| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
4 Nov 2008 : Column 435W—continued
Safer School Partnerships
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what progress has been made by schools in establishing safer school partnerships with local police. [231364]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The Youth Crime Action Plan, published on 15 July, announced that every school that wants one should be able to be part of an SSP, subject to local resources.
We are working with the Home Office and ACPO on a survey of current Safer School Partnership (SSP) provision that will provide an up to date picture in terms of scale, objectives and the outcomes of projects. The results of the survey will help inform and drive the future development of SSP provision.
The survey forms part of a wider strategy to share good practice and encourage local partners to come together which we are taking forward in a series of conferences beginning in November. The conferences will promote the benefits of SSPs and explore more
widely issues around safety in schools. The audit and conferences will inform the new guidance for practitioners, which we expect to publish early next year.
Additional funding for SSPs was included in the extra £3 million for the 10 police forces involved in the Tackling Knives Action Programme, announced by the Home Secretary on 21 October.
We are not promoting SSPs in Wales. The Welsh Assembly and Welsh police forces have set up a programme, the All-Wales School Liaison Core Programme that is broadly similar to SSPS.
Schools: Voluntary Work
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what recent steps the Government has taken to encourage schools to promote volunteering. [232525]
Beverley Hughes: The Government are encouraging all children and young people to volunteer. Through primary school, children learn about being active citizens and from the ages of 11 to 16, pupils take part in ‘informed and responsible action’ as part of the citizenship curriculum. The duty on schools to promote community cohesion is encouraging schools to strengthen links with their local communities. This is leading to more young people volunteering for community citizenship activities and different forms of individual and collective action. In addition, through the national PE and sport strategy, over 1 million pupils—around 16 per cent.—are now actively involved in sports volunteering and leadership on a regular basis. £23 million has been invested in this area in the last six years.
The Government are committed to helping to motivate and support young people to volunteer and we are working with other agencies and other Government Departments to ensure that this moves forward.
Special Educational Needs
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families whether consideration of schools’ (a) exclusion and (b) anti-bullying policies will form part of Ofsted’s reviewing special educational needs from 2009. [231359]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: We are considering the detailed remit of the 2009/10 Ofsted review of special educational needs (SEN), including whether schools’ policies on exclusion and bullying of children with SEN should fall within scope.
Teachers: Pensions
Paul Rowen: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the average payment per person to members of the teachers’ pension scheme was in 2008. [232716]
Jim Knight: The latest year for which this information is available is 2006-07. The average annual pension per person for that year was approximately £9,000.
Teachers: Training
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many and what percentage of newly qualified teachers acquired qualified teacher status through training on the Graduate Teacher Programme in each year since 2005. [233086]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The following table shows the number and percentage of trainees who successfully completed the Graduate Teacher programme in each year from 2004/05 to 2006/07, the most recent year for which data are available.
| Teachers gaining qualified teacher status: Qualification via the Graduate Teacher Programme, 2004/05 to 2006/07, England | ||
| Trainees successfully completing the Graduate Teacher programme | ||
| Number | Percentage | |
| Notes: 1. Percentages are based on the total number of teachers gaining qualified teacher status in that year. This includes universities and other higher education institutions, SCITT and Open University as well as employment based routes and cases where QTS is granted on assessment-based training. 2. Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10. Source: TDA Performance Profiles | ||
Languages: GCE A-level
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what advice is provided to prospective A-level modern language students on the acceptability of each modern language A-level qualification to universities as part of their admission requirements; and if he will make a statement. [232985]
Mr. Lammy: I have been asked to reply.
I have had no discussions with universities on the subject requirements for student admissions. These are for each university to decide on the basis of the academic and professional needs of each course. If universities do have specific entry requirements for particular courses, these may be shown on their websites, and are generally replicated on the course information of the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service website. The Department does not hold that information.
We have made it clear however that admissions policies should be open and transparent. I am aware that the Equality Challenge Unit and Supporting Professionalism in Admissions (SPA) have recently written to higher education institutions about the need to ensure that admissions procedures do not breach equality legislation in terms of the treatment of students with native language qualifications.
Schools, in partnership with local Connexions services, are expected to provide young people with high quality and impartial, personalised information, advice and guidance about learning and careers that meets the needs of the individual. The Department for Children, Schools and Families is currently working with the Training and Development Agency for Schools to pilot approaches that will help all teachers to provide high quality advice on progression opportunities from their own subjects.
Energy and Climate Change
Carbon Emissions
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what his policy is on proposals from the French Presidency of the EU (1) that more than 65 per cent. of greenhouse gas emissions reductions under the non-traded sector should be delivered through the Clean Development Mechanism or Joint Implementation; [227865]
(2) that more than 45 per cent. of emissions reductions under the Emissions Trading Scheme should be delivered through the Clean Development Mechanism or Joint Implementation. [227866]
Joan Ruddock: The Government believe that there should be more access to project credits in the EU emissions trading scheme than is provided for in the Commission proposal for revising the scheme. This would allow for harmonisation of access among installations in the EU. The UK Government would like to see project credit access in both the EU emissions trading scheme and greenhouse gas (GHG) effort-share limited to 50 per cent. of absolute effort (in the context of the overarching principle that 50 per cent. of absolute emissions reductions from 2005 must take place within the EU).
We are still considering what this “50 per cent. of absolute effort” principle means in quantitative terms across the EU ETS and the non-traded sector. This is difficult because the EU ETS runs across the time period 2008 to 2020, while the non-traded sector runs across the period 2013 to 2020. We need to be sure that we get the balance right to demonstrate that Europe is serious about the transition to a low carbon economy through emission reductions within its borders. We should not rely disproportionately on third countries in order to meet Europe's own targets.
Carbon Emissions: Housing
Alistair Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what assistance his Department makes available under the Carbon Emissions Reduction Targets Scheme to park home residents. [229912]
Joan Ruddock: There is limited assistance that can be given to park home residents under the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) due to the nature of their homes, which make them harder to insulate than many others. Although the Government set the overall CERT target, it is open to energy suppliers how they meet their targets. Suppliers promote the most cost effective energy saving measures including cavity wall and loft insulation. Measures such as external or internal wall insulation for park homes are not currently as cost effective as other energy saving measures, so are less attractive to energy suppliers. Park homes residents are eligible for assistance for low energy lamps and efficient appliances.
Greg Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what domestic carbon dioxide emissions on the environmental accounts basis have been in each year since 1990. [231253]
Joan Ruddock: Office for National Statistics (ONS) Environmental Accounts produce estimates of air emissions, including carbon dioxide, annually.
The ONS Environmental Accounts measure greenhouse gas emissions on a UK residents basis, in order to be comparable with National Accounts economic data. Therefore, they include emissions generated by UK households and companies in the UK and emissions from UK households’ and companies’ transport and travel activities abroad. They exclude emissions generated by non-residents’ transport and travel in the UK.
As such, these data are on a different basis from estimates published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs under the UK's Kyoto Protocol obligations. The Kyoto Protocol basis covers emissions from UK territory only and excludes emissions from international aviation and shipping.
The most recent publication was on 3 June 2008 and data for the period 1990 to 2006 are available on the National Statistics website.
These data show that total carbon dioxide emissions for the United Kingdom on a National Accounts residents basis are as follows:
| Total CO 2 emissions (thousand tonnes, CO 2 equivalent) | |
Climate Change
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what steps the Government plans to take to support scientific projects which seek to curb climate change, with particular reference to projects (a) in their infancy and (b) which are finding difficulties in securing capital funding. [229846]
Joan Ruddock: The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and its predecessors have a long established record of supporting UK science to understand current and future climate change and its impacts. Currently DECC is directly responsible for about £31 million of climate change research annually, including supporting the world-leading research at the Met Office Hadley Centre (MOHC) to the tune of about £15 million each year, through their Integrated Climate Programme (ICP). The ICP is also jointly funded by the Ministry of Defence.
A primary output of the MOHC research and modelling is to provide advice with regard to future climate change and the risks of climate change. It provides evidence to DECC which is used to develop policy on curbing climate change.
DECC is working with DEFRA, other Government Departments and research councils to frame and implement new work, aimed at more fully integrating robust natural science research with that needed to deliver evidence to enable societies to adapt better to unavoidable climate change.
The challenge of moving towards a lower carbon economy requires us to develop a portfolio of low carbon energy technologies such as carbon abatement technologies, hydrogen and fuel cells, nuclear power and renewables. Public sector funding bodies all recognise low carbon energy technologies as a priority and are working closely to ensure that funding is co-ordinated—and that funding effectively supports the portfolio of technologies that will deliver CO2 reductions.
Capital grant and other funding for low carbon and renewable energy technologies is provided under the Environmental Transformation Fund (ETF). Under the UK element of the ETF, DECC supports the demonstration and pre-commercial deployment of innovative low carbon and energy efficiency demonstration technologies, and aims to accelerate their commercialisation in the UK. The scheme aims to address market failures at the demonstration and pre-commercial deployment stage, where developers of new and innovative energy technologies can have difficulty in securing capital funding. The fund operates by means of technology-specific schemes, with projects selected on a competitive basis.
Over the next three years, Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) funded Research Councils will be investing over £300 million in energy research and over £360 million in research that will address living with environmental change.
The Natural Environment Research Council currently spends £66 million per annum that is directly attributable to fundamental aspects of climate change.
Climate Change: Aviation
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what evidence his Department has (a) received and (b) evaluated on the science of non-carbon dioxide climate change impacts from aviation, including radiactive forcing and the effect of emissions at altitude; and whether his Department is funding any research on total climate impacts of aviation due to radiactive forcing. [231299]
Joan Ruddock: The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has commissioned a report looking at the effect of aviation on radiative forcing of climate through not only its emission of CO2, but also NOx and the effects of contrails and aircraft-induced cirrus.
Although much remains to be done on improving modelling at global and regional scales, the report (which is not yet finalised) demonstrates more clearly the effect of NOx emissions from aviation on ozone and methane emissions and the impact of aircraft altitude on temperature.
Mitigation of aviation emissions, including the complex technological and atmospheric tradeoffs, is also discussed in the report. A core issue is how to balance the long-term effect of CO2 against shorter-term effects such as those from ozone, contrails and aircraft-induced cirrus that have equal or greater radiative magnitude than CO2. Particular focus has been given to the potential for reducing contrail radiative forcing by modifying flight altitude.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |