| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
21 July 2009 : Column 1415W—continued
Any request for standards or certificates also specifies that equivalents are acceptable.
Our innovation procurement plan will be published at the end of July 2009. Our commercial policy encourages innovative procurements through advertising and output based specifications.
We use output based specifications on the majority of our procurements.
We encourage prime contractors to subcontract to SME's and supported businesses. However currently it is not mandatory for prime contractors to advertise on Supply2gov or elsewhere.
Our terms and conditions include requirements for reciprocal contract terms for subcontractors.
We do not currently have the facilities to separate out and measure SME spend. However it is expected that the Ml from the new RM system due for implementation in November 2009 will provide this information.
Departmental Secondment
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many employees of his Department and its predecessors have been posted to work in offices of hon. Members of each political party in each of the last five years. [284978]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: Civil servants are required to act in accordance with the requirements of the civil service code.
Departmental Work Experience
Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many interns work in his Department; what terms of reference apply to their appointment; what remuneration they receive; and how long on average an intern appointment lasts. [286827]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: The Department has recruited 32 graduate and undergraduate interns whose internships started on 29 June 2009 for six to eight weeks as part of a Cabinet Office internship programme. Successful candidates are nominated or allocated to the Department by the Cabinet Office from applications through its external recruitment website, at university campus events and through recruitment agencies that specialise in diversity.
Payments for internships in 2009 are £350 per week in London and £300 per week outside London.
The Department also intends to be part of the 'Graduate Talent Pool' programme that has been developed by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills.
Education Maintenance Allowance
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much his Department spent on education maintenance allowance for (a) 16, (b) 17, (c) 18 and (d) 19 year olds in the most recent year for which figures are available. [287528]
Mr. Iain Wright: The Department spent a total of £532.9 million on the education maintenance allowance in the academic year 2007/08. Information on how much was spent on education maintenance allowance is not broken down by age.
Education Maintenance Allowance: Morecambe
Geraldine Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many students in post-16 education in Morecambe and Lunesdale are in receipt of education maintenance allowance. [288363]
Mr. Iain Wright: This is a matter for the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) who operate the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) for the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF). Geoffrey Russell the LSC's Chief Executive, will write to the hon. Member with the information requested and a copy of his reply will be placed in the House Libraries.
Education: Morecambe
Geraldine Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much capital expenditure from the public purse there has been in the education sector in Morecambe and Lunesdale constituency since 1997. [288445]
Mr. Coaker: The Department allocates much of its capital resources to local authority areas. Information by constituency is not held centrally. Support for capital investment in schools in Lancashire is shown in the following table.
| £ million | |
| Financial year | Schools |
| (1) Includes a PFI project of £13.4 million. (2) Includes Primary Capital Programme. | |
In addition, Lancashire has a Building Schools for the Future wave 1 project with an indicative allocation of £77.9 million of conventional funding and £254.3 million of PFI credits.
Educational Visits
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many school educational visits to (a) national museums and (b) English Heritage sites there have been in each of the last five years. [288523]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: Information is not collected centrally on school visits made to museums and English Heritage sites by primary and secondary schools in the UK.
Evolution: Curriculum
Dr. Evan Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what assessment he made of the merits of including learning about evolution in the scientific and technological understanding area of learning of the proposed primary curriculum; and if he will make a statement. [288165]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: The proposed scientific and technological understanding area of learning was developed by a wide range of key stakeholders, including primary head teachers, teachers, subject specialists and learned societies. It contains the scientific and technological knowledge, skills and understanding stakeholders considered to be essential learning for children aged 5 to 11.
The proposals are subject to a consultation exercise that closes on 24 July 2009. The consultation is available at
We will take final decisions on the proposals for a new primary curriculum in the autumn.
Foster Care
Jim Dobbin: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many fostered children returned home after a period in care in the latest period for which figures are available. [288310]
Dawn Primarolo: Of the 12,600 children who ceased to be looked after during the year ending 31 March 2008 and were on a foster placement on ceasing, 7,000 returned home to live with parents or relatives with other parental responsibility.
Further information about looked after children can be found in our publication 'Children looked after in England (including adoption and care leavers) year ending 31 March 2008', which is available on the Department's website via the following link. Table D1 gives a breakdown of the number of children who ceased to be looked after by reason episode ceased and table D2 shows the number who ceased to be looked after by their placement on ceasing.
Jim Dobbin: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) how many children were placed in foster (a) homes and (b) placements outside their borough of residence on the latest date for which figures are available; [288314]
(2) how many children were in foster care on the latest date for which figures are available. [288315]
Dawn Primarolo: Information on how many children were placed in foster placements outside the boundary of the responsible local authority can be found in table A6 in the excel link labelled (1st set of additional tables)
Information on how many children were in foster care can be found in table A3 in the excel link labelled (National tables A1 to H1 from the SFR)
GCE A-level
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many pupils sat an A-level in (a) media studies, (b) psychology, (c) law, (d) mathematics, (e) physics and (f) history in each type of school or college in each year since 1997. [286384]
Mr. Coaker: The information is presented in the following tables and covers students aged 16 to 18 attempting GCE A level examinations during the academic year in question.
| Media Studies | ||||||||
| GCE A level entries in media/film/TV studies by institution type | ||||||||
| Comprehensive | Selective | Modern | Other maintained | Independent | Sixth Form college | Other FE college | All schools and colleges | |
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |