental public body and is chaired by Lord Justice Waller.
(2) what the total value was of the loan made by the Intervention Board to Fibrogen Ltd. to fund the conversion of an existing incineration plant to take meat and bone meal. [100832]
Expenditure for the Department from April 1997 to end of October 1999 is £9,082,480.
£129,974 of this has been spent from programmed provision and the remainder from running costs.
Mr. Don Foster:
To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how much his Department's agencies and non-departmental public bodies have spent on external consultants and advisers since May 1997. [102072]
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