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14 May 2008 : Column 1643W—continued
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many and what proportion of childcare staff in (a) maintained nurseries and (b) children's centres were recruited through a temporary recruitment agency in the latest period for which figures are available. [205031]
Beverley Hughes: The Childcare and Early Years Providers Survey does not collect information on the numbers of staff that were recruited through a temporary recruitment agency, however information on whether a provider had used agency, freelance or supply staff is collected. The 2006 figures are shown in Table 1. Table 2 shows the percentage of providers who had used agency, freelance or supply staff, by the ownership of the provision.
| Table 1: Proportion of providers who had used agency, freelance or supply staff in the last 12 months, 2006 | |
| Percentage | |
| Table 2: Proportion of providers who had used agency, freelance or supply staff in the last 12 months, by ownership of provision, 2006 | |||||
| Private | Voluntary | Local Authority | School/College | Other | |
| (1) Data not included due to a low base size. | |||||
Pupils: Databases
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families whether data associated with the unique learner number will be transferred from or stored on the (a) National Identity Register and (b) Information Sharing Index/ContactPoint. [205437]
Bill Rammell: As Minister responsible for the unique learner number, I have been asked to reply.
There are no plans for data associated with the unique learner number to be transferred to or stored on the National Identity Register or ContactPoint.
Secondary Education
Mr. Chaytor: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families in which secondary schools in (a) Birmingham, (b) Buckinghamshire, (c) Kent and (d) Lincolnshire fewer than 30 per cent. of pupils obtained fewer than five GCSE A* to C passes including English and mathematics; and what percentage of the relevant intake in each case (i) was in receipt of free school meals and (ii) had special educational needs, giving the contextual value-added score in each case. [203944]
Jim Knight: The information requested has been placed in the House Library.
Truancy
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) what recent steps the Government have taken to reduce levels of truancy; [204991]
(2) what recent steps the Government have taken to assist children rejoining education after a long period of absence; [204992]
(3) what recent steps the Government have taken to work with parents to reduce truancy. [204993]
Kevin Brennan: I refer the hon. Member to the reply on 26 November 2007, Official Report, column 671W, to his previous question on this matter. Data for the 2006-07 school year show reductions in overall absence from all state-funded schools (6.49 per cent. compared to 6.96 per cent.), which is the lowest on record, and in persistent absence from state-funded secondary schools (6.7 per cent. compared to 7.1 per cent.). We are continuing our focus on reducing persistent absence across all local authorities and their schools, and on minimising avoidable absence through early identification of pupils developing patterns of absence and tackling the underlying causes of these patterns. We expect schools and local authorities to work with the pupils and their families on an individual basis to resolve the problems that cause the absence, with the support of other agencies and partners such as the local community, social care workers and the police, reintegrate into the school community and catch up with their peers.
Health
Alcoholic Drinks: Misuse
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate was made of the contribution of the alcohol industry to (a) alcohol awareness programmes and (b) alcohol rehabilitation services for the purposes of determining his Department's spending share in each year since 1997. [203801]
Dawn Primarolo:
The alcohol industry plans to contribute £12 million over the three years 2007 to 2010 to the Drinkaware Trust to fund activities to reduce
alcohol-related harm, including alcohol awareness programmes. We are aware that individual companies fund other awareness programmes, although funding plans are not routinely shared with the Department. The Department holds no information on industry funding of alcohol rehabilitation services.
The Department does not adjust its spending plans to take account of industry funding of awareness programmes.
Arthritis
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) males and (b) females aged (i) 10 to 16, (ii) 17 to 24, (iii) 25 to 30, (iv) 31 to 35, (v) 36 to 40 and (vi) over 40 years died from rheumatoid arthritis in each year since 1997, broken down by local authority. [205058]
Phil Hope: I have been asked to reply.
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated May 2008:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many (a) males and (b) females aged (i) 10 to 16, (ii) 17 to 24, (iii) 25 to 30, (iv) 31 to 35, (v) 36 to 40 and (vi) over 40 years died from rheumatoid arthritis in each year since 1997, broken down by local authority. (205058)
There are too few deaths from rheumatoid arthritis in persons aged under 40 to show in a table with all the breakdowns requested. Also, the definition of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis applies strictly to children aged under 16. Therefore, the tables attached provide the number of deaths in England and Wales by sex from the juvenile form of arthritis in children aged under 16, and from rheumatoid arthritis in persons aged 16 and over by age group (Table 1), and the total number of deaths from rheumatoid arthritis by local authority (Table 2), from 1997 to 2006 (the latest year available). A copy of the tables has been placed in the Library of the House of Commons.
Asthma
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent assessment has been made by his Department and its agencies of the causes of asthma. [202889]
Ann Keen: The Department and its agencies have not made a recent assessment of the causes of asthma, however I understand the Medical Research Council (MRC), which works closely with the national health service and the United Kingdom health departments to improve health through world-class medical research, is of the view that asthma may be partly due to allergy and partly due to genetics. MRC research programmes are continuing into both the causes of, and treatments for asthma.
Community Nurses: Manpower
Anne Milton:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the Answer of 30 January 2008, Official Report, column 1003W, on community nurses: manpower, how many community matrons are employed in the NHS; and if he will place in the Library information on the local intelligence which
suggests that the number of community matrons may be higher than the official figure. [202565]
Ann Keen: Community matrons were identified separately for the first time in the 2006 national health service workforce census. The 2007 work force census shows that 619 community matrons are employed in the NHS, which is an increase of 253 (69 per cent.) since 2006.
| Community matrons | ||
| Headcount | Full-time equivalent | |
| Source: NHS workforce census | ||
Based on recent discussions with a number of strategic health authorities (SHAs) we believe that the census is an undercount, with community matrons most likely being recorded in the census within other occupational groups. Community matrons are a relatively new category and there may be some problems with how they are recorded in the census. Although not as robustly validated as the census, local information from local development plans is shown in the following table:
| SHA numbers for community matrons and case managers sourced from local development plans—2007 | |
| Number | |
| Note: Case managers are required to demonstrate the same competencies as community matrons. In some cases a case manager may be best placed to provide the service to the patient. | |
Departmental Alcoholic Drinks
Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Health at how many events held by his Department (a) wine and (b) Fairtrade wine were served in the last three years; and what assessment his Department has made of the merits of serving Fairtrade wine at future events. [196944]
Mr. Bradshaw: In the last three years the Department has not held any events on the departmental estate where wine and Fairtrade wine were served.
The Department has not assessed the merits of serving Fairtrade wine at future events.
Departmental Databases
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what audits his Department and its agencies have carried out in relation to personal data and IT equipment in each of the last 10 years. [176479]
Mr. Bradshaw: Information on audits is held for the Department and its agencies, NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency (NHS PASA) and Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), as follows:
Data Protection Act—2001;
BS7799 (now ISO 27001)—every six months from the end of 2002 to November 2007;
System Security In Departmental Information Technology (IT) Applications—2004;
Freedom of Information—2006
Information Security—2007
The Agency was created in 2000 and since inception has been audited annually on all matters of governance including information security and data protection.
Since 2001 it has been audited twice yearly by British Standards Institute to ensure compliance with IS027001.
The most recent audit was in January 2008.
In addition the security of personal data is particularly emphasised in all audits.
2002-03 (pre-MHRA)—Data Protection Act and Systems Security;
2003-04—Assets and Inventories (including IT equipment);
2004-05—Information Management;
2005-06—Freedom of Information and IT Security;
2007-08—Assets and Inventories (including IT equipment) and IT Core Controls.
The personal data of staff employed by NHS Connection for Health are managed under direction of the Secretary of State for Health by the NHS Business Services Authority. Data Protection is managed by them in accordance with the Data Protection Act.
Mobile devices are audited on an annual basis—based on financial year. Audits begin in January and conclude in March.
The ongoing audit of servers and network equipment, including both hardware and software is undertaken every three months as a consolidation exercise is in progress. Once the consolidation is complete, the audit will take place every six months and take approximately two weeks to complete.
Clear desk audits are carried out quarterly in every building to ensure compliance to physical security of IT equipment.
PC hardware is audited on an annual basis—based on financial year. Audits begin in January and conclude in March.
First Information Security Audit—completed October 2007.
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