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Consolidated Fund
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, on how many occasions sums in excess of £10 million were erroneously paid by the Local Chancellor's Department into the Consolidated Fund in the last 12 months; and if she will make a statement. [22550]
Ms Rosie Winterton: No individual payments in excess of £10 million have been made by the Lord Chancellor's Department into the Consolidated Fund in error in the last 12 months. The Department secured a short surrender of £12,002,137 from the Consolidated Fund to recover moneys wrongly paid into the fund, due to an error in the accounting processes employed by the magistrates courts during the 2000–01 financial year. The mistakes were detected by internal controls and action has been taken to tighten procedures and to ensure that the mistakes are not repeated. None of the individual payments was for £10 million or more, and the funds were recovered from the Consolidated Fund by short surrender.
Staff Numbers
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many people were employed in her Department in each of the last four years. [23790]
Ms Rosie Winterton: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to him on 18 December 2001, Official Report, column 256W, by my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office.
Judicial Appointments
Vera Baird: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what steps the Lord Chancellor will take to increase the number of women appointed to the judiciary. [23355]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Lord Chancellor appoints to judicial office exclusively on merit. The number of women holding judicial office substantially reflects the number of women practitioners in the legal profession with the appropriate period of experience which is usually not less than 20 years. The Lord Chancellor has already introduced a number of initiatives to encourage greater
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numbers to apply for judicial office and to secure equality of opportunity in the appointments process. For example, he has made information about the appointments procedures widely available; he applies the procedures flexibly in relation to the age and sitting arrangements; he has introduced a work shadowing scheme; he has reviewed the detailed criteria for appointment against which assessments of suitability are made; he is piloting a scheme to encourage applications from those who may think that their career progress to date understates their judicial potential; and has appointed a Commissioner for Judicial Appointments to audit and make recommendations about the appointments procedures and handle complaints. Preparatory work for a pilot assessment centre has begun with a view to running the pilot in 2002. A video about the appointments process will be completed soon. These efforts will continue and be developed with a view to progressive increases in the numbers of women appointed.
Vera Baird: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what plans she has for part-time, permanent judicial appointments. [23349]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Lord Chancellor decided that the facility for salaried part-time working should be piloted in the most recent competition for district judge appointments as part of his policy to promote equality of opportunity for judicial appointments. Following the outcome of this pilot, the Lord Chancellor has decided that the facility may be extended to future competitions for appointments to certain other judicial posts.
Older People
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if she will set out for each of the conclusions in section 6.4 of the Performance and Innovation Unit report, "Winning the Generation Game", (a) what progress her Department has made and (b) what future plans her Department has for acting on them; and if she will set out against each of the conclusions the targets and deadlines that have been set. [24202]
Ms Rosie Winterton: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to him today by my hon. Friend the Minister of State, Cabinet Office, at column 335.
Departmental Expenditure Limit
Matthew Taylor: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what assessment she has made of the reasons for the difference between the final voted departmental expenditure limit and provisional outturn for financial year 2000–01, as listed in the Treasury document, Public Expenditure 2000–01: Provisional Outturn, for Vote V, Lord Chancellor's and Law Officers' Departments, subcategories (a) 1 Lord Chancellor's Department and (b) 6 HM Procurator General and Treasury Solicitor; and if she will make a statement. [24116]
Ms Rosie Winterton: (a) An analysis of significant discrepancies between the final voted departmental expenditure limit and the actual outturn will be published shortly in the Department's Resource Account.
(b) I understand from my right hon. and learned Friend the Solicitor-General that the difference between the final voted departmental expenditure limit for Vote V Class 6:
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HM Procurator General and Treasury Solicitor and the provisional outturn shown in the Treasury document, Public Expenditure 2000–01: Provisional Outturn results from Appropriations in Aid which were higher than the sum originally estimated. This followed improvements in debt recovery processes in the Treasury Solicitor's Department which resulted in speedier payment of bills for legal services provided to client Departments.
EDUCATION AND SKILLS
Head Teachers
Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many new head teachers were appointed between September 1999 and July 2000 (a) in total and (b) by ethnic grouping. [8402]
Mr. Timms: The estimate of new head teachers appointed to posts in the maintained schools sector in England between March 1999 and March 2000 was 2,330 (provisional).
The number of head teachers appointed by ethnic origin is not collected centrally.
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many head teachers have left the profession since 1997. [10442]
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Mr. Timms: Head teachers who are no longer in service as heads in the maintained schools sector in England since 1997 are given in the table. The numbers include teachers who are still in service but are not serving as heads.
| Heads leaving in year prior to March 1998 | Heads leaving in year prior to March 1999 | |
|---|---|---|
| Retired | 1,980 | 850 |
| Left service for reasons other than retirement | 440 | 640 |
| In service in maintained sector but not as a head | 620 | 1,050 |
| Total wastage | 3,040 | 2,550 |
The most recent reliable data available are for March 1999.
Numbers are rounded to the nearest 10. Totals may not appear to be the addition of the component parts because of rounding.
Some teachers who have left service will return after a career break.
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many special school heads have left the profession in the past three years. [20110]
Mr. Timms: The head teachers who have left service as heads in the maintained special schools sector in England in the last three years are given in the table. These include teachers who are still in service but are not serving as heads.
| Heads leaving in year prior to March 1997 | Heads leaving in year prior to March 1998 | Heads leaving in year prior to March 1999 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retired | 110 | 100 | 50 |
| Left service for reasons other than retirement | 20 | 30 | 30 |
| In service in maintained sector but not as a head | 40 | 40 | 50 |
| Changed phase, still a head in the maintained sector | (25)— | 10 | 10 |
| Total wastage | 170 | 180 | 150 |
(25) Less than five teachers
The most recent reliable data available are for March 1999.
Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10. Totals may not appear to be the addition of the component parts because of rounding.
Some teachers who have left service will return after a career break.
Teachers (Offences)
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how many teachers were convicted of offences committed on school premises in (a) 1990, (b) 1995 and (c) 2000; [23417]
- (2) how many teachers were subject to criminal investigations as a result of incidents in schools in (a) 1990, (b) 1995 and (c) 2000. [23418]
Mr. Timms: The information is not collected centrally.
Supply Teachers
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many supply teachers are working in Buckinghamshire; and what percentage supply teachers comprise of the total number of teachers in Buckinghamshire expressed as full-time equivalents. [15769]
Mr. Timms: 120 occasional teachers on contracts of less than one month were employed in maintained schools in Buckinghamshire for the whole of 18 January 2001, the date of the annual census of teachers in service. That was 2.9 per cent. of the full-time equivalent of regular and occasional teachers working in maintained schools in Buckinghamshire on that day.
Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many supply teachers are working in each local education authority area; and what percentage supply teachers comprise of the total number of teachers in each local education authority, expressed as full time equivalents. [15617]
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Mr. Timms [holding answer 16 December 2001]: The numbers of teachers on contracts of less than one month 1 (occasional teachers), employed for the whole day in the maintained schools sector on the 18 January 2001, the date of the annual census of teachers in service, and expressed as percentages of the full-time equivalent of regular and occasional teachers, were as follows:
(26) Numbers of occasional teachers are rounded to the nearest ten. The total may not appear to equal the sum of the component parts due to rounding.
(27) Less than 5.
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Mr. Collins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will take steps to eliminate the differences in rates of pay per hour for supply teachers working for Cumbria LEA and those employed by Lancashire LEA; and if she will make a statement. [24047]
Mr. Timms: Supply teachers employed by an LEA or by the governing body of a maintained school must be paid under the provisions of the School Teachers' Pay and Conditions Document. The document provides that teachers employed on a short notice basis should be paid a proportion of the remuneration that would be appropriate if they were employed full-time. It is, however, for the individual employer to determine what that proportion should be on the basis of the number of hours worked in the day. An interpretation of how to calculate the appropriate proportion and hours worked per day could differ between two authorities. I am content to allow this flexibility of interpretation to remain.
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