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5 July 2006 : Column 1116W—continued
Heavy Vehicle Fitter Apprenticeships
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many heavy vehicle fitter Apprenticeships have been completed in (a) England and (b) Merseyside in each of the last five years, broken down by sex. [78433]
Phil Hope: I have been asked to reply.
A key success criterion for Apprenticeships from the outset has been that the programme should be open to all young people regardless of gender, ethnic origin or disability and it should provide equal access particularly to those from potentially socially disadvantaged or marginalised groups. The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) has worked hard to establish and build on the Apprenticeship Frameworks and procedures required for successful equality. The Apprenticeships Approvals Group (independently chaired by the Skills for Business Network ie Sector Skills Council led) have a key role to play in ensuring that Apprenticeship Frameworks make all reasonable adjustments to maximise participation from diverse groups.
The LSC maintains a website detailing starts, leavers and completions of individual frameworks http://www.apprenticeships.org.uk/partners/frameworks/ apprenticeshipsdata/. However, published figures for completions are not broken down by geographical area or sex. For this reason Mark Haysom, the council’s Chief Executive, has written to my hon. Friend with this information and a copy of his reply has been placed in the House Library.
Letter from Rob Wye, dated 28 June 2006:
I am responding on behalf of Mark Haysom, due to him currently being on annual leave, to your Parliamentary Question that asked the number of completed Heavy Vehicle Fitter Apprenticeships in England and Greater Merseyside, broken down by gender in each of the last 5 years.
The Vehicle Fitting Apprenticeship framework was implemented on 1st September 2005. This is in effect its first year for apprentices to enrol onto and as yet there is no usable framework completion data at any geographical level.
Prior to 1st September 2005 there were more generic Apprenticeship frameworks in operation for the Retail Motor Industry. An analysis of these framework completions where the NVQ within the framework is for “Vehicle Fitting” shows the following results,
Specific information regarding heavy vehicle fitting is not available at framework level or at NVQ qualification level, hence this response can only look at vehicle fitting in general.
The Learning and Skills Council publishes regular statistical information on Apprenticeships including framework completion data on its website (www.apprenticeships.org.uk). The information is provided for each Apprenticeship framework and as such the volume of completers nationally will be provided in future updates.
Consistent and high quality data is only available from the first full academic year following the commencement of the Learning and Skills Council in April 2001. For this reason the table above only shows information for the past three full academic years.
I trust this provides the information you require.
| LSC-funded adults in FE in 2005/06 with level 2 entitlement | ||
| Ethnicity | Participation | Percentage of total participation |
| Source: F01 2005/06 ILR Results are rounded to the nearest 50 volumes <10 are suppressed | ||
| LSC-funded adults in FE in 2005/06 with level 2 entitlement | ||
| Gender | Participation | Percentage of total participation |
| Source: F01 2005/06 ILR Results are rounded to the nearest 50 Volumes <10 are suppressed | ||
Milk Co-operatives
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will reform current arrangements for the development of vertical cooperatives in the milk industry. [75985]
Barry Gardiner: I have been asked to reply.
Mergers, acquisitions and other competition matters are the responsibility of the competition authorities. These bodies are independent and the Government have no role in the administration of competition law, except in very restricted circumstances.
Ministerial Flights
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what plans he has to ensure that all flights undertaken by Ministers and officials in his Department are carbon neutral; and if he will make a statement. [81401]
Jim Fitzpatrick: DTI ensures that all flights undertaken by its Ministers and officials are carbon neutral by participating in the Government Carbon Offsetting Fund.
Post Office Card Account
Mr. Dunne: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what discussions he has had with the major banks which contributed to the cost of the launch of the Post Office card account regarding its termination. [82060]
Jim Fitzpatrick: There have been no discussions on this issue between the Department and those banks that contributed to the establishment of the Post Office card account. The Post Office card account contract between the Department of Work and Pensions and Post Office Ltd will end in 2010 as always intended.
Written Answers to Questions
Wednesday 5 July 2006
Education and Skills
Advertising Campaigns
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what advertising campaigns his Department has run since July 2004; and what the (a) date and (b) cost was of each. [81915]
Mr. Dhanda: The Department’s records are retained on a financial year basis, and it is only possible to provide annual information on advertising campaigns from April 2004 to present. The following tables show advertising campaign expenditure broken down by year and title:
| 2004-05 | |
| Advertising campaign title | £000 |
| 2005-06 | |
| Advertising campaign title | £000 |
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