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8 Jan 2007 : Column 220W—continued
The Department for Transport provides local authorities in England (outside London) with capital highway maintenance funding as part of the Local Transport Plan (LTP) settlement for investment in their network. This funding is not ring fenced. It is for each local authority to determine how their allocations are spent, in line with their priorities.
Records on local authorities' LTP highway maintenance capital allocations and spend were introduced following the introduction in 2001-02 of LTPs. The Department also provides funding to local highway authorities to support them with their highway maintenance of de-trunked roads.
Details of the funding allocated for capital highway maintenance, by the Department, to all English local authorities outside London through the LTP settlement since its introduction and for de-trunked roads have been placed in the Library of the House.
We have also allocated £121 million PFI credits to support the contractual obligations under a whole highway maintenance contract signed by Portsmouth city council in July 2004 and £444 million PFI credits to support 16 local authority PFI street lighting schemes.
Funding for local authority maintenance on local roads in London is a matter for the Mayor.
Local authorities' budgets for highways maintenance revenue expenditure are set by each local authority, to reflect their local priorities in line with their proposed spending of their formula grant and the council's own income. Information on local authorities' revenue budgets and outturn revenue expenditure is collected by the Department for Communities and Local Government.
Section 29 Cases
Mrs. Dunwoody: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many unnamed section 29 cases were created in DVLA Scotland in (a) 2004 and (b) 2005; how many have been created in 2006 to date; how many of these cases were summonsed in each year; and how many of those cases summonsed were successfully prosecuted. [113076]
Dr. Ladyman: The information is as follows:
| Number of cases | |
The ability of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency to carry out successful enforcement activity against motorists who use their vehicles and do not pay road tax, is constantly under review and strategies are revised to meet changing needs.
The number of S29 cases has decreased since the introduction in March 2004 of Continuous Registration enforcement from the record. The requirement to electronically submit S29 cases to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service for prosecution, and the problems encountered in establishing this link led to a decrease in the number of prosecutions and an increase in the pursuit of these offenders by wheel clamping activity. A suitable method of transmitting cases electronically has now been found.
Speed Limit
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will assess the merits of (a) raising and (b) abolishing the national speed limit on motorways. [112967]
Dr. Ladyman: The last assessment into the possible effects of raising the motorway speed limit generally was conducted in 2001. This concluded that raising the motorway speed limit would increase the risk of accidents and casualties and would also increase carbon emissions. For these reasons it was decided that the motorway speed limit should remain at 70 mph.
There are no current plans to conduct a further assessment into either increasing or abolishing the motorway speed limit.
Vehicle Safety
Susan Kramer: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what estimate he has made of the number of road traffic accidents which were caused by mechanical faults in each of the last three years for which figures are available. [112771]
Dr. Ladyman: The number of personal injury road accidents in which a ‘vehicle defect’ was a contributory factor reported by the attending police officer, are given in the following table:
Data prior to 2005 are not available. Information on damage only accidents is not collected.
Robert Key: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment he has made of the effect on numbers of accidents involving motorcycles of mandatory daytime running lights for all vehicles; and if he will make a statement. [112784]
Dr. Ladyman: The Department has not made a specific assessment of the effect of daytime running lights on motorcycle accident numbers.
However, we recently asked TRL Ltd. to review the daytime running light study carried out by the European Commission. Their review highlighted several issues including a potential reduction in the conspicuity of motorcycles.
We have raised these concerns with the European Commission and will continue to oppose mandatory daytime headlamp use.
Education and Skills
Adult Education
Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps he is taking to improve adult education provision within prisons. [113650]
Phil Hope: Government proposals for improving education of offenders are set out in the “Reducing Re-Offending Through Skills and Employment: Next Steps” document published on 13 December 2006. Copies of the document were sent to all Members of Parliament on the day of publication.
Anaphylactic Shock
David Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the take-up among local education authorities has been to date of the guidance published in March 2005 by his Department and the Department of Health on the administration of epinephrine to school pupils suffering anaphylactic shock during the school day; and if he will make a statement. [110214]
Jim Knight:
The Department for Education and Skills has printed 50,000 copies of the joint DfES/DH “Managing Medicines in Schools and Early Years Settings” guidance. The guidance contains a chapter with some basic information on common conditions including anaphylaxis. Records show that 43,715 copies
have been distributed to a mixture of local authorities, schools, early years settings, schools nurses and PCTs, voluntary organisations, parents and other interested parties. Local authorities have placed 751 orders for a total of 25,410 copies of the guidance.
A copy of the guidance can also be downloaded from Teachernet at:
www.teachernet.gov.uk/publications
Annual Pay Award
Mr. Fallon: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills on what date the annual pay award for departmental staff has been implemented in each of the last five years. [106090]
Mr. Dhanda [holding answer 28 November 2006]: The effective date for the annual pay award to department staff in each of the last five years is set out as follows:
2006—November 2006
2005—April 2005
2004—April 2004
2003—October 2003
2002—September 2002
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what funding has been allocated in 2006-07 to support students who suffer from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. [112653]
Mr. Dhanda: Funding for schools is a shared responsibility between central and local government. The majority of funding is provided by central government, with local authorities (LAs) providing the rest. In 2006-07, for the first time, schools received their funding from a Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) rather than as part of the local government settlement. The DSG is a ring-fenced grant and must be used for schools’ budgets. It is for each LA to distribute funding using a locally agreed formula, and for schools’ governing bodies to decide how to spend the available resources.
Support for children with special educational needs (SEN) accounts for a high proportion of all education expenditure. We do not hold information centrally about expenditure on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, but information collected from LAs shows planned expenditure on the education of children with SEN of £4.5 billion in 2006-07. This is about 13 per cent. of all education spending.
In addition, schools and LEAs can use their School Development Grant to support SEN. SDG is allocated to schools and LAs to spend on teaching and learning according to their own needs and priorities. Total SDG for 2006-07 is almost £2 billion and schools will see an increase over their 2005-06 SDG allocations of at least 3.4 per cent. per pupil in 2006-07 and 3.7 per cent. in 2007-08.
Building Schools for the Future Programme
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment he has made of the merits of extending the Building Schools for the Future Programme to hospital schools; and if he will make a statement. [110345]
Jim Knight [holding answer 19 December 2006]: Building Schools for the Future aims to renew all secondary schools in England in 15 waves of investment which started in 2005-06. It includes special schools, and pupil referral and other educational units for pupils of secondary school age. It is prioritised on educational and social needs of geographical groups of schools proposed by local authorities. Projects including hospital schools or units are eligible where locally proposed. Such units are already eligible for devolved formula capital allocations.
Capital Investment Budget: Schools
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what his Department’s budget is for capital investment in (a) secondary schools, (b) primary schools, (c) further education and (d) higher education in each financial year from 2007-08 to 2010-11, excluding private finance initiative credits and private sector investment. [109850]
Alan Johnson: My Department’s budget for capital investment for 2007-08, excluding private finance initiative credits and private sector investment is as follows:
| £ million | |
As a substantial proportion of schools’ capital investment is devolved to local authorities, so that they can target their local priorities and needs, the precise breakdown of spending between primary schools and secondary schools is unknown.
Further information on my Department’s capital expenditure can be found in its annual report, which is available in the Libraries.
I have not yet made any detailed budgetary plans for 2008-11. The Chancellor of the Exchequer announced the overall capital settlement for my Department for this period in his pre-Budget report on 6 December. Excluding private finance initiative credits, this amounts to £7.2 billion in 2008-09, £7.7 billion in 2009-10 and £8.8 billion in 2010-11. This amounts to increases of £250 / 750 / 1850 million over 2007-08 baselines. Of these increases:
£150 / 500 / 500 million has been earmarked for primary schools;
a further £1.1 billion will be spent on all schools in 2010-11; and
£100 / 250 / 250 million has been earmarked for the further education system.
Child Protection
Margaret Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what measures he is taking to ensure that schools are receiving information on child protection online. [105348]
Jim Knight: The Department uses a range of communication channels to promote information to its audiences. This includes our own websites, print, newsletters and e-mails. In addition a network of stakeholder and partner communication channels are used to get messages to our common audiences.
With regard to child protection, information for schools can be found on our TeacherNet website:
http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/childprotection
The Department draws maintained schools' attention to updates via a fortnightly e-mail which goes to all schools. This is sent to the schools registered email address and 112,119 number of registered subscribers (figure correct at 13 December 2006). This e-mail has a reporting function that informs the Department of successful and unsuccessful deliveries. Where an e-mail has been unsuccessfully delivered, a letter is sent to the school providing them with a hard copy version of the regular e-mail and informing them that they must update their records on the Departments database, Edubase.
In addition, the Department informs local authority directors of children's services and chief executives via its weekly LA e-mail on all child protection matters that have been communicated to schools. The communications directorate regularly telephones the local authorities to ensure that the e-mails have been received and to keep our contact database up-to-date.
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