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1 Mar 2006 : Column 781W—continued
Racial Hostility Offences
Mark Durkan: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many penalties for offences motivated by hostility towards a person's race have been increased since the Criminal Justice (No. 2) (Northern Ireland) Order 2004 made provisions for increased penalties. [53357]
Mr. Hanson: The information is currently not systematically recorded as requested. Court sentences are logged as substantively as finally pronounced in court without the impact of all of the aggravating and mitigating factors that may have had a bearing on individual disposals. However, the Government will be working with enforcement and prosecution authorities to explore how a mechanism could be put in place to collect this information.
Recyled Paper
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what percentage of paper used in printed publications in each of the last 10 years by each Department in Northern Ireland was from recycled sources. [53144]
Angela E. Smith: The information sought by the hon. Member could only be provided at disproportionate cost. Each Northern Ireland Department is aware that communicating effectively with target audiences through printed publications must be balanced with the need to ensure that minimum levels of wastage are incurred, including the use of recycled paper. Officials in the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister are currently conducting a review of practice across Departments, since October 2005, on the printing and distribution of Government publications to ensure that appropriate measures are being taken to ensure value for money.
Road Tolls
Mr. Peter Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether he plans to implement toll payments for road usage in Northern Ireland. [52992]
Mr. Woodward: The Chief Executive of Roads Service (Dr. Malcolm McKibbin) has been asked to write to the hon. Gentleman in response to this question.
Letter from Dr. Maclcolm McKibbin, dated 28 February 2006:
You recently asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland a Parliamentary Question about whether there are plans to implement toll payments for road usage in Northern Ireland.
As this issue falls within my responsibility as Chief Executive of Roads Service, I have been asked to reply.
You may be aware that the Regional Transportation Strategy (RTS) for NI 2002–12, whose strategic direction and underlying principles were endorsed by the Assembly in July 2002, contains no proposals to introduce road tolling in Northern Ireland. This position remains, however, the RTS did contain a commitment to monitor the impacts of fiscal demand management measures, such as congestion charging. This is reflected in both the Belfast Metropolitan Transport Plan and the Regional Strategic Transport Network Transport Plan, launched by the Minister in November 2004 and March 2005 respectively, where commitments are given to review this position, in the light of experience in other parts of the UK, during the period of the Plans.
Roads Service is continuing to monitor developments in the use of road user charging in Great Britain. In the last two years, for example, officials have been actively involved in the development of the Department for Transport's (DfT) Road Pricing Feasibility Study and in the out workings of Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs' Lorry Road User Charging proposals.
The DfT Road Pricing Feasibility Study recommended that a series of pilot local, or regional, road pricing schemes as the best way to test the various approaches to congestion charging. The DfT's Transport Innovation Fund (TIF) will be the basis for pump priming such schemes in England. We will wait with interest to see what sort of schemes may evolve from the TIF.
You may be aware that the Secretary of State, in his speech to the Fabian Society on 31 January 2006, stated
I will . . . be ensuring that Northern Ireland is fully signed up to the work being done in other parts of the UK on congestion charging and road pricing to help tackle congestion and reduce traffic pollution."
Roads Service is continuing to engage with the Department for Transport and the County Surveyors' Society to ensure this commitment is addressed.
Schools
Mr. Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the (a) enrolment numbers and (b) number of unfilled places are in each (i) Irish medium school and (ii) integrated school in Northern Ireland. [54132]
Angela E. Smith: The following tables show the enrolment number and number of unfilled places for each school in the Irish Medium and integrated sectors.
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CI*—Established as Controlled Integrated School
CI-T—Transformed Controlled Integrated School
GMI—Established as Grant Maintained Integrated School
Mr. Dodds:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much money has been allocated for the development of curriculum materials for
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(a) Irish medium schools and (b) integrated schools by the Department of Education in each of the last 10 years. [54136]
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Angela E. Smith: (a) The Department of Education provided funding for the development of Irish medium curricular materials on an annual basis up to 1999–2000.
| £ | |
|---|---|
| 1995–96 | 31,000 |
| 1996–97 | 34,000 |
| 1997–98 | 33,000 |
| 1998–99 | 120,000 |
| 1999–2000 | 235,000 |
For subsequent years, the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure provided funding to Foras na Gaeilge, the Irish Language Agency who have a statutory remit to promote the Irish language and who develop Irish curriculum materials. Information is not readily available to assess how much of this was spent on the development of curricular materials.
The Department of Education made one-off allocations for Irish medium curriculum materials of £86,000 in 2003–04 and £67,000 in 2005–06.
Under Common Funding for schools from April 2005, allocations to Irish-medium Post-primary schools and Units includes 25 per pupil to support the development of curricular materials. In 2005–06 this funding totalled £13,100. For primary Irish-medium schools and Units, a per pupil element of £100 is included in the formula allocations. However this level of funding reflects that these schools are required to teach English as an additional curricular requirement at Key Stage 2. It is not therefore possible to disaggregate the totality of funding provided to these schools for curricular materials development.
(b) Nil. Integrated schools do not receive specific funding for the development of curricular materials.
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