---

4 Feb 2003 : Column 192W—continued

Teachers' Earnings

Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will estimate the average weekly earnings of a fully qualified teacher working in a (a) primary school and (b) secondary school in the Greater London area. [94761]

Mr. Miliband: The average weekly gross pay of all full-time qualified teachers in the maintained sector in Greater London at 31 March 2001 is estimated ¹ to be as follows:

Nursery/primary: £540


Secondary: £580


¹ Figures have been estimated using provisional average salary data.

Teaching Profession

Mr. Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will list by individual local education authority, how many teachers have left the profession (a) within the last 12 months and (b) in 1996–97 after two years teaching experience or less; and if he will make a statement. [93828]

Mr. Miliband: The information requested has been placed in the Libraries.

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what measures he is taking to reduce the administrative burden on headteachers and teachers. [94911]

Mr. Miliband: On 15 January an historic national agreement was signed by government, employers and school workforce unions, paving the way for radical workforce reform to raise standards and tackle teacher workload. The agreement covers progressive reductions in teachers' total hours, and changes to teachers' contracts to ensure they do not routinely undertake administrative and clerical tasks. To help achieve this, funding is in place to improve support available to both headteachers and teachers. There will also be a concerted attack on unnecessary bureaucracy and paperwork.

Schools are to be enabled to recruit at least 50,000 additional support staff during this Parliament. This will include personal administrative assistants for teachers and additional technical support, as well as new managers from outside education and the training and recruitment of more bursars to relieve the burden on headteachers of financial and administrative work. We are also investing in teachers' personal access to computers—the total budget has risen from £100 million to £300 million, and the programme's duration from two years to four years, providing over 300,000 laptops.

To tackle bureaucracy, we are setting up an independent Implementation Review Unit to consider the workload impact of existing and new initiatives. The focus will extend beyond DfES and will cover all bodies which impact upon schools, including national agencies such as Ofsted, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority and the Teacher Training Agency, as well as local education authorities and learning and skills councils. It will feature a panel of practitioners—overwhelmingly serving headteachers. They will have direct access to Ministers, will scrutinise existing policies

4 Feb 2003 : Column 193W

and programmes and identify priorities for end to end reviews to eliminate burdens. Panel members will make sure that grass-roots concerns get through to DfES and central agencies, and are tackled.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Industrial Action/Illness

Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many working days have been lost in her Department and its predecessors owing to (a) industrial action and (b) illness in each year since 1997–98. [94937]

Clare Short: There have been no days lost due to industrial action in DFID since 1997.

The rates of sick absence recorded in DFID per calendar year from 1997 to 2001 are as follows. Figures on rates of sick absence in financial years could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

	Number of absences	Average number of days per staff year
1997	9,250	8.1
1998	8,643	7.3
1999	9,263	7.3
2000	8,426	6.2
2001	11,545	8.3

Staff numbers on which these are based have risen from 1,142 in 1997 to 1,391 in 2001. My department will announce the rates of sick absence recorded in 2002 in due course.

Peru

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much aid her Department is giving to Peru in 2002–03; which projects in Peru are run directly by her Department; which projects her Department participates in; and if she will make a statement. [94259]

Clare Short: The Department for International Development has a £3.7 million programme in Peru for 2002–03. DFID also funds £4 million per year of the EC development programme, and is a five per cent. shareholder in the World bank and one per cent. shareholder in the Inter American Development bank. Details of DFID's programme in Peru are given in the Peru Development Assistance Paper, which I have placed in the Library of the House.

Sudan

Mr. Dawson: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps her Department is taking, in conjunction with other Inter-Governmental Association for Development observer nations, to investigate reports of breaches of the cessation of hostilities near Ler in Western Upper Nile, Sudan. [94616]

Clare Short: At the request of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development Special Envoy, Lt-Gen Sumbeiywo, the US-led Civilian Protection Monitoring Team, has investigated recent alleged violations of the

4 Feb 2003 : Column 194W

Memorandum of Understanding on cessation of hostilities in Western Upper Nile. Their report has been presented to the Government of Sudan and the SPLM/A for comment before dissemination.

We expect the parties to reach agreement soon on an improved verification and monitoring mechanism to underpin the Memorandum of Understanding on cessation of hostilities. This should help to reduce tension until a full ceasefire agreement can be worked out.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

Cyprus

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent discussions he has had with (a) European Union colleagues, (b) the Government of Cyprus and (c) the Government of Turkey on the state of the reunification negotiations in Cyprus. [94257]

Mr. MacShane: The Government strongly supports the UN settlement process. We believe that there is a historic opportunity to secure a comprehensive, just and lasting settlement in Cyprus, by 28 February, based on the United Nations Secretary-General's 10 December proposals, and allow a reunited island to accede to the EU. We are urging the two sides not to let this opportunity slip away.

My right hon. Friends the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary, and I, undertook wide-ranging and full contacts on the Cyprus settlement with our European colleagues in the run-up to the Copenhagen European Council. The Copenhagen European Council gave its full support to the UN process and concluded that:

"The European Council believes that those proposals offer a unique opportunity to reach a settlement in the coming weeks and urges the leaders of the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities to seize this opportunity".

The Copenhagen Council also restated the EU's preference that a reunited island should accede to the EU.

We have maintained regular contacts with the Greek Cypriot side and the Turkish Cypriot side on the settlement process. The UK Special Representative for Cyprus, Lord Hannay, visited Nicosia on 25–27 January. We regularly discuss Cyprus, among other issues, with the Government of Turkey. Lord Hannay visited Ankara on 2–3 February.

Departmental Expenditure (Newsprint)

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the total expenditure of his Department was on newspapers, magazines and periodicals in 2002. [90539]

4 Feb 2003 : Column 195W

Mr. Rammell: The answer is as follows:

2001–02—£590,721.

European Convention on Human Rights

Julie Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs for what reasons he has not signed the 12th Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights. [93945]

Yvette Cooper: I have been asked to reply.

The Government did not sign Protocol 12 because it was not satisfied with the drafting of the text. In particular, we considered that there is uncertainty about the scope for positive action and as regards the meaning of the reference in the text to "any right set forth by law."

4 Feb 2003 : Column 196W

The Government remains in favour of a free-standing prohibition on discrimination. We have undertaken to keep the matter under careful consideration and to take account of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights as it develops. We will report any new thinking as part of our general review of international human rights instruments, which is due to be completed in the spring of this year.

Fraud and Theft

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how much money has been lost by his Department and its agencies and non-departmental public bodies through (a) fraud and (b) theft for each year since 1996–97. [92441]

Mr. Rammell: The information is as follows.

Losses to FCO from fraud and theft 1996–2003£

	1996–97	1997–98	1998–99	1999–2000	2000–01	2001–02	2002–03
FCO (fraud)	26,350	114,385	91,375	11,153	15,642	22,462	37,730.49
FCO (theft)	6,606	Nil	10,827	30	684	18,996	20,550.50
Agencies	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil
Total	32,956	114,385	102,202	11,183	16,326	41,458	58,280.99
Sum recovered	10,850	4,396	6,705	11,183	15,553	23,425	38,375.99
Net loss	22,106	109,989	95,497	Nil	773	18,033	19,905.00

£

	1996–97	1997–98	1998–99	1999–2000	2000–01	2001–02	2002–03
NDPBs(cash losses)	15,105	Unknown	Unknown	8,667	6,535	4,868	Unknown
NDPBs(net losses)	19,945	Unknown	Unknown	13,500	29,307	5,748	Unknown
Total	35,050	Unknown	Unknown	22,167	35,842	10,616	Unknown

---