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School Performance Targets

Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what steps he is taking to ensure that head teachers of maintained schools agree performance targets with their governing bodies by the revised deadline of 6 April. [149802]

Ms Estelle Morris: The published regulations on performance management, "The Education (School Teacher Appraisal) (England) Regulations 2000" and "The Education (School Teacher Appraisal) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2000", extended the deadline requiring the appointed governors responsible for the head's review to meet the head and a trained external adviser to agree objectives to 6 April 2001. As a result of the extension of the deadline 86 per cent. of appointed governors have now arranged or completed discussions with advisers. We are reminding schools that have not already made arrangements to do so.

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Schools (South Derbyshire)

Mr. Todd: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what the capital expenditure in schools was in the South Derbyshire constituency supported by the Funding Agency for Schools in each financial year from 1993-94. [149780]

Jacqui Smith: The table shows the total number and value of allocations for capital projects at Grant Maintained (GM) schools in Derbyshire for each financial year from 1993-94. The Funding Agency for Schools was not established until 1 April 1994. The allocations shown in the table for 1993-94 were made by the Department for Education. Capital funding to GM schools from 1994-95 was made by both project specific allocations to individual schools and by formula allocation to all schools. The total allocations for both types of grant are shown in the table.

Details of actual capital expenditure in each financial year are not readily available as this information was not collected before individual project records were achieved.

Financial year	Number of allocations	Value of allocations (£)	Formula capital allocations (£)	Total each year (£)
1993-94	12	1,016,929	0	1,016,929
1994-95	16	2,903,894	254,610	3,158,504
1995-96	11	413,778	294,355	708,133
1996-97(10)	18	2,806,266	671,868	3,478,134
1997-98	12	864,899	392,758	1,257,657
1998-99	22	3,072,220	288,912	3,361,132
1999-2000	7	1,208,026	158,420	1,366,466

⁽¹⁰⁾ The formula capital allocations include allocations for improvements to security and condition related work that were distributed via the formula capital mechanism.

Education Welfare Officers

Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many (a) Educational Welfare Officer posts and (b) vacancies for Educational Welfare Officers there are in each local education authority. [149809]

Jacqui Smith: The information is not collated centrally.

Education Welfare Officers have a long history of working directly with school and families to promote regular attendance. We are currently piloting whether Education Welfare Officers employed directly by schools would help to improve this liaison and assist in our overall aim of reducing the number of school truancies. There are 16 local education authorities involved in the pilots and we will be looking closely at them throughout the year.

Emergency Contraception

Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment (1) what guidance has been given to schools on whether the dispensation of emergency contraception to girls under the age of 16 years should be allowed by the sex and relationship education policy of the school; [150071]

(2) what provisions have been made to allow parents to stipulate that their daughters under the age of 16 years should not be dispensed emergency contraception

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without parental consent in cases where the school's sex and relationship education policy allows emergency contraception to be dispensed. [150072]

Jacqui Smith: I refer the hon. Member to my answer on 6 February 2001, Official Report, columns 484-85W.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

Russia

Mr. Llew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to his answer of 16 January 2001, Official Report, column 171W, on Russia, if he will place in the Library copies of the minutes of the meetings of the Plutonium Disposition Planning Groups, each month until it reports. [148862]

Mr. Wilson: The Plutonium Disposition Planning Group is an informal working group and, as such, there are no formal minutes of its meeting. However, we have secured agreement to place details of the main headings of that Agenda and the list of action points arising from the agenda in the Library and will do so after each meeting of the Group.

Qualified Majority Voting

Mr. Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if those matters in the councils of the European Union that will be added to decision making by qualified majority vote after the coming into effect of the Treaty of Nice are within the categories of shared, or exclusive competence, of the Community and Union and its member states. [149183]

Mr. Vaz: Of those areas which will move to qualified majority voting after the entry into force of the Treaty of Nice, three are within the exclusive competence of the community. They are Articles 111(4) and 123(4) of the EC Treaty concerning monetary policy, and Article 133(5) of the EC Treaty which extends the Common Commercial Policy to trade in some services and the commercial aspects of intellectual property, subject to unanimity in certain situations. All of the remaining areas which will move to qualified majority voting fall either within the shared competence of the Community and the member states or come within the intergovernmental pillars of the Treaty on the European Union where the concept of shared and exclusive competence is not relevant.

Europe Houses

Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many Europe Houses there are in the United Kingdom; and what is their purpose and their cost. [142968]

Mr. Vaz [pursuant to his reply, 19 December 2000, c. 131W]: We have now been informed by the International Federation of Europe Houses that there are three Europe Houses in the UK.

I am depositing an up to date list of Europe Houses in the Library.

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Barzan Al-Takriti

Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what contacts Ministers in his Department have had with Barzan Al-Takriti and his representatives. [149585]

Mr. Wilson: There have been no contacts between FCO Ministers and Barzan Al-Takriti or his representatives.

Southern Serbia

Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment he has made of the plan for Southern Serbia presented by Deputy Prime Minister Covic of Serbia. [149773]

Mr. Vaz: The United Kingdom welcomes Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Covic's plan for Southern Serbia, and its approval by the Government of Serbia and of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The UK welcomes in particular the plan's emphasis on the need for a political solution to the crisis in the Presevo Valley, and its focus on the need to establish a multi-ethnic community based on respect for common human and civil rights. The UK calls on armed groups in the Ground Safety Zone to abandon violence and to join the search for a peaceful resolution of the area's problems.

Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent discussions he has had with his (a) EU and (b) American counterparts regarding developments in Southern Serbia and Kosovo. [149779]

Mr. Vaz: The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs is in frequent contact with his European and US counterparts on developments in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), including Southern Serbia and Kosovo. Latest developments in the Balkans were discussed with US Secretary of State Colin Powell in Washington on 6 February.

North Korean Workers Party

Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the outcome of his recent discussions in London with representatives of the North Korean Workers Party. [149740]

Mr. Battle: I met a senior delegation from the International Department of the Korean Workers Party on Tuesday 6 February. We exchanged views on the development of UK/DPRK relations following the establishment of diplomatic relations on 12 December 2000.

Common Security and Defence Policy

Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent representations he has received from the US Administration on the further development of the European Union's common security and defence policy. [149793]

Mr. Vaz [holding answer 9 February 2001]: My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary discussed ESDP during his talks in Washington on 6-7 February. The talks

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confirmed consensus between the US and UK in support of a European defence policy which strengthens NATO and the EU.

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