---

Classroom of the Future Roadshows

Mr. Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment on what dates, and at what locations, his Department has held Classroom of the Future roadshows in the last year; what criteria are used for determining locations; and what roadshows are planned for the next two months. [157378]

Mr. Wills [holding answer 6 April] 14 Classroom of the Future roadshows were held in total in the last year, eight for teachers and head teachers and six for school governors. The roadshows for teachers and heads were held on the following dates and locations:

Date (2000)	Location
7 March	Heathrow, London
9 March	Leeds
13 March	Newcastle
15 March	Axbridge
6 March	Manchester
22 March	Dudley, Birmingham
23 March	Leicester
3 April	Central London

For school governors they were held on the following dates and locations:

Date	Location
30 October 2000	Chelmsford
8 November 2000	Chiswick, London
29 January 2001	Manchester
1 February 2001	Bristol
12 February 2001	Solihull, Birmingham
14 February 2001	Darlington

The locations for the roadshows were chosen to allow a good spread across the country to enable as many schools,

9 Apr 2001 : Column: 430W

teachers and governors to participate as possible.No further roadshows are planned for the next two months. We will continue to seek opportunities to raise the profile of ICT in education and to share good practice, and may decide to run a further series of similar events in the coming year.

General Teaching Council

Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what percentage of his nominees to the General Teaching Council have declared political activity for (a) the Labour party, (b) the Conservative party, (c) the Liberal Democrats and (d) other parties. [157509]

Jacqui Smith: Of the Secretary of State's 13 appointees to the General Teaching Council only one declared political activity and in this instance it was for the Labour party.

Teaching Awards Ceremony

Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what preparation has been made for the 2001 teaching awards ceremony; and what venue has been chosen. [157510]

Ms Estelle Morris: The Teaching Awards 2001 are run by an independent charity, The Teaching Awards Trust, in partnership with BT and other private sponsors. I understand that the national ceremony is due to take place on 28 October after a series of good practice workshops on 27 October. The Teaching Awards Trust has not yet secured a venue for this event, although it is likely to be in central London.

Nurseries (Funding)

Mr. Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on the eligibility for additional funding of nurseries and playgroups designed to enable them to extend their hours and services, announced by the Prime Minister on 26 March. [157712]

Ms Hodge: My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister specifically announced that an extra £15 million over three years is being made available for maintained nursery schools to extend the services they offer to include out of hours child care facilities, services for a wider age range of children, and family services. This will help around 45,000 children and their families.

My right hon. Friend also announced that £4 million over 12 months will be made available to provide support for playgroups and other early years or child care providers in England intending to expand their services from the traditional two and a half hours early education and/or care session to provide a longer day care facility. This will help around 15,000 children and their families by creating more child care places and providing greater choice, flexibility and quality child care facilities.

Through the Neighbourhood Nursery initiative, Early Excellence Centre, Sure Start and other programmes we will create, and encourage others to create, by 2004, up to 100,000 new full-time integrated nursery education and child care places. These initiatives are available to a range of providers, including nurseries and playgroups.

9 Apr 2001 : Column: 431W

By March 2004 we plan to have spent over £1 billion on child care initiatives, as well as helping lower income working parents to pay for child care through the Working Families Tax Credit, and these resources will contribute to the extension of services for children, including nurseries and playgroups extending their hours.

LORD CHANCELLOR'S DEPARTMENT

JPs (Chorley)

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many justices of the peace there are in Chorley, broken down by party political affiliation. [157715]

Marjorie Mowlam: I have been asked to reply.

There are currently 71 magistrates assigned to the Chorley Bench. Of these, 25 give their political views as being Conservative; 18 Labour, and five Liberal Democrat. A further 22 magistrates indicate that they are uncommitted.

HEALTH

Gelatine

Mr. Jon Owen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what sorts of gelatine are used in the manufacture of hard and soft capsules for drugs used in Britain. [143100]

Yvette Cooper: The measures are laid down in the Note for Guidance on minimising the risk of transmitting animal spongiform encephalopathy agents via medicinal products. This guideline has been a force of law by virtue of a Commission Directive 1999/82 and has been incorporated into the United Kingdom domestic law. This guidance note focuses on the cumulative contribution of three factors to the safety of gelatine: the origin of the animals, type of tissue and manufacturing process. It is also recommended that appropriate quality system, such as ISO 9000 certification and Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point, should be put in place for monitoring of the production process and batch delineation. Procedures should also be in place to ensure traceability and to audit suppliers of starting materials.

Mr. Jon Owen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what steps he has taken to ensure that gelatine used in soft and hard drug capsules is not contaminated with BSE prions; [143098]

(2) what recent tests his Department has (a) carried out and (b) commissioned to ensure that gelatine used in drug capsules does not contain the prion for BSE. [143099]

Yvette Cooper: Gelatine used for formulating medicines can be sourced from porcine and bovine hides (skin) and bovine bones. Acid process is applied to bovine bones, hides and porcine skins. An alkaline process is used to produce soft gelatine.

There are no tests designed specifically to detect BSE agent in gelatine.

9 Apr 2001 : Column: 432W

Departmental Policies (Slough)

Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will set out, with statistical information relating as directly as possible to the Slough constituency, the effects on Slough of his Department's policies and actions since 2 May 1997. [146928]

Ms Stuart: Detailed information on the impact of Department of Health policies nationally is set out in the Department of Health Annual reports. A copy of the most recent report "Department of Health--Government Expenditure Plans 2000-01" is available in the House of Commons Library and on the Department of Health website at www.doh.gov.uk/dhreport

The impact of policies is not examined by constituency and statistics collected centrally by the Department are not collected on a constituency basis.

My hon. Friend's constituency falls within the geographical area covered by Berkshire health authority and Slough social services.

The increases in allocations between 1996-97 and 2001-02 for Berkshire health authority are set out in the table:

Increases in allocations between 1996-97 and 2001-02

	Increase
£ million (cash)	144.9
£ million (real terms)	95.6
Percentage (cash)	41.65
Percentage (real terms)	25.51

Note:

Increases for 1999-2000 onwards are for unified allocations which cover hospital and community health services, prescribing and discretionary family health services. Those for previous years cover hospital and community health services only.

Berkshire health authority has also received additional funding for certain policies. This includes: £1.2 million for accident and emergency modernisation in 2000-01; £144,000, £279,000, £418,000 and £283,000 for improving cancer services (breast, colorectal, lung and cancer outpatients) in 1997-98, 1999-2000 and 2000-01 respectively.

Berkshire health authority has also received £1.4 million for investment in cancer equipment that has already been delivered and is now in use; £5.3 million, £0.4 million and £0.3 million to reduce waiting lists and times in 1998-99, 1999-2000 and 2000-01 respectively; £1.6 million to expand critical care services in 2000-01; £2.5 million and £1.6 million to deal with winter pressures in 1998-99 and 2000-01 respectively; £254,000 for heart disease services in 2000-01; £340,000 invested in dentistry in 2000-01

In addition, my hon. Friend's constituents will benefit from the new £74.0 million major hospital development that is being developed at Royal Berkshire and Battle Hospitals National Health Service Trust.

Slough local authority came into existence on 1 April 1998. Its personal social services standard spending assessment for 2001-02 is £22.383 million.

In addition to its SSA, Slough has received additional funding in the form of a number of special and specific grants as set out in the table.

9 Apr 2001 : Column: 433W

£000

	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02
Special Transitional Grant(29)	758	--	--	--
Partnership grant(30)	--	577	493	654
Prevention grant(30)	--	46	70
Carers grant(31)	--	45	123	173
Children's grant(31)	--	250	389	946
MH Core grant	116	199	230	(32)261
Training Support Grant	60	137	147	(32)173

⁽²⁹⁾ The special transitional grant ended in 1998-99

⁽³⁰⁾ The partnership and prevention grants have been combined in 2001-02 and called the promoting independence grant

⁽³¹⁾ The carers' and children's grants were introduced in 1999-2000

⁽³²⁾ Indicative allocation

---