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Park Life Centres (Gloucestershire)

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how Park Life centres in Gloucestershire will be funded after the movement of funds to regional offices of its Learning and Skills Council. [50040]

Bill Rammell: Parklife centres offer a valuable link between the key business parks and business support services in Gloucestershire. The initiative has been jointly funded by the South West Regional Development Agency and Gloucestershire LSC from its discretionary budgets. As my hon. Friend is aware, the Learning and Skills Council is undertaking a major organisational restructuring. However, this should not impact on local arrangements to support the Parklife project.

Qualifications

Ed Balls: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what proportion of the population in (a) West Yorkshire, (b) Wakefield District and (c) Normanton constituency aged between 16 and 65 years have no qualifications. [48390]

Phil Hope: The following table shows estimates of the proportion of the population aged between 16 and 65 years who have no qualifications. Data come from the Local Labour Force Survey for 2004–05.
Percentage
West Yorkshire17
Wakefield District17
Normanton constituency11



Note:
As with all sample surveys the estimates presented in this table are subject to sampling variability.


Student Finance

Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what recent assessment she has made of the period of time which elapses before student loans begin to be repaid; and if she will make a statement. [45665]

Bill Rammell: It is difficult to generalise about how long it takes people to find jobs after graduation and enter repayment as this is largely dependent on individual circumstances. The annual Destination of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey (conducted by the Higher Education Statistics agency) illustrates this. For the 2003/04 cohort of graduates surveyed six months after graduation, 64 per cent. were in employment, 10 per cent. in employment combined with further study, 14 per cent. in further study, 6 per cent. unemployed, and 6 per cent. were not available for
 
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work. Of those in employment who gave details of their salary, nearly two thirds were earning £15,000 or more and were thus eligible to make repayments.

ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

Bin Liners

Mrs. Riordan: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether local authorities have the power to charge their residents for bin liners; and if she will make a statement. [46318]

Mr. Bradshaw: Under section 46(1) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, waste collection authorities may serve notice on the occupier of a household requiring that specified receptacles be used for waste awaiting collection.
 
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Under section 46(3) of the Act waste collection authorities may propose that receptacles be provided on payment by the occupier. A bin liner may be classed as a receptacle.

Abandoned Vehicles

Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many abandoned vehicles were removed and destroyed in each London borough in each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement. [47382]

Mr. Bradshaw: Results for abandoned vehicles removed and destroyed have been reported in the DEFRA municipal waste management survey from 2000–01 until 2003–04. Results for 2004–05 onwards are being collected through WasteDataFlow. The results for London boroughs are shown in the table.
London2000–012001–022002–012003–04
Barking and Dagenham2,761n/a3,2012,080
Barnet3,2874,4313,9402,697
Bexley1,3561,7762,391910
Brent3,4714,1154,1841,775
Bromley3,8954,2153,1291,086
Camden1,6291,8971,6761,304
City of Londonn/an/a158140
Croydon2,8784,3764,2004,000
Ealing3,7544,9163,9754,352
Enfield4,7116,3474,9733,318
Greenwich3,1204,2004,4292,653
Hackney2,7004,0663,6091,540
Hammersmith and Fulham1,4301,4732,1881,629
Haringey6,500(1)4,5605,9001,950
Harrow1,914(1)2,2492,6501,919
Havering1,2503,1262,0861,584
Hillingdon2,2863,1283,741807
Hounslow2,2473,1183,1252,207
Islington2,6193,6432,7481,703
Kensington and Chelsea195232265209
Kingston upon Thames7392,1593,053780
Lambeth3,3083,7753,5771,669
Lewisham5,0004,6713,5541,996
Merton1,6832,1402,1652,256
Newham6,7048,1173,1052,601
Redbridge1,5622,2192,0051,152
Richmond upon Thames1,2011,201970757
Southwark1,9342,8482,2453,375
Sutton1,6512,1662,055860
Tower Hamletsn/an/a2,7811,490
Waltham Forest2,7163,4663,3512,358
Wandsworth2,5712,7942,7532,156
Westminster496333336301



n/a = not available.
(1) GLA estimate.

Air Quality

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will list the local authorities that have passed orders declaring air quality management areas; and whether they are still in force. [49341]

Mr. Bradshaw: The following local authorities in England have declared air quality management areas since the first declaration in 1999. Where the authority has subsequently revoked all of its air quality management areas, this is indicated in brackets after the authority name.


 
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