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Railtrack Successor
Mr. Lilley: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if he will list the categories and value of payments made to, by and on
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behalf of the proposed Company Limited by Guarantee as a successor to Railtrack which will be paid from public funds. [53802]
Mr. Spellar: The successor to Railtrack plc will continue to receive income to the time and profile as set out in the regulator's October 2000 periodic review and the April 2001 agreement between the Government and Railtrack.
If Network Rail's bid is successful, the support to be provided by Government is outlined in the replies to the right hon. and learned Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Mr. Howard) on 16 April 2002, Official Report, column 812W, and to the hon. Member for Christchurch (Mr. Chope) on 24 April 2002, Official Report, columns 284–85W.
National Insurance
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what his estimate is of the cost in a full year of the Budget changes to employers' national insurance contributions to (a) his Department, (b) agencies of his Department and (c) local government carrying out functions within the responsibility of his Department. [53889]
Dr. Whitehead: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to him by the my right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary to the Treasury on 29 April 2002, Official Report, column 544W.
Parliamentary Questions
Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if he will list the written questions asked of him between (a) 1 to 30 June 2001, (b) 1 to 31 July 2001, (c) 1 to 30 September 2001, (d) 1 to 31 October 2001, (e) 1 to 30 November 2001, (f) 1 to 31 December 2001, (g) 1 to 31 January 2002, (h) 1 to 28 February 2002, (i) 1 to 31 March 2002 and (j) 1 to 30 April 2002 that had not received a substantive answer by 30 April; and if he will state (i) the name of the hon. Member asking the question and (ii) the reasons the question had not received a substantive answer. [54083]
Dr. Whitehead: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given today by my right hon. Friend the President of the Council.
Since this Department was formed on 8 June 2001, Ministers have answered over 6,600 written questions. At 30 April 2002, 72 written questions had not received a substantive answer. By convention ordinary written questions are answered within a week of tabling and 60 of the 72 questions were tabled after 24 April. Of the remaining 12 questions, one named day question was given a holding reply on 18 March and a substantive answer was given on 2 May; seven other named day questions were given a holding reply on various dates in April and they have now been given substantive answers; and four ordinary written questions which were due for answer in the period 12 to 24 April were answered on 1 May.
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EDUCATION AND SKILLS
New Deal
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many people have been employed by her Department in each of the last three years under (a) the New Deal for Young People, (b) the New Deal for the Over 50s and (c) the New Deal for Lone Parents; and at what cost, listed by category, to public funds. [44908]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: Information on the numbers employed on New Deal is not held in a format that identifies those employed on the over 50 or lone parent programmes.
Information on the subsidised numbers employed under New Deal for Young People is as follows:
| Year | |
|---|---|
| 1998–1999 | 12 |
| 1999–2000 | 26 |
| 2000–2001 | 50 |
| 2001–2002 | 3 |
The figures for 2000–02 relate to DfES and its former Department DfEE. The figure for 2000–01 was prior to the Machinery of Government changes. The figure for 2001–02 takes account of the Machinery of Government changes.
Since 1 April 2000 there have been 51 unsubsidised New Deal job starts. It is not possible to allocate any of these to any particular age or client group.
New Deal recruits take up existing vacancies so any extra cost to public funds is limited to the subsidy, where appropriate, and to any training and development which may be needed. The cost of the latter cannot be identified.
School Transport
Mr. Breed: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what proportion of school children travelled by (a) foot, (b) bus, (c) car, (d) bicycle, (e) train and (f) other form of transport to rural (i) primary and (ii) secondary schools in (A) 1999, (B) 2000 and (C) 2001. [46458]
Mr. Timms [holding answer 15 April 2002]: Information is only available in respect of people living in rural areas, not for rural schools, and data are not sufficiently reliable for individual years.
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From the National Travel Survey, the distribution of mode of travel to school for people living in rural areas of Great Britain over the period 1992–2000 was as follows:
| Percentage travelling by: | Primary | Secondary |
|---|---|---|
| (a) Foot | 41 | 19 |
| (b) Bus | 15 | 51 |
| (c) Car | 40 | 22 |
| (d)-(e)-(f) Bicycle, train, other | 4 | 8 |
Note:
Percentages are calculated across all children coded as being in education in the National Travel Survey. Primary pupils defined as children aged 5–10 in the National Travel Survey Secondary pupils defined as children aged 11–16 in the National Travel Survey.
Source:
DTLR
The sample size is too small to give accurate figures for bicycle and train which together account for less than half of the last category shown. Rural areas are those with a population of less than 3,000 as defined by the 1991 Census.
Business Development Unit
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will make a statement on the work of the Business Development Unit; and what her estimate is of the financial value of sponsorship and other support they have secured. [53741]
Mr. Timms: The Business Development Unit has, since its establishment in January 2001, managed and developed the Department's relationships with appropriate key business partners, promoting their understanding of and responses to our educational policies; and to date secured sponsorship of over £7.3 million in cash and in kind from businesses in support of national projects for the schools sector.
Examinations
Mrs. Laing: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many pupils are studying (a) mathematics, (b) physics, (c) chemistry, (d) biology, (e) history, (f) English literature, (g) French, (h) geography and (i) economics at (i) GCSE and (ii) A-level; and how many passed in each subject, broken down by grade achieved in all institutions in each year from 1997 to 2001. [48245]
Mr. Timms [holding answer 10 April 2002]: The information requested is shown in the following tables.
Source:
Taken from data collected for the Secondary Performance Tables.
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Source:
Taken from data collected from the 16–18 School and College Performance Tables.
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