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14 Sep 2009 : Column 2116W—continued
Schools: Hendon
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families which schools in Hendon have received central government capital funds other than devolved formula capital since 1997; how much each received in each year; for what purpose the grant was allocated in each year; and what the percentage difference was between capital expenditure on such schools in 1996-97 and 2009-10. [291060]
Mr. Coaker: The Department allocates much of its capital resources on a local authority area basis. It then relies on the local authority to prioritise resources between schools, including any further resource available locally. Accordingly, records on the schools in Hendon which have received funding since 1997, and their purposes, are not held centrally and would be held locally by Barnet local authority. Allocations to Barnet between 1996-97 and 2009-10 are set out in the following table.
| £ million | |
The allocation figures show the year the financial commitment was made by the Department. The £69.7 million in 2006-07 includes a Building Schools for the Future pathfinder allocation and an Academy, and the £40.3 million in 2009-10 includes an advance of funding brought forward from 2010-11 as part of the Government's fiscal stimulus.
Special Educational Needs
Mr. Pelling: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families when Ofsted plan to report on their review of special educational needs. [291020]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: Ofsted's review of special educational needs and disabilities is planned to report in summer 2010. Further details about the review can be found at:
Mr. Pelling: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families if he will commission research into educational provision for children in each category of special educational needs. [291021]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: The Department for Children Schools and Families currently has an active programme of research across the special educational needs code of practice.
Research currently under way includes a project which is exploring the apparent variation in the prevalence of children with SEN, how they are classified in terms of both condition and Code of Practice stage of support, and the provision of services to support them, with a view to understanding how a more equitable service offer can be supported. We also have a programme of research under way which aims to improve the evidence
base relating to developing services for children and young people with speech, language and communication needs.
We are currently commissioning a formative and summative evaluation of the Achievement for All project and the approaches strategies, approaches and tools used within it, as well as an evaluation of a current programme to raise awareness of British Sign Language (BSL) and for increasing specialist work force able to provide courses in BSL being implemented in two pilot areas.
We also recently published a qualitative research study looking at parental confidence in the special educational needs assessment, statement and tribunal system.
Research projects funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families are published at:
Teachers: Recruitment
David Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many teaching appointments were made in England in the most recent year for which figures are available; and what percentage of these appointments were newly qualified teachers. [291125]
Mr. Coaker: The information is not available in the format requested.
Home Department
Police Training College: Cwmbran
Mr. Paul Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has for the former site of the Police Training College in Cwmbran. [288898]
Mr. Straw: I have been asked to reply.
Consideration is being given to disposal of the former Police Training College at Cwmbran, which is currently owned by the National Offender Management Service.
Energy and Climate Change
Departmental Manpower
Jo Swinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what percentage of employees in his Department are (a) women and (b) men; and what the average hourly pay of (i) male and (ii) female employees is. [288304]
Joan Ruddock [holding answer 20 July 2009]: The percentage split is:
| Percentage | |
The average hourly rate of pay for male and female employees is not available.
The relatively new Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has been in existence since October 2008, and consists of posts taken from the former Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) and from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).
Since its creation, DECC has continued to use the pay provisions of its parent Departments. As a consequence, no separate DECC information on hourly pay rates is available, and could only be obtained by an exercise involving a review of the total HR systems and payrolls for both BERR and DEFRA. Therefore the information could be obtained only at disproportionate cost to the Department. The effort required to administer your request would exceed the financial limit prescribed of £700, which represents the estimated cost of determining whether the Department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information.
For information on former BERR and DEFRA staffing issues, please see the Annual Civil Service Employment Survey statistics published by the Office for National Statistics. These can be found at the following website:
These statistics are collected from the Annual Civil Service Employment Survey, but please note that the ONS collects the annual gross salary of civil servants and does not produce hourly rates of pay. The latest published statistics are for 31 March 2008, and consequently do not feature stats for DECC.
Electricity
Mr. Evennett: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what recent assessment he has made of the level of vulnerability of the electricity supply network to malicious damage. [290927]
Joan Ruddock [holding answer 9 September 2009]: Electricity companies have a legal obligation to ensure their network is designed and maintained to protect the public and consumers from the dangers of electricity and provide quality and continuity of supply. These obligations are contained in the Electricity Safety, Quality and Continuity Regulations 2002 and enforced by DECC.
It is the responsibility of distribution companies to assess and manage the risks associated with the security of their network, including the prevention of unauthorised access to their network assets, and to put forward expenditure forecasts to Ofgem for an appropriate level of expenditure to meet their obligations. This is done on a five yearly basis as part of the price control review process. Ofgem has a role in evaluating this expenditure to ensure that the costs are efficient and is currently conducting this cost assessment process for the fifth price control review process which is due to take effect from 1 April 2010.
Mr. Evennett: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many incidents of malicious damage to the electricity network in the UK have been recorded in the last five years. [290930]
Joan Ruddock
[holding answer 9 September 2009]: Since 1 April 2004 there have been nine supply interruptions reportable under the Electricity Safety, Quality and
Continuity Regulations 2002 which were classified as an act of vandalism or unauthorised operation of equipment.
Energy: Prices
Mr. Charles Kennedy: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what assessment he has made of the effects of the conditions imposed by domestic energy suppliers on customers on social tariffs on their ability to change supplier; and if he will make a statement. [290884]
Joan Ruddock [holding answer 9 September 2009]: All customers are free to switch at any time provided that there is no outstanding debt on their account. There are no additional conditions for customers who are on their supplier's social tariff.
Fuel Poverty
Mr. Charles Kennedy: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what recent estimate he has made of the number of households designated as being in fuel poverty which use (a) heating oil, (b) liquefied petroleum gas, (c) mains gas and (d) other systems of heating; and if he will make a statement. [290883]
Joan Ruddock [holding answer 9 September 2009]: The most recently available fuel poverty statistics relate to 2006. Figures for the number of households in fuel poverty in England are produced from analysis of the English House Condition Survey.
| Number of households in fuel poverty | |
| Thousand | |
Gas and Electricity Markets Authority
Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what assessment his Department has made of the merits of extending the remit of Ofgem to include responsibility for regulation of the bottled gas market. [290656]
Joan Ruddock [holding answer 9 September 2009]: The Gas Act 1986 (as amended), which among other things set up the gas regulatory bodies, exempted liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from its provisions. The Gas Act principally addressed the issues of setting up a regulatory regime to ensure that the national transmission system for gas users was not exploited. In contrast, there is no natural monopoly in the transport of LPG by road. The LPG market operates with a number of distributors competing for supply using alternative supply sources. In that sense, it is broadly similar to other products such as diesel and petrol.
The Department has not therefore made an assessment of the merits of extending the remit of Ofgem to include responsibility for regulation of the market for LPG. My officials however have had meetings with
Consumer Focus to contribute to its assessment of the market in Great Britain for the supply of LPG and heating oil for domestic use.
Defence
Afghanistan: Peacekeeping Operations
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether the reported (a) 84 per cent. increase in helicopter hours and (b) 60 per cent. increase in the number of helicopters available to British forces in Afghanistan includes helicopters provided by coalition forces transporting UK armed forces. [289114]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The 60 per cent. increase in the number of helicopters and the 84 per cent. increase in helicopter hours available to UK forces in Afghanistan relate to the period from November 2006 to April 2009; these increases do not include helicopters or helicopter hours provided by other coalition forces.
Ann Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence for what reasons the journalist Michael Yon is no longer embedded with British armed forces in Afghanistan. [290966]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: Opportunities to embed with Task Force Helmand are in high demand from across the media-national, regional, print, broadcast, specialist and new media. It is not possible to meet all requests and slots must be time-limited to ensure that the opportunities are shared as widely as possible. A normal embed for a national news organisation will last on average around two to three weeks, including time for travel.
Michael Yon had been embedded with British forces on a number of occasions before his recent visit-twice in Iraq in 2007, and once in Afghanistan in 2008. His latest embed had been scheduled to last for two weeks but it was extended to take account of delays to his arrival.
In all, his stay was extended twice and he was embedded for five weeks-much longer than is normally the case, and longer than had been agreed with him before he went. He was facilitated by British forces in a number of locations and given a high level of access both to the operations and to our personnel. At the end of this five-week period Task Force Helmand ended his embed as they were no longer able to support it given their other commitments, including other media visits.
Ann Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what percentage of (a) Jackal, (b) Panther and (c) Viking vehicles in Afghanistan are fully operational. [290967]
Mr. Quentin Davies: I am withholding this information as its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the capability, effectiveness and security of our armed forces in Afghanistan.
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