Written Answers to Questions
Friday 26 January 2007
House of Commons Commission
Dining Room Bookings
John Mann: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission how many bookings for dining rooms in the House received a 10 per cent. discount for block bookings in the last 12 months. [111612]
Nick Harvey: No discounts have been given for block bookings in the House of Commons dining rooms in the last 12 months.
Constitutional Affairs
Departmental Conferences
John McDonnell: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what the total cost was of the recent staff conferences held by her Department. [117456]
Vera Baird: The total cost of the recent staff conferences is currently being calculated. I will write to the hon. Member as soon as possible.
Culture, Media and Sport
Alcoholic Drinks: Advertising Ban
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment she has made of the merits of a ban on the advertising of alcoholic drinks (a) on TV and (b) in print media; and if she will make a statement. [111008]
Mr. Woodward: The Government take the issue of alcohol misuse seriously, particularly among young people, and set out a programme of measures in the Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy for England in 2004. The strategy noted the work being undertaken by Ofcom to review the rules on alcohol advertising on television.
Ofcom conducted and assessed research about the impact of alcohol advertising and concluded there was insufficient evidence to support a ban. However, Ofcom’s code amendments, which came into effect on 1 January 2005, significantly strengthened the rules on broadcast alcohol advertising in many areas particularly to protect the under-18s.
In parallel with the changes to the TV Advertising Standards Code, the non-broadcast code was tightened to ensure that the content of all advertisements was
socially responsible and that they did not contain a particular appeal to youth culture or links to sexual success and did not encourage antisocial behaviour. These new rules were introduced in October 2005 and have been monitored and enforced by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). I understand the ASA and the Committees of Advertising Practice will be conducting further research this year to assess the effectiveness of the new code rules and will assess whether any further changes are required.
The Department has made no separate assessment of the merits of an alcohol advertising ban.
Celebrity Big Brother
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many complaints her Department has received about the allegations of racism on the Channel Four programme Celebrity Big Brother; and what representations she has received on this subject. [111101]
Mr. Woodward: By 25 January, the Department had received 65 written complaints and a small number of telephone complaints.
Sir Peter Soulsby: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when she last met Ofcom to discuss its complaints procedure. [111189]
Mr. Woodward: Parliament charges Ofcom directly to establish procedures to handle and resolve complaints (under the observance of standards, under Section 325 of the Communications Act 2003).
Correspondence
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when she expects her Department to reply to the letters from the hon. Member for South-West Surrey dated 26 September and 15 November 2006. [116999]
Mr. Lammy [holding answer 22 January 2007]: I apologise for not replying sooner to the letter dated 27 September from the hon. Member for South-West Surrey. This is due to an administrative error. I can confirm that I have responded to this letter on 24 January 2007. The letter dated 15 November 2006 has not been received by the Department.
Creative Industries
Mrs. Ellman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when she expects to publish the proposed Green Paper on the creative industries; and if she will make a statement. [111861]
Mr. Woodward: The Creative Economy Programme Green Paper is due to be published before the summer recess. It will set out the strength of the creative industries to the UK economy, challenges and opportunities, and areas where Government can enable greater productivity.
Mrs. Ellman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps her Department has taken as a result of the work undertaken by the Creative Industries Entrepreneurship Task Group on entrepreneurship in the creative industries. [111862]
Mr. Woodward: The Entrepreneurship Task Group recommendations have been taken forward by the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship and will feature in the policy development of the Creative Economy Programme Green Paper, due for publication in the summer.
Departmental Expenditure
Mr. Hurd: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much programme expenditure sponsored by her Department was spent via each of the Government Offices for the Regions in the most recent year for which figures are available. [116753]
Departmental Fixed Assets
Mr. Francois: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport which fixed assets her Department sold for more than £10,000 in (a) 2004-05 and (b) 2005-06; and what the (i) sale value, (ii) purchaser and (iii) date of sale was of each asset. [110787]
Mr. Lammy: In July 2005 the DCMS sold the freehold of the north east corner of the Royal Garden Hotel, London for the sum of £2.5 million to the Imperial Tobacco Pension Fund.
In 2004-05 the DCMS sold the freeholds of 30, 31 and 32 Park street, Windsor, to its lessees. The date and sale price for each was as follows:
| Date | Property | Amount (£000) |
Open Source Software
Mr. Gauke: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what percentage of her Department's computer systems use open source software; what percentage of the systems planned to be installed use such software; and whether she plans to increase the use of open source software in her Department. [111164]
Mr. Lammy: It would not be meaningful to provide an answer in percentage terms as my Department uses open source software mainly on backend systems which in themselves only make up a small percentage of total computer systems but which can be potentially accessed by a high percentage of staff.
Open source software used by my Department includes Linux, MySQL and FireFox. We will continue to use open source software in the future where it makes business and economic sense to do so.
Education and Skills
Consultants
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills which 10 consultancy fees charged to his Department since May 1997 were the most expensive. [107182]
Alan Johnson: This information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Staff
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many value for money exercises on the use of (a) management consultants and (b) professional advisers have been conducted by his Department in each of the last five years for which information is available; and if he will make a statement. [103014]
Alan Johnson: My Department has not conducted a formal Department-wide value for money review focusing specifically on management consultants or professional advisers in any of the last five years. However, the role and contribution of consultants and advisers is considered as part of reviews of specific projects and programmes and as part of standard contract management practice. We have also conducted a number of internal audit reviews and co-operated fully in external audit reviews of consultants during the period in question.
Educational Research
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much his Department spent on (a) conducting and (b) commissioning educational research in 2005-06. [117408]
Alan Johnson: In 2005-06 the Department commissioned, via its central research budget, research totalling £6.33 million of which £2.59 million was spent in the financial year. The total expenditure in 2005-06, including the cost of research commissioned in previous years, was £13.7 million. Other research is commissioned from other funds within the Department but details of the actual expenditure in year are not held centrally.
Details of the Department's current research programme are contained in its Analytical Strategy 2006, copies of which are available from our website (www.dfes.gov.uk/research).
Enterprise Advisers
Mr. Francois: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many and what percentage of schools have a designated enterprise adviser. [103421]
Jim Knight [holding answer 27 November 2006]: The information requested is not collected and is not held centrally.
Head Teachers
Stephen Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the average salary was of an (a) secondary school head teacher and (b) deputy head teacher in (i) 1997, (ii) 2001 and (iii) 2006. [111777]
Jim Knight: The following table provides the average salary of head and deputy head teachers in maintained sector schools in England and Wales in March 1997, 2001 and 2005, the latest year available. The figure for deputy head teachers for 2005 includes assistant head teachers because the data source does not allow these grades to be separately identified. Provisional information for March 2006 is likely to become available in July 2007.
| Average salary of head and deputy head teachers in maintained sector secondary schools in England and Wales, March 1997, 2001 and 2005 | |||
| £ | |||
| 1997 | 2001 | 2005( 1) | |
| (1) Provisional (2) Deputy head teacher figures for 2005 include assistant head teachers. Note: Figures are rounded to the nearest 100. Source: Database of Teacher Records (DTR) | |||
Nurseries
Jim Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what local authority social services nurseries the city of Newcastle upon Tyne provided under the Children Act 1989 in (a) 2004, (b) 2005 and (c) 2006; [111904]
(2) what guidance he has given to Newcastle upon Tyne city council on the closure or outsourcing of its existing local authority day nurseries; and what general guidance has been given to local authority children’s services on the future of existing directly provided authorities; [111905]
(3) what representations he has received from individuals and organisations in Newcastle on (a) the Children Act 1989 and (b) the outsourcing and closure of existing local authority social service day nurseries under the Childcare Act 2006. [111906]
Beverley Hughes: Newcastle upon Tyne city council has been given no guidance on the closure or outsourcing of its existing local authority day nurseries and no representations have been received in relation to the outsourcing or closure of local authority social service day nurseries in Newcastle. Details of local authority social services nurseries in Newcastle are not held centrally.
Section 8 of the Childcare Act 2006 provides that a local authority may not deliver new child care provision itself unless it is satisfied that no other provider is willing to do so or, if another provider is willing to do so, that in the circumstances it is appropriate for the local authority to provide the child care. We intend section 8 to come into force in October 2007. It will not affect the provision of child care by the governing body of a maintained school, and it will not apply to day care for children in need provided under section 18 of the Children Act 1989.
We intend to begin consulting on draft statutory guidance which will cover section 8 of the Childcare Act 2006 (and other sections relating to the new local authority duty to secure sufficient child care for working parents which will come into force in April 2008) within the next few weeks. That guidance will make clear that the restriction in section 8 relates only to new or expanding local authority child care. There is no requirement for local authorities to close their existing provision, or change it when section 8 comes into force. If, however, a local authority wishes to expand existing child care in terms of the number of places or the hours offered, or if it wishes to open new provision, the requirements of section 8 will need to be met.
Parenting Contracts
Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many parenting contracts were issued in (a) England, (b) the West Midlands and (c) West Bromwich East in the most recent year for which figures are available. [111858]
Jim Knight: Between 1 August 2005 and 1 September 2006 (latest published data) local authorities in England have reported that 12,105 education-related parenting contracts have been agreed with parents, of which 1,256 were agreed by local authorities within the Government office for the West Midlands region. In Sandwell, of which the West Bromwich East constituency is part, 195 such contracts were agreed in the same period. We do not collect data below local authority level.
Data on parenting contracts in cases of antisocial behaviour and criminal conduct are collected by the Youth Justice Board, from youth offending teams (YOTs). Between April 2005 and March 2006 (based on latest published data) YOTs in England have reported 421 such parenting contracts. During the same period 33 parenting contracts were reported by YOTs within the West Midlands region. One parenting contract was reported by Sandwell YOT. Data is not reported below YOT area.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |