Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
3 July 2007 : Column 972Wcontinued
In addition, impact assessments are prepared for each element of the secondary legislation required to implement the Gambling Act 2005. These are published with the related explanatory memorandum
document on the Office for Public Sector Information website, and separately in the better regulation section of the Department's website www.culture.gov.uk.
Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps have been taken to facilitate the introduction of cricket into the wider state school sports education curriculum. [146670]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The Government are committed to increasing the amount of physical education and sport in schools. This includes cricket which may be taught in schools as part of National Curriculum PE. Cricket is one of 25 sports helping to deliver the National School Sport Strategy. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) which is the National Governing Body for cricket has received £1.8 million to date to deliver their objectives for the Club Links and Step into Sport programmes within the Strategy.
The 2005-06 School Sport Survey found that cricket is the 5(th) most popular sport among schools in a school sport partnership, with 89 per cent. of schools offering it to their pupils. The survey also found that cricket was the second most popular sport in terms of club links, with 52 per cent. of schools having links with a local cricket club.
We have established over 100 cricket Community Sports Coaches through the CSC scheme. The majority of CSCs time is spent within the school setting.
Since 2003, Sport England has allocated £14.15 million of Community Club Development Programme (CCDP) funding to the (ECB) to help community sports clubs develop, or redevelop their sports facilities. Early evaluation of CCDP indicates that, since 2003-04, it has made a key contribution to an increase in links between community sports clubs and schools.
Sport England has awarded £4.5 million during the period 2005-08 of Sports Lottery Funding to the ECBs Chance to Shine initiative for young people, which aims to regenerate competitive cricket in state schools.
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many staff in his Department did not achieve an acceptable mark in their annual report in 2006-07. [146914]
Margaret Hodge: DCMS changed its appraisal system from 2006-07. The appraisal system now contains two performance categories; successful and needs to improve.
Based on the 2006-07 appraisal reports received to date, there are only six staff in the needs to improve category.
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what estimate his Department has made of the number of its staff using public transport to commute. [147321]
Margaret Hodge: No estimate has been of the number of staff in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport using public transport to commute. However there are no car parking spaces available for staff and presumably staff must either use public transport, bicycles or walk to work.
Mark Pritchard: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what discussions he has had with the British Tourist Board on increasing the number of pet-friendly (a) hotels, (b) bed and breakfast, (c) holiday parks and (d) holiday resorts. [146471]
Margaret Hodge: Neither my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State nor my right hon. Friends the Members for St. Helens, South (Mr. Woodward) and for Dulwich and West Norwood (Tessa Jowell) have discussed this issue with VisitBritain, which has performed the statutory functions of the British Tourism Authority since 2003.
VisitBritain currently operates the Pets Come Too! marketing campaign, as one of its range of Welcome Schemes. The campaign is designed to make international and domestic visitors to England aware of hotels, bed and breakfast establishments, and providers of self-catering accommodation, which welcome pets.
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much each sports lottery contributor will contribute to the Lottery funding package for the 2012 Olympics. [147200]
Mr. Sutcliffe: £340 million of National Lottery funding is to come via expenditure by the sports lottery distributors. Of this, £50.5 million (from Sport England) will be spent by the Olympic delivery authority on delivering the venues for the Games. £40 million towards the costs of the aquatic centre and £10.5 million on the velopark. The distributors themselves will determine and spend the remaining £289.5 million on continuing support for elite athletes and coaches, facilities for elite and community use, and community programmes.
In addition to this contribution, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Dulwich and West Norwood (Tessa Jowell) announced on 15 March, it is proposed that the Sport lottery distributors will contribute the following sums to the Olympic funding package between 2009 and 2012.
£ million | |
Sports Council | Lottery Contribution |
I would also refer the hon. Member to the written statement of 27 June 2007, Official Report, column 29WS, which provides details of the revised Memorandum
of Understanding between the Government and the Mayor and the arrangement by which the London Development Agency (LDA) and the Lottery will be reimbursed from proceeds from the sale of the relevant LDA-owned land following the games.
Copies of the revised Memorandum of Understanding are available in the House Library.
Hugh Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport whether (a) the Youth Sport Trust, (b) the Association for Physical Education and (c) Sports Coach UK were consulted on the development of county sports partnerships; and if he will make a statement. [147266]
Mr. Sutcliffe: County sports partnerships (CSPs) are independent organisations created by local partners to provide a forum for the development of sport across a clearly defined sub regional area. Many CSPs have been in existence for some years.
As independent organisations, it is for local partners to decide who to consult and involve in their development. CSPs are key to the delivery of school and community sport and the Youth Sports Trust and Sports Coach UK are actively engaged in working with CSPs across the country.
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent discussions he has had with his European counterparts on the regulation of violent video games. [146111]
Margaret Hodge: None. But Lord Falconer of Thoroton, Baroness Scotland of Asthal and my right hon. Friend the Member for Enfield, North (Joan Ryan) represented the UK at the Justice and Home Affairs Council of the Council of the European Union held on 12 and 13 June where violent video games were discussed. A statement setting out the outcome of the Councils discussions was laid in Parliament on 27 June.
Helen Southworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many children in the care of a local authority have been reported to the police as missing; and for how many of these children the whereabouts are unknown. [147418]
Kevin Brennan: The information requested is not collected centrally.
Margaret Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what representations he has received on the National Children's database on data protection and confidentiality. [147382]
Beverley Hughes: We have consulted widely at every stage throughout the design and development of ContactPoint and have received a number of representations about compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) and about confidentiality. We have worked closely with the Information Commissioner's Office and continue to enjoy an open and constructive relationship with them. We are confident that ContactPoint is fully compliant with the DPA and that the confidentiality of children, young people and their families have been taken into account.
The fourth data protection principle provides that data shall be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date. The draft Children Act 2004 Information Database (England) Regulations 2007, laid before Parliament on 25 June, will bring ContactPoint into operation. The draft regulations provide that local authorities and other suppliers of data to the system must take reasonable steps to ensure that the data is accurate.
Each local authority will be responsible for the records of children in their area and will have dedicated resources, funded by my Department, to carry out data matching and cleansing to ensure the accuracy and quality of the data held on ContactPoint. The DPA provides that individuals have the right to see personal data held about them and to have it corrected, where applicable. Draft statutory ContactPoint guidance, currently out for consultation until 27 July, sets out how local authorities are expected to handle requests from children and their parents to see their information on ContactPoint and to have any inaccuracies resolved.
The confidentiality and security of the information held on ContactPointbasic identifying information on all children in England and contact details of practitioners providing services to themis a key priority. Details of practitioners providing sensitive services, defined as sexual health, mental health and substance abuse, may only be added to ContactPoint with the informed and explicit consent of the child, young person or, where appropriate, their parent. These sensitive service practitioner contact details will be hidden from the view of users. Local authority ContactPoint teams will broker contact between the sensitive service provider and another practitioner who considers that there is good reason to know who is providing the sensitive service.
There will also be special arrangements to protect the records of children whose circumstances may mean that they are at increased risk, for example, where they are fleeing domestic violence. Information that could reveal the whereabouts of the child can be hidden from the view of ContactPoint users. Decisions to do this will be taken on a case by case basis and will be based on the level of threat posed if information becomes more widely available. This is entirely consistent with the principles of the DPA.
Mr. Chaytor: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what his policy is on (a) the development of social partnership arrangements to cover the children's workforce and (b) pay benefits agreements for specialist and professional Children's Services' staff; and if he will make a statement. [144366]
Beverley Hughes: I do not believe we are in a position currently to develop social partnership arrangements for the childrens workforce as a whole. The Department has however asked the Children's Workforce Development Council to consider what mechanisms might be employed to bring together key children's workforce stakeholders to consider the issues arising out of CWDC's recruitment, retention and rewards report.
The Department has no intention to introduce pay benefits agreements for specialist and professional Children's Services staff.
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much has been spent from the Transformation Fund for the development of the child care workforce. [147296]
Beverley Hughes: Our current estimate of the total spent in 2006-07 from the Transformation Fund is £37 million.
Mr. Keith Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) what assessment he has made of the likely impact of the bids of local authorities shortlisted for unitary status on education provision in those areas; [146473]
(2) what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government on the local authorities seeking unitary status which appeared on the shortlist published by the Department for Communities and Local Government on 27 March 2006; [146476]
(3) what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government on the possible impact on child protection and vulnerable groups of children and young people of potential structural changes to local government. [146459]
Beverley Hughes: The decision as to which proposals for unitary local authorities should proceed to stakeholder consultation reflected the collective decision of Government. All the 26 unitary proposals that were received in response to the invitation issued on 26 October 2006 were assessed against the five criteria set out in that invitation. The 16 unitary proposals that have been subject to the stakeholder consultation will now be reassessed against the same five criteria, having regard to all the information available, including that received in response to the consultation.
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families pursuant to the answer of 13 June 2007, Official Report, column 1158W, on primary education: drugs (1) what estimate he has made of the percentage of children at (a) Key Stage 1 and (b) Key Stage 2 who are receiving drugs education, as set out in the guidance; and what assessment he has made of the impact of this guidance in teaching young children to resist pressure to take drugs; [146545]
(2) on what date his Department started work on the new drugs strategy on which he plans to consult; [146546]
(3) what guidance existed on this subject prior to 2004. [146547]
Kevin Brennan: The Department's current guidance, Drugs: Guidance for Schools (DfES 2004), replaced a number of publications for schools on drug issues, including the Department's guidance Circular 4/95: Drug Prevention and Schools, and the guidance Protecting Young People: Good practice in drug education in schools and the youth service, 1998. In doing so it updated and brought together in one document information for schools on drug education and related issues.
The guidance states that all children should be receiving age-appropriate drug education in all years from Key Stage 1 onwards. Assessment of education provision in schools is undertaken by Ofsted and it tells us that many schools are already doing excellent work in relation to drugs and that the quality and provision of drug education continues to improve. We have not formally assessed the impact of the guidance on the behaviour of children and young people.
Departments have been working since March on the new drug strategy consultation paper that will be published in July and will be the launch for a full and active consultation exercise involving all key stakeholders, service users and members of the public. We will start writing the new strategy when responses start to arrive. Education will be a key strand of the consultation.
Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many and what percentage of children of compulsory school age in each local education authority area attended independent schools in the last year for which figures are available. [147349]
Beverley Hughes: The requested information is shown in the following table.
Next Section | Index | Home Page |