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15 Nov 2005 : Column 1131W—continued
Looked-after Children
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will make a statement on progress with the target for the level of education achieved by care leavers aged 19 years. [26783]
Maria Eagle: The Department publishes progress against all its outstanding PSA targets in its annual departmental report and autumn performance report. Progress against our last spending review targets for 2002, including the one referred to in this question, was reported most recently in the 2004 autumn report, published last November 2004, together with commentary where appropriate. A copy of the report is available from the House of Commons Library.
Public Service Agreements
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills when she will assess progress on the public service agreement target to halt the year-on-year rise in obesity among children under 11 years by 2010. [26789]
Jacqui Smith:
The public service agreement to halt the year-on-year rise in obesity among children under 11 by 2010 in the context of a broader strategy to tackle obesity in the population as a whole is the joint responsibility of the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, the Secretary of State for Health, and the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. Joint cross-departmental programme management arrangements have been established to drive action to meet this target. Progress
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against the target will be measured through the Health Survey for England. The baseline will be established for the years 2002–04: data from the 2004 Health Survey will be available this winter. The 2005 Health Survey data will be available next winter, 2006–07, for the period 2003–05. We shall assess progress at that point.
There is no single intervention for obesity. A wide variety of Government programmes make a valuable contribution to tackling the causes of obesity, including, from this Department, advice and support to parents in establishing and maintaining a healthy lifestyle delivered through Sure Start local programmes and children's centres, the Healthy Schools programme, new standards to improve the quality and healthiness of food in schools, increases in the time spent by pupils in PE and school sport delivered through the roll-out of the national PE, School Sports and Club Links strategy, and measures to improve the well-being and emotional health of children and to develop their social and emotional skills.
School Computers
Mr. Wills: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what her most recent estimate is of the ratio of pupils to computers in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools. [24483]
Jacqui Smith:
The information requested is shown in the table.
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| Number | |
|---|---|
| Maintained primary | 6.7 |
| Maintained secondary | 4.1 |
(13) Includes middle schools as deemed.
(14) Excludes dually registered pupils.
Source:
Annual Schools' Census.
Sexual Health
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will publish the responses to the Working Together to Safeguard Children consultation exercise. [28249]
Maria Eagle: The consultation ended on 28 October. The Department will publish an analysis of the consultation responses within three months of this date, in line with standard DfES practice.
Teachers
Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many teachers are employed within the state education sector teaching children aged five to 11 years. [27770]
Jacqui Smith:
The information requested is not held in the format requested.
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The full-time equivalent number of regular primary school teachers, including middle deemed primary school teachers, and excluding nursery schools, in service in January 2005 was 194,800.
Under-achievement
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment she has made of the potential impact of introducing banding to admission procedures upon under-achievement by children from low socio-economic backgrounds. [26055]
Jacqui Smith: Banding systems can have the effect of reducing inequalities in school intakes, ensuring fair access to all and reducing the clustering of disadvantaged pupils in certain schools. Combined with our proposals to extend entitlement to free school transport for more disadvantaged families, the introduction of fair banding could enable more children to access schools to which they were previously unable to gain admission.
Research has suggested that pupils' attainment at key stage 4 is affected by the characteristics of the school. Schools with a large proportion of disadvantaged pupils tend to have lower results, even after taking account of the prior attainment and other characteristics of the pupils measured in the pupil level annual schools census. Reducing the clustering of disadvantaged pupils in certain schools can benefit these pupils and give them a better chance of achieving their potential in secondary schools.
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CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT
Casinos
Tony Lloyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many representations she has received on increasing the number of regional casinos provided for in the Gambling Act 2005. [28828]
Mr. Caborn: We have received a number of letters from local authorities and others in support of an increase in the number of regional casinos permitted by the Gambling Act 2005.
Despite these representations, we do not believe the case has yet been made out for an increase, and we are therefore proceeding with implementation on the basis of the one regional casino specified in the Act.
Tony Lloyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what factors she will consider when reviewing the number of regional casinos provided for in the Gambling Act 2005. [28829]
Mr. Caborn: The Government have made it clear that they wish to take a cautious approach to the development of new casinos, in order to assess whether their introduction leads to an increase in problem gambling. The decision to reduce the number of regional casinos permitted by the Gambling Act 2005 from eight to one was consistent with this cautious approach.
We have not ruled out the possibility of asking Parliament to agree to more regional casino licences, up to a maximum of eight, being made available, if further evidence is presented to us that it is safe and prudent in regulatory terms to do so. A judgment would have to be made which balanced the risks of enlarging the number of people potentially affected against the risks of drawing the initial phase too narrowly to produce reliable evidence.
However, we do not believe that case has yet been made, and we have no plans to return to Parliament on this issue.
Tony Lloyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport whether the Casino Advisory Panel may recommend an increase in the number of regional casinos provided for in the Gambling Act 2005. [28830]
Mr. Caborn: No. The role of the independent casino advisory panel is to recommend the areas in which the 17 new casinos permitted by the Act should be located.
Commonwealth Institute Building
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much public funding has been spent on the maintenance of the Commonwealth Institute building in each of the last five years; and if she will make further funding available for this purpose. [28340]
Mr. Lammy:
The Commonwealth Institute ceased to be a non-departmental public body in 2000. It was established as a registered charity and company limited by guarantee with an endowment of £8 million, half of which was for maintenance of the building. In accordance with the severance agreements, it has
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received no public funding for the last five years. There are no plans to provide funds for maintenance of the building.
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