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16 July 2009 : Column 632W—continued
Departmental Standards
Mr. Maude: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what steps 10 Downing Street is taking in respect of Cabinet Office Departmental Strategic Objective 4 to achieve a 50 per cent. reduction in avoidable contact with members of the public by 31 March 2011. [270135]
Angela E. Smith: All Government Departments seek to ensure that their dealings with the public are as helpful and productive as possible. Any contact members of the public may wish to have with 10 Downing street is not affected in any way by the requirements of departmental strategic objective 4.
Mr. Maude: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office pursuant to the answer of 17 March 2009, Official Report, column 1059W, on departmental standards, what method her Department uses to assess whether its targets in respect of avoidable contact have been met. [271938]
Angela E. Smith: All Government Departments seek to ensure that their dealings with the public are as helpful and productive as possible. Central Government Departments are required to declare the levels of avoidable telephone contact in their Departments as assessed at April 2008 and to halve these values by March 2011. The Cabinet Office has focussed its attentions on the Department for Transport (DFT), Department for Work and Pensions, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and NHS Direct. These Departments account for around 90 per cent. of telephone contact with central Government. Cabinet Office is working with the remaining Departments, who will provide their baseline levels of avoidable contact later in the year.
Upon publication of their avoidable contact levels, all Departments will be required to provide quarterly updates outlining the progress they are making to achieving the March 2011 reduction target.
Mr. Maude: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office pursuant to the answer of 17 March 2009, Official Report, column 1059W, on departmental standards, what performance measures in respect of avoidable contact apply to 10 Downing Street. [271945]
Angela E. Smith: The 2007 Service Transformation Agreement (STA) requires public-facing service delivery departments to report their levels of avoidable contact. As the Prime Minister's Office is not a service delivery department, it does not need to follow the STA requirement on reporting avoidable contact. However, all Government Departments, and of course the Prime Minister's Office, work to ensure that their dealings with the public are as helpful and productive as possible.
Ministerial Policy Advisers
Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many staff based in 10 Downing Street who advise the Prime Minister on foreign policy are not members of staff of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. [284027]
Tessa Jowell [holding answer 3 July 2009]: The Prime Minister receives advice on foreign policy from the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary and his Department. The Prime Minister also has two advisers on foreign and defence policy and Europe and global issues. They head two sections of the Cabinet Secretariat in the Cabinet Office which support the Prime Minister and the Cabinet by, where appropriate, providing co-ordinated advice on foreign policy issues.
Pay
Mr. Maude: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what the average rate of change of pay growth, including bonuses, in the (a) private and (b) public sector was in the last 12 months. [287348]
Angela E. Smith: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, July 2009:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking for the average rate of change of pay growth, including bonuses, in the (a) private and (b) public sector in the last 12 months. (287348)
This information is published each month in Table IS of the Labour Market Statistics Statistical Bulletin. The Table provides annual growth rates based on single months and rates based on three monthly averages. The ONS preferred measure is the three monthly rate as it is less erratic. The latest information, relating to May 2009, was published on 15 July-the three monthly rates for the private sector and public sector are reproduced at the Annex. The Table shows that private sector pay in the three months ending in May was 1.9 per cent. higher than the same three months a year ago. This compares to a growth of 3.5 per cent. in the public sector.
| Average Earnings Index: Three monthly growth rates, (average of the latest three months compared to same three months a year earlier) | ||
| Private s ector (%) | Public s ector (%) | |
| N otes: 1. Based on seasonally adjusted data. 2 Excluding arrears of pay. | ||
Public Bodies
Mr. Maude: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office pursuant to the answer of 5 May 2009, Official Report, columns 93-99W, on public bodies, for what reason (a) the Met Office, (b) Ordnance Survey, (c) Royal Mint and (d) the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre were reclassified as public corporations. [287278]
Angela E. Smith: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated July 2009:
As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking for what reason (a) the Meteorological Office, (b) Ordnance Survey, (c) Royal Mint and (d) the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre were reclassified as public corporations. (287278)
For national accounts purposes public sector entities are classified in line with international guidance. The guidance is set out in the United Nations' 1993 System of National Accounts (SNA93), and for the European Union in the 1995 European System of Accounts (ESA95).
In line with ESA 95 public sector market entities are classified as public corporations, either within the financial corporations sector or the non-financial corporations sector, and public sector non-market entities are classified in the general government sector. The borderline between market and non-market classification is dependent on whether more than fifty per cent of production costs are covered by sales.
(a) The Meteorological Office was classified as a public corporation from 1996. Prior to this it was classified as central government within the general government sector.
(b) Ordnance Survey was classified as a public corporation from 1999. Prior to this it was classified as central government within the general government sector.
(c) Royal Mint has been classified as a public corporation from 1975.
(d) Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre was classified as a public corporation from 1997. Prior to this it was classified to central government within the general government sector.
In May 2009 you asked a question (271969) which related to the definition of the Civil Service. Pursuant to this question,
employees of the Meteorological Office, Ordnance Survey, Royal Mint and Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre are all included in the ONS' estimates for the Civil Service.
Skin Cancer
Norman Lamb: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many cases of basal cell carcinoma were diagnosed in patients aged (a) under 30, (b) 31 to 60 and (c) over 60 years of age in each of the last 10 years. [286305]
Angela E. Smith: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated July 2009:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking how many cases of basal cell carcinoma were diagnosed in patients aged (a) under 30, (b) 30 to 59 and (c) over 60 years of age in each of the last 10 years [286305]
The latest available figures for newly diagnosed cases of cancer (incidence) are for the year 2006. Registrations of newly diagnosed cases of non-melanoma skin cancer which had a cell type (morphology) identified as basal cell carcinoma, in patients aged (a) under 30, (b) 30 to 59 and (c) over 60 years from 1997 to 2006, are given in Table 1.
ONS has been advised by expert epidemiologists and members of the former Steering Committee on Cancer Registration that non-melanoma skin cancer is greatly under-registered. Consequently, the figures given are likely to be under-estimates.
| Table 1: Registrations of newly diagnosed cases of non-melanoma skin cancer identified as basal cell carcinoma( 1) by age group: England, 1997 to 2006 | ||||||||||
| Registrations | ||||||||||
| Age group | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 |
| (1)( )Cases were identified as new registrations coded to C44 (non-melanoma skin cancer) in the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) accompanied by a morphology code of M8090/3 - M8093/3 (basal cell carcinoma) in the International Classification of Diseases for Oncology, Second Revision (ICD-02). | ||||||||||
Children, Schools and Families
Building Schools for the Future Programme
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many schools have received Building Schools for the Future funding for ICT projects in each year since 2005; and if he will make a statement. [286962]
Mr. Coaker: ICT is an integral component of Building Schools for the Future and accounts for approximately 10 per cent. of capital funding provided through that programme. Funding is paid to local authorities rather than to individual schools. To date, 37 local authority projects (and 10 "early win" schemes) have signed contracts covering more than 200 schools. The table shows the break down of BSF contracts which include funding for ICT services.
| Number of schools | |
86 of these projects have already been completed, providing 21st century ICT facilities for over 80,000 young people.
Children: Disabled
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families if he will undertake a public information campaign on the rights of children with disabilities. [287303]
Ms Diana R. Johnson:
The Government are committed to children's rights, including disabled children's rights, and to making a reality of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in the UK. The Government have funded a number of initiatives aimed at raising awareness of the UNCRC such as the
development of a curriculum resource for teachers on the UNCRC to be used with key stage 3 pupils. We provide funding to UNICEF for their Rights Respecting Schools initiative. Training related to human rights and the UNCRC is available for a wide range of professionals working with children.
We have also been working closely with the national strategies to develop new and innovative ways of raising awareness of schools' responsibilities under the Disability Discrimination Act 2005. Work so far has included: workshops at conferences that have had a specific focus on schools' duties and we have also hosted an online discussion on the Guardian education website. Ministers have also highlighted the importance of schools' compliance with the disability discrimination legislation in speeches. We are currently discussing with the national strategies what else can be done to further raise awareness of schools' duties.
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