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15 Jun 2007 : Column 1355W—continued
Local Education Authorities: Transport
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many education authorities provide subsidised public transport for their staff. [132311]
Jim Knight: The Department for Education and Skills does not hold any information on the number of education authorities that provide subsidised public transport for their staff.
Mathematics
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many and what proportion of (a) independent and (b) maintained secondary schools entered candidates for the additional mathematics qualification in 2006. [117652]
Jim Knight: The information requested is given in the following table.
| Qualification type | Maintained | Independent |
| (1) The proportion of A-level students is calculated as a percentage of 16 to 18-year-old pupils entered for a level 3 qualification. (2) The proportion of GCSE students is calculated as a percentage of pupils at the end of key stage 4. | ||
Private Education: GCE A-level
Mr. Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what proportion of grade A A-levels in (a) mathematics, (b) physics, (c) chemistry, (d) English, (e) French and (f) German awarded in England were awarded to pupils at fee-paying independent schools in each of the last three years. [126877]
Jim Knight: The proportion of A-level A grades awarded to students(1) at independent fee paying schools for the subjects requested are in the following table.
(1) Students aged 16-18 at the start of the academic year (i.e. 31 August).
| Percentage | |||
| 2003/04 | 2004/05 | 2005/06 | |
| (1)( )Includes further mathematics. | |||
Pupil Referral Units: Curriculum
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many pupil referral units offer on their curriculum (a) English and mathematics, (b) English and mathematics and at least one science, (c) English and mathematics and ITC, (d) English and mathematics and PSHE, (e) English and mathematics, at least one science and ITC, (f) English, mathematics, at least one science and PSHE, (g) English, mathematics, one science, ITC and PSHE and (h) a full national curriculum. [133650]
Jim Knight: The information requested is not collected centrally.
Pupils: Insulin
Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what steps he is taking to ensure that there are sufficient facilities for school students who require insulin injections during the school day to have the necessary medical support in schools; [126521]
(2) what assessment he has made of the adequacy of levels of provision of trained personnel in schools to support the health needs of children; [126522]
(3) what guidance his Department gives to schools on the administration to students of insulin injections during the school day. [126524]
Jim Knight: The DfES and DH have jointly recommended to schools, in ‘Managing Medicines in Schools and Early Years Settings’ (2005) that they should, with support from their local authority and local health professionals, develop policies on managing medicines and put in place effective management systems to support individual children with medical needs, including diabetes. The guidance advises that schools should have sufficient support staff who are trained to manage medicines as part of their duties. We have no plans to monitor training of school staff in this specific area.
Qualifications and Curriculum Authority Board
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what external interests have been declared by each member of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority Board. [130219]
Jim Knight: Each member of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) Board completes a register of interests. This is available from QCA.
Unique Learner Number
Stephen Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will make a statement on the progress of the unique learner number being developed for all school leavers. [126636]
Jim Knight: The internet based Learner Registration Service (LRS), which will assign the unique learner number will be launched in September 2007. The service will be available for everyone over the age of 14 in education and training.
Schools: Complaints
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what monitoring procedures are in place to ensure that his Department’s guidance on school complaints procedures, LEA/01/0180/2003, is adhered to by schools and governing bodies. [127413]
Jim Knight: All governing bodies must establish and publicise a complaints procedure for the school. The extent to which the governing body has complied with this duty is part of the school’s self evaluation process which underpins the current Ofsted inspection regime. At least once every three years Ofsted inspectors seek to validate the school’s evaluation of its strengths and weaknesses through inspection. No separate monitoring procedures are in place to ensure schools comply with the Department’s guidance on schools complaints procedures.
Schools: Sanitation
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will take steps to encourage local education authorities to make the upgrading of school toilet and washroom facilities integral to local asset management plans for schools. [137733]
Jim Knight: Guidance was published by the Department in April with recommendations on the specification of toilet blocks in secondary schools that will help tackle bullying in schools. New designs to be used in all Building Schools for the Future Schools will make toilets more attractive, cleaner and safer for pupils to use.
Research on the use of 2006 devolved formula capital shows that around a fifth of schools have improved toilets each year from 2003-04 to 2006-07.
In the first term of government, the last 450 schools with outside toilets had them replaced.
The bulk of schools capital is allocated by formula to authorities and schools so that they can address their local asset management planning priorities, including the upgrading of toilet and washroom facilities.
Central Government capital support for investment in schools has increased from under £700 million in 1996-97 to £6.4 billion in 2007-08 and will rise further to £8.0 billion by 2010-11. Progress is being made year-by-year in improving the quality of the school building stock. Given the high levels of funding, authorities have the opportunity to upgrade toilets.
Schools: Yorkshire
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills on how many occasions in each of the last two years a pupil at each state secondary school in Yorkshire has been found to be in possession of (a) a weapon and (b) narcotics on school premises. [129683]
Jim Knight: The Department does not hold this information.
Teachers: Training
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many overseas trained teachers there are in each London borough; how many of these have not enrolled in training courses for qualified teacher status in each borough; and if he will make a statement. [135603]
Jim Knight [holding answer 8 May 2007]: The information requested is not collected centrally.
In 2005-06 information from the Training and Development Agency for Schools shows that there were 1,330 teachers in England on the Overseas Trained Teacher Programme, the employment-based route to qualified teacher status for these teachers.
Vocational Training
Mr. Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many 14 to 16-year-olds received vocational training which included time away from the classroom during school hours in the last period for which figures are available. [110622]
Jim Knight: The information requested is not held centrally by the Department.
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Agriculture: Subsidies
Martin Salter: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many single farm payments have been reduced as a result of failures to meet good agricultural and environmental conditions required by cross-compliance; and how many of these failures relate to agricultural practices that place drinking water, rivers, and wetlands at risk of pollution. [141701]
Barry Gardiner: Under the 2006 Single Payment Scheme year, there were 54 payments reduced as a result of claimants failing to demonstrate that they were keeping their land in good agricultural and environmental condition. None of these failures were related to agricultural practices that led to any risk of pollution. However there were four non-compliances found which could have lead to a pollution risk and these claimants received warning letters.
There were 106 payments reduced as a result of claimants failing to adhere to the Statutory Management Requirements concerning Groundwater
and Nitrate Vulnerable Zones. A further six such non-compliances found merited warning letters for the claimants concerned.
Bovine Tuberculosis
Andrew Stunell: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the answer of 21 May 2007, Official Report, column 1033W, on bovine tuberculosis (TB), what recommendations he received on bovine TB and badger culling at those meetings; and if he will make a statement. [142341]
Mr. Bradshaw: A range of views and suggestions on bovine TB and badger culling, among other issues, were discussed with Ministers and officials at meetings with interested parties in August 2006.
Bovine Tuberculosis: Disease Control
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate he has made of the level of (a) false positives and (b) false negatives resulting from tuberculosis testing of the UK cattle population. [142136]
Mr. Bradshaw: It is not possible to establish such data other than as part of a research programme where all animals are slaughtered and the disease status of each animal can be irrefutably established. No such technique is available but immunological tests are considered the best indicator of infected status.
There are two immunologically based diagnostic tests used in the Great Britain (GB) bovine tuberculosis (bTB) testing programme. The primary screening test for bTB in cattle in the UK (and Ireland) is the single intradermal comparative cervical tuberculin (SICCT) test, which is commonly known as the tuberculin “skin test”. In October 2006, the Government extended the use of the gamma interferon (g-IFN) diagnostic blood test, alongside the skin test (as permitted by EU legislation), in certain prescribed circumstances.
Research shows that when the skin test is applied to cattle in bTB-free herds in GB there is a one in 1,000 chance that a non-infected animal will be wrongly classified as a reactor. This is known as the test's false positive rate. An alternative way of defining this is to say that the skin test has a specificity of 99.9 per cent. Although the probability of getting at least one false positive result increases with the size of the herd being tested, it would be extremely rare to find more than one false positive in any herd. The skin test is designed to detect an immune response at a relatively early stage in the infection process. Therefore, the percentage of test reactors without visible tuberculous lesions is not an indicator of the false positive rate for this test.
Various studies have shown that the sensitivity of the skin test (i.e. its ability to identify infected animals as positives) varies between 77 per cent. and 95 per cent., i.e. it can be expected to miss about one or two in every 10 infected cattle on a single round of testing (10-20 per cent. false negative rate).
For all diagnostic tests there is a trade off between sensitivity and specificity, so different interpretations of the test can be used under different disease situations.
Sensitivity is enhanced in herds with post-mortem or culture-confirmed infection by application of severe interpretation.
With regard to the g-IFN blood test, performance evaluation carried out in a number of countries shows that at the laboratory cut offs used in GB, it has a sensitivity comparable to or marginally better than that of the SICCT (between 73 and 100 per cent., with a median value of about 87 per cent.). Because the two tests detect slightly different sub-groups of infected cattle, by combining the two tests a higher overall sensitivity can be achieved. A trial in GB, established to evaluate the specificity of the blood test, confirmed the findings of previous studies by concluding that the commercially available blood test had a specificity of between 95-97 per cent. (i.e. there is a likelihood that slightly more false positive reactors are identified when the gamma test is applied, as opposed to the skin test). It is for these reasons that the g-IFN blood test cannot be used for routine surveillance and is best used in parallel in infected herds to maximise the detection of infected animals.
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