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28 Feb 2005 : Column 928W—continued
Railway Property (Crime)
Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many persons were prosecuted for criminal acts committed on or against railway property in the last year for which figures are available. [218011]
Mr. McNulty: The British Transport Police (BTP) have informed me that in the year April 2003–March 2004 a total of 12,189 people were prosecuted by the BTP in England and Wales. This figure represents all offences excluding revenue offences.
St. Pancras Station
Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) if he will set a completion date for the fitting-out of the Thameslink Box at St. Pancras station; [218638]
(2) when the Department expects to complete the fitting-out of the Thameslink Box at St. Pancras station. [218640]
Mr. Darling: The Department is committed to delivering the station fit-out, but needs to look further at the options for completing the work, including timing, before we can give the go-ahead. Consequently the Department has not set any dates for the start and completion of the work.
Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much the fitting-out of the Thameslink Box at St.Pancras station will cost. [218641]
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Mr. Darling: The most recent projected cost of the fitting-out of the St. Pancras Midland Road station is approximately £60 million (at 2003–04 prices) which includes the fitting out, rail systems alterations and client costs required to make the station operational. This figure may change depending, for example, on future decisions on the scope and programme for the works.
Trust Ports
Mr. Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport for what reason trust ports which are classified as public corporations have not produced resource accounts for 2003–04; and whether they will be required to do so for 2004–05. [218687]
Mr. Jamieson: Trust Ports are not required to produce resource accounts. This is a requirement of Government departments and Trading Funds only.
Working Time Directive
Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport when he expects to announce the final details of the Working Time Directive regulations applicable to road haulage operators. [218633]
Mr. Darling:
I expect to be able to publish our formal guidance and table the implementing regulations before Parliament very shortly.
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EDUCATION AND SKILLS
Academy Teachers
Mr. Pollard: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what professional regulation applies to academy teachers. [217590]
Mr. Stephen Twigg: Academies are registered independent schools. Like all independent schools, they are not bound by the legislation which requires teachers in maintained schools to register with the General Teaching Council for England (GTC), which is the professional regulating body for teachers in the maintained sector. However, as the vast majority of teachers within academies will have moved across from the maintained sector, most will already be registered with the council and are likely to remain so. We will be writing shortly to academies to clarify this issue and will certainly encourage them to continue to register existing staff with the council. Ultimately, however, this is a matter for individual teachers to decide.
Faith Schools (West Midlands)
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many private faith schools there are in the West Midlands region, broken down by constituency. [217690]
Mr. Stephen Twigg: The figures provided by independent schools at the last annual schools census for which figures are available, January 2004, are shown in the following table.
(2)Includes schools of mixed denomination or other Christian beliefs.
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Grammar School Ballots
Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will list each request for an electoral roll in connection with a grammar school ballot made in the last 12 months; and what the (a) name of the education authority area, (b) date of the request and (c) name of the person or persons making the request were in each case. [218428]
Mr. Stephen Twigg: In the last 12 months there has been only one request for petition thresholds to be set, which is the first step in the petition process. The request, made on 22 December 2004, asked that thresholds be set for all local education authority areas that have grammar schools. No threshold will be set for Ripon in Yorkshire, as there was an unsuccessful ballot in March 2000 and the five year moratorium on further ballots is still in effect.
I cannot name those who requested the petition, as to do so would not comply with the Data Protection Act 1998.
Higher Education
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what estimate she has made of the number of university students who would have been entitled to receive the higher education grant in the current academic year; and what estimate she has made of the number who will apply for it in the academic year beginning in 2006. [217996]
Dr. Howells:
Preliminary data from the Student Loans Company show that just over 100,000 students are entitled to either a full or a partial grant for academic year 2004/05. We expect to have firmer figures of the
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number of applications made in 2004/05 by April 2005 and will then be better placed to estimate the number of students applying for the grant in academic year 2006/07.
Charles Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what discussions she has had with the higher education sector concerning the future take-up of courses in (a) mathematics and (b) scientific disciplines; and if she will make a statement. [218881]
Dr. Howells: As Minister for Higher Education I regularly meet representatives of the sector to discuss this issue.
The Government are committed to increasing the number of students taking up higher education courses in mathematics and scientific disciplines. The 10-year science and innovation investment framework, published jointly by Treasury, the Department for Trade and Industry and the Department for Education and Skills last July, sets out a range of new measures to address the problem. These cover all phases of education from schools through to higher education. In addition, the then Secretary of State for Education and Skills wrote to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) at the beginning of December asking their advice on what types of action should be considered to strengthen and secure subjects of strategic national importance, including mathematics and science.
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