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University Funding

Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much funding has been given by the Government to each university in (a) Wales and (b) the North West in each year since 1997. [50640]

Margaret Hodge: The funding of higher education in Wales is the responsibility of the Welsh Assembly and the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales. The allocation of funding by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to universities in the North West of England in each year since 1997 is as follows:

Universities in NW England	1997–98	1998–99	1999–2000	2000–01	2001–02	(21)2002–03
Lancaster	25,191,849	29,612,073	30,993,227	31,810,325	32,085,258	34,912,405
University of Central Lancashire	32,998,301	37,450,122	40,910,888	41,857,351	44,615,346	48,292,962
Liverpool John Moores	37,470,423	47,764,966	44,831,515	45,402,799	47,243,386	49,025,709
Liverpool	55,829,857	61,570,235	64,653,663	66,408,652	69,828,532	74,537,492
Manchester	76,795,457	82,970,369	84,533,180	86,831,335	86,675,433	100,442,019
Manchester Metropolitan	52,590,864	59,668,540	61,134,705	61,953,626	65,321,576	67,158,787
UMIST	26,107,034	28,650,434	29,976,427	31,464,966	32,660,103	32,758,879
Salford	34,458,084	39,265,653	39,918,959	40,372,457	42,007,181	44,149,602

⁽²¹⁾ Provisional.

Note:

These figures reflect recurrent and capital funding from DfES for allocation by the Higher Education Funding Council for England. It excludes any recurrent funding for teaching provided to these institutions by the Teacher Training Agency and other Government Departments, any research funding from the Research Councils and other Government Departments and regulated fee income paid by Government to institutions on behalf of students.

Source:

HEFCE data.

Learning Mentors

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many learning mentors there are in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in (i) the Buckingham constituency and (ii) England. [51389]

Mr. Timms: There are currently no Learning Mentors working in primary or secondary schools in the constituency of Buckingham. Our provision of Learning Mentors is focused on schools in deprived city authorities as part of the Excellence in Cities (EiC) programme, and upon schools in Excellence Clusters which cover smaller pockets of deprivation. There are currently 1,155 Learning Mentors in England's primary schools, and 2,265 in secondary schools.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

Government Services

Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what action he is taking to co-ordinate the use of post offices as one-stop shops for Government services. [49797]

Mr. Alexander [holding answer 15 April 2002]: I have been asked to reply.

DTI funded a pilot of the concept of post offices as Government General Practitioners (GGP)—one-stop shops for information, advice and transactions with a range of government and other bodies—which began last July and finished on 1 March this year. Together with other key stakeholders, we are now evaluating the outcome of the pilot to determine whether a national GGP service would meet the needs of citizens and participating organisations and provide value for money. The Department is also working with Post Office Ltd., the Office of the e-Envoy, other Government Departments and local government evaluating the design and costing of a potential national service. A decision on whether or not to proceed will be taken in the light of all the evidence.

Women's Employment, Enterprise and

Training Unit

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the annual budget is of the Women's Employment, Enterprise and Training Unit; and how many people it employs. [43110]

Ms Hewitt: I have been asked to reply.

The Women's Employment, Enterprise and Training Unit is an organisation independent of government and therefore the information requested is not held by my Department.

Professional Indemnity Insurance

Mr. Gray: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many contracts the Cabinet Office has with consultants; what level of professional indemnity insurance is standard in contracts with small consultants; whether he can make exceptions to the level of professional indemnity

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insurance; and what recent discussions he has had with other Government Departments about the level of professional indemnity insurance. [50826]

Mr. Leslie: The Cabinet Office standard terms and conditions of contract require consultants to indemnify the Department against all costs or third party claims arising from the consultant's acts or omissions, and to maintain insurance cover of a minimum of £500,000 per claim against the risk of fire or other damage to property or personal injury. The standard terms apply to all consultants irrespective of size. However, individual cases the amount of insurance required may be increased or reduced according to the risk associated with the contracted work.

The number of contracts is not held centrally and is available only at disproportionate cost.

As with previous Administrations, it is not this Government's practice to provide details of discussions which form part of the process of policy development and analysis.

Public Appointments (Diversity)

Miss Begg: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what measures he plans to take to ensure that Government departments (a) undertake the duties outlined in the Cabinet Office Diversity in Public Appointments document and (b) report on the numbers of disabled people who hold public appointments in their departments. [48755]

Mr. Leslie: The publication "Public Bodies: Opening Up Public Appointments 2002–05" sets out for each Department specific targets for increasing diversity on the boards of the Public Bodies it sponsors and the action that will be taken to ensure that the targets are met and for monitoring progress. The numbers of appointments held by men, women, disabled people and people from ethnic minority backgrounds, will be reported in the annual Public Bodies data on the numbers of disabled appointees on bodies sponsored by some Departments was not available but, as noted in that publication, this information will be compiled for inclusion in Public Bodies 2002. Copies of Public Bodies: Opening up appointments 2002–05 and Public Bodies 2001 have been placed in the Libraries of the House and are available on-line at http://www.quango.gov.uk.

Departmental Report

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister when the 2002 Departmental report will be published. [49587]

Mr. Leslie: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my right hon. Friend the Member for Oxford, East (Mr. Smith), on 15 April 2002, Official Report, column 774W.

Union Duties

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, pursuant to his answer of 26 February 2002, Official Report, column 1265W, regarding paid leave for staff to undertake union duties, if the two officers of Cabinet Office agencies who spent part of their time undertaking

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union duties on an ad hoc basis are required to obtain in advance line management approval for such time off. [50343]

Mr. Leslie: Yes.

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, pursuant to his answer of 26 February 2002, Official Report, column 1265W, regarding paid leave for staff to undertake union duties, how many days have been spent on union duties by the two officers of Cabinet Office agencies who undertake union duties on an ad hoc basis. [50414]

Mr. Leslie: The information requested is as follows.

1998–99: 75 days

1999–2000: 70 days

2000–01: 63 days

2001–02: 54 days.

Overtime

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what his policy is on overtime payments for staff in his Department. [49132]

Mr. Leslie: Cabinet Office policy on overtime working is that where possible it should be kept to a minimum and used at times of exceptional pressure once alternatives have been explored. Where overtime is necessary managers are required to:

use volunteers;


give staff 48 hours notice whenever the requirement cannot be met by volunteers;


avoid regular calls to fulfil the requirement on particular blocks of staff;


avoid weekends.

Cabinet Office rules on overtime working which complies fully with Section 9 of the Civil Service Management Code.

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