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18 Jan 2007 : Column 1301W—continued
Trafficked Women: Housing
Gordon Banks: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many places there are in emergency housing for women in custody of the authorities who have been trafficked to the UK to work in the sex trade. [115273]
Mr. Coaker: The Government have funded the Poppy project until 2008 to provide 25 crisis and 10 resettlement places for women who have been trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation. In addition, the independently funded Chaste Round Table Network can provide 14 bed spaces.
Woodhill Prison
Dr. Starkey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners serving custodial sentences of longer than six months at HMP Woodhill were included in the population numbers supplied to the Department of Health for the calculation of NHS funding to the Milton Keynes primary care trust for 2006-07 and 2007-08; and what the equivalent number was in April 2006. [113299]
Mr. Sutcliffe: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer given by the Minister of State, Department of Health, my right hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster, Central (Ms Winterton), on 15 January 2007, Official Report, column 921W.
Written Questions
Peter Luff: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) when he will reply to question 114383, on the adequacy of written parliamentary answers, tabled by the hon. Member for Mid-Worcestershire on 8 January 2007 for answer on 11 January 2007; and what the reason was for the time taken to provide an answer; [116520]
(2) when he will reply to the letters from the hon. Member for Mid-Worcestershire of 6 September and 19 October 2006, on the subject of inadequate responses by his Department to written parliamentary questions. [114383]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 11 January 2007]: I wrote to the hon. Gentleman on 17 January.
Education and Skills
Apprenticeships: Waterways
Sir Peter Soulsby: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills whether apprenticeships are available in (a) canal boat building and (b) canal and inland waterways maintenance. [114835]
Phil Hope: Lantra is the sector skills council which leads on environmental conservation skills, including inland waterways maintenance. Boat building skills issues are addressed by the Science and Engineering Sector Skills Council (SEMTA). SEMTA works closely with the British Marine Federation (BMF) which designs apprenticeships in the marine industry covering boat building, maintenance and repair. The BMF is working with employers in the sector, for example through the Midlands Marine Alliance, to establish a specific canal boat building apprenticeship route. This is expected to become available during 2007.
Sir Peter Soulsby: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps his Department has taken to boost skills in industries and vocations associated with canals and inland waterways in each of the last five years. [114836]
Phil Hope: The Government have established the Skills for Business Network comprising the Sector Skills Development Agency and 25 Sector Skills Councils. Sector Skills Councils take a strategic view of skills needs in their sector to plan how those needs will be met. Boat building is covered by the Science and Engineering Sector Skills Council (SEMTA) while Lantra is the SSC which leads on environmental conservation skills, including inland waterways maintenance. SEMTA became fully established in 2003 and Lantra in 2004.
Working with partners such as colleges, employers and funding bodies, SEMTA has developed a Sector Skills Agreement for the marine industry sector and is implementing measures addressing management and leadership skills, productivity and competitiveness, technical work force development and manpower planning. As part of its Sector Skills Agreement, Lantra has also been working with employers and
partners in the environmental conservation industry to develop an action plan to raise skill levels and maximise investment in work force development. British Waterways is one of the organisations that has expressed its commitment to delivering the plan’s objectives.
Children in Care
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children were registered under local authority care in England at the end of each (a) November and (b) January since 1997; and if he will make a statement. [113252]
Mr. Dhanda: Information on the number of all looked-after children who were looked after at 31 January, at 1 November and 31 March since 1997, is shown in table l.
| Table 1: Children who were looked after at 31 January, 30 November and at 31 March( 1) | ||||||||||
| England | ||||||||||
| All children( 1) | 1997( 3) | 1998( 2) | 1999( 2) | 2000( 2) | 2001( 2) | 2002( 2) | 2003( 2) | 2004( 3) | 2005( 3) | 2006( 3) |
| (1) Figures exclude children looked after under an agreed series of short term placements (2) Figures are derived from the SSDA903 system from 1996/97 and between 2003/04 and 2005/06 collected information on all looked-after children. (3) Figures are derived from the SSDA903 system which between 1997/98 and 2002/03 collected information from a one third sample survey of all looked-after children and aggregate to the total of the CLA 100 as at 31 March (4) Figures for November 2006 will not be available until October/November 2007 | ||||||||||
Departmental Energy Policy
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills whether he plans to make his Department carbon neutral. [105753]
Mr. Dhanda: DfES is committed to the achievement of the new targets contained in the framework for sustainable development on the Government estate launched in June 2006. DfES is working toward both reducing its carbon emissions and becoming carbon neutral.
Education: North-east England
Mr. Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many people from (a) Jarrow constituency and (b) south Tyneside have attended university in each year since 1997; and which English parliamentary constituency has had the highest (i) number and (ii) proportion of people attending university in each year since 1997. [115353]
Bill Rammell: The latest available information is shown in the table.
| Undergraduate entrants to all UK higher education institutions from Jarrow parliamentary constituency and South Tyneside local authority | ||
| Undergraduate entrants from: | ||
| Academic year | Jarrow constituency | South Tyneside local authority |
| Notes: Figures have been rounded to the nearest five and are on a DfES snapshot basis as at 1 December. Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). | ||
In each of these years the English parliamentary constituency which had the highest number of undergraduate entrants to higher education institutions was Bristol West.
The latest available figures on participation in higher education by constituency were published by the Higher Education Funding Council for England in January 2005 in “Young Participation in England”, which is available from its website at:
http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/hefce/2005/05_03/
This report shows participation rates for young people who enter higher education aged 18 or 19, disaggregated by constituency, for the years 1997-98 to 2000/01. HEFCE has not produced participation rates beyond 2000-01.
The English parliamentary constituency which had the highest proportion of young people entering higher education in each of the years 1997-98 to 2000-01 was Kensington and Chelsea. For example in 2000-01 the participation rate for Kensington and Chelsea was 79 per cent. compared to 30 per cent. for England as a whole.
The Department uses the higher education initial participation rate (HEIPR) to assess progress on increasing first-time participation of English students aged 18 to 30 in higher education towards 50 percent: the latest provisional figure for 2004-05 is 42 per cent. The HEIPR is not calculated at parliamentary constituency level.
Healthy Diet
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps he is taking with ministerial colleagues in the Department of Health to educate pupils about the importance of a healthy diet and to enable them to maintain a healthy diet in schools. [115475]
Mr. Dhanda [holding answer 17 January 2007]: Pupils learn about the importance of a healthy diet through the National Curriculum subjects of science and food technology, and through Personal, Social and Health Education.
In addition, by 2013, through an entitlement to cook, all children will have the opportunity to acquire the practical skills to prepare simple nutritious dishes from basic ingredients by the end of Key Stage 4.
The new nutritional standards for school food will ensure that pupils can maintain a healthy diet in school.
Managing Information Across Partners Programme
Martin Linton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what progress has been made on the procurement exercise conducted by the Learning and Skills Council for the Managing Information Across Partners programme. [116372]
Bill Rammell: A preferred bidder has been selected to design, build and operate a Learner Registration Service, Learner Data Sharing Interface and Register of Learning Providers. This has followed a formal Government procurement process, initiated by a European Journal Notice issued in May 2006, and conducted under the competitive dialogue route. Three organisations were taken through to the bid stage. We are currently in the final stages of fine tuning and we expect to award the contract formally on Friday 19 January 2007 to LogicaCMG.
Special Needs
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many special needs schools have been (a) opened and (b) closed in London in each of the last 10 years, broken down by borough; and if he will make a statement. [115979]
Mr. Dhanda: There has been one school that caters for special needs opened in 1998 in Waltham Forrest with no other openings or closures, for schools with this provision, in London in the last 10 years. However, the numbers of special schools opened and closed in London, by borough over the last 10 years are given as follows:
| Special schools opened in the last 10 years in London | |||||||
| Open date | |||||||
| Local authority | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | Grand total |
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