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Special Educational Needs

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will make a statement on Government policy on children with special educational needs. [224192]

Margaret Hodge: I refer the hon. Member to the reply given on 24 March 2005, Official Report, column 998W.

Special Schools

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of Statefor Education and Skills how many special schools have closed in (a) Coventry and (b) England since 1997. [224089]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: Since 1997 281 special schools ¹ have closed in England. There were no special school closures ² in Coventry during this period.

¹ Special schools include: Other independent special schools, community special schools, non-maintained special schools, foundation special schools and independent schools approved for SEN pupils.

² The figures include special schools that closed as a result of the amalgamation or merger of two or more schools.

Sure Start

Mr. Pickthall: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps she is taking to ensure that the involvement of parents in children's centres builds on the experience of parents' involvement in Sure Start. [221413]

Margaret Hodge [holding answer 16 March 2005]: We are building on the successful experience of parents' involvement in Sure Start local programmes in a number of ways. Written guidance for local authorities and delivery partners emphasises the importance of parental involvement in the planning and implementation of children's centres. Parental involvement must be discussed with local authorities in planning discussions. A new Framework for Inspection of Children's Services will ensure that inspections assess how services involve children and parents. We are developing a mechanism for assessing the extent to which parents are involved in the design and delivery of children's centres services. And we will implement this when a greater number of parents have a children's centre planned in their area.

Surplus Stock Sales

Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills whether her Department sold any surplus stock on the eBay auction website, in each year since 2000–01. [220957]

 
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Derek Twigg [holding answer 9 March 2005]: The Department for Education and Skills has not sold surplus stock on the eBay auction website in each year since 2000–01.

Targets

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what recent assessment she has made of whether the public service agreement target to halt the year-on-year rise in obesity among children aged under 11 years by 2010 will be met. [219272]

Derek Twigg: I refer the hon. Member to the reply given by my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Health on 4 April 2005, Official Report, column 1101–102W.

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what recent assessment she has made of whether the public service agreement target to ensure that 80 per cent. of children aged under 16 years who have been in care for 2.5 or more years will have been living in the same placement for at least two years, or are placed for adoption, will be met by 2008. [219273]

Margaret Hodge: This PSA target was only set in SR 2004. It is a new and challenging target that requires a strong focus on both care planning and placement stability. We are taking forward our delivery plan for this target and will report on progress made through our regular statistical bulletin.

ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

Animal Welfare

Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent assessment she has made of the welfare of battery hens; and if she will make a statement. [224226]

Mr. Bradshaw [holding answer 4 April 2005]: The Government are currently considering a recently published scientific report by the Animal Health and Welfare Panel of the European Food Standards Authority (EFSA). The report considers the welfare aspects of various systems for keeping laying hens and takes into account pathological, zootechnical, physiological and ethological aspects of the various systems. This will form the basis of an EU Commission report, due to be published in the autumn.

Avian Flu

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the likely impact on (a) UK production of poultry, (b) local employment at UK turkey factories, (c) health of UK-produced poultry and (d) public health in the UK of avian influenza introduced into the UK through turkeys imported from (i) Thailand, (ii) Brazil and (iii) other countries; and what plans she has to limit the level of turkey imports. [221180]

Mr. Bradshaw: The Contingency Plan for Avian Influenza sets out the policies that would be implemented to control an outbreak of avian flu, and
 
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includes arrangements for protecting those who have to deal with an outbreak of avian flu in this country. This plan will be implemented whatever the source of the disease. The arrangements contribute to protecting public health for which the responsibility lies with the Department of Health.

Defra has not undertaken assessments of impacts on industry (production or employment) related to hypothetical outbreaks of disease.

We are not aware of any outbreaks of HPAI in Brazil and therefore consider that there is currently no risk of introducing the disease from that country. We continue to actively monitor the animal health status of countries which export animals or animal products to the EU. When Defra is officially notified of a new disease incident in an EU member state, a country on the border of the EU or one of the UK's third country trading partners, we carry out a qualitative risk analysis. Risk assessments for avian influenza have been completed and are available at: <http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/diseases/monitoring/riskassess.htm>

Of those countries in South East Asia that are affected by outbreaks of HPAI, only Thailand was eligible to export poultry meat including turkey meat to the EU prior to their outbreaks. As soon as Defra was notified of the outbreak in Thailand, safeguard measures were put in place to ban imports of fresh poultry meat. Cooked poultry meat that has not been heat treated to at least 70C has also been banned. Imports of live poultry from the affected countries are not permitted.

All poultry meat imported into the EU from third countries must enter at designated border inspection posts where it is subject to veterinary inspections to ensure import conditions are met.

There have been no outbreaks of either avian influenza or Newcastle disease in the UK for seven years. The Defra Veterinary Laboratories Agency produces a quarterly report on avian surveillance which is published on the Defra website at: http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/vla/science/science-end-survrep-qtly.htm

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many exercises have been undertaken by (a) her Department and (b) the State Veterinary Service to determine policy to combat an outbreak of avian influenza. [222979]

Mr. Bradshaw: The Department held a tabletop exercise in June 2003 to explore the policy and operational issues arising from an outbreak of avian influenza and to develop its contingency plans.

The State Veterinary Service has subsequently held five exercises to test its operational plans for an avian influenza outbreak.

Additionally, a major national-scale exercise is currently being planned by the SVS on behalf of the department for spring 2006.

Badger Culling

Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what funds
 
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she has made available for badger culling in (a) the UK and (b) Gloucestershire; and if she will make a statement. [218461]

Mr. Bradshaw: Total funds made available for the randomised badger culling trial and associated epidemiological research in Great Britain is given in the table.

	£ million
1998–99	3.0
1999–2000	4.6
2000–01	6.6
2001–02	6.0
2002–03	6.6
2003–04	7.3
2004–05	(5)7.1

⁽⁵⁾Forecast

An accurate breakdown of funding on a county level is not readily available.

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