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30 Nov 2006 : Column 871W—continued
Dr. Alasdair McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many inward-investment visits were arranged by INVEST Northern Ireland in Belfast, West constituency in each year since April 2002. [105915]
Maria Eagle: Since April 2002 there have been 580 inward visits by potential investors to Northern Ireland, of which 43 (7.4 per cent.) were to Belfast, West constituency. Figures for the current year are not yet available.
| Total inward investment visits to Belfast, West | |
Dr. Alasdair McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many inward-investment sponsored jobs have been lost in Belfast, West constituency since April 2004. [105916]
Maria Eagle: Information relating to the performance of Invest NI client companies is available to the year ended March 2005. This shows that externally owned clients in Belfast, West lost 321 jobs from April 2004 to March 2005.
Dr. Alasdair McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much financial assistance has been given in the form of selective financial assistance by INVEST Northern Ireland to (a) encourage the start-up and growth of local and foreign owned business in Belfast, West and (b) attract investment into Belfast, West in each year since April 2002. [105919]
Maria Eagle: This information has been provided in the tables:
| Start up and growth | |
| Financial year | Assistance offered (£) |
| Attract Investment | |
| Financial year | Assistance offered (£) |
Local Government Finance
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether a material change to a domestic property without a change to the ownership of the property will result in a change to the domestic rates bill under the new system for local government finance in Northern Ireland. [104113]
Mr. Hanson:
A material change to a domestic property, without a change to the ownership of the property, will result in a change to the domestic rates
bill under the new system provided that the material change results in a change in the capital value of the property. It should be noted that alterations to property will not affect liability until the next rating year following their revised assessment.
This was the case under the old net annual valuation system introduced in 1977 and similar arrangements have been in operation in Northern Ireland for over one hundred years.
Rates Revaluation
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the estimated total cost of the Northern Ireland rates revaluation is in (a) absolute terms and (b) per house valued. [104121]
Mr. Hanson: The estimated total cost of the Northern Ireland rates revaluation in which approximately 720,000 properties were given capital values is (a) £13.5 million in gross terms and (b) this equates to £18.75 per property.
Education and Skills
A-level Syllabus
Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many and what percentage of examinations boards have withdrawn the option of studying Chaucer as part of their A-level syllabus in the last three years; and what discussions he has had with such boards. [106415]
Jim Knight: All the awarding bodies offering GCEs in the UK—AQA, CCEA, Edexcel, OCR and WJEC—provide an option to study Chaucer.
Bonus Payments
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much was paid in bonuses to civil servants in his Department each year since 2001-02; and how many civil servants received bonuses in each year. [101024]
Mr. Dhanda: I would refer my right hon. Friend to the reply given to the hon. Member for Twickenham (Dr. Cable) on 8 November 2006: Official Report, column 1706W.
Children and Adoption Act 2006
Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills when he expects to bring into force each provision of the Children and Adoption Act 2006. [103873]
Mr. Dhanda: The Government are currently considering plans for implementation of provisions in the Children and Adoption Act 2006. I expect to place a written ministerial statement in the House in the new year outlining the timetable for implementation of each provision.
Children in Care/Custody
Mr. Duncan Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the mean per capita cost was of (a) keeping a child in care, (b) educating a child in care, (c) keeping a child in custody and (d) educating a child in custody in each of the last five years; what the total expenditure was in each category in each year; how these figures are collated; who is responsible for collecting the data; and since when such records have been kept. [100906]
Mr. Dhanda: The Information Centre (IC) for health and social care is currently responsible for collecting data on the costs of keeping a child in care. DfES will take responsibility for the collection in 2008-09. The IC has provided the following information on children in care.
Data on Personal Social Services Expenditure have been recorded since the financial year 1994-95 via a statistical return issued to councils on an annual basis. From 2000-01 the PSSEX1 return replaced the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) Actuals return RO3, which was discontinued after 1999-2000. The PSSEX1 is a joint return between the IC for health and social care and CIPFA. The Department of Health was responsible for this return from 2000-01 to 2003-04, from 2004-05 the return has been the responsibility of the IC.
| Unit cost per week to look after a child in care, England 2000-01 to 2004-05 | |
| Children looked after in foster care or children’s homes( 1) | £ per child per week |
| (1) This includes short term placements, respite, placed for adoption (with foster care) and residential school placements (with children’s homes) for children looked after and full cost paying. This is the Performance Assessment Framework Indicator B8. Source: PSSEX1 | |
(b) The specific costs of educating a child in care are not collected centrally but most children in care attend maintained schools. DfES collects and publishes expenditure per pupil in maintained schools, as follows:
| School based expenditure( 1,2,3) per pupil( 4) in cash terms since 1992-93 in England | |||||
| ( 9) £ per pupil in cash terms | |||||
| Local authority maintained pre—primary and primary schools( 8) | Local Authority maintained primary schools( 7) | Local Authority maintained secondary schools | Local Authority maintained pre-primary primary and secondary schools | Local Authority maintained primary and secondary schools | |
| (1) School based expenditure includes only expenditure incurred directly by the schools. This includes the pay of teachers and school-based support staff, school premises costs, books and equipment, and certain other supplies and services, less any capital items funded from recurrent spending and income from sales, fees and charges and rents and rates. This excludes the central cost of support services such as home to school transport, local authority administration and the financing of capital expenditure. (2) 1999-2000 saw a change in data source when the data collection moved from the RO1 form collected by the ODPM to the Section 52 form from the DfES. 2002-03 saw a further break in the time series following the introduction of Consistent Financial Reporting (CFR) to schools and the associated restructuring of the outturn tables. The change in sources is shown by the blank row. Comparable figures are not available prior to 1992-93. (3) The calculation for 2002-03 onwards is broadly similar to the calculation in previous years. However, 2001-02 and earlier years includes all premature retirement compensation (PRC) and Crombie payments, mandatory PRC payments and other indirect employee expenses. In 2001-02 this accounted for approximately £70 per pupil. From 2002-03 onwards only the schools element of these categories is included and this accounted for approximately £50 per pupil of the 2002-03 total. Also, for some LAs, expenditure that had previously been attributed to the school sectors was reported within the LA part of the form from 2002-03, though this is not quantifiable from existing sources. (4) Pupil numbers include only those pupils attending maintained establishments within each sector and are drawn from the DfES Annual Schools Census adjusted to be on a financial year basis. (5) Spending in 1997-98 reflects the transfer of moneys from local government to central government for the nursery vouchers scheme. These were returned to local government from 1998-99. (6) The 1999-2000 figures reflect the return of GM schools to local authority maintenance. (7) Expenditure was not distinguished between the pre-primary and primary sectors until the inception of Section 52 for financial year 1999-2000. (8) School based expenditure in nursery schools was not recorded in 2002-03 and comparable figures for nursery expenditure are not available from 2003-04 onwards. (9) Figures are as reported by local authorities as at 18 October and are rounded to the nearest £10. Source: Up to and including 1998-99, Local Authority Revenue Outturn (RO1) forms submitted to the ODPM, then Local Authority Section 52 Outturn returns submitted to the DfES from 1999-2000. Pupil numbers are drawn from the DfES Annual Schools Census | |||||
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