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14 Mar 2008 : Column 680W—continued
Innovation, Universities and Skills
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory: Finance
Mr. Martlew: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what he plans to spend on the operation of the Diamond facility at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in each of the next three financial years. [194449]
Ian Pearson: The Science and Technology Facilities Council, (STFC) plans to spend £26.997 million on Diamond operations in 2008/09. The planned spend for the following two financial years is to be discussed and agreed between STFC and Diamond Light Source.
Home Department
Stop and Search
Mr. Jeremy Browne:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many stop and searches
were carried out by police under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 in each year since the Act’s introduction; and how many and what percentage of those searches resulted in arrest. [163715]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 13 November 2007]: Information on stop and searches and resultant arrests under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 from 2001-02 to 2004-05 (latest available) is given in the following table.
For 2005-06 data I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the right hon. Member for Haltemprice and Howden (David Davis) on 10 March 2008, Official Report, column 78W.
| Searches of vehicles( 1) and occupants, and pedestrians under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000( 2) and resultant arrests( 3) , England and Wales, 2001-02 to 2004-05 | |||
| Stop and searches in order to prevent acts of terrorism | |||
| Total searches | Resultant arrests( 3) | Percentage of arrests | |
| (1) Searches may be conducted on vehicles only, occupants only or both may be searched. Where a vehicle and driver occupier are searched simultaneously the search is recorded against the driver (occupant). Any other passengers searched are recorded as occupants. (2) The Terrorism Act 2000 came into force on 19 February 2001. (3) Includes arrests under the Terrorism Act, arrests for terrorist related matters and other serious crimes. Note: Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by police officers. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. | |||
Terrorism
Mr. Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many of those arrested on suspicion of terrorist offences since 11 September 2001 have at some point claimed asylum. [168341]
Mr. Byrne [holding answer 26 November 2007]: The information requested can be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Children, Schools and Families
Children: Poverty
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what steps the Government have taken to move children out of poverty since 1997. [194175]
Beverley Hughes: The Government have set an ambitious target to halve child poverty, from a 1998-99 baseline by 2010, and to eradicate it by 2020. Since 1998-99, Government have halted the rising trend and 600,000 children have been lifted out of relative low-income.
Work, for those who can, remains the best route out of poverty and the Government are committed to supporting families to find work, to stay in work and to progress so that they can build a sustainable future for themselves and their families. Since 1997 the lone parent employment rate has increased by 12.5 percentage points to 57.2 per cent. and employment levels overall are at the highest level ever recorded.
Since 1997 the Government have also radically reformed the system of financial support for families. As a result of the Government's reforms to the tax and benefit system in Budget 2008, from April 2010, in real terms:
households with children will be, on average, £2,000 better off;
households with children in the poorest fifth of the population will be on average £4,500 better off as a result of measures introduced since 1997. (The full list for households with children in the poorest fifth since 1997 is: England £4,500, Wales £4,000, Scotland £4,100, NI £4,800, UK £4,500).
Budget 2008 announced measures that will make significant further progress towards the target of halving child poverty by 2010 by:
increasing the first child rate of child benefit to £20 a week from 2009;
disregarding child benefit in calculating income for housing and council tax benefit from October 2009;
increasing the child element of the child tax credit by £50 a year above indexation from April 2009 to further help low to middle income families.
Through these measures the Government are investing an additional £950 million in tackling child poverty by 2010-11, lifting up to 250,000 additional children out of poverty by 2010-11. Including the reforms announced in Budget 2007 and the 2007 pre-Budget report and comprehensive spending review, measures announced in the last year will lift over 500,000 children out of poverty.
We are also committed to improving public services to ensure that children receive the best start in life. There are now 2,557 Sure Start children's centres in England, providing services to more than two million children and their families and over 9,500 schools (one in three of total) are now providing core extended services, including: child care, study support, parenting support, family learning, access to wide range of specialised support for pupils; and opening up facilities to the community.
We will continue to build on this. Compared to 2007-08, by 2010-11, the Government will be investing an additional £2 billion a year in public services to alleviate child poverty and break cycles of deprivation, including spending on child care, schooling in deprived areas, educational attainment, health inequalities, emotional well being, disabled children and school transport.
In March 2008 ‘Ending child poverty: everybody's business’ was published. The report builds on the considerable evidence base and analysis of child poverty and considers: the causes and consequences of child poverty; costs associated with childhood experiences of poverty, for both individuals and society; the impact of Government action so far; and policy direction for the future.
In addition to the tax credit and benefit measures announced in this year’s Budget the document announces £125 million in innovative pilots over the next three years. This represents a real investment in approaches that might make a substantial contribution to eradicating child poverty. The Government will use the results of these pilots to inform future action.
Education: Business
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what steps he plans to take to encourage businesses to assist in the education of children. [194173]
Jim Knight: The Secretary of State recognises the significant contribution that business can make to young peoples' achievements and aspirations and encourages schools and colleges to build meaningful partnerships with employers in a wide range of areas.
The National Council for Educational Excellence is considering how businesses can contribute more to achieving educational excellence and will report to the Prime Minister in the summer.
Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
Departmental Official Hospitality
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how much was spent by his Department and its agencies on (a) alcohol and (b) entertaining in the last 12 month period for which information is available. [187787]
Mr. Thomas: My Department has spent approximately £1 million on entertainment during the last 12 month period. It is not possible to separate the spend relating to alcohol from this overall figure. This spend was through its contracted service provider.
This figure also includes hospitality booked by external bodies including other Government Departments using our conference facilities. It is not possible to separate this spend from that of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.
Metals: Exports
James Brokenshire: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what the value of scrap metal exports was in each of the last three years; and what the main destinations of those experts were over that period. [193805]
Mr. Thomas: The following figures taken from HMRC Overseas Trade Statistics give the value of UK exports of waste and scrap (largely of ferrous metal, copper, aluminium, precious metal, nickel and tin) to selected countries.
| £ million | |||
| 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | |
Storage: Hazardous Substances
Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what steps his Department has taken to ensure the security of chemical storage facilities in areas of high population density against terrorist attack. [192520]
Mr. McNulty: I have been asked to reply.
The Control of Major Accident Hazards (COMAH) Regulations 1999 place a statutory responsibility on establishments holding significant amounts of specified dangerous substances to take all measures necessary to prevent major accidents and limit their consequences. In addition, the Health and Safety Executive advises local authorities on applications for development around such sites in order to limit the growth of population that could be affected by a major incident.
In addition, specific chemical storage sites receive protective security advice and training from police Counter Terrorism Security Advisers and the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI). In addition, my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister announced on 14 November 2007, Official Report, column 667 a review of the protective security arrangements in place around hazardous substances. This review is being led by my noble Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Security and Counter-Terrorism (Lord West) and is currently under way.
Wines: Sales
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what assessment the Government have made of the health effects of restricting the sale of UK-produced lower alcohol wines; and if he will make a statement. [186854]
Dawn Primarolo: I have been asked to reply.
The recent change in the Office for National Statistics (ONS) methodology for estimating alcohol consumption (“Estimating alcohol consumption from survey data: improved method of converting volumes to units, ONS, November 2007”) has highlighted how gradual increases in alcohol levels of wine over a period of years have contributed to increased alcohol consumption in the United Kingdom.
The Department will launch a campaign in May 2008 to help consumers estimate their alcohol consumption in units and to understand why this matters for their own health.
The Government believe that industry can also play an important part in helping to moderate rising alcohol levels by providing a wider range of choices for consumers. We will continue to press the European Commission to allow European Union (EU) winemakers to have greater flexibility to produce low alcohol wine, which is prevented by current EU rules. We would wish to encourage this as a socially responsible industry action in support of the National Alcohol Strategy.
Written Questions
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform when he expects to answer question 178201, tabled by the hon. Member for Portsmouth, South on 8 January 2008, on fuel poverty. [193491]
Malcolm Wicks: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave on 13 March 2008, Official Report, column 573W.
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