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9 Apr 2003 : Column 294W—continued
School Governors
Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will list the Ministers in his Department who are governors of maintained schools, giving the name of the school in each case. [107110]
Mr. Miliband: The Under-Secretary, my hon. Friend the Minister for Enfield, Southgate (Mr. Twigg), is a governor at two schools in Enfield: Merryhills Primary School and Southgate Secondary School.
My hon. Friend Baroness Ashton, my hon. Friend the Minister for Barking (Margaret Hodge), my hon. Friend the Minister for Bury, South (Mr. Lewis) and myself have served as school governors in the past.
School Places
Ann Keen: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children there are in London who have moved borough and are without a school place. [103353]
Mr. Miliband: My Department collects information on the number of children who leave school and take up places with other authorities. As a consequence of collecting the data, the number of children who leave education within an authority, and do not take up a place elsewhere, are known. What is not known, however, is whether these children have applied for a place in London and been unsuccessful.
In terms of ensuring sufficient school places are available, it is for each local education authority to plan and keep under review the supply of school places so as to ensure there is sufficient provision to meet demand.
School Standards
Mr. Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the cost is to each local education authority of Raising Standards and Tackling Workload: a National Agreement, announced on 15 January 2003, in the (a) financial year 2003–04 and (b) school year 2003–04. [105569]
Mr. Miliband: The costs will vary from school to school, depending on how much progress they have already made on the various elements of work force reform. The phasing of the contractual changes means that the more radical provisions do not come into force until September 2005.
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In 2003–04, revenue funding for LEAs will increase by 11.6 per cent. on average. This is greater than additional pressures, including those imposed by the Workforce Agreement.
Specialist Schools
Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many specialist schools there are in (a) Lancashire and (b) England. [107642]
Mr. Miliband: There are currently 26 designated specialist schools in Lancashire. Three of these will not begin operating until September 2003.
There are currently 1,209 designated specialist schools in England. 217 of these will not begin operating until September 2003.
Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what plans he has to increase the number of specialist schools. [107643]
Mr. Miliband: Specialist schools are a key driver of the Government's plans to raise standards in the secondary education sector, as set out in the secondary strategy document, "A New Specialist System" (published in February 2003). There are currently 992 specialist schools and at least a further 217 will be in operation from September this year. We have a target of at least 2,000 specialist schools by September 2006.
We want all secondary schools that are ready to join the programme to apply, and in the long-term we hope that all secondary schools will be specialist schools. We will, of course, continue to be rigorous in maintaining the standards of the programme, and will de-designate schools which fail to make the progress required of them.
In November 2002, the Government lifted the cap on national funding for the programme so that any school which meets the required standard in its application can now become a specialist school.
Teachers
Mr. Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what procedures are in place to deal with teachers whose teaching performance is unsatisfactory. [107511]
Mr. Miliband: Schools must have capability procedures for dealing with teachers whose performance is unsatisfactory and fails to improve. Capability procedures are drawn up locally by schools and LEAs. The Secretary of State issues guidance on teacher capability to ensure that these matters are handled effectively and fairly, and will be consulting on new guidance shortly.
Virtual Education Action Zone
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the cost implications are of the South of England Virtual Education Action Zone (Extension) Order. [107784]
Mr. Miliband: The extension to the Zone's statutory life brought about by the Order makes it eligible for additional core grant from the Department of up to
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£1,100,000, and an additional matched funding grant from the Department of up to £500,000. The matched funding is payable on a pound-for-pound basis, dependent upon the amount of private sector business contributions that the Zone raises.
Websites
Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will make a statement on the (a) cost of and (b) number of visitors to each website operated by his Department and each agency and non-departmental public body for which his Department is responsible in each year since its establishment. [107639]
Mr. Stephen Twigg: Core programme cost, including hosting*, for the Department for Education and Skills central website www.dfes.gov.uk (real terms figures in 2002–03 prices) were as follows:
| £ | |
|---|---|
| 1997–98 | 44,280 |
| 1998–99 | 86,305 |
| 1999–2000 | 143,808 |
| 2000–01 | 273,265 |
| 2001–02 | 671,170 |
| 2002–03 | 1,747,000 |
Site traffic figures for www.dfes.gov.uk are as follows:
- In the year to March 2003 the site received nearly 5.5 million visits and 76.3 page views.
- In the year to January 2001, we averaged 130,000 unique visitors per month with total annual page views of 43.7 million.
In the year to January 2002, we averaged 175,000 unique visitors per month with total annual page views of 74.5 million.
From 2002 this includes hosting costs for other online services provided by the Department.
DEFENCE
Afghanistan
Joan Ruddock: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to his answer of 27 January, Official Report, column 34W, whether a decision has been taken on UK leadership of a Provincial Reconstruction Team in Afghanistan. [106671]
Mr. Ingram: Ministers have recently confirmed that, in principle, the United Kingdom is interested in leading a Provincial Reconstruction Team but, as with any potential deployment, we must first complete the necessary preparatory planning work. This is in its final stages and, all being well, we hope to announce our decision to Parliament in the next few weeks.
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Iraq
Llew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will place in the Library the guidelines adopted for deciding which targets are chosen to attack in Iraq. [106357]
Mr. Hoon: The military campaign is crafted around the principle of minimum use of force. We attack only military objectives and combatants subject to the constraints of proportionality. If there is any expectation that harm will be caused to civilians, this must not be excessive when set against the direct and concrete military advantage anticipated from the attack. That approach folly reflects our obligations under international law.
It is not our practice to publish the targeting guidelines, since to do so would provide the Iraqi regime and future potential enemies with information which might jeopardise the effectiveness of this and future military operations. I am therefore withholding the information requested in accordance with Exemption 1 (Defence, security and international relations) of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information.
Llew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the military objective is of attacking Iraqi television offices in the invasion of Iraq. [106429]
Mr. Hoon: Television offices and studios have not been the object of coalition attacks. The coalition has attacked, and reserves the right to continue to attack systems (such as transmitters) which are used by the regime for conveying military command and control information. Coalition attacks are designed to minimise damage to civilian infrastructure.
Helen Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will place in the Library the material circulated by coalition forces to the civilian population in Southern Iraq. [106912]
Dr. Moonie [holding answer 7 April 2003]: The coalition leaflets dropped from the air are available on the CENTCOM website. I will place an example in the Library of the House.
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many oil fields have been set alight in Iraq since 1st March; what estimate he has made of the (a) CO2 emissions and (b) barrels of oil lost; and how many remain alight. [107235]
Mr. Hoon [holding answer 4 April 2003]: Nine well heads were deliberately set alight in the Rumayla oil field in southern Iraq. Only two oil wells in Rumayla now remain alight and work continues to extinguish them. The rest have been put out.
The Ministry of Defence has not made an assessment of the barrels of oil lost since 1 March or of the likely CO2 emissions. The Meteorological Office did, however, conduct a detailed analysis of the 610 oil wells set alight during the 1990–91 Gulf conflict. This includes an analysis of the fumes produced, which concluded that the CO2 produced had a negligible effect on the global climate.
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Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether cables funnelling electricity to the Wafa al-Qaed water treatment plant were cut as a consequence of the US and British bombardment on Friday 21 March; what the purpose was of the bombardment; and if he will make a statement. [107250]
Mr. Ingram: The electricity cables supplying the Wafa al-Qaed water treatment plant have not been targeted by United Kingdom forces. We have no reports to suggest that they were hit by any coalition air assets.
Llew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many British servicemen and women have refused to serve in the invasion of Iraq, citing their objection to the conduct of the invasion by the coalition forces; and what action is being taken against them. [107584]
Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the return of members of HM Armed Forces to the UK for refusing to participate in the war in Iraq. [107811]
Mr. Ingram [holding answer 8 April 2003]: There are formal procedures to be followed by British Serviceman who have a conscientious objection to the duties they are asked to undertake. To date we are not aware of any personnel who were due to serve, or are serving, in the Gulf during OP TELIC who have initiated such procedures.
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what measures are in place to deal with the environmental consequences arising from any setting alight of oil wells in Iraq. [104842]
Mr. Hoon: One of the key military tasks in the Government's Military Campaign Objectives was that of securing Iraq's economic infrastructure to prevent its wilful destruction by the Iraqi regime. The success of Coalition forces in securing the southern Iraqi oil infrastructure intact has prevented Saddam Hussein from repeating the acts of environmental vandalism on the scale we saw during 1991. Explosive Ordnance Disposal units and specialist teams of Royal Engineers from the United Kingdom armed forces have made safe facilities in the Rumaylah oil fields, enabling the relatively small number of fires, started before Coalition forces took control, to be extinguished.
Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the system for distributing communications from Territorial Army soldiers deployed in Iraq to their dependants and families. [107734]
Dr. Moonie: Territorial Army (TA) personnel mobilised for operations in the Gulf are entitled to the same welfare allowances as Regular soldiers. Within the overall Operational Welfare Package there is a specific communications package to allow the soldiers in theatre to communicate with families and dependants at home. This is achieved through the use of welfare telephones and British Forces Post Office (BFPO) mail. Welfare telephones have been provided in theatre and each soldier is entitled, subject to operational constraints, to a 20 minute per week publicly funded allowance. Free BFPO letters, known as "Blueys" are available to all soldiers in theatre, with current delivery times ranging from between three to six days. Electronic versions,
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known as "E-Blueys" are also available. The chain of command passes information to families and dependants of soldiers deployed via unit rear parties or the appropriate TA regimental headquarters.
Janet Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what representations he has received about the postage costs incurred by families who send parcels to relatives and friends serving in Iraq. [108111]
Mr. Ingram: A considerable number of representations have been received by Ministers and the Chief Executive of the British Forces Post Office, in the form of letters and telephone calls from hon. Members, and letters, e-mails and telephone calls from members of the public.
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