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Kyoto Protocol

Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether she proposes an early ratification of the Kyoto protocol by the United Kingdom; and if she will make a statement [27837]

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Mr. Meacher [holding answer 16 January 2002]: For legal and presentational reasons, the UK will ratify the Kyoto protocol at the same time as the European Community and other member states. At the European Council on 31 October 2001, the EU stressed

"the Community's and its member states' resolve to complete their ratification procedures in time for timely ratification with a view to entry into force of the Kyoto protocol by the World Summit on Sustainable Development" in 2002.

The first step in the process is for the EC to ratify the protocol through the adoption of a Council Decision that will include further clarification on the arrangements for implementing the agreement between the EC and its member states in 1998 on sharing out the EC's -8 per cent. target. A Council Decision dealing with these issues is currently under discussion and is expected to be adopted at the next Environment Council on 4 March 2002.

EDUCATION AND SKILLS

Student Loans Company

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the administration costs of the Student Loans Company were in 2000–01; and what she expects them to be in 2001–02. [21299]

Margaret Hodge: The Student Loans Company's provisional outturn of administration costs in 2000–01 was £47.5 million (cash). The final figure will be included in the company's 2000–01 annual report which is expected to be published in mid-December 2002. Copies of this document will be placed in the Libraries of both of the Houses of Parliament.

The planned administration expenditure for 2001–02 is £55 million.

Both of these figures are provided on a UK basis, and include funding from the private sector to cover the administration of the two sold loan portfolios.

Higher Education Funding Council

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the administration costs of the Higher Education Funding Council for England were in 2000–01; and what she expects them to be in 2001–02. [21291]

Margaret Hodge: Provision for the administrative costs of the Higher Education Funding Council for England is £14.6 million in 2001–02 and £14.9 million in 2002–03.

Further Education Funding Council

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the administration costs of the Further Education Funding Council were in 2000–01; and what she expects them to be in 2001–01. [21292]

John Healey: We do not yet have final expenditure details for the Further Education Funding Council (FEFC) in 2000–01. Latest planned funding for the FEFC for administration was £27.4 million.

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The FEFC will not incur any administrative costs in 2001–02. From April 2001 the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) has taken over the majority of the functions previously carried out by the FEFC, as well as those of TECs.

Teacher Training Agency

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the administration costs of the Teacher Training Agency were in 2000–01; and what she expects them to be in 2001–02. [21297]

Mr. Timms: The administration costs of the Teacher Training Agency (TTA) in 2000–01, as published in the agency's annual financial statements, were £7.392 million. The TTA's current forecast administration costs for 2001–02 are around £7.85 million.

Qualifications and Curriculum Authority

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the administration costs of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority were in 2000–01; and what she expects them to be in 2001–02. [21300]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority incurred administration costs in 2000–01 of £25,600,000, and expects to spend £28 million in 2001–02.

Investors in People

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the administration costs of Investors in People were in 2000–01; and what she expects them to be in 2001–02. [21301]

John Healey: In this financial year, Investors in People UK will receive grant in aid of £1.617 million. Up to 75 per cent. of this is used for running costs—e.g. staff/premises costs; the remainder is used to fund the development of the standard. In addition to this, the company has also received additional funding of £1.6 million from the Department for marketing purposes. Last year, IiP UK generated additional income of £3.7 million from their own operations, which was used to carry out development, quality assurance, and advice and guidance.

Exam Standards

Mr. Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will publish the full report of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority into the claims of Mr. Jeffrey Robinson about exam standards. [24887]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: QCA commissioned a full report from the awarding body OCR on Mr. Robinson's allegations. Although the OCR report is a confidential technical document and it is not QCA's practice to publish documents of this type, QCA's assessment of it has been published in the QCA website.

Civil Service Code

Mr. Fallon: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many complaints have been reported in

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her Department under paragraph 11 of the Civil Service Code since 13 May 1999; and how many of them related to special advisers. [25328]

Mr. Ivan Lewis [holding answer 9 January 2002]: The procedures for making complaints under the Civil Service Code are set out in the Department's staff handbook. Civil servants are encouraged, in the first instance, to raise complaints made under paragraph 11 of the Civil Service Code with their line manager. If for any reason this is not felt to be possible, perhaps because the line manager is part of the complaint, individuals may take their complaint to a nominated official (or officials). It is not possible to provide a comprehensive figure for the number of complaints made within this Department under paragraph 11 of the code, as there is no requirement for managers to report centrally details of complaints made under the Civil Service Code which are resolved within the management line.

Early Education Places

Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what percentage of three-year-olds in Trafford are in receipt of a free early education place. [25994]

Margaret Hodge [holding answer 11 January 2002]: We are committed to providing all three-year-olds, whose parents want one, with a free nursery education place by September 2004. We have recently announced details of the £275 million of funding we are making available to provide free early education places for three-year-olds in 2002–03. This funding has been initially allocated according to the position of an authority on the Government's Index of Multiple Deprivation. As a result, Trafford LEA has been allocated £335,000 of this funding to provide 275 free early education places.

Estimates of the percentage of three-year-olds already provided with a place are used nationally for internal planning and monitoring. However, accurate local population figures are not available to the Department, although local authorities may choose to make their own estimates based on local data.

Speech Therapists

Mr. Lilley: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many speech therapists qualified for teaching children with special educational needs are in practice in each local education authority in England. [27696]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: This information is not collected centrally. Under the Standards Fund, grant support is available to local education authorities to help them enhance speech and language therapy services in conjunction with the NHS and voluntary sector. We have also supported the work of the charity I-CAN on creating a joint professional development framework for teachers and speech and language therapists, to be published shortly.

Ministerial Transport

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what her estimate is of the cost of (a) ministerial cars and drivers and (b) taxis for her Department in each of the last four years. [27903]

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Mr. Ivan Lewis: Nick Matheson, Chief Executive of the Government Car and Despatch Agency (GCDA) which provides ministerial cars and drivers, will be writing separately in response to part (a) of this question.

It is not possible, even at disproportionate cost, to provide an estimate of the cost of taxis used within my Department in each of the last four years.

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