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10 Jan 2007 : Column 601W—continued


10 Jan 2007 : Column 602W

Thameslink

Stephen Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport further to his announcement of 19 December 2006, on Thameslink, how many people are employed on the project team; and what the expected annual cost is of the team. [113938]

Mr. Tom Harris: Network Rail currently employ 170 staff on the Thameslink Project. The current projected annual direct cost of this team is in the order of £8 million. Their primary objective is to progress the development of the project so a more robust decision can be made in the summer of 2007 as to whether to proceed with the implementation of the project following the conclusions of the cross Government Comprehensive Spending Review and the development of the new high level output specification for Network Rail.

Transport

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what major transport projects have been approved in the last 12 months, broken down by parliamentary constituency. [108921]

Gillian Merron: A table has been placed in the Library of the House.

Education and Skills

Apprenticeships

Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many people in Tamworth constituency applied for (a) apprenticeships and (b) post-16 vocational courses in each of the last six years. [112821]

Bill Rammell: Data on the number of applications to apprenticeships and post-16 vocational courses more generally are not held centrally.

Care Services

Helen Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what proportion of care services for 16 to 17-year-olds in each local authority are provided by private corporations. [113414]

Mr. Dhanda: The DfES obtains information from each Local Authority Social Services Department relating to looked after children from ages 0-18 years, their legal status and the reasons for their being in care. There is also a vast range of other care services which local authorities provide, including respite care, services for children with disabilities and child care.

The information supplied to the Department does not disaggregate these services according to the age of the person and the type of organisation which provides the services. However, the Department is keen to see a mixed market of providers, to enable local authorities to commission the appropriate services which will best improve the outcomes for the young person.

John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what representations he has received on the availability and provision of care services for disabled children; [113507]


10 Jan 2007 : Column 603W

(2) what representations he has received on the availability and provision of respite care for disabled children. [113508]

Mr. Dhanda: Ministers meet regularly with representatives of the disabled children’s voluntary sector, discussing these and other matters.

Written representations have been received this year relating to:

Representations have related in particular (but not exclusively) to short breaks (respite care) for disabled children, child care for disabled children and services for disabled children who are looked after.

Early in the new year Ministers will meet parliamentary and voluntary sector proponents of the Disabled Children’s Short Breaks Bill, now before Parliament.

Children in Care

Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children were taken into local authority care during the Christmas/winter school holidays in England in each year since 1997; and if he will make a statement. [113340]

Mr. Dhanda: Information on the number of children who have been taken into care under an interim or full care order, emergency protection order, under police protection or under a child assessment between 21 December and 5 January inclusive in England in each year since 1997, is shown in the following table.

Table 1: number of children who have been taken into care during the Christmas/winter school holidays for the years 1997 to 2006( 1,2,3) —England
Number
Children taken into care during the Christmas/winter school holidays

1997(4)

140

1998(5)

190

1999(5)

250

2000(5)

260

2001(5)

200

2002(5)

200

2003(5)

190

2004(4)

210

2005(4)

220

2006(4)

230

(1) Children who have been taken into care between 21 December until 5 January inclusive.
(2) Children who have been taken into care under an interim or full care order, emergency protection order, under police protection or under a child assessment order.
(3) Figures exclude children looked after under an agreed series of short term placements.
(4) Figures are derived from the SSDA903 system which collected information on all looked after children in 1996/97 and since 2003/04.
(5) Figures are derived from the SSDA903 which collected information from a one third sample survey of all looked after children between 1997/98 and 2002/03.


10 Jan 2007 : Column 604W

Dartington College of Art

Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment he has made of the (a) performance and (b) impact of Dartington College of Art. [109399]

Bill Rammell [holding answer 14 December 2006]: The Government do not currently make formal assessments of the performance or impact of individual higher education providers but we are committed to giving prospective students more information on such issues as teaching through the National Student Satisfaction survey. The most recent data for 2006 suggest that the majority of students at Dartington were satisfied with the quality of the teaching and learning they experienced.

Departmental Equipment

Mr. Francois: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many of his Department’s (a) computers and (b) laptops were stolen in each of the last nine years; and what the total value was of stolen computers and laptops in this period. [109211]

Mr. Dhanda: The number of laptops and personal computers stolen in the last nine years is as follows:

Number of laptops Number of PCs Approximate value per item (£) Total approximate value (£)

1998

7

0

1,000

7,000

1999

5

0

1,000

5,000

2000

2

0

1,000

2,000

2001

3

0

1,000

3,000

2002

0

1

1,000

1,000

2003

8

0

1,326.58

10,612.64

2004

4

0

1,326.58

5,306

2005

22

0

1,326.58

29,184.76

2006

7

0

1,326.58

9,286.06


The total value of the equipment stolen was £72,389.46.

Dr. David Southall

John Hemming: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will re-examine all child protection cases in which Dr. David Southall was involved. [105410]

Mr. Dhanda: It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to fulfil the child protection functions that fall to them under the Children Act 1989. In undertaking this, they frequently need to work in partnership with health and other professionals. The Department for Education and Skills does not collect information which identifies individual practitioners who have been involved in child protection cases.

Dual Placements

Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many school-aged children in (a) St. Albans constituency and (b) Hertfordshire have had a dual placement in a special school and a
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mainstream school in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [112997]

Mr. Dhanda: The available information on the number of pupils of compulsory school age with dual registration status is given in the following table.


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Pupils who are dually registered at two schools will generally spend more time at one school (dual “main” registration) than at the other (dual “subsidiary” registration). A detailed breakdown of dual registrations is not available from all school types.

Maintained primary, secondary and all special schools, pupil referral units and independent schools: number of dually registered pupils: Position in January each year: 2002 to 2006, Hertfordshire local authority area and St. Albans constituency
Headcount of pupils aged 5 to 15( 1)
Maintained primary and secondary schools( 2) Maintained special schools Non-maintained special schools Pupil referral units Independent schools
Dual (main) Dual (subsidiary) Dual (main) Dual (subsidiary) Dual (main) Dual (subsidiary) Dual( 4) Dual( 4)

Hertfordshire local authority area

2002(3)

0

5

(5)

12

0

(6)

47

(6)

2003

7

16

12

12

0

0

65

(6)

2004

16

15

15

15

0

0

29

(6)

2005

16

16

23

18

0

0

40

(6)

2006

60

12

20

17

0

0

37

(6)

St. Albans parliamentary constituency

2002(3)

0

0

0

0

0

(6)

7

(6)

2003

0

0

9

(5)

0

0

8

(6)

2004

0

0

10

(5)

0

0

(5)

(6)

2005

0

0

15

0

0

0

(5)

(6)

2006

(5)

(5)

15

0

0

0

(5)

(6)

(1) Age at the start of the school year.
(2) Includes middle schools as deemed.
(3) Due to differences and changes in the underlying data collection, the number of pupils with dual subsidiary registration are not available for non-maintained special schools for 2002.
(4) Includes both main and subsidiary dual registrations.
(5) One or two pupils.
(6) Not available.
Source:
Schools’ Census.

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