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24 Feb 2003 : Column 173W—continued
University Applications
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what estimates he has made of the number of students applying to attend university in each of the next three years. [97412]
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Margaret Hodge: Estimates of the number of students applying to attend university are not available centrally. However, the Department does make estimates of the number of students likely to attend English universities.
The projected number of UK and EU domiciled students attending English universities from 2003–04 to 2005–06, as set out in the Secretary of State's Grant Letter to the Higher Education Funding Council for England, is as follows.
| Financial year | FTEs (000s) |
|---|---|
| 2003–04 | 1,115 |
| 2004–05 | 1,134 |
| 2005–06 | 1,157 |
(45) DfES fundable higher education students on prescribed courses in institutions of further and higher education.
Source:
DfES student numbers projection model
University Grants
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment he has made of the number of students able to claim grants for university in (a) Lancashire and (b) Chorley for the next three years. [97409]
Margaret Hodge: My Department collects data from local education authorities (LEAs) on the number of students domiciled in their area, studying in the UK and claiming grants by means of an annual and retrospective survey. Information is not available below LEA level or for future years at present and it will not be available for future years.
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what plans he has to increase the threshold on eligibility to apply for university grants. [97410]
Margaret Hodge: I refer my hon. Friend to the reply given by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State to my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Selly Oak (Lynne Jones) on 6 February 2003, Official Report, column 358W
University Redundancies
Mr. Lilley: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many staff have been made redundant at each university in the UK since January 2002. [96579]
Margaret Hodge [holding answer 7 February 2003]: The requested information is not held centrally.
Vehicle Fleets
Mr. Donohoe: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the annual rate is at which his Department has renewed its vehicle fleet, by (a) volume and (b) percentage for each (i) category of vehicle, (ii) type of power unit and (iii) type of fuel over the last three years. [96453]
Mr. Stephen Twigg: My Department has a vehicle fleet of approximately 58 vehicles but information in the format requested is currently not available.
24 Feb 2003 : Column 175W
TREASURY
Bank of Credit and Commerce International
Harry Cohen: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will reassess with a view to publication, the parts of the Official Report into the affairs of BCCI that were excluded from public disclosure, with particular reference to information linking BCCI with organisations now known to conduct terrorism. [97082]
Ruth Kelly: Paragraph 2.538 of the Bingham Inquiry's report (Inquiry into the Supervision of The Bank of Credit and Commerce International, House of Commons Paper 198, 22 October 1992) says
"Having made detailed enquiry of all the intelligence agencies, the Inquiry has found no evidence to suggest that the management of BCCI at any level above that of branch manager knowingly held or handled accounts of the Abu Nidal organisation or its front companies or any other terrorist organisation at any time."
Harry Cohen: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he has had access to (a) all intelligence reports relevant to the official report on BCCI and (b) those intelligence reports that were supplementary to the BCCI report at around the time of its official publication; whether he has availed himself of that access; and if he will make a statement. [98160]
Ruth Kelly: It would not be appropriate to provide this information about access to intelligence material, as provided for under exemption 1(a) of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information.
Wages
Helen Jones: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what information his Department collects on wage rates in each parliamentary constituency or borough; and from what sources such information is collected. [97657]
Ruth Kelly: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Len Cook to Helen Jones, dated 18 February 2003:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your question about information collected on wage rates in each parliamentary constituency, and the sources of such information (97657).
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) obtains average earnings data for paliamentary constituencies from the New Earnings Survey (NES).
The NES is an annual enquiry sent to employers. It asks for information about the earnings and hours of a sample of employees, selected by National Insurance number. Data for parliamentary constituencies are published on the ONS website. The link below will take you to the latest data.
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme-labour/NES2002-Analyses-By-Region/NES2002-Analyses-by-region.pdf.
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Ruth Kelly: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Len Cook to Helen Jones, dated 18 February 2003:
- As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent question on earnings in Warrington North. (97658)
- The New Earnings Survey for April 2002 provides an estimate of the percentage of full-time adult employees in employment who were in the same job as in April 2001, whose gross annual pay in the tax year ending April 2002 was within the specified bands. This information is given in the table below.
| Gross annual earnings | Percentage(48) |
|---|---|
| Less than £10,000 | 4 |
| £10,000 to £20,000 | 63 |
| More than £20,000 | 32 |
Notes:
Full-time adult employees who were in the same job a year previously.
Based on the work-place post-code of the employee.
The figures in the table do not sum to 100, as a result of rounding.
Source:
ONS New Earnings Survey 2002
Card Transactions
Brian Cotter: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent estimate he has made of the cost of bank charges to retailers for credit and debit card transactions. [96651]
Ruth Kelly [holding answer 10 February 2003]: The Cruickshank report on Competition in UK Banking (published in March 2000) examined, among other things, issues relating to payment systems—including the cost of bank charges to retailers for credit and debit card transactions. The Government has not made any recent estimates of such charges. However, it is closely monitoring developments in payment systems and remains committed to introducing legislation to give the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) new powers to promote effective competition in payment systems—and will do so as soon as parliamentary time allows.
To promote its understanding of how payment systems operate, and to help pave the way for its prospective powers, the OFT announced on 27 November that it would conduct an empirical study into recent payment system developments. The terms of reference of this study were published on 31 January 2003—and include issues related to pricing in the credit and debit card markets. The OFT has undertaken to publish a report outlining its assessment and conclusions in spring 2003.
Computer Fraud
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many cases of computer (a) hacking, (b) fraud and (c) theft his Department recorded in 2001–02; and on how many occasions computer systems have been illegally accessed by computer hackers (i) within and (ii) outside his Department. [97566]
24 Feb 2003 : Column 177W
Ruth Kelly: Recorded cases for each type were as follows:
| Type | HMT | IR | C&E | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| External hacking | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Internal hacking | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Fraud | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Theft | 3 | 75 | 34 | 112 |
All the above incidents were investigated and reported to the Government's Unified Incident Reporting and Alert Scheme (UNIRAS).
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