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Mr. Kevin McNamara (Hull, North) (Lab): My hon. Friend will be aware that the British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body, of which I am a member, is doing a comparative study of the treatment of autism in the different countries belonging to the British-Irish Council. We visited Northern Ireland and were impressed by what we saw, including the dedication of the teachers. One problem raised by teachers was that money given to schools for special educational
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needs is often not ring-fenced specifically for those children and sometimes disappears into the general budget. It can be argued that children with special educational needs benefit from it, but in fact the money benefits the whole school and therefore the amount given to children with special educational needs is watered down. Does the Minister intend to ring-fence money given to schools for special educational needs so that it is used entirely for that purpose?
Mr. Gardiner: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for highlighting that issue and for his welcome praise of those who deliver provision for children with special educational needs, particularly autism. One example of best practice being promoted in this field in Northern Ireland is the centre at Middletown, where north and south are working together productively to provide for the needs of autistic children.
My hon. Friend refers to the dilution of specific funding. Funding follows the child, in that the statemented needs of the child have to be provided and the funding for that comes from the central schools costs of the education and library board. I am not aware of the problem that he identified of those costs being diverted by the schools. If he knows of instances of that and writes to me about them, I will be happy to pursue the issue. It is vital that the resources made available to education and library boards specifically for the special educational needs of children end up being used for that purpose.
Rev. Martin Smyth (Belfast, South) (UUP): I appreciate that the main question dealt primarily with the boards' responsibility for primary and secondary education, but the Minister will be aware that they also have an advisory role in the further education of children. He knows of the case that I brought before him, in which a board and school management did not co-operate as they should, as a result of which a young woman who required special educational provision could get it for vocational but not academic work—the Department said that it could not cover that. Can I press the Minister on that case, bearing in mind in that the woman is at the Royal National College for the Blind in Hereford and has already made significant progress? The college principal has been in touch with me and others because it would be a scandal if the woman's progress was minimised because of a distinction between vocational and academic, which to my mind is discriminatory?
Mr. Gardiner: As ever, the hon. Gentleman is a real champion of his constituents. He has indeed written to me about the case, and I will look into it. It would then be more appropriate for me to write to him rather than discuss the specifics of one young person's case in Committee.
Mr. David Trimble (Upper Bann) (UUP): In an earlier reply, the Minister referred to demographic changes and the reduced number of people going through the school system. Those changes are major factors, although there are others, but surely there is a need for a coherent, planned response to those changes, rather than just working through their consequences with an approach that is purely
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finance-driven. I hope that the Minister will not hide behind the area boards in this respect. Is there not an obligation on the Department to ensure that there is a proper, planned response that involves a degree of consolidation and draws in the extra resources needed for the purpose? That would be better than just sitting back and watching as individual schools collapse and things go on in an unplanned way, as they are at the moment.
Mr. Gardiner: Until the right hon. Gentleman's last half-sentence, I could not have agreed with him more. I recently met the chief executives and chairs of all of the boards as part of our structured accountability review. One of the most important questions that we have tackled has been that of the schools that will experience difficulties as a result of demographic decline. The boards have presented their plans and shown me the schools that need to be looked at most closely with a view either to amalgamation with other schools or, in some cases, to closure. The right hon. Gentleman is right to say that the changes must be managed coherently and in consultation with communities. I pay tribute to the work of a number of the board chairs, who have visited the boards of governors of the schools in question to talk to and work with them to see how they can manage the situation and produce the right outcome for the board as a whole, the schools and the small communities that they serve.
Lady Hermon (North Down) (UUP): The Minister will be aware that 79 primary schools in the catchment area of the South Eastern education and library board have been found to have asbestos in them—a very serious matter. Will he clarify who has responsibility for funding the removal of that asbestos? Is it the Department of Education or does the statutory responsibility lie with the board?
Mr. Gardiner: I am very glad that the hon. Lady raises that question. She has already raised it with me privately and I hope that she will acknowledge that the day after that telephone conversation, inspectors went into the school in question and it was discovered that the measures of containment were already in place.
The hon. Lady is right to highlight—the press have failed to pick up on this—that the Department has already made available to the education and library boards more than £3.5 million for surveying asbestos on all their school properties and more than £4 million for getting the work done and the problem resolved. I am happy to say that most boards have done that survey work and embarked on either a staged programme of remedial work to take the asbestos out or a phased programme, if the surveyor has deemed it better to leave the asbestos in place until major works are done and it can be removed. Unfortunately, some boards have not yet fulfilled their obligation to conduct a survey or put through their remedial work to take out the asbestos where necessary. Only last week, my Department wrote to those boards to ask them why they had not yet done so, even though the money has been made available to
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them, and for a plan of work to show when it will be done.
Racially Motivated Attacks
The Chairman: I remind the Committee that debate may continue for up to two and a half hours. I have no power to impose a time limit on speeches, but brief contributions will enable me to call as many Members as possible.
3.2 pm
The Minister of State, Northern Ireland Office (Mr. John Spellar): I beg to move,
That the Committee has considered the matter of a multi-agency approach to tackling racially motivated attacks and harassment in Northern Ireland.
In response to your injunction, Ms Anderson, I will try to shorten my initial address and use some of the material towards the end, if time permits.
I am pleased to open the debate on this significant issue. It is a matter of deep regret to me and to us all that the issue of racist attacks against minority ethnic people should be at the top of our agenda today. Tackling racism remains a challenge for society in general, not just across the United Kingdom, but throughout Europe, as recent regrettable events in Madrid during the football match between England and Spain clearly demonstrated.
In Northern Ireland, racial incidents have increased from 93 in 1998–9 to 453 in 2003–4. In the six months up to 30 September, there were 299 racial incidents. Although there is no proof that the attacks have been orchestrated by paramilitary organisations, the police and the Independent Monitoring Commission believe that individuals with paramilitary links have carried out some of the attacks, albeit, it appears, without sanction from their paramilitary organisations and commanders.
Lady Hermon (North Down) (UUP): I am most grateful to the Minister for giving way so early in this important debate. Although he has rightly pointed out the number of attacks recorded, could he also give statistics on how many successful prosecutions there have been of those who have perpetrated the attacks?
Mr. Spellar: The hon. Lady knows that until now the numbers have been quite limited, which is regrettable. One essential feature of such attacks is that they often take place at night and on property—although some are on individuals—with a degree of anonymity on the part of those committing them. I will speak later about the actions taken by the police service to identify perpetrators and prevent the crimes from happening in the first place. I hope that, arising from this debate, work will be undertaken to ensure that more court-compliant information becomes available and is provided to the authorities in order to bring those individuals to justice.
Mr. Andrew Hunter (Basingstoke) (Ind Con): A few moments ago, the Minister quoted statistics that are different from the figures that I have been provided with. Will he tell us the source of his figures? My figures may be incorrect, but I was told that there were 226 incidents of recorded racial violence in 2003 and
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167 in 2002. Can we try to establish the accuracy of the statistical base?
Mr. Spellar: I shall certainly try to get that clarified before I reply to the debate. I understand that about 189 incidents were recorded as crimes in 2002–03. Before the hon. Member for North Down (Lady Hermon) intervenes, she may like to know that seven resulted in prosecutions, seven actions are pending and five resulted in advice or a warning. It is worrying that in 170 incidents there was no further police action, and on many occasions the victims want nothing further to be done. That can be for two reasons: first, there has been a reconciliation locally and people have desisted from the behaviour; and, secondly, there is a fear of intimidation and further attack. I shall outline later the work that is going on to tackle that problem.
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