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Further Education
Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what funding has been allocated for further education colleges in the Province to provide tuition to those with (a) mental health difficulties and (b) learning disabilities in 2006-07. [83653]
Maria Eagle: The Department for Employment and Learning is unable to provide financial information in the format requested but would confirm that it has allocated total funding of £6,866,092 for the academic year 2006-07 to the FE sector in Northern Ireland towards provision for those students with learning difficulties and disabilities.
Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what criteria are used to categorise further education college courses as recreational rather than vocational. [83654]
Maria Eagle: When the course of study is identified by the further education colleges as not examined, or not leading to a qualification, it is categorised by the Department as “non-specified, non-examinable” and generally viewed as a hobby and leisure/recreational course.
Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what plans there are to withdraw funding to further education colleges in the Province for tuition of those with (a) mental health difficulties and (b) learning difficulties. [83729]
Maria Eagle: The Department for Employment and Learning has no plans to withdraw funding to further education colleges in Northern Ireland for tuition for those students with learning difficulties and disabilities.
Mrs.
Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State
for Northern Ireland what funding has been allocated to further
education colleges in the Province for tuition of
those with (a) mental health difficulties and (b) learning
disability in each of the last five years.
[83730]
Maria Eagle: The Department for Employment and Learning is unable to provide financial information in the format requested but would confirm that the total funding provided to the FE sector in Northern Ireland towards provision for those students with learning difficulties and disabilities in the last five years was as follows:
| Funding (£) | |
Knives
Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many knives were recovered in each district council area in the Province during the recent knife amnesty. [83726]
Mr. Hanson: A total of 886 items were handed in during the recent knife amnesty in Northern Ireland. The numbers deposited in bins in each district council area were as follows.
| Number | |
The other 56 items were surrendered to bins managed by the harbour police and Ministry of Defence.
Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what estimate he has made of the number of knives that are carried in Northern Ireland. [83727]
Mr. Hanson: It would be impossible to make an estimate of the number of knives carried in Northern Ireland. Knives are used in a variety of professions and for hobbies and pastimes such as camping and diving in a way that does not break the existing laws.
The Government are however determined to tackle the culture of carrying knives for illegal purposes. One way that we can judge the success of policies, campaigns and initiatives is to note their impact of the recorded crime figures where the use of a knife is involved.
Current initiatives that seek to address the culture of knife carrying among young people include the year long public information campaign and the education package that will be delivered in post primary schools from September.
Media Monitoring
Mr. Peter Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much his Department spent on media monitoring in each of the last five financial years. [77223]
Mr. Hain: Media monitoring expenditure in each of the last five years is detailed as follows and comprises both equipment and staff costs.
| Equipment costs | |
| £ | |
The rise in expenditure in 2002-03 and 2003-04 was due to the NIIS media monitoring facility transferring to a digital service from video to DVD.
There are four staff employed in the Media Monitoring Unit and their combined average salaries for the last five years are as follows:
| £ | |
Migrant Workers
Mark Durkan: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what steps his Department is taking to ensure that migrant workers to Northern Ireland have access to information on (a) health, (b) social services, (c) housing and (d) other public services. [80961]
Maria Eagle: Northern Ireland Departments provide a wide range of information and services to migrant workers. Key areas are:
Migrant worker access to information on health
The Department for Health and Social Services and Public Safety is currently developing a booklet for those new to Northern Ireland which provides key information about health and social services and how to access them. This will be made available in a range of languages.
The Department is currently in discussions regarding the future provision of interpreting, with the aim of meeting the needs of the changing migrant worker communities.
The Department in collaboration with the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland will produce a second edition of the 2003 good practice guide “Racial Equality in Health and Social Care” by March 2007.
Migrant worker access to information on social services
The Social Security Agency has a statutory obligation to ensure that migrant workers have access to social security benefits where they satisfy the necessary conditions. The Agency ensures that migrant workers are, on request, allocated a national insurance number to enable them to pursue legitimate employment or obtain access to social security benefits.
The Agency publishes benefit information and fact sheets in a number of languages including Arabic, Chinese, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish and works closely with voluntary sector support groups to ensure that information about the benefits system is as widely available as possible.
Telephone and face to face interpreting and translation services are provided by the Agency to those customers who have difficulty communicating in English.
Migrant worker access to information on housing
The Northern Ireland Housing Executive provides or facilitates the following services to ensure that migrant workers in Northern Ireland have access to information about housing services.
An interpreter service (language line) is available to all housing executive district office staff.
The housing executive intranet site includes advice leaflets available in the following languages: French; Lithuanian: Polish; Russian; Mandarin and Cantonese.
The housing executive provides inter-cultural awareness training to equip its front line staff with the knowledge and skills to deal with culturally-sensitive issues. The training also provides information on support services and organisations assisting migrant workers.
Migrant worker access to information on other public services
Government Departments who provide services to migrant workers are taking similar measures as are being taken on health, social services and housing, some examples include:
Driver Vehicle Licensing NI (DVLNI) produces leaflets and posters in a number of languages and on a range of issues including how to buy a car, obtain a drivers licence, insurance and use of seat belts.
Provisions of English for Speakers of other Languages courses are available in Further Education colleges.
“Language line” interpreting services is provided in all jobs and benefits offices and Jobcentres.
The Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (H and SENI) operates a telephone interpretation service and translation service for customers whose first language is not English. It has also produced a picture booklet on safety in the workplace specifically for migrant workers working in high risk industries.
A key step that Government are taking is the recent establishment by the Race Forum of a thematic group on migrant workers. This group will examine the work that individual Departments and agencies have been doing to date and identifying those information practices which should be consistent across all Government. It will make recommendations to Ministers in the autumn.
Ministerial Meetings
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland on what dates the Minister for Social Development has met representatives of the (a) Democratic Unionist Party, (b) Ulster Unionist Party, (c) Progressive Unionist Party, (d) Ulster Political Research Group and (e) Orange Order in the last 12 months. [82991]
Mr. Hanson: The information requested from June 2005-June 2006 is as follows:
| Party | Dates |
As Minister for Social Development I have also met representatives from the parties on other occasions in different ministerial capacities during the 12 month period.
Model United Nations General Assembly
Mark Durkan: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1) how much funding the Model United Nations General Assembly has received from his Department in each of the last five years; and how much funding has been allocated for the next three years; [84105]
(2) what his assessment is of the contribution to reconciliation in Northern Ireland made by the Model United Nations General Assembly organised by the Council for Education in World Citizenship Northern Ireland. [84106]
Maria Eagle: Model United Nations General Assembly is organised by the Council for Education in World Citizenship NI (CEWC NI). The Department of Education funded CEWC (NI) through its Community Relations Core Funding Scheme for the period 1 April 2001 to 31 March 2004, total funding £136,584. A breakdown for each of the last five financial years is displayed in the following table.
| £ | |
The
overt objectives of the Model United Nations General Assembly (MUNGA)
are not around reconciliation
in Northern Ireland. However, it is recognised that any programme that
widens the experience of young people in the context of Global
Citizenship and their understanding diversity has
merit.
The next round of core funding, 2007-10, was launched on 5 July 2006 and CEWC (NI) are welcome to apply. All applications will be judged on how they meet the scheme’s criteria/objectives.
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