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25 Mar 2003 : Column 141W—continued
Post Office
Sue Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many post offices there are in each parliamentary constituency; and how many of them transact more than 40 per cent. of their work volumes on behalf of the Benefits Agency. [104847]
Mr. Timms: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for Twickenham (Dr. Cable), on 9 January 2003, Official Report, column 299W.
Small Firms (Loan Guarantees)
Mr. Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what review of the availability of the small firms loans guarantee scheme she has carried out; and what the outcome was. [104723]
Nigel Griffiths: Following a review of this scheme, its scope is being widened to include:
- expanding the sector coverage to include retail, catering, coal, hairdressing and beauty parlours, house and estate agents, libraries, museums and cultural activities, motor vehicle repair and servicing, steel and travel agents;
increasing the maximum turnover limit for the service sector to £3 million;
allow early borrowers to re-qualify for SFLGS support by excluding loans up to March 1993 from counting towards maximum loan amounts;
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currently we expect to guarantee 4,000 applications by the end of the financial year. In view of the charges we expect a 25 per cent. increase in applications from 1 April 2003.
Mr. Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many loans were made under the small firms loans guarantee scheme in each region and nation of the UK in the last three financial years; and what the average size of loan was. [104724]
Nigel Griffiths: The following table shows the average loan size and the number of loans guaranteed under the Small Firms Loan Guarantee Scheme in each region and nation of the UK in the last three financial years:
| Region | 2000–01 | 2001–02 | 2002–03(1) |
|---|---|---|---|
| East Midlands | 368 | 373 | 284 |
| Eastern | 495 | 397 | 306 |
| Greater London | 325 | 312 | 301 |
| North East | 151 | 126 | 111 |
| North West | 396 | 451 | 376 |
| South East | 476 | 517 | 481 |
| South West | 475 | 444 | 341 |
| West Midlands | 406 | 369 | 333 |
| Yorkshire and Humberside | 320 | 334 | 263 |
| Northern Ireland | 36 | 37 | 51 |
| Scotland | 621 | 698 | 514 |
| Wales | 243 | 211 | 201 |
| Total | 4,312 | 4,269 | 3,562 |
| Average Loan Size | 55,765 | 59,660 | 68,496 |
(1) To end February 2003
MINISTER FOR WOMEN
Domestic Violence
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Minister for Women pursuant to her answer of 3 March 2003, Official Report, column 804W, on domestic violence, if she will make a statement on the outcome of her correspondence with the Home Secretary regarding the central collection of domestic violence statistics. [103829]
Ms Hewitt [holding answer 24 March 2003]: My correspondence with my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary on this topic has not yet reached a conclusion.
A key issue for the collection of domestic violence statistics is under-reporting, and an inter-personal violence module was included in the 2001 British Crime Survey to obtain more detailed information on domestic violence using self-completion questionnaires. The preparation of a report on these findings is currently under way.
Equal Pay
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Minister for Women what Civil Service Departments and agencies are not on target for completing pay reviews to close any equal pay gaps; and if she will make a statement. [99048]
Ms Hewitt: There are in excess of 90 Departments and agencies undertaking an equal pay review. We expect all the reviews to have been completed during April 2003.
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EDUCATION AND SKILLS
A-level Courses
Mr. Win Griffiths: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many students pursued A-level courses in (a) the public and (b) the private sector in each of the last five years; and what the average cost was to public funds of providing a place in each sector. [103311]
Mr. Miliband: The number of students who pursued A-level courses in (a) the public sector and (b) private sector in each of the last five years are as follows:
| Type of institution | 1996–97 | 1997–98 | 1998–99 | 1999–2000 | 2000–01 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (a) Public sector | |||||
| Maintained schools | 98,361 | 103,337 | 104,457 | 104,786 | 111,204 |
| FE Sector | 62,299 | 62,409 | 60,146 | 57,912 | 59,352 |
| Total | 162,657 | 167,744 | 166,602 | 164,698 | 172,557 |
| (b) Private sector | |||||
| Independent schools | 29,682 | 29,867 | 26,649 | 28,578 | 28,777 |
The figures above are based on those students who were 17 years old at the beginning of the academic year in question.
The following figures represent a range of funding per full-time student in different parts of the public sector. They are not directly comparable as they are not calculated on the same basis. The FE unit funding figure includes total public funding allocated for FE, while the schools' figures are based only on delegated funds and exclude other funding that schools receive centrally from LEAs that impact on post-16 students.
| Total unit of funding | |
|---|---|
| 1996–97* | 3,050 |
| 1997–98* | 3,070 |
| 1998–99* | 3,120 |
| 1999–2000* | 3,440 |
| 2000–01** | 3,540 |
* Actual
** Provisional
| Total unit of funding | |
|---|---|
| 1996–97* | 3,200 |
| 1997–98* | 3,240 |
| 1998–99* | 3,370 |
| 1999–2000* | 3,500 |
| 2000–01* | 3,890 |
* Estimate
There is no equivalent information available for the private sector.
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Database Access
Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills which databases and data sets key agencies have appropriate access to, as referred to in the document "Making a difference—reducing Red Tape and Bureaucracy in Schools—Second Report", published in March; and which agencies have had such access since October 2002. [104416]
Mr. Charles Clarke: Key partner agencies, and local education authorities, have access to the National Pupil Database. They can also interrogate Edubase, a database of information on schools. Local education authorities can also access the related Key to Success service.
Since October 2002, the following organisations have accessed data: the Office for Standards in Education; the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority; the National College for School Leadership; the General Teaching Council; the British Eductaional Communications and Technology Agency; 149 local education authorities; and Service Children's Education.
Departmental Website
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the total cost of his Department's website was in the last 12 months; and how many hits it received in the same period. [104195]
Mr. Stephen Twigg: Core programme cost for the Department for Education and Skills central website in the last 12 months (April 2002 to March 2003) is £1,747,000.
There is now wide acceptance amongst professionals in the web industry that hits are not a measure of site performance. So the Department, in line with the Government as a whole, gives more importance to unique visitors and page impressions than hits.
Estimated site traffic for the last 12 months is as follows:
- Hits: 98.8 million
Unique visitors: average 175,000 per month
Page views: 76.3 million.
Excluded Children
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what percentage of excluded children (a) have received education in pupil referral units and (b) have had one on one home tuition in each year since 1995. [103691]
Mr. Miliband [holding answer 24 March 2003]: The available information is shown in the table.
(2) Based on replies from 144 out of 150 local education authorities.
(3) Based on replies from 146 out of 150 local education authorities.
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