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29 Mar 2007 : Column 1678W—continued
Tourism: Hartlepool
Mr. Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment she has made of the potential effects on the (a) Hartlepool economy and (b) Hartlepool tourist and culture sector of the 2010 Tall Ships event. [130907]
Mr. Woodward: This Department has made no such assessments. However, the national marketing organisation, VisitBritain, has worked with previous Tall Ships venues in the past (such as Newcastle Gateshead in 2005) to promote the event and will offer its support to Tall Ships Hartlepool 2010.
Mr. Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what grants facilities in Hartlepool will be able to apply for in connection with the 2010 Tall Ships event. [130908]
Mr. Woodward: This Department provides no such grants. However, the national marketing organisation, VisitBritain, will work with organisers to promote the event and One NorthEast, the regional development agency for the North East of England, will consider applications for support.
Tourism: North East Region
Mr. Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many tourists visited (a) Hartlepool constituency, (b) Tees Valley sub-region and (c) the North East region in each of the last five years. [130891]
Mr. Woodward: The following tables show the number of visits to the North East from (i) UK residents (with an overnight stay) and (ii) overseas residents, for the latest years for which data are available. Data for Tees Valley are only available for inbound visits and no information is available at a constituency level.
| Domestic overnight visits( 1) | |||||
| Thousand | |||||
| 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | |
| (1 )The methodology for the UKTS changed in 2005 meaning that comparisons with previous years should be treated with caution. This change occurred as a result of concerns with the quality of 2004 data, which are thought to be an under-representation of the true position. Source: UK Tourism Survey (National Tourist Boards) | |||||
| Inbound visits | |||||
| Thousand | |||||
| 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | |
| Source: International Passenger Survey (ONS) | |||||
In addition, account should be taken of the number of day visits made to, or within, the North East. The Leisure Day Visits Survey in 2002-03 recorded a total of around 30 million tourism day visits to destinations in the North East. It is not possible to provide a time series for this information as the surveys are run intermittently.
Education and Skills
Children: Conferences
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills which conferences targeted at schoolchildren were funded by the EU in the last 12 months for which figures are available. [130670]
Bill Rammell: I am not aware of any conferences in the UK targeted at schoolchildren that have received funding from the EU.
Connexions
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much was spent on the Connexions service in each year since it was established; and how many people received advice from the service in each of those years. [130648]
Mr. Dhanda: Connexions was introduced in a staged way from April 2001. The following table provides information on the budgets and numbers of interventions with young people for each year since the service’s inception. The intervention data are included as information on the number of people receiving advice is not collected.
| Connexions budget (£ million) | Careers Service budget (£ million) | Interventions | |
| (1) Not yet available Notes: 1. The above figures reflect the staged way in which Connexions was introduced. 2. Young people also receive support from Connexions through group activities and events and from Connexions Direct, none of which are included in the above intervention figures. There are over 130,000 visits per week to the Connexions Direct website, with around 6,000 contacts per week to the helpline. | |||
Departments: Paper
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what mechanisms are in place to ensure his Department's economical use of paper. [128009]
Mr. Dhanda: An environmental housekeeping policy, published on the Department’s internal website, promotes economical use of paper through advice to reduce printing to essential only, printing double sided documents, using the phone or email to contact people and circulating papers instead of sending out copies.
DFES is currently implementing electronic management of records storage and on-line delivery of services which will transform the way our services are managed and delivered by helping to reduce the need for hardcopy paper production and handling.
The programme of upgrading to printers and multifunctional devices that allow double sided printing is in progress as part of planned improvements to flexible working arrangements in our Headquarters offices.
The Department has implemented a sustainable operations management system to help it meet sustainable development in Government targets. The system contains a strategic site-specific action plan on waste reduction and management for each of its headquarters offices.
Education Maintenance Allowance
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many young people have been in receipt of education maintenance allowance (EMA) in each London local authority since its introduction; and how many were in receipt of EMA in 2005-06. [128672]
Phil Hope:
This is a matter for the Learning and Skills Council, who operate the education maintenance
allowance (EMA) for the DfES and hold the information about take-up and payments made under the scheme. Mark Haysom, the Council’s Chief Executive, has written to my hon. Friend with the information requested and a copy of his reply has been placed in the House Library.
Letter from Mark Haysom, dated 28 March 2007:
I am writing in response to your recent Parliamentary Question that asked; “How many young people have been in receipt of educational maintenance allowance (EMA) in each
London local authority since its introduction; and how many were in receipt of an EMA in 2005-06.”
EMA take-up is defined as young people who have received one or more EMA payments in the academic year.
National EMA was phased in over time to successive 16 year old age groups. 2004/05 was the first year of National EMA and therefore we can only give data for 16 year olds in that year.
The attached tables show EMA take-up data for each London Local Authority area during each academic year since the scheme’s inception.
I hope you find this information useful.
| Scheme take-up | ||||
| Area type | Area name | 2004/05 | 2005/06 | 2006/07 to end February 2007 |
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