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11 Jan 2005 : Column 449W—continued
Criminal Offences
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will list the criminal offences created in legislation sponsored by her Department in the (a) 2002–03 and (b) 2003–04 session, broken down by Act. [206878]
Derek Twigg:
The Department did not create any criminal offences in legislation in the session 2002–03.
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In session 2003–04, four new offences were created in legislation made by this Department. The new offences are found in the Children Act 2004:
Section 45—Power to establish registration scheme in England
This section gives the Secretary of State the power to set up through regulations a scheme for the registration of private foster carers. Subsection (3) makes it an offence for any person to knowingly make a statement which is false or misleading in a material particular in an application for registration as a private foster parent in accordance with the regulations. A person found guilty of such an offence is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.
Subsection (11) provides that regulations may make it an offence for a person registered under those regulations who without reasonable excuse contravenes or otherwise fails to comply with any requirement imposed on him in the regulations. A person found guilty of such an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.
Subsection 45(12) provides that regulations under this section may make it an offence for a person to foster a child privately while disqualified from being registered, unless certain exceptions apply. A person found guilty of such an offence is liable on summary conviction to (a) a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale; (b) a term of imprisonment not exceeding 51 weeks (or, in the case of an offence committed before the commencement of section 251 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003), not exceeding six months); or(c) both.
Section 63—Disclosure of information by Inland Revenue
Section 63 amends Schedule 5 of the Tax Credits Act 2002 to enable the Inland Revenue to share Tax Credit, Child Benefit or Guardian's Allowance information (except where it relates to a person's income) with local authorities (or, in Northern Ireland, Health and Social Services Boards) for the purposes of inquiries and investigations relating to the welfare of a child. Subsection (5) makes it an offence for a staff member of an authority to disclose the information unless the disclosure is made: (a) in accordance with an enactment or order of court, (b) with the consent of person to whom the information relates, or (c) in a way that prevents identification of the person to whom the information relates. A person found guilty of such an offence is liable to a maximum of two years imprisonment.
Departmental Documents
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will list the documents published by the Department sent to (a) primary schools and (b) secondary schools in each month since January 2004 broken down by number of pages. [207543]
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Derek Twigg: We strictly monitor and gatekeep the information that we automatically send to schools. Details of documents sent to schools in the period requested are detailed in Annex A.
The academic year 2002/03 saw a 50 per cent. reduction on the number of documents sent to all schools compared to the previous 2001/02 year.
Going forward, we have successfully piloted an online ordering system that will enable schools to choose what information they want from the Department and when. This will put schools in control of what they receive.
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Departmental Properties
Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many properties are held by the Department; what total floor space these properties provide; how many properties are vacant; and how much floor space vacant properties comprise. [206491]
Derek Twigg: My Department holds 29 properties with a total floor space of 131,552 sq m. The number of totally vacant properties as at 1 December 2004 amounts to five with a total floor space of 3,134 sq m.
Disabilities
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many of the staff employed by her Department have a declared disability. [205721]
Derek Twigg: The Cabinet Office collects and publishes annually statistical information on the civil service by Department. These include data on the number of staff who have a declared disability.
The latest available information at April 2004 is available in the Library and on the civil service website at the following address:
http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/management_information/statistical_information/statistics/publications/xls/disability_apr04__4nov04.xls.
Education Budget
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills under what statutory powers the Government reduced the education budget for North Yorkshire for financial year 2004–05. [206542]
Derek Twigg: Each year between 1997–98 and 2004–05 North Yorkshire has seen a real terms increase in education funding per pupil aged 3 to 19.
| £ per pupil | |
|---|---|
| 1997–98 | 2,710 |
| 1998–99 | 2,770 |
| 1999–2000 | 2,890 |
| 2000–01 | 3,130 |
| 2001–02 | 3,250 |
| 2002–03 | 3,350 |
| 2003–04 | 3,480 |
| 2004–05 | 3,600 |
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what account is taken in provision of capital expenditure to (a) local education authorities and (b) schools of the (i) running costs of schools, (ii) pupil numbers in schools and (iii) the teacher to pupil ratio. [206545]
Derek Twigg:
No account is taken in the allocation of capital expenditure to (a) local education authorities and (b) schools in respect of the (i) running costs of schools and (iii) the teacher to pupil ratio. With respect
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to (ii) pupil numbers in schools (a) local education authorities' formulaic funding is allocated 40 per cent. by pupil numbers and 60 per cent. by need, together with an allocation for new additional pupil places (b) schools are allocated devolved formula capital which is solely determined by pupil numbers.
Exclusions
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what plans she has to publish termly figures for exclusions. [207557]
Derek Twigg: The first termly collection of exclusions data related to summer 2003. There were concerns about the quality of the data returned but summary information was published to give source on R and S Gateway 'experimental statistics' on 29 July 2004.
Information derived from the three subsequent collection exercises in autumn 2003, spring 2004 and summer 2004 are expected to be included in a Statistical First Release scheduled before the end of June 2005. The actual date will be pre-announced in due course on the Department's R and S Gateway (http://www.dfes.gov.uk/cgi-bin/rsgateway/search. pl?keyw=127&q2=Search).
Publishing information across a full academic year will allow a better understanding of any seasonal (i.e. termly) trends and present a coherent picture of exclusions across the 2003/04 academic year. Once we have a better understanding of the termly trends then more frequent releases of data can be considered.
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what plans she has to publish data on exclusion, broken down by type of special educational need. [207558]
Derek Twigg: Information on exclusions broken down by type of special educational need (SEN) is not currently available.
Information type of SEN was collected for the first time in January 2004, for pupils on roll in 2003/04, but the latest available exclusions figures relate to 2002/03. Permanent exclusions data for 2003/04 are expected to be available in May or June 2005 and it should then be possible to link individual pupil records to the existing data on the type of SEN. If this work is carried out successfully then publication of summary information will be considered for later in 2005.
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