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9 Mar 2009 : Column 184W—continued
Children: Databases
Mrs. Laing: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the development costs of ContactPoint have been; and what the estimated maintenance costs are for ContactPoint in 2009. [256072]
Beverley Hughes: The estimated development and set-up cost of ContactPoint is £224 million (most of which is expected to be incurred by the end of the financial year 2009-2010). This includes: the costs of adapting existing systems that will supply data to ContactPoint and the costs of ensuring that data are accurate; adapting the day-to-day systems used by practitioners so they can access ContactPoint from them; and the costs of introducing robust arrangements to ensure proper security, and effective ContactPoint user training.
The latest estimate for running (maintenance) costs in 2009-10 is just under £44 million including inflation, of which most will go directly to local authorities to fund staff to ensure the ongoing running, maintenance, operation and security of ContactPoint.
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families pursuant to the answer of 26 February 2009, Official Report, columns 1067-68W, on children: databases, what the (a) necessary safeguarding and (b) child protection procedures referred to are. [260865]
Beverley Hughes [holding answer 5 March 2009]: The (a) necessary safeguarding and (b) child protection procedures referred to in the previous reply of 26 February 2009, Official Report, columns 1067-68W, are those set out in the Government’s statutory guidance, Working Together to Safeguard Children (2006). These processes are those established for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and are those used in any circumstance where concerns are raised about the safety or welfare of a child.
Climbing
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families which of the myplace projects approved by his Department have climbing walls which meet the standard approved by the British Mountaineering Council; how many instructors are provided for each climbing wall; to what standard each instructor is trained; which climbing walls include ropes; what height each rope is; and how many projects were designed in consultation with the British Mountaineering Council. [261743]
Beverley Hughes: All applications to “myplace” were assessed by the Big Lottery Fund (BIG) against the criteria set out in guidance materials. Investment decisions were made by BIG’s investment committee on behalf of DCSF.
BIG report that 23 of the 62 projects funded to date contained plans to provide a climbing wall within their application form. No data are held on the nature or quality standard of these proposed climbing walls, as this information was not requested in the “myplace” application form.
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what discussions his Department has had with (a) Sport England and (b) the British Mountaineering Council on the development of climbing walls in his Department’s myplace project. [261745]
Beverley Hughes: The Department has not had any discussions yet with either Sport England or the British Mountaineering Council on the development of climbing walls within “myplace” projects.
The Big Lottery technical team and the “myplace” support and development team will provide advice and guidance to “myplace” projects on a wide range of building design matters including climbing walls. All “myplace” projects’ construction plans have to be agreed with Big Lottery Fund’s technical team and comply with all relevant standards.
Departmental Public Expenditure
Mr. Rob Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what campaigns his Department has supported in the last 12 months. [261040]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The Department has delivered 10 advertising campaigns in the last 12 months. The campaign titles are as follows:
Childcare and Early Years
Diplomas
Frank
Modern Foreign Languages (MFL)
National Year of Reading
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)
Cyber-bullying
Teenage Pregnancy
Who Do We Think We Are
Parent Know How.
Mr. Rob Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what grants of more than £1,000 his Department has made to an outside body in the last 12 months. [261053]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: This question can be answered only at disproportionate cost. The total amount allocated for grant payments as a proportion of the Department's 2008-09 Supply Estimate is £49.3 billion or 95.5 per cent.
The Department annually makes over 130,000 separate payments. It is not possible to distinguish individual grant payments from other types of financial transactions without breaching the disproportionate cost limit.
Further Education: Admissions
Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many full-time equivalent places he has allocated to further education colleges for 16 to 19 year old education and training in each year from 2009-10 to 2011-12. [261679]
Jim Knight: Further education allocations are made on the basis of standard learner numbers (SLN) and not on a full-time equivalent (FTE) basis. SLN's take account of the actual size of a learner's learning programme while FTE's calculate volumes in relation to full-time learning (defined as a minimum of 450 guided learning hours).
The number of SLN's allocated to colleges in 2008/09 was 1,017,000, and the planned volume of SLN's for colleges in 2009/10 is 1,021,000. These 2009/10 volumes will be amended in light of the allocations process to colleges, which is intended to be completed by 13 March 2009.
Allocations for 2010/11 will be determined through the allocations process in the autumn. The 2011/12 allocations will be subject to the next spending review.
GCSE: Disadvantaged
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many and what proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals were entered for GCSEs in each subject in 2008. [244292]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The information requested is given in the following table.
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