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Written Answers to Questions
Thursday 1 April 2004
WALES
Civil Servants
Mr. Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many civil servants have been employed in the Wales Office in each year since 1999 in (a) London and (b) Cardiff. [160935]
Mr. Touhig: The actual number of civil servants in the Wales Office and the split between London and Cardiff could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. The table as follows shows the staffing complement in each year, since the Wales Office came into being on 1 July 1999. This differs from the outturn figures given in the Wales Office annual Departmental Reports as it takes no account of vacancies during the year.
| Staff complement in London (full time equivalents) | Staff complement in Cardiff (full time equivalents) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1999–2000 | 33 | 3 |
| 2000–01 | 35 | 9 |
| 2001–02 | 35 | 9 |
| 2002–03 | 43 | 12 |
| 2003–04 | 44 | 11 |
Wind Farms
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what assessment he has made of the (a) environmental and (b) health impact of wind farms in Wales. [164591]
Mr. Touhig: Proposals for the development of wind farms in Wales are assessed for visual and other impacts as part of the planning process.
EDUCATION AND SKILLS
Children in Care
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children are in residential care in each local authority area; and how many receive residential care in each local authority. [159417]
Margaret Hodge: The number of children in residential care in each local authority at 31 March 2002 is shown in the following table.
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(1) Residential care includes secure units, homes and hostels, residential schools, and other residential settings.
(2) Figures in this table exclude children looked after under an agreed series of short term placements.
(3) Figures over 1,000 are rounded to the nearest 100. Figures between one and five have been suppressed. All other figures are rounded to the nearest five.
Source:
Children Looked After by local authorities, year ending 31 March 2002.
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Adult Learning
Mr. Simmonds: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many people are claiming Adult Learning Grants in pilot areas; and what estimate he has made of the number of people eligible to claim Adult Learning Grants in pilot areas. [163798]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: Over 1,900 people have successfully applied for the Adult Learning Grant and more applications are being approved every week. The latest estimate is that some 5,700 adults may be eligible for the grant in the pilot areas.
Arson
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the total cost of arson damage to schools was in each of the last 15 years. [164950]
Mr. Miliband: Because the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) has overall policy lead for fire safety and arson reduction among government departments, it is ODPM rather than this Department that compiles statistics on fires in schools.
The latest figures we have from ODPM cover the years 1997–2001. They show that, on average, the annual economic costs of arson damage to schools amounted to £42 million. The numbers of school fires started deliberately did not increase steadily over that period, but fluctuated around the average of 972 per year.
Asbestos
Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what proportion of buildings occupied by (a) staff of his Department and (b) staff of the Department's executive agencies have been surveyed for the purpose of identifying the presence of asbestos prior to the implementation of the Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 2002. [159662]
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Mr. Stephen Twigg: All of the Department for Education and Skills buildings were surveyed prior to the introduction of the Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 2002. The surveys complied with the requirements of the regulations current at that time.
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