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18 Mar 2009 : Column 1240W—continued
Woolworths
Mr. Ancram: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what information his Department holds on the number of former Woolworths shop premises which have been occupied by other businesses. [260896]
Mr. Thomas: According to the administrators Deloitte LLP, around 200 stores have been sold either to third party tenants or landlords. The remaining stores are being returned to landlords.
Children, Schools and Families
Building Schools for the Future Programme
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what recent assessment he has made of the effects of the economic downturn on the delivery of private finance initiative contracts relating to the Building Schools for the Future programme; and if he will make a statement. [255277]
Jim Knight: The Department is continuing to monitor the impact of the current economic conditions on capital programmes such as BSF, and is working with Partnerships for Schools (PfS) and HM Treasury to ensure the programme moves forward as planned. On 3 March 2009, my right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary to the Treasury announced Government action to safeguard capital infrastructure investment in projects being delivered through the private finance initiative.
PfS have been able to secure a commitment in principle from the European Investment Bank (EIB) for £300 million to support BSF schemes that have PFI investment. PfS were also successful in closing the BSF Tameside deal in February which included a significant PFI contribution.
Building Schools for the Future: Essex
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families if he will make it his policy to bring forward capital spending under the Building Schools for the Future programme in (a) Essex and (b) Castle Point for economic reasons; and if he will make a statement. [263281]
Jim Knight:
It is not our policy to bring forward Building Schools for the Future (BSF) investment to act as a fiscal stimulus because of the strategic planning that underpins BSF. BSF typically involves the building of entire new schools; so design and planning need care and time. Accelerating the construction would curtail
this planning and would thereby jeopardise the quality and transformational nature of the programme. We are however working with Partnerships for Schools to simplify procedures and accelerate delivery, and the procurement process has already been accelerated and costs reduced.
BSF investment already announced and in the pipeline provides substantial underpinning to the construction industry. It is now building momentum so that by 2011, over 200 revamped or rebuilt schools will be being opened. Over 1,000 BSF schools across 80 local authorities already engaged in the programme. This includes two major school investment projects in Castle Point which are proceeding on schedule for delivery in 2012.
In December 2008, we offered local authorities the opportunity to bring forward schools capital allocations from 2010-11 into 2009-10 where they could accelerate projects to provide a fiscal stimulus and give pupils and teachers the benefit of early investment. Essex authority asked for a £13.2 million advance from a possible maximum of £30.2 million. In addition to meeting this request, we have advanced to its schools £10 million of devolved formula capital, so that they can bring investment benefits early for their pupils and staff.
Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service
Mr. Leech: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) how many cases have been transferred between Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service offices in each of the last five years; [261590]
(2) what estimate his Department has made of the additional time taken to make access arrangements arising from the transfer of cases between Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service offices. [261690]
Beverley Hughes: Transfer of cases between Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS) offices are recorded on the Case Management System, which was rolled out to all CAFCASS offices on 1 April 2007. No transfer data are available prior to this date.
The following table shows the national transfer of cases between CAFCASS offices over the last two financial years.
| Financial year | Case transfers |
CAFCASS does not collect information on time taken to make access arrangements arising from transferring cases between CAFCASS offices.
Children: Databases
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families pursuant to the answer of 5 March 2009, Official Report, columns 1823-4W, on children: databases, what the cost was of each contract with Capgemini. [263141]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Pursuant to the answer of 5 March 2009, Official Report, columns 1823-4W, on children: databases, according to departmental records the cost of each contract with Capgemini was:
Expired business services framework agreement for the period January 2002 to September 2008—£127,865,880 (includes VAT)
Current business services framework agreement for the period October 2008 to January 2009—£7,732,767 (includes VAT)
ContactPoint—details of expenditure on this contract have been given in response on, 4 March 2009, Official Report, column 1676W.
Corporate Service Transformation programme (July to October 2006)—£207,811
Corporate Service Transformation programme (July to October 2008)—£279,255
Expert advisers to work with low-performing schools (November 2008 to March 2008)—£31,920
Government Departments can reclaim input VAT on a limited range of contracted-out services. Capgemini charges cover a mixture of recoverable and non-recoverable services. The values for the three consultancy contracts are taken from management information returns that do not give the VAT status of expenditure. While it is likely that the cost shown excludes VAT, it has not been possible to confirm this without incurring disproportionate cost.
Children: Day Care
Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many childcare places there were in West Lancashire constituency in (a) 1997 and (b) 2008. [261968]
Beverley Hughes: The available information is shown in the tables.
| Table 1 : Number( 1,2) of day care places for children under eight years of age by type of provider Lancashire local authority area—position at 31 March 1997 | |
| Type of provider | 1997 |
| (1) Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10 if under 100, and to the nearest 100 if over 100. Source: (2) Children’s Day Care Facilities Survey. | |
| Table 2: Number( 1,2) of registered childcare places for children under eight years of age by type of care Lancashire local authority area—position at 31 March 2008 | |
| Type of care | 2008 |
| (1) Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10 if under 100, and to the nearest 100 if over 100. Source: (2) Ofsted | |
Since 2003 Ofsted has been responsible for the registration and inspection of child care providers. Ofsted has produced figures on the numbers of registered child care providers
and places on a quarterly basis from March 2003. Their latest figures were published in their report “Registered Childcare Providers and Places, August 2008”, which is available on their website,
Children: Disabled
Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much has been spent by each local authority in England on handling complaints relating to care packages allocated to severely disabled children in each of the last five years. [263965]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Costs incurred in handling complaints about social care packages for severely disabled children come from local authority budgets, which are determined locally. This information is not collected centrally.
Children: Social Services
John Hemming: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the present performance assessment indicator C23 is for each local authority children’s services department; what assessment Ofsted has made of the optimum indicator for each authority; and what recommendations Ofsted has made for changes to each authority's indicators. [263676]
Beverley Hughes: This performance indicator, produced annually to 2007-08, showed the number of children who ceased to be looked after during the year as a result of an adoption or special guardianship order, as a percentage of the number of children looked after at 31 March who had been looked after for six months or more on that day. The data for 2007-08 are shown in the table.
Ofsted set no optimum level for this indicator. The indicator is no longer used to assess the performance of local authorities. From April 2008, the only indicators used to assess such performance are those in the single set of national indicators published in October 2007. This includes an indicator relating to the timeliness of placements of looked after children for adoption following an agency decision that the child should be placed for adoption, and one relating to the length of placement.
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