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19 May 2003 : Column 567W—continued

Teacher Pensions

Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many male partners of retired teachers would be eligible for more generous pension provisions on the death of their spouse if the rules on transferring teacher pension entitlement to a widower became uniform; and what estimate he has made of the cost of changing policy in this way. [113546]

Mr. Miliband: The Teachers' Pension Scheme has provided automatic cover for widowers' pensions since 6 April 1988. All female teachers have been given the option to purchase cover for pre-1988 service at favourable rates. Very many chose to do so and only those female teachers who did not take advantage of this opportunity have cover for widowers' benefits restricted to their post-1988 service. Information is not held on the number of female teachers who chose not to cover their pre-1988 service for widowers' benefit.

To provide widowers' benefit cover from 1972 in respect of all serving female teachers would increase the contribution rate by around 0.15 per cent. of salary.

Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what estimate he has made of the impact of increased contributions to teachers superannuation on school budgets (a) in total and (b) for each local education authority area. [109414]

Mr. Miliband: It will not be possible to calculate the additional cost of the increase in employers' contributions to the Teachers' Pension Scheme for each local education authority for 2003–04 until we have analysed the contributions data for March and April 2003.

Nationally, a total of £650 million has been transferred into provision for schools to meet the costs of the 4.75 per cent. increase in employers' contribution that arises from the inclusion of the costs of pensions increase on the scheme. This comprises a baseline adjustment to the Education Formula Spending total of £586 million; £20 million to meet the additional costs of

19 May 2003 : Column 568W

Threshold grant payments; and a £44 million transfer to the Learning and Skills Council in respect of sixth forms.

Teacher Qualifications

Mr. Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what proportion of teachers in England in secondary schools hold a (a) Masters and (b) PhD in the subject area they are qualified to teach. [110129]

Mr. Miliband : This information is not collected centrally.

Teaching Redundancies

Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many teachers have been issued with redundancy notices (a) in the past three months and (b) in the past year, in each local education authority. [109421]

Mr. Miliband: This information is not collected centrally.

SCOTLAND

Postal Services

Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland pursuant to her Answer of 4 February, Official Report, column 133W, on rural post offices (Scotland), how much of the money the Government is putting towards rural post offices over the next three years will be spent on Scottish post offices; and of the funding for Scotland, how much of this represents (a) a guarantee of existing subsidies and (b) investment in infrastructure. [114389]

Mrs. McGuire: The Government has placed a formal requirement on Royal Mail to maintain the rural post office network and to prevent avoidable closures, in the first instance to 2006. This has been underpinned by a £450 million allocation to Post Office Ltd. The money will provide direct support to rural post offices and maintain front line services in local communities. It will also help to ensure Post Office Ltd provide reasonable access for all citizens to "over the counter"services and, in addition, it will give Post Office Ltd the financial flexibility to pilot modern innovative ways of delivering services in rural areas.

Post Office Ltd will administer the fund within guidelines and parameters set by the Government.

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TREASURY

Children at Risk Green Paper

Tim Loughton: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the reasons are for the delay in publication of the Children at Risk Green Paper. [114737]

Mr. Boateng: The Government are currently finalising the proposals to be detailed in the Children's Green Paper and will be publishing it shortly.

Currency Design

Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer who (a) is consulted and (b) approves new designs for (i) coins of the realm, (ii) banknotes and (iii) postage stamps. [113849]

Mr. Boateng: When introducing a new coin, the Royal Mint takes into account the needs of the blind and the visually impaired, and regularly consults with representative bodies on these issues. It also consults representatives of the banks, the Post Office, retailers and the vending machine industry. The subject to feature on a new coin is approved by the Queen on the recommendation of the Chancellor in his capacity as Master of the Mint. Once the choice of subject has been decided, the Royal Mint Advisory Committee invites coin designers and artists to submit designs. The Advisory Committee recommends its preferred choice to the Chancellor for him to seek the approval of the Queen if he is content.

Choosing the design of Bank of England banknotes is the responsibility of the Bank of England itself. The Bank consults with the Royal National Institute of the Blind. Exemplars of new notes are sent to the manufacturers of vending machines that accept banknotes, and are also offered to the commercial banks and the Post Office. Retailers are informed in advance of the new note.

Consultation on new stamp designs takes place with the independent Stamp Advisory Committee, which includes representatives from the Department of Trade and Industry and the Royal Mail Board. New designs are submitted to the Queen for approval.

Bank Interest (Research Council Funds)

Mr. Key: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much interest was earned by the Bank of England in respect of the account of the Natural Environment Research Council in the last financial year. [114320]

Mr. Boateng: Information regarding accounts held at the Bank of England is commercially confidential, and is not publicly disclosed. Inquiries about the Natural Environment Research Council should be directed to the Council itself.

Crown Estate

Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much revenue has been received by the Treasury from rents paid for use of the Crown Estate's

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seabed in each year since 1973; and how much the Crown Estate has invested in marine research in each of those years. [113935]

John Healey: The overall net revenue surplus of The Crown Estate is surrendered to the Exchequer. This payment is not subdivided by the individual constituents of the Estate's property holdings. Figures for the gross surpluses from the operations of the different components of The Crown Estate are set out in the organisation's annual report which is available in the Library of the House.

Since 1985 The Crown Estate has invested around £3.7 million in marine related research into areas such as fish farming and the environmental impact of dredging. A breakdown of the figures is as follows:

	£000
1985	56
1986	67
1987	71
1988	75
1989	100
1990	124
1991	425
1992	192
1993	208
1994	189
1995	228
1996	287
1997	383
1998	284
1999	304
2000	303
2001	164
2002	241

Customs Confidential Hotline

Simon Hughes: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how many (a) phone calls and (b) e-mails have been received by the Customs Confidential hotline since its inception, broken down by category of alleged offence. [113358]

(2) what proportion of the (a) phone calls and (b) e-mails received by the Customs Confidential hotline since its inception produced information on which HM Customs could act. [113359]

John Healey: The Customs Confidential Hotline has only existed in its current format since May 2002. Prior to this paper records were kept, and the information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Since May 2002, 17,530 telephone calls have been processed, along with 832 e-mails and 341 Freepost letters. Additionally, 1,083 phone calls received (6.2 per cent.) are classed as wrong numbers, obscene or time wasting calls.

In the past year, 18,703 pieces of information have been passed to Customs teams, Other Government Departments (OGDs) and to the police for consideration of further action.

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Many of these pieces of information are low-level intelligence which form part of a wider picture and need to be considered in that context; it is not always possible to determine immediately how useful this information is, and it is not possible to provide robust data on the correlation between information received by Customs and subsequent action taken by them.

The approximate breakdown of the 18,703 pieces of information processed is given in the table.

Category	Proportion of pieces of information processed percentage
VAT related	34.2
Tobacco	27.4
Alcohol	18.0
Oils	10.4
Drugs	4.8
Other (OGD/Police)	2.3
Criminal Finances	0.6
Counterfeit Goods	0.6
Gambling Taxes	0.3
Pornography (inc Paedophilia)	0.3
Firearms	0.1
Other Prohibitions and Restrictions	1.0

Simon Hughes: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many (a) arrests and (b) convictions have been attributable to information received by the Customs Confidential hotline since its inception; and what the costs of operating the Customs Confidential hotline were in the last 12 months for which figures are available. [113360]

John Healey: The Customs Confidential Hotline has only existed in its current format since May 2002. Prior to this paper records were kept and the information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

The costs of operating the Customs Confidential Hotline are estimated to be £12,500 a year for the free telephone hotline [phone]) and 6 staff years.

In the last year information from the Customs Confidential Hotline has contributed to a number of operations across the country. However, it is not possible to provide robust data on correlation between information received by Customs and subsequent arrests and convictions.

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