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War Widows Pensions (Care Costs)

Mr. MacDonald: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will estimate the total loss of income to local authorities that would result from disregarding war widows pensions when calculating the cost of residential and nursing care under the National Assistance Regulations; and how many people currently paying charges under the regulations would be affected. [58149]

Jacqui Smith: The Department has no plans to disregard the full amount of the war widows pension from the financial assessment for residential care.

EDUCATION AND SKILLS

Young People

Dr. Starkey: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills on what subjects and on which dates her Department has consulted organisations representing young people; and if she will list such organisations. [52504]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: The precise information requested is not held centrally in the manner requested and could only be secured at disproportionate cost. The Department is in regular contact with organisations which represent young people, including for example the Millennium Volunteers National Forum and the British Youth Council. We have involved young people and the organisations which represent them in many of the Department's initiatives, including consulting pupils on the Education White Paper and engaging young people in the

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development of the Connexions Service. We are currently consulting young people on our 14–19 proposals. On 20 May the Department invited over 130 young people from around the country to our offices to give their opinions on our education policies.

The Department is committed to the new core principles for the involvement of children and young people published by the Minister for Young People in November 2001. The Department will shortly be publishing an action plan setting out for the first time how it will implement these principles to extend the participation of children and young people in the design, provision and evaluation of policies and services that affect them. The action plan will describe our recent achievements in involving children and young people as well as our plans for the future.

Golden Jubilee

Mr. Mark Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what her Department's policy is on the promotion of Her Majesty The Queen's Golden Jubilee in schools; and how this policy is being integrated into the regime of Ofsted. [57327]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: My Department has encouraged school children to play an active role in the Jubilee celebrations through its support of a range of projects, including a National Poetry Competition, the Commonwealth Games Spirit of Friendship Festival and the Millennium Children's Tapestry of Hope. Information about these projects and others, as well as helpful links to many useful resources for schools, is available on my Department's website at www.dfes/gov.uk/jubilee. I welcome the exciting and imaginative contributions school children are already making to the celebrations.

OFSTED's policy in relation to HM The Queen's Golden Jubilee is a matter for HM Chief Inspector of Schools and I have therefore asked David Bell to write to the hon. Member and to place a copy of his letter in the Library.

Post-16 Education

Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what was the average number of teaching hours per week for (a) 16 to 18-year-old students studying full-time in further education colleges and (b) 16 to 18-year-old students with special needs studying full-time in further education colleges in the last academic year. [56681]

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Mr. Ivan Lewis [holding answer 16 May 2002]: In FE, teaching hours are expressed as guided learning hours per year. The average number of guided learning hours for full-time students aged 16 to 18 in FE colleges was 720 hours per year in 2000–01. For those students with special needs, the average was 731 hours per year.

European Council

Mr. Spring: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what progress there has been on the agreement at the European Council's meeting at Lisbon to establish a new Europe-wide database on jobs and learning opportunities. [57547]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: At the Barcelona Council in March 2002, the Council decided that a one stop European Job Mobility web site should be established with a view to its full operability by the end of 2003 at the latest.

The Commission is currently developing an Internet portal aimed at providing access to information on job and learning opportunities. The launch of the portal is scheduled for November 2002.

Child Care

Mr. Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how many family centre places were provided by local authorities on 1 April; [57714] (2) how many places were provided in school holiday schemes in each of the past five years; [57715] (3) how many places in after-school clubs were provided in each of the past five years; [57716] (4) how many places were provided by playgroups in each of the last five years; [57717] (5) how many playgroups there were in each of the past five years; [57718] (6) how many registered childminders there were in each of the past five years; [57719] (7) how many places there were in day nurseries in each of the past five years. [57720]

Margaret Hodge: The available information is shown in the tables.

The information was provided by Local Authorities.

Latest figures on Day Care facilities in England were published by the Department in the Statistical Bulletin "Children's Day Care facilities at 31 March 2001 (08/01)" in October 2001, a copy of which is available from the Library. An electronic copy of this publication is also available on the Department's web-site at www.dfes.gov.uk/ statistics

Table 1: Number of daycare providers by type, ¹ England 1997–2001. Position at 31 March each year

	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001
Day nurseries	6,100	6,700	7,000	7,500	7,800
Registered childminders	98,500	94,700	82,200	75,600	72,300
Playgroups and pre-schools	15,800	15,700	15,000	14,300	14,000
Out of school clubs	2,600	3,100	3,800	4,400	4,900
Holiday schemes(2)	5,300	6,200	10,200	11,700	12,900
Family centres	480	490	470	440	430

⁽¹⁾ Figures have been rounded to the nearest hundred.

⁽²⁾ Holiday schemes are counted once for each holiday period in which they operate.

Table 2: Number of daycare places by provider type,⁽³⁾ England 1997–2001. Position at 31 March each year

	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001
Day nurseries	193,800	223,000	247,700	264,200	285,100
Registered childminders	365,200	370,700	336,600	320,400	304,600
Playgroups and pre-schools	383,700	383,600	347,200	353,100	330,200
Out of school clubs	78,700	92,300	113,800	141,100	152,800
Holiday schemes(4)	209,000	256,500	435,300	490,400	598,000
Family centres	..	..	..	..	..

⁽³⁾Figures have been rounded to the nearest hundred.

⁽⁴⁾Holiday schemes are counted once for each holiday period in which they operate.

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Education Act

David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many representations she has received from local authorities concerning sections 39 and 40 of the Education Act 2001. [57591]

Mr. Timms: My right hon. Friend has received a number of representations on sections 39 and 40 of the Education Act 2001 from local authorities and the Local Government Association, including a number of responses from local authorities to the Achieving Success White Paper consultation.

Standard Assessment Tests

Mr. Gardiner: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what consideration she has given to investigating the effects on primary schools' performance statistics resulting from children who have been registered for year 6 SATS but are subsequently unable to sit them through illness or unauthorised absence. [58543]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: The primary school performance tables are wholly inclusive and as such report on the achievements of all pupils at the end of Key Stage 2—including those absent on the day of the tests. For some schools this can have an effect on the percentage of pupils achieving Level 4 or above. The qualitative average point score, however, disregards pupils absent on the day of the tests, which redresses the balance of information presented in the tables.

Press and Public Relations

Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much expenditure her Department has incurred between 1997 and 1999 on employing external consultants to deal with the press or public relations of her Department. [59482]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the hon. Member for Isle of Wight on 17 April 2002, Official Report, column 963W and 964W.

There was no expenditure on press consultants.

PR consultants have been employed to organise support for Departmental campaigns such as Millennium Volunteers, the "Get On" adult basic skills campaign, the Aim higher campaign to widen participation in higher education and the Dads & Sons campaign to encourage fathers to get more involved in the education of their 11–14 year old sons.

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These PR companies do not duplicate the conventional press handling for the Department which is carried out internally.

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