| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
17 Oct 2008 : Column 1514W—continued
Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal
Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will reassess his Department's proposals to merge the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal with the Care Standards Tribunal and the Mental Health Review Tribunal in England; what assessment he has made of the likely effects of this merger on parents of children with special educational needs; and if he will make a statement. [227236]
Bridget Prentice: I am responding as Minister responsible for Tribunals. I do not consider that a reassessment is necessary. It is proposed that the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal (SENDIST) will cease to exist as a stand-alone body and become part of the First-Tier Tribunal in accordance with the provisions of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 (the “Act”). The Government consider that the Act provides the most appropriate statutory framework for maintaining strong and independent tribunals and for improving the services they provide to users.
Groups representing the interests of the parents of children with special educational needs have been consulted during the development of the proposals to transfer the SENDIST jurisdiction into the Health, Education and Social Care (HESC) Chamber of the First-Tier Tribunal. Rules of procedure for the Chamber have been drawn up with the foil involvement of SENDIST's judiciary and members.
The tribunal is committed to the ethos that it has always had, namely of keeping the interests of the child at the forefront of its procedures and decision making.
John Bercow:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many and what proportion of cases going to the
Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal concerned children with autism over each of the last five years; in what proportion of these cases the applicant was successful; and how many local authorities conceded the case before the case reached the hearing. [227572]
Bridget Prentice:
The following table shows the outcomes of special educational needs (SEN) appeals for children where autism was recorded at registration as the main or only SEN. Decided cases are those where a tribunal
hearing takes place and a decision is issued. The decided cases can then be broken down into those that have either been successful in whole or in part and those that were dismissed. In this table those that were dismissed include those that were struck out. Withdrawn cases are those where the appellant decides to discontinue their appeal before a hearing takes place or decision is issued. Conceded cases are those where the local authority meet the requirements of the appeal before a hearing takes place or a decision is issued.
| Decided | Percentage | Upheld | Dismissed | Withdrawn | Percentage | Conceded | Percentage | Total | |
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many disability discrimination cases concerning children with autism spectrum disorders went to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal in each of the last five years; and in what proportion of these the applicant was successful. [227578]
Bridget Prentice: The Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal (SENDIST) does not record autism as a type of disability. As a result, no Disability Discrimination Act claims have been recorded. The following table shows the outcomes of all SEN appeals. Withdrawn cases are those where the appellant decides to discontinue their appeal before a hearing takes place or decision is issued. Conceded cases are those where the local authority meets the requirements of the appeal before a hearing takes place or a decision is issued.
| Decided | Percentage | Upheld | Dismissed | Withdraw n | Percentage | Conceded | Percentage | Total | |
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Deer: New Forest
Mr. Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate he has made of the number of deer in the New Forest National Park; and whether it is the policy of the National Park Authority to impose restrictions on the deer population. [227960]
Huw Irranca-Davies: There is no overall estimate of the deer numbers in the New Forest National Park and the authority has no policy for the management of deer numbers in the park. However, the Forestry Commission is responsible for the management of 47 per cent. of the park area and carries out an annual visual census of deer on its land. These records date back to 1960 and the figures for 2008 are
Fallow: 1,422;
Roe: 437;
Red: 117; and
Sika: 93.
These visual census figures will underestimate the total number of deer in the area and a corrected figure is used when the Forestry Commission sets its annual cull level in accordance with its deer management plan.
Departmental ICT
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what information technology projects initiated by his Department and its predecessors have been cancelled prior to completion in the last five years; and what the cost of each such project was to the public purse. [221713]
Huw Irranca-Davies: The following three major core DEFRA IT projects have been terminated prior to completion within the last five years. Details of projects conducted within core DEFRA only have been included where there have been write-off costs as a result of closing the project. Details of other smaller IT projects could not be provided without incurring disproportionate cost to the Department.
Catalyst was designed to provide an Electronic Data and Records Management system for DEFRA. The total expenditure from inception to termination was £12.6 million. This included costs of a large pilot and of preparing for the wider programme, which was not rolled out.
Phoenix was designed to handle licences for protected species covered by international conventions. The total expenditure from inception to termination was £3,998,807.
Customer Information Programme
The Customer Information Programme was designed to enable DEFRA to hold improved customer information. The total expenditure was £9,691,000.
New Forest National Park Authority
Mr. Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many people are employed by the New Forest National Park Authority; and how many of those are resident within the boundary of the National Park. [228014]
Huw Irranca-Davies: The New Forest National Park Authority employs some 65 (full-time equivalent) staff. DEFRA holds no information on how many live inside or outside the National Park boundary.
Tourism: New Forest
Mr. Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if he will require the New Forest National Park Authority to extend the deadline for consultation on the draft Recreation Management Strategy. [228015]
Huw Irranca-Davies: This is a matter for the New Forest National Park Authority which I understand has announced an extension of the consultation period to Friday 14 November.
Mr. Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate the New Forest National Park Authority has made of the number of people (a) resident in and (b) holidaying in Christchurch constituency who visit the New Forest annually; and what consultation has been carried out with Christchurch residents on the draft Recreation Management Strategy. [228016]
Huw Irranca-Davies: These are matters for the New Forest National Park Authority.
However I understand its draft Recreation Management Strategy says 29 per cent. of day visitors come from Dorset (Tourism South East 2004-05 survey) and that, in addition, the survey suggests 9 per cent. of ‘local day visitors from home’ come from ‘Highcliffe, Mudeford and Christchurch’.
I also understand that the authority mailed documents to Burton and Hurn parish councils, Christchurch borough council and Dorset county council, and has since responded to numerous requests for documents from the Christchurch area.
Wales
Departmental Recruitment
Mr. Prisk:
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how much (a) his Department and (b) its executive agencies spent on (i) recruitment consultants and (ii)
external recruitment advertising to recruit staff in each of the last five financial years; which recruitment consultants were employed for those purposes in each of those years; and if he will make a statement. [226811]
Mr. Paul Murphy: The Wales Office has not used recruitment consultants to recruit staff. During the last five years external recruitment only occurred in 2006-07 and cost £17,240.92.
The Wales Office has no executive agencies.
Culture, Media and Sport
Arts Council England: Manpower
Mr. Vaizey: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many people were employed by Arts Council England in (a) 1997-98 and (b) 2007-08 in (i) the Chief Executive's office, (ii) the Chairman's office, (iii) press and public affairs, (iv) finance and resources, (v) business assessment and planning, (vi) finance, (vii) information, (viii) office services, (ix) personnel, (x) combined arts, (xi) drama, (xii) dance, (xiii) film, video and broadcasting, (xiv) literature, (xv) music, (xvi) touring, (xvii) visual arts, (xviii) arts and disability and (xix) policy and research. [223882]
Barbara Follett: The information requested has been provided by Arts Council England (ACE) and is set out in the table. Job titles provided by ACE do not correspond exactly with those in the question, but where they differ, ACE has allocated staff with the most relevant job description to the definitions in the question.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |