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Children, Schools and Families

Departmental Electricity

Mr. Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what estimate he has made of the percentage of electricity used by his Department which was derived from renewable sources in (a) 2006-07 and (b) 2007-08. [280961]

Ms Diana R. Johnson: The Department for Children, Schools and Families makes an annual report to the Sustainable Development Commission on electricity sourced from renewables as part of its returns for the Sustainable Development in Government (SDiG) report.

From the 2007 and 2008 SDiG Reports—available in full under “Publications” at:

—electricity sourced from renewables for the office estate was reported as (a) 8.9 per cent. in 2006-07 and (b) 16.4 per cent. in 2007-08.

Departmental Energy

Mr. Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what estimate he has made of the energy consumed per full-time equivalent member of staff in his Department in (a) 2006-07 and (b) 2007-08. [280960]

Ms Diana R. Johnson: The Department for Children, Schools and Families makes an annual report to the Sustainable Development Commission on energy consumed per full-time equivalent as part of their returns for the Sustainable Development in Government (SDiG) report.

From the 2007 and 2008 SDiG Reports (available in full under “Publications” at:

—energy consumed per full-time equivalent for the office estate was (a) 5,187 kWh in 2006-07 and (b) 4,255 kWh in 2007-08.

Departmental Lost Property

Mr. Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many laptop computers belonging to his Department and its predecessor have been lost or stolen in the last five years. [281068]


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Ms Diana R. Johnson: The number of laptop computers reported as lost or stolen in the last five years are as follows:

Number lost or stolen

2008-09

6

2007-08

13

2006-07

9

2005-06

19

2004-05

37


Departmental Water

Mr. Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what estimate he has made of water consumption on his Department's office estate in (a) 2005-06 and (b) 2006-07, (i) in total and (ii) per full-time equivalent member of staff. [280958]

Ms Diana R. Johnson: The Department for Children, Schools and Families makes an annual report to the Sustainable Development Commission on water consumption as part of their returns for the annual Sustainable Development in Government (SDiG) report.

From the 2006 and 2007 SDiG Reports—available in full under “Publications” at:

—water consumption for the office estate was reported as (a) 61,569 m3 in 2005-06 and (b) 66,145 m3 in 2006-07 which equated to (a)(ii) 10.2m3 per full-time equivalent and (b)(ii) 10.9 m3 per full-time equivalent.

Extracurricular Activities: Essex

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many (a) out-of-school and (b) holiday play schemes for children there were in (i) Essex and (ii) Castle Point in each of the last five years. [281852]

Mr. Coaker: The information requested is not available by parliamentary constituency. Data were collected at local authority level only. Table 1 shows the number of out-of-school clubs in Essex in each of the last five years for which data were collected. The last year that Ofsted collected this information was 2008. Information on the number of holiday play schemes is not available as Ofsted do not collect these data.

Table 1: Number( 1, 2 ) of out of school clubs for children under eight years of age, position at 31 March each year

Essex local authority area

2004

200

2005

200

2006

200

2007

200

2008

200

(1) Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10 if under 100, and to the nearest 100 if over 100. (2) Data Source: Ofsted.

Ofsted has collected information on the number of registered child care places available to children aged eight and under on a quarterly basis from March 2003. Their latest figures were published in their report “Registered Childcare Providers and Places, March 2009”, which is available on their website:


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School Meals

Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what research his Department has evaluated for benchmarking purposes on comparative nutritional standards in school meals in EU member states. [281242]

Ms Diana R. Johnson: The School Food Trust has conducted research to examine school meal provision (including nutritional standards) in England and other Western European Countries—Harper and Wells, 2007, School meal provision in England and other Western European Countries: a review:

The report revealed that England has the most comprehensive school food standards when compared with leading countries in Europe, as well as the US, Canada and Australia.

Schools: Admissions

Mr. Goodwill: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what guidance his Department issues to (a) schools and (b) local education authorities on the methodology to be used in calculating distances from home to school (a) on foot and (b) by road for the purposes of determining eligibility for school admissions. [281534]

Ms Diana R. Johnson: The School Admissions Code requires admission authorities to explain clearly in their admission arrangements how the distance between the school and the child's home will be measured.

It is for schools or local authorities to determine the method of calculating such distances, although the system used must be

Science: GCSE

Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many and what percentage of pupils who achieved a GCSE in both core science and additional applied science were educated in the (a) maintained mainstream and (b) independent sector in each year since 2007. [278957]

Mr. Coaker: In 2008, of the pupils at the end of key stage 4 who achieved a GCSE in both Core Science and Additional Applied Science, 47,767 (99.5 per cent.) were educated in the maintained mainstream sector and 185 (0.4 per cent. were educated in the independent sector.

Core Science and Additional Applied Sciences GCSEs were first introduced for teaching in 2006. There were no entries for students taking both qualifications in 2007.


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Social Services: Haringey

Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families if he will place in the Library a copy of the letter received by his Department's predecessor on 16 February 2007 arising from an employment tribunal and containing allegations concerning child protection procedures in the London Borough of Haringey, redacting sensitive personal information as appropriate. [245966]

Dawn Primarolo: The Department does not intend to place the letter in the Library—the letter itself is already in the public domain. It was, however, received by the Department in strict confidence and that confidence remains binding on the Department. The letter covered a statement of case relating to an employment tribunal hearing. This contains personal data relating to a number of individuals, and it would not be appropriate for the Department to make it available.

Work and Pensions

Climate Change

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps her Department has taken to adapt to climate change in the last two years. [277640]

Jonathan Shaw: All Departments are actively involved in the cross-Government Adapting to Climate Change Programme, which aims to help society adapt to climate change. The role of the programme is to develop and provide a comprehensive evidence base including adaptation tools, to raise awareness of the need to adapt, to measure success and to work across Government at all levels to embed adaptation. Further details about the programme’s work can be found at

In April 2007 DWP commissioned the Met Office to undertake an initial, high level review of the potential impacts of climate change on the policies and operations of the Department. This report was delivered in January 2008, and concluded that there were a number of areas—such as increases in hot weather, and extreme weather events—which could impact on DWP services.

A more detailed review building on this report will be commissioned once the 2009 UK Climate Projections have been published by the UK Climate Impacts Programme later this summer. This will then give DWP policy makers and planners greater clarity of the potential impacts of climate change, covering opportunities as well as negative consequences, and allow them to build adaptations fully into future plans.

Departmental Carbon Emissions

Mr. Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate she has made of the volume of carbon dioxide emissions from offices in her Department in (a) 2006-07 and (b) 2007-08 (i) in total and (ii) per full-time equivalent member of staff. [280967]

Jim Knight: The following table gives details of carbon emissions from offices in total, and per member of staff.


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CO 2 (offices) (Kg) Staffing CO 2 per head (Kg)

2006-07

245,423,298

120,277

2,040

2007-08

216,519,724

110,490

1,959


As there is no requirement within the targets for Sustainable Operations on the Government Estate to report carbon per full-time equivalent member of staff, we have used for consistency the same staffing figures as used to calculate the water reduction targets. These include an agreed allowance for on site contractors/visitors.

Departmental Data Protection

James Brokenshire: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many officials in (a) her Department and (b) its agencies have been (i) disciplined and (ii) dismissed for (A) breaches of data protection requirements and (B) inappropriate use of personal or sensitive data in the last 12 months. [278724]

Jim Knight: Information is a key asset and its correct handling is vital to the delivery of public services and to the integrity of the Government. The Department for Work and Pensions adheres to the Security Policy Framework and the Data Handling Report produced by the Cabinet Office. These provide a strategic framework for protecting information that Government handle and put in place measures to ensure tight security.

Information on the number of people disciplined and dismissed for breaches of data protection requirements and inappropriate use of personal or sensitive data are not available in the format requested and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

The Department records cases under the broad heading of disclosure of information but this is not broken down further. The information provided in the table records the number of staff disciplined under the broad heading of disclosure of information in the last 12 months.

Disciplined

Jobcentre Plus

16

The Pension Disability and Carers Service

25

Corporate Centre

(1)

(1) The Department’s policy is not to publish data where five or fewer individuals are concerned because it might be possible to identify those employees.

If staff are found to have been responsible for a breach of data security procedures disciplinary action will be taken for serious or gross misconduct. Depending on the circumstances of the case deliberate unauthorised access to information is classified as serious misconduct which normally carries a penalty of a final written warning. If it is classified as gross misconduct it could lead to termination of employment. Persistent unauthorised access to or use of information is classified as gross misconduct which normally carries a penalty of dismissal.

Departmental Energy

Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much was spent on energy efficiency measures for her Department's estate in each year from 2004 to 2009; what assessment has been made of the effectiveness of that expenditure; and what plans she has for future energy efficiency measures. [280547]


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Jonathan Shaw: DWP receives fully serviced accommodation from its estates partner Telereal Trillium under a PFI arrangement. DWP does not, therefore, have direct responsibility for investing in energy saving measures. However, there is an agreed shared savings mechanism which provides Telereal Trillium with an incentive to invest in such measures.

The amounts invested by our PFI partner, in projects such as water-less urinals, tea-boiler timers, increased insulation, savawatt plugs and lighting improvements, are as follows:

£

2004-05

298,511

2005-06

416,705

2006-07

713,404

2007-08

491,000

Note: The figure for 2008-09 is estimated at £467,000.

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