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English Tourism

Mr. Liddell-Grainger: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport who was on the short list for the appointment of the Head of English Tourism. [93131]

Dr. Howells: In the interests of confidentiality, we do not release the names of those who apply for DCMS public appointments, including those who are shortlisted. Shortlisting is carried out in accordance with the requirements of the Commissioner for Public Appointments.

Mr. Liddell-Grainger: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport who made up the board that has the responsibility to appoint the Head of English Tourism. [93132]

Dr. Howells: The appointment of the Chair of the relaunched tourism body is the responsibility of the Secretary of State, taking into account the advice of an interview panel. It is not our policy to publish the names of interview panel members, in order to avoid the risk of their being subjected to unwarranted pressure.

I can confirm that, in line with the Commissioner for Public Appointments Code of Practice, the interview panel included a senior official from DCMS and at least one independent assessor who is not connected with any of the Department's public bodies.

Mr Liddell-Grainger: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what qualifications the new Head of English Tourism has. [93133]

Dr. Howells: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced on 10 January 2003 that Sir Michael Lickiss will be the new chairman of the relaunched tourism body from 1April 2003, this is a British Body. Sir Michael recently retired after four years as the first chairman of the South West England Regional

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Development Agency. From 2001 he was the lead spokesman for tourism on behalf of all RDA's. Before taking his last appointment in the south west, he was founder President of the Association of Accounting Technicians (1980–82), President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (1990–91), Senior Partner of Grant Thornton (1991–94) and Chairman of the Business Technology and Education Council (BTEC; 1994–2000). He has worked in several countries around the world. He is a Governor of the London School of Economics and he was knighted for his services to his profession in 1993.

Free Television Licences

Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many pensioners have claimed free television licences in (a) Shrewsbury and Atcham and (b) Shropshire in each year since 1997. [93080]

Dr. Howells: Free television licences for the over-75s were introduced in November 2000, but no free licences were available prior to that date. TV Licensing, who administer the free licence scheme as agents for the BBC, are not able to provide geographical breakdowns of the number of free licences issued. However, estimates based on the 1991 Census indicate that there were approximately 6,500 people aged 75 or over living in the Shrewsbury and Atcham constituency, and 23,800 in Shropshire.

Licensing Reform

Brian Cotter: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what discussions she has had with church groups and religious leaders on the impact of the proposed licensing Bill on places of public religious worship; and if she will make a statement. [93287]

Dr. Howells: The White Paper "Time for Reform", published in April 2000 was the subject of a full public consultation. It was sent directly to 231 organisations and over 650 organisations produced responses. We received eight responses from religious organisations, including one from the Churches Main Committee. None of these were concerned with the proposal to licence public entertainment in churches and other places of religious worship. Since then, officials of my Department have had discussions with officials of the General Synod of the Church of England about a possible mechanism to exempt churches from licensing controls.

As I stated in the House of Commons on 16 December 2002, Official Report, column 517, the Government have made a commitment to reconsider their position on the licensing of churches and will announce their conclusions as soon as possible.

Lottery Awards

David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much Lottery money Haltemprice and Howden received in 2002; and what the average amount of Lottery money awarded to constituencies was in 2002. [92913]

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Mr. Caborn: According to the information supplied to us by the distributing bodies for the National Lottery awards database, £387,414 of Lottery funding has been awarded to Haltemprice and Howden during 2002. The average amount awarded to constituencies during 2002 was £1,644,892.

Production Quotas

Mr. Doran: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she plans to reform the independent production quota to make it a floor by ensuring that (a) the quota is calculated per channel, both by qualifying hours and spend and (b) exclusions to qualifying hours are minimised. [93104]

Dr. Howells [holding answer 23 January 2003]: The Government responded to the ITC's UK Programme Supply Review on 15 January. In this response we indicated that we accepted all of the ITC recommendations in the area of support for independent production in the UK, and will be introducing the necessary amendments to the Communications Bill and BBC Agreement. These amendments will introduce binding codes of practice governing broadcasters dealings with independent production companies, give OFCOM the power to measure the independent productions quota by value as well as volume if necessary, apply the quota separately to BBC1 and BBC2 and strengthen OFCOM's powers to enforce and monitor the independent production requirements.

Sports Clubs

Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what proportions of the members of the governing bodies of sports clubs that receive funding from her Department are (a) male and (b) female. [91916]

Mr. Caborn: This information is not collected.

Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what information her Department collates relating to the composition of (a) sports clubs and (b) governing bodies of sports clubs in respect of (i) gender, (ii) ethnicity and (iii) socio-economic groups. [91917]

Mr. Caborn: Sport England collects information in respect of the affiliated members of governing bodies of sport in respect of gender, ethnicity, age and disability. Sport England, through its grants management system, also collects this information in respect of sports clubs membership. Applicants for awards from the Lottery Sports Fund in respect of community sports facilities and provision are asked to provide information on types of user by gender, ethnicity, age and socio-economic group against which applications are assessed.

Statutory Instruments

Mrs. Calton: To ask the Secretary of State or Culture, Media and Sport how many Statutory Instruments subject to negative procedure made by her Department (a) came into force and (b) were considered by a delegated legislation committee in each of the last three sessions. [88023]

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Dr. Howells: The number of Statutory Instruments (including Orders in Council) subject to negative procedures made by the Department which came into force in each of the last three sessions are as follows:

Session	Number
2001–02	32
2000–01	4
1999–2000	15

All of the above Orders were copied to the delegated legislation committee for consideration.

EDUCATION AND SKILLS

Children's Commissioner

Mr. Wood: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what plans he has to create a children's commissioner for England. [89552]

Mr. Denham: The pros and cons of establishing a children's commissioner are under consideration.

Apprenticeships

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many people enrolled to begin advanced modern apprenticeship courses in each of the last three years for which information is available. [92635]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: The numbers of starts on Advanced Modern Apprenticeships, in the last three years for which data are available, are as follows:

Date	Starts on advanced modern apprenticeships
29 October 2001 to 27 October 2002	(1)50,300
30 October 2000 to 28 October 2001	67,700
1 November 1999 to 29 October 2000	76,900

⁽¹⁾ Subject to revision. Data for this period is incomplete because not all the information has reached the database.

Asylum Seekers

Mr. Sayeed: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many asylum seekers sought education in Bedfordshire in each of the last five years. [92709]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: It is not possible to provide figures for each of the last five years because there is no requirement on local education authorities or the Learning and Skills Council to provide information on the number of asylum seekers in education.

Information from the local Learning and Skills Council suggests that, at the end of July 2000, 60 asylum seekers were known to have sought education within Bedfordshire. These figures include both children of compulsory school age and young people and adults aged over 16. In Luton over the past two years (2000–01 and 2001–02), an average of 130 pupils under 16 from both asylum seeking and refugee backgrounds were in education. The number of asylum seekers participating

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in further education institutions within Bedfordshire and Luton was 318 during 1999–2000 and 315 during 2000–01.

However, the high mobility of some asylum seekers and refugees makes any data collected unreliable.

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