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28 Nov 2006 : Column 498W—continued
| Table 2: Summary of disposal at Rame Head, giving total tonnages, wet weight | |
| Total disposal | |
| (1 )None reported. Source: Defra Marine Consent Management System (MCMS) and double-checked against the OSPAR disposal returns. | |
Leader of the House
Official Report
Mr. Bone: To ask the Leader of the House if he will bring forward proposals for a new section of the Official Report to set out Ministers’ corrections to inaccurate statements made in the House. [103649]
Mr. Straw: The issue of how best to deal with corrections to Ministers’ statements in Hansard (other than minor corrections of the kind which apply to all Members’ speeches and for which there is a long established procedure) has been raised with my Office by hon. Members and by the Procedure Committee. There are a variety of ways in which inadvertent errors can be corrected which are appropriate for different circumstances, including written ministerial statements, pursuant questions or answers, and letters to hon. Members with copies placed in the Library.
However, these methods do not all involve the terms of the correction appearing in Hansard and there is no indication in the bound volume or web version of Hansard at the place of the original error that there has been a subsequent correction. I am in discussion with the Editor of Hansard as to how these issues can be addressed, taking into account technical and cost issues. The suggestion put forward by the hon. Member is one possible approach, to which I am giving active consideration.
House of Commons Commission
Energy Costs
Mrs. Hodgson: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission what the House’s (a) heating and (b) lighting bills were in 2005-06; what assessment the Commission has made of the feasibility of introducing smart systems to reduce energy consumption; and if he will make a statement. [104413]
Nick Harvey: The information requested is as follows.
(a) The House’s gas costs in 2005-06 for heating and hot water, including kitchens, were £450,576. The bill for gas heating alone is not known as it is not separately metered.
(b) The House’s total electricity costs in 2005-06 were £1,413,393. The bill for electrical lighting alone is not known as it is not separately metered.
Plans are being prepared for purchasing specialist energy monitoring and targeting software and installing it such that it would gather data automatically from all the mains energy and water meters and the major sub-meters.
Automating both the meter reading and the meter data analysis would effectively provide continuous ‘real time’ monitoring of energy and water consumptions and costs, enable exceptional consumptions to be automatically identified and reported and thereby allow rapid action to be taken to investigate and remedy wastage.
State Opening
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission what the cost was of the State Opening of Parliament 2006, broken down by (a) building maintenance, (b) extra security expense and (c) other costs; and if he will make a statement. [103762]
Nick Harvey: The cost of State Opening of Parliament was as follows:
| £ | |||
| Commons | Lords | Total | |
Education and Skills
Care Leavers
Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what supported housing is available for care leavers; and if he will make a statement. [101883]
Mr. Dhanda: The Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000, which commenced in October 2001, requires that all local authorities must provide or maintain care leavers under the age of 18 in “suitable accommodation”. Like any other services for care leavers, the provision of suitable accommodation should be based on an assessment of individual need, taking into account, their health, including any disabilities; their education and training needs; and the suitability of any accommodation provider. Once care leavers reach 18, then they are entitled to have access to the same mainstream services as other young people, including housing services. As their responsible authority has continuing duties to help them plan and to support them, it will be their personal adviser's role to assist them to access the available housing that will be the most appropriate to their circumstances, which in some cases may well involve housing services that offer their residents personal and practical support.
The requirements set out in Section 10 of the Children Act 2004 provide the opportunity to enable improved joint planning to better meet the housing needs of children and vulnerable groups of young people, including, care leavers. The section requires each children's services authority to put in place
arrangements to promote co-operation amongst those who engage in activities in relation to children and young people, and gives key strategic partners, including housing authorities, a duty to take part.
Child Care
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what representations he has received on the PricewaterhouseCooper’s report commissioned by his Department on the State of the Childcare Market; and what action has been taken to implement its recommendations. [104493]
Beverley Hughes: The DfES commissioned PricewaterhouseCooper to deliver a report “The Childcare Market” in February 2006, which was published on the DfES website on 31 August 2006 as part of a series of five such report, including an over-view report.
A covering note published alongside the report and other communications to key stakeholders such as local authorities, Government Offices, CBI and members of the Department’s Third Sector Forum invited comments on the report to a dedicated e-mail box by 30 November 2006.
The Department will be reviewing all comments on the report in December and will be taking these into account in the further development of the commissioning and market management strategy in children’s services.
Child Database
Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the expected error rate is for the Child Database. [104296]
Beverley Hughes: The information sharing index will aid more effective prevention and early intervention as a tool to support practitioners to improve outcomes for children, and is therefore a key element of the Every Child Matters programme. The index will hold only basic information about children and young people such as name, address, gender, date of birth, an identifying number, and contact details for services working with them.
The Information Sharing Index (England) Regulations 2006 came into effect on 7 April 2006. They provided for data matching trials to take place, as essential initial work in the development and implementation of the index.
The aim was to examine a sample of records from the main data sources, to enable an assessment of how comprehensively each covers the population of children, which is the most reliable source of accurate and up-to-date information for each data item, and assess how disparities in the ways in which data sources record each item can most efficiently be overcome.
The trials were intended to provide an early indication of the expected level of data matching for the full national index. Samples of basic identifying information were supplied from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Department of Health (DH), the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and nine local authorities. For records where it was
possible to compare data held about a child by more than one source (about 90 per cent. of all records examined) there was sufficient correspondence to be very confident that the data was correct. For the remaining information, where it was not possible to compare the information, the index project will provide resources to investigate any discrepancies and correct them, leading to a high level of confidence in the index data. This supports the strategy underpinning the index business case of using data from a number of existing national and local sources.
The data matching trials report will shortly be made available on the Every Child Matters website. My officials will send the hon. Member a copy and place copies in the House Library.
Children's Centres
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the Government’s total (a) financial and (b) in kind contribution has been to the new Parkfield children’s centre in West Hendon; what estimate he has made of the contribution of the London borough of Barnet to the centre; what services the centre will provide; and if he will make a statement. [103734]
Beverley Hughes: Sure Start Children’s Centres programme is making real progress. There are currently 1,037 children’s centres designated, reaching around 800,000 children and their families. Our aim is that there will be around 3,500 Sure Start Centres serving every community by 2010, reaching around 2.9 million children under five.
Information provided to the DfES by Barnet borough council shows that the total capital cost of building the Parkfield Sure Start Centre was £1,453,661. Of this total, £1 million was from DfES and £453,661 from Barnet borough council. In addition, Barnet council has been allocated a total of £8,418,107 General Sure Start Grant revenue over the same period to support the delivery of our 10 year strategy for child care. Provided they meet their targets, Barnet have been given flexibility on how the funding is apportioned to individual programmes. The Department do not collect data on revenue allocation per centre.
Parkfield Sure Start Centre will provide a full range of Sure Start services including; good quality early learning combined with full day care provision for children; good quality teacher input to lead the development of learning within the centre. Services provided will also include parental outreach, family support services; a base for a childminder network; child and family health services (including ante-natal); support for children and parents with special needs. The centre will make effective links with Jobcentre Plus, local training providers and further and higher education institutions.
Children's Information Sharing Index
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what progress he has made in developing the proposals for the children’s information sharing index; and if he will make a statement. [105972]
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