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17 May 2006 : Column 965W—continued
Leader of the House
Abortion Inquiry
Mr. Amess: To ask the Leader of the House if he will establish a joint House of Commons and House of Lords inquiry into abortion; and if he will make a statement. [70379]
Mr. Straw: The Government have no plans to do so.
Government Bills
Mr. Amess: To ask the Leader of the House what considerations underlie a decision on into which House of Parliament a Government Bill is introduced; and if he will make a statement. [70380]
Mr. Straw: A decision on the appropriate House of introduction is taken according to the circumstances of each Bill. Factors to be taken into account will include the subject matter of the bill and the amount and the nature of the business currently before each House.
More bills, particularly those giving effect to the Government’s major policy priorities, will generally be first introduced into the Commons rather than the Lords. Consolidated Fund and Finance Bills, and most other Bills primarily financial in nature, are introduced into the Commons. It is the practice for Consolidation Bills, Law Commission and statute law repeal bills to be introduced into the Lords.
Members (House of Commons)
Mr. Amess: To ask the Leader of the House what the cost was per hon. Member in (a) 2004-05 and (b) each of the previous four years; and if he will make a statement. [70410]
Mr. Straw: I have taken this question to be referring to the total costs of the House of Commons per hon. Member.
Direct costs of the House of Commons are the sum of the Estimates for House of Commons: Administration and House of Commons: Members, though a range of the costs within the Administration Estimate do not relate solely to Members.
| Financial year | Total cost( 1) (£ million) | Total per Member (659) |
| (1) In accordance with the principles on which the accounts are prepared, the information is in resource rather than cash terms. |
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Leader of the House how many hon. Members re-elected in 2005 have (a) had their information technology equipment (i) entirely and (ii) partially renewed and (b) not had their information technology renewed; and if he will make a statement. [70316]
Mr. Straw: Of the 646 Members elected in June 2005, 122 were new Members and four have now been or are subject to by-elections. This leaves 520 Members who were re-elected in 2005 who are included in the project to refresh their equipment.
As of 15 May, of the 520 Members, 161 Members have received all of their equipment. For a further 239 Members, the refresh is in progress (i.e. Members have been surveyed, orders placed or installations booked) and for 37 of these the refresh is partially complete. Some 120 Members have yet to submit their order forms. The refresh project is being undertaken in phases, and all Members will have been given an opportunity to refresh their equipment before the summer recess, providing forms are returned and survey and installation dates are agreed as per the guidance issued to Members.
Mr. Allen: To ask the Leader of the House what incentives exist for hon. Members to take less than the full first-class fare for rail tickets to and from their constituencies. [70276]
Mr. Straw: Under the terms of the Resolutions of the House of 10 April 1924 and 4 March 1980, Members are reimbursed for the cost of all travel within the UK on parliamentary business. It is for hon. Members to decide whether they travel first or standard class on any journey. There are no limits on the number of journeys that an hon. Member can make on parliamentary business.
Members may also claim travel allowances for their spouses, civil partners and children. This is limited by Resolution of the House to 15 return journeys per year and is not dependent on the ticket purchased.
The current arrangements are straightforward to administer and well understood by Members, and they provide choice in respect of the class of travel. Changes to the rules on travel are considered by the Advisory Panel on Members’ Allowances, which can offer advice to the Members Estimate Committee.
Petitions
Mr. Amess: To ask the Leader of the House how many petitions were presented in Session (a) 2003-04 and (b) 2004-05; how many have been presented in 2005-06; and on how many occasions the responsible Department declined to make any observations. [70405]
Mr. Straw: Petitions statistics for past Sessions are published in the annual Sessional Returns. The following information for 2003-04 and 2004-05 is reproduced from this source. Information for 2005-06 to date has been added.
| Session | Petitions presented | Observations tabled | Remainder |
| (1 )To 9 May 2006. (2 )Departments have confirmed that observations will not be tabled in respect of 19 petitions. 48 petitions are still outstanding. |
House of Commons Commission
Postage Costs
Mr. Dismore: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission what the postage costs were for each Department of the House in each of the last three years; what percentage of (a) postal costs and (b) quantity of post was (i) first class and (ii) second class for each Department; what the Commission's policy is on when first or second class post should be used; and if he will make a statement. [70281]
Nick Harvey: Prior to April 2006 all official mail posted from the House of Commons was sent under a general Speaker's frank; a breakdown of the postage costs by departments of the House is therefore not available.
Postage costs for the House broken down between first and second class in each of the last two financial years are given below. There are no reliable figures for financial year 2003-04, but it is estimated that the figures for that year would have been broadly similar.
| 2004-05 | 2005-06 | |||
| £ | Percentage | £ | Percentage | |
From April 2006, identifiers have been introduced on the frank to allow departmental expenditure to be monitored. Much non-urgent departmental correspondence, which used to be sent by second class mail, is now conducted by email. The information provided will be used to encourage greater use of second class postage for appropriate items.
Security Passes
Mr. Amess: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission, how many security passes have been issued which give access to the Palace of Westminster and its associated buildings, broken down by category; and if he will make a statement. [70381]
Nick Harvey: A paper setting out the number of currently valid security passes giving access to the Parliamentary estate, broken down by category, has been placed in the Library of the House.
Education and Skills
Asiatic Languages
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how many pupils have taken (a) GCSE and (b) A-level examinations in Asiatic languages in each year since 1994; [69861]
(2) how many (a) schools and (b) colleges offer (i) GCSE and (ii) A-level qualifications in Asiatic languages. [69862]
Jim Knight: The information requested can be found in the following tables.
| GCSE full course entries( 1) in Asiatic languages( 2) , of 15 year old pupils( 3) in all schools, 1994-2005( 4) | |
| Number of entries | |
| (1) For each subject only one attempt is counted, that which achieved the highest grade. (2) The definition of Asiatic languages used here includes: Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Gujarati, Hindi, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Punjabi, Turkish, Urdu and Persian. (3) Age at start of academic year i.e. 31 August. (4) Includes attempts by these pupils in previous academic years. |
| GCE A-level entries in Asiatic languages( 1) , of 16-18 year olds( 2) ,1994-2005 | |
| Number of entries | |
| (1) The definition of Asiatic languages used here includes: Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Gujarati, Hindi, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Punjabi, Turkish, Urdu and Persian. (2) Age at the start of the academic year i.e. 31 August. |
Information is not collected on the subjects offered by schools and colleges. However, it is possible to provide figures on the number of schools where at least one pupil has been entered for a particular subject and these are given as follows:
(a) The number of schools where at least one 15 year old pupil was entered for a GCSE full course in an Asiatic language in 2005 was 1,706;
(b) The number of schools/colleges where at least one student was entered for a GCE A-level in an Asiatic language in 2005 was 789.
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many students studied asiatic
languages at (a) university and (b) colleges of higher education in each year since 1994. [69863]
Bill Rammell: The available information is given in the following tables:
| Enrolments to Asiatic studies( 1) at English HE institutions, 1994/95 to 2001/02 | ||||||||
| 1994/5 | 1995/6 | 1996/7 | 1997/8 | 1998/9 | 1999/0 | 2000/1 | 2001/2 | |
| — denotes a figure of less than 3 (1) For 1994/5 to 2001/2, ‘Asiatic studies’ includes ‘Chinese studies’, ‘Japanese studies’ and ‘Other Asian studies’ but excludes those coded as 'Others in Eastern, Asiatic, African, American and Australasian languages, literature and related subjects’. Note: Figures are on a snapshot basis as at 1 December and are rounded to the nearest 5. Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) student record. |
| Enrolments to Asiatic studies( 1) at English HE institutions, 2002/03( 2) to 2004/05 | |||
| 2002/3 | 2003/4 | 2004/5 | |
| — denotes a figure of less than 3 (1) For 2002/3 onwards, ‘Asiatic studies’ includes ‘Chinese studies’, ‘Japanese studies’, ‘South Asian studies’ and ‘Other Asian studies’ but exclude those coded as ‘Others in Eastern, Asiatic, African, American and Australasian languages, literature and related subjects’. (2) For 2002/3 onwards, the Joint Academic Coding Scheme (JACS) replaced HESACODE as the coding frame used to identify subject of study. In addition to the coding change, enrolments for 2002/3 onwards are apportioned between all subjects studied whereas figures for 2001/2 and earlier are based upon a headcount of major subject of study. Hence the two sets of figures are not comparable. Note: Figures are on a snapshot basis as at 1 December and are rounded to the nearest 5. Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) student record. |
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