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Missiles

Mr. Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many nations he estimates have (a) air, (b) land and (c) submarine-launched (i) cruise and (ii) skim missiles with a range of more than 20 nautical miles. [185574]

Mr. Hoon: The Ministry of Defence does not hold the information requested on all countries.
 
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The United Nations Register of Conventional Arms has seven categories of conventional arms for nations to report against, including Section VII—Missiles and Missile Launchers. However returns are made on a voluntary basis and the UN does not hold all this information either.

Prisons

Tom Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what training is given to police officers employed in British-run military and civilian prisons in Iraq; and how long it lasts. [177245]

Mr. Ingram: There are no British-run civilian prisons in Iraq. The only British detention facility in Iraq is the Divisional Temporary Detention Facility in Shaibah. Internees are guarded by soldiers of the Military Provost Staff who are trained to Home Office standards. No civilian prison or police officers are employed in Shaibah.

EDUCATION AND SKILLS

Basic Skills Agency Data

Mr. Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will update the data prepared for each English constituency by the Basic Skills Agency in 2000; and what the updated information is for each constituency in the North East Region. [185169]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: In May 2004 the DfES commissioned work to produce local level estimates of literacy and numeracy in England based on the results of the Skills for Life survey (published in October 2003). The survey mapped skill levels to the National Standards for Adult Literacy and Numeracy. These estimates will update those provided by the Basic Skills Agency and will be available via the DfES's website in autumn 2004.

At the current time, based on the Skills for Life survey findings, we can provide estimates of literacy and numeracy levels for the North East and its constituent Learning and Skills Council areas:

	Entry level 1 and 2 (%)	Entry level 3 (%)	Level 1 (%)	Level 2+ (%)	Sample size
Literacy
England	5	11	40	44	7,874
North East	8	14	41	37	877
Northumberland	8	21	38	33	(2)82
Tyne and Wear	7	15	42	36	310
County Durham	5	10	39	46	191
Tees Valley	10	15	43	33	294
Numeracy
England	21	26	28	25	8,040
North East	28	27	25	21	894
Northumberland	41	23	22	15	(2)82
Tyne and Wear	24	26	24	26	317
County Durham	23	24	28	25	192
Tees Valley	31	30	24	15	303

⁽²⁾ please note the small sample size

Countryside Interpretation Centres

Llew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what programmes his Department has established for collaboration between schools and independent countryside interpretation centres. [185548]

Mr. Charles Clarke: We welcome collaboration between schools and independent countryside interpretation centres and would encourage schools to develop relationships with them.

More specifically, our Growing Schools programme has worked with 12,000 schools and 40 partner
 
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organisations which specialise in the field of outdoor education to assist teaching about food, farming and the countryside both within and beyond the school grounds. The programme is now further developing an accreditation scheme for countryside centres such as estates, farms, woodlands, parks, gardens and outdoor museums.

Our London Challenge programme has commissioned the Field Studies Council to provide outdoor learning experiences for London pupils over a three year period.

Dentistry

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many dental clinical academics hold honorary consultant contracts. [181642]

Ms Rosie Winterton: I have been asked to reply.

Detailed information has been published by the Council of Heads of Medical Schools and the Council of Deans of Dental Schools in "Clinical Academic Staffing Levels in UK Medical and Dental Schools", May 2004. A copy has been placed in the Library.

Departmental Staff

John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how many (a) consultants and (b) advisers his Department employs; and what the annual cost is of their employment; [184739]

(2) how many (a) consultants and (b) advisers his Department has employed for more than six months in the last year; and what projects they were assigned to; [184741]

(3) how many (a) consultants and (b) advisers are currently paid from departmental programme budgets; and what the total associated costs are; [184742]

(4) how many (a) consultants and (b) advisers have been taken out of schools to work on his Department's projects. [184743]

Mr. Charles Clarke: Working in partnership and involving front line practitioners in policy thinking and system change is fundamental to our vision for managing the transformation of the education system. We consult regularly with schools and take advice from headteachers and teachers to support the development of our policies.

Authority to use consultants and advisers is delegated to Directorates and data on numbers is not recorded centrally. The cost of consultants charged to administration budgets in 2003–04 was £4.7 million. The cost charged to programmes is not recorded centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Education (Nottingham)

Alan Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how many teachers and teaching assistants posts will be lost at the end of the current school year in Nottingham City maintained schools; [184654]
 
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(2) how much money Nottingham local education authority lost from its formula allocation by the imposition of a funding ceiling; and how many of the lost teaching posts this could have saved; [184655]

(3) what assessment he has made of the change in teacher numbers in Nottingham on educational standards in city schools; [184656]

(4) if he will make a statement on the funding of primary and secondary schools in Nottingham in 2005–06. [184657]

Mr. Miliband: The Department collects statistics on numbers of teachers and support staff in January each year and will be publishing the figures for January 2004 by local education authority in the autumn. These show an increase in full-time equivalent regular teachers in Nottingham City between 1999 and 2003 of 210 (10 per cent.). Schools make changes in their staffing levels every year in response to a range of issues including changing pupil numbers, new school priorities and the resources available to them.

The calculation of the Education Formula Spending Share has a floor and ceiling component which ensures that all authorities see a minimum increase per pupil which is in part funded by having a ceiling which imposes a maximum increase per pupil. In 2004–05 Nottingham City local education authority received the ceiling increase (6.8 per cent. per pupil) which reduced its Education Formula Spending Share by £2.8 million.

The funding allocation for each local education authority for 2005–06 will be announced in the provisional local government finance settlement in the autumn. However, every authority will receive an increase in the Schools Formula Spending Share of at least 5.5 per cent. per pupil. [Primary and nursery schools will receive a minimum funding increase per pupil of 5 per cent. and secondary schools of 4 per cent. where pupil numbers do not change.]

Grammar Feeder Schools

Mr. Chaytor: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many eligible feeder schools there were in each of the last five years in (a) the state sector and (b) the independent sector for grammar schools subject to the feeder school provisions of the grammar school ballot regulations, broken down by local education authority in England. [184748]

Mr. Miliband: Responsibility for identifying qualifying feeder schools for the purpose of petitions and ballots to decide the future admission arrangements of grammar schools falls to the designated ballot administration company, Electoral Reform Services. Consequently, the Department does not collect this data.

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