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Trawl Speeds

Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what influence trawl speed has on (a) species caught and (b) size of fish caught. [149125]

Mr. Bradshaw: Trawl speed can influence the capture of different species, with faster swimmers requiring a faster towing speed, and the duration of tow may affect

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the size of fish caught, since larger fish may be able to swim for longer before they tire and fall back into the net.

CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT

Specialist Sports Colleges

10. Mr. Truswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will make a statement on specialist sports colleges in (a) England and (b) the Pudsey constituency. [151931]

Mr. Caborn: There are currently 228 specialist sports colleges in England, and a further 30 will join them from September 2004. The Government aims to establish 400 specialist sports colleges by September 2005, subject to sufficient high quality applications. Within Pudsey, Priesthorpe Secondary School became a specialist sports college in 2002.

Glasgow Science Centre

11. Mr. Sarwar: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will make a statement on the level of financial assistance provided by the Government to Millennium projects in Scotland, with particular reference to the Glasgow Science Centre. [151932]

Mr. Caborn: The Millennium Commission, rather than the Government, has provided £209 million of National Lottery funding for Millennium projects in Scotland. £36.2 million has been awarded to the Glasgow Science Centre. The Glasgow Science Centre as also been funded by public bodies under the Scottish Executive, which is responsible for Science Centre policy within Scotland.

Licensing Act

12. Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what representations she has received from sports clubs about the impact of the Licensing Act 2003. [151933]

Mr. Caborn: We have received representations from several hon. Members, the Central Council for Physical Recreation, small sports clubs and from individual members of small sports clubs. These representations relate mainly to the issue of the fee levels which we intend to set shortly for small sports clubs under the provisions of the Licensing Act 2003.

Arts Facilities

14. Mr. Jack: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent studies her Department has conducted on the economic benefits to local communities of investment in arts facilities. [151935]

Estelle Morris: My Department has commissioned a review of the evidence of the economic, social and environmental impact of culture in regeneration. The findings will be published shortly, alongside a document consulting on proposals for maximising culture's impact on communities.

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Community Fund/New Opportunities Fund

15. Ann McKechin: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what progress has been made in merging the Community Fund and the New Opportunities Fund. [151936]

Estelle Morris: The New Opportunities Fund (NOF) and the Community Fund are working closely together already. A single Chief Executive has been appointed. Full merger will happen when the legislation is in place.

Playing Fields

16. Jane Griffiths: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will make a statement on the sale of playing fields. [151938]

Mr. Caborn: Planning guidance ensures that local authorities must fully consider the sporting needs of communities in decisions involving playing fields.

But community need may better be addressed by developing other forms of sports facility. Planning applications involving playing fields in 2001–02 produced 447 new or refurbished sports facilities worth £274 million.

Olympic Bid

17. Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what progress has been made on the London Olympics bid. [151939]

Tessa Jowell: The first stage of the bid, the Applicant Questionnaire, was delivered to the International Olympic Committee on 15 January.

The Government continues to work closely with the other stakeholders to develop the outline proposals in the Questionnaire.

Science and Technology

Dr. Iddon: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what support her Department is giving to the promotion of science and technology via museums. [151929]

Estelle Morris: We have increased revenue grant-in-aid to our sponsored science and technology museums by 23 per cent. in real terms to over £70 million per annum since 1997–98, including funding for free admission to their permanent collections. The number of visits to these museums has increased by 73 per cent. to 7.6 million.

TREASURY

Labour Disputes

Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the average cost of working days lost owing to labour disputes in the (a) public and (b) private sector in each year between 1995 and 2003; and if he will make a statement. [151832]

Ruth Kelly: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.

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Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Stephen O'Brien, dated 2 February 2004:

As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent question about the estimate of the average yearly cost of working days lost owing to labour disputes in the private and public sector each year since 1995. (151832)

The Office for National Statistics produces figures on the number of working days lost as a result of labour disputes, but does not estimate the cost of these lost days.

Whilst there are no statistics on numbers of working days lost that specifically relate to the public sector, figures are available for the public administration, education and health industries sectors which encompass most of the public sector. In the table below, the data for these sectors (Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) sectors 75, 80 and 85) are presented alongside data for the rest of the economy for 1995 to 2002, the last year for which annual data are available.

Working days lost due to UK labour disputes, 1995–2002thousands

	Public administration, education and health industries (SIC 75, 80, 85)		Rest of Economy
Year	No of days lost	Percentage of all days lost	No of days lost	Percentage ofall days lost
1995	178	43	237	57
1996	295	23	1,008	77
1997	65	28	170	72
1998	50	18	232	82
1999	66	27	176	73
2000	221	44	278	56
2001	331	63	194	37
2002	1,013	77	310	23

Area Cost Adjustment (Statistics)

Mr. Luff: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer for what reason the Office for National Statistics does not release (a) New Earnings Survey micro-data since 2000, (b) details of the sensitivity of regression results, (c) alternative estimates using Labour Force Survey data and (d) disaggregated Labour Force Survey data to researchers investigating area cost adjustment calculations; and if he will make a statement. [151128]

Ruth Kelly: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.

Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Peter Luff, dated 2 February 2004:

As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the availability of data to researchers. (151128)

Since 2002 the Office for National Statistics Micro-data Release Panel has implemented revisions to procedures for releasing all micro-data held by ONS. The procedures are derived from the principles of National Statistics, its Code of Practice and protocols, and the law.

New Earnings Survey (NES) micro-data up to 2003, the latest year for which data are available, have been released to other government departments. NES micro-data are available for statistical research purposes through the ONS "virtual data-lab", which provides access to micro-datasets on ONS premises under controlled access conditions, in line with the Code of Practice and protocols. A longitudinal NES dataset used by some academic and government researchers was suspended from 2001 when I initiated a review of the access contracts and methods. Work is now underway to make this dataset available through the virtual data-lab, under different contractual arrangements and methods consistent with the Code of Practice.

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Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates of employees' earnings by region, occupation and industry are published in the LFS Quarterly Supplement which is available on the ONS web-site: www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/Product.asp?vlnk=545&More=N. Anonymised copies of all LFS micro datasets are available to researchers from the UK Data Archive (UKDA). Information about this service is available from the UKDA web-site: www.data-archive.ac.uk. Access requests by government and academic researchers to confidential (non-anonymised) copies of LFS micro-data are considered on a case-by-case basis by the Micro-data Release Panel.

Any research studies carried out by ONS using regression analysis of either NES or LFS earnings data would usually be published if of significance, and of publishable standard. No specific work on the sensitivity of regression results exists for publication, or has been prepared for other reasons. In general, micro-data access is a well recognised statistical service, and all researchers have access to more statistical records than in most countries in Europe.

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