| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
27 Feb 2006 : Column 495W—continued
Worcestershire Royal Hospital
Sir Michael Spicer: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 2 February 2006, Official Report, column 726W, on Worcestershire Royal hospital, when the hon. Member for West Worcestershire will receive a letter from the West Midlands South strategic health authority. [52430]
Ms Rosie Winterton
[holding answer 16 February 2006]: The West Midlands South strategic health authority is looking into the series of complaints referred to by the hon. Member and will write to him with its findings in due course.
27 Feb 2006 : Column 496W
Working with Children
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people on (a) the sex offenders' register and (b) her Department's list of individuals who are considered unsuitable to work with children have been employed by local authorities to work with children. [44475]
Ruth Kelly: I have been asked to reply.
The information that the hon Gentleman requires is not held by the Department.
There is a duty on child care organisations (i.e. organisations concerned with the provision of social or health care services to children), including local authorities, who propose to employ individuals in child care positions, to check they are not on the Protection of Children Act List and that they must not offer employment to any such person.
Moreover, it is an offence under the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000 for persons who are disqualified from working with children (including those on the PoCA list) to work in a child care (or regulated") position and it is an offence for an employer knowingly to offer, or fail to remove, a disqualified individual from such a position.
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people have been on her Department's list of individuals who are considered unsuitable to work with children in each of the last five years. [44476]
Ruth Kelly: I have been asked to reply.
We are unable to provide information in the format requested because our systems are continuously updated.
27 Feb 2006 : Column 497W
EDUCATION AND SKILLS
Academic/Support Staff (Pay)
Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much of the total funding from Rewarding and Developing Staff rounds 1 and 2 has been spent directly on pay for existing academic and support staff. [49137]
Bill Rammell: The aim of the Rewarding and Developing Staff (RDS) initiative has been to enable higher education institutions (HEIs) to develop their human resource (HR) capability. To secure allocations of funding under round 1 of the initiative (2001–02 to 2003–04), HEIs were asked to submit human resource strategies to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). Institutions were asked to address six priority areas: recruitment and retention; staff development and training; equal opportunities targets (including plans for job evaluation); reviews of staffing needs; performance review; and tackling poor performance.
KPMG was commissioned by HEFCE to undertake an evaluation of round 1 of the scheme, to assess the impact of the initiative on the development of HR management. KPMG's findings were that the distribution of expenditure between the six priority areas was as follows.
Note:
Data derived from HEIs' Annual Monitoring Statements.
It is not possible to identify expenditure on pay separately, but an element for pay will have been distributed through each of the categories Recruitment and retention", Equal Opportunities" and Annual Performance Reviews". Further details of the KPMG evaluation report can be found at http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/rdreports/2005/rd14_05/ Analysis of expenditure in round 2 (2004–05 to 2005–06), which finishes in July 2006, will be published in 2007.
Academies
Mr. Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what proportion of academies select some of their pupils by aptitude. [54004]
Jacqui Smith:
Like other schools, academies may introduce up to 10 per cent. selection by aptitude, if they have a specialism in one of the prescribed subjects. This allows children living further away, but who can demonstrate an aptitude in the specialism, to benefit from this specialist provision. 11 of the 27 open academies do so.
27 Feb 2006 : Column 498W
Adoption
Bill Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many (a) single men, (b) single women and (c) couples have adopted children in each of the last five years. [50085]
Maria Eagle: The information requested is not collected centrally. Figures on the numbers, gender and legal status of adopters of looked after children in England will be collected for the first time during the 2006–07 financial year. To ensure no individual can be identified from statistical tables, release of this data at a local authority level will be subject to the Department's normal rounding and suppression rules for very small numbers.
Mr. Graham Stuart: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children were adopted in each of the last five years. [50158]
Maria Eagle: The number of children adopted in England and Wales over each of the last five years for which figures are available is set out in the following table. Figures for 2004 are expected to be available on 28 March 2006 and figures for 2005 should be available in spring 2007.
| Total | |
|---|---|
| 1999 | 4,987 |
| 2000 | 5,086 |
| 2001 | 5,384 |
| 2002 | 5,485 |
| 2003 | 5,354 |
Source:
Marriage, divorce and adoption statistics Series FM2 no 30 Office for National Statistics Table 6.1b
Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many (a) single men, (b) single women and (c) couples have adopted children in West Lancashire in each of the last five years. [51115]
Maria Eagle: The information requested is not collected centrally. Figures on the numbers, gender and legal status of adopters of looked after children in England will be collected for the first time during the 2006–07 financial year. To ensure no individual can be identified from statistical tables, release of this data at a local authority level will be subject to the Department's normal rounding and suppression rules for very small numbers.
Admissions Appeals (Yorkshire)
Mr. Graham Stuart: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many parents in (a) East Riding of Yorkshire and (b) Hull made appeals against schools which did not offer their child a place in each of the last five years; and how many of these appeals were upheld. [52338]
Jacqui Smith:
The Department does not collect information on the number of appeals made by parents against the school allocated for their child. The available information relates to appeals made by parents against the decision to refuse their child admission to the school of their choice and is shown in the table.
27 Feb 2006 : Column 499W
(115) Number of appeals heard by a committee expressed as a percentage of the number of appeals lodged by parents.
(116) Number of appeals decided in parents' favour expressed as a percentage of the number of appeals heard by a committee.
(117) A revised Code of Practice was issued in January 2003.
Source:
Annual Schools' Census and Admission Appeals Survey
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |