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3 Nov 2009 : Column 940W—continued
Chris Bryant: We have called on China to review urgently the cases of those who remain under sentence of death for their alleged involvement in last year's unrest. The fact that independent observers were not allowed at these trials, and that restrictions remain on access to Tibetan areas, means that we have been unable to verify that the human rights of the defendants were respected, or that the trials were free from political interference. This, together with reports we have received from non-governmental organisations, gives us cause for real concern. We have also raised our concerns through the European Union.
In the statement that I released on 23 October 2009 condemning the recent executions in Lhasa of two Tibetans (Mr. Lobsang Gyaltsen and Mr. Loyak), I made clear that while we respect China's right to bring those responsible for the violence in Tibet last year to justice, the UK opposes the death penalty in all circumstances, and we have consistently raised our concerns about lack of due process.
I expressed my deep concern about all the death penalty cases during my visit to Tibet in September and urged the authorities not to carry out the death sentence. We will continue to monitor reports on these and other individual cases, and will request further information about a selection of cases of concern at the next round of the UK/China Human Rights Dialogue.
United Nations Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Aylesbury of 21 October 2009, Official Report, columns 1516-17, on the UN Convention on Physical Protection of Nuclear Material, if he will delay the planned timetable for ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material until the relevant Select Committees of the House have had an opportunity to scrutinise the implications for United Kingdom nuclear policy of the amendments contained in Cm 7685. [296518]
Chris Bryant: The Department for Energy and Climate Change, which holds the Government policy lead on the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material, has confirmed that it has not received a request from a Select Committee to extend the 21 sitting day period, therefore the time period for scrutiny will end on 4 November 2009.
Children, Schools and Families
Academies Enterprise Trust: Finance
Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families pursuant to the answer of 9 September 2009, Official Report, columns 1930-31W, on the Academies Enterprise Trust, what funding was provided by each academy to the Academies Enterprise Trust in (a) 2008-09 and (b) 2009-10. [296987]
Mr. Coaker: We do not hold information on any funding provided by academies to the Academies Enterprise Trust.
Academies: Sponsorship
Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families if he will make it a requirement for organisations in charge of academies to publish annual financial accounts, including details of salaries; and if he will make a statement. [296986]
Mr. Coaker: All academy trusts (which includes charitable trusts running more than one academy) are required to publish annual accounts in accordance with the Companies Act 2006. The Charity Commission has published a Statement of Recommended Practice which clarifies how charities should prepare their accounts in order to reflect these legal requirements. The Statement of Recommended Practice states that charities which are subject to a statutory audit (this includes academy trusts) should include a note in their accounts disclosing the number of employees whose emoluments were £60,000 or above, presented in £10,000 bandings. The Department expects academy trusts to comply with the Statement of Recommended Practice.
Anti-Semitism
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many meetings of the cross-departmental working group on tackling anti-Semitism his Department's official responsible for pupil safety and school responsibility has attended. [295894]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: There have been 10 meetings of the Inter-Departmental Working Group to Tackle Anti-Semitism since June 2007, of which seven have been attended by officials from the Department for Children, Schools and Families. Officials advising on security in maintained schools have not attended but have briefed the secretariat directly or through their colleagues. A security official is expected to attend the next meeting. During the last two years DCSF Ministers have directly discussed concerns about security in Jewish schools on several occasions with, among others, representatives of the Community Security Trust and the Board of Deputies of British Jews. Relevant decisions have taken such concerns into account.
Children in Care
Mr. Martyn Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many children of prisoners were taken into care by social services in (a) 2007, (b) 2008 and (c) 2009. [295205]
Mr. Coaker: The requested information is not held centrally by the Department.
Children: Databases
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families by what date local authorities are expected to have completed shielding arrangements in respect of ContactPoint. [297332]
Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 2 November 2009]: All local authorities confirmed completion of the initial shielding phase of ContactPoint in May. However, the shielding of individual records is an ongoing activity. Additionally, local authorities will carry out regular (six-monthly) reviews of shielded records to ensure that the retention of the shield is still appropriate.
Children: Day Care
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much he expects his Department to spend on the Graduate Leader Fund in (a) 2009-10 and (b) 2010-11; and if he will make a statement. [296948]
Dawn Primarolo: The total amount for the Graduate Leader Fund, available over three years between 2008 and 2011, is £305 million. This is made up of £232 million for settings, routed via local authorities, and £73 million for the Children's Workforce Development Council (CWDC) to deliver Early Years Professional Status training and accreditation. Of the £305 million, the Department allocated £99 million in 2009-10 and currently plans to allocate £129 million in 2010-11. These allocations are included within the wider main revenue block of the Sure Start Early Years and Childcare Grant, which is ring-fenced to be spent on supporting the delivery of the Government's Ten Year Strategy for Childcare and the local authority duties set out in the Childcare Act 2006.
Local authorities have the discretion to decide how much is spent on each area of activity, such as the Graduate Leader Fund, in line with local priorities, providing it contributes to the early years experience of children in their area.
Children's Centres: Hertfordshire
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families pursuant to the answer of 12 October 2009, Official Report, column 204W, on children's centres: Hertfordshire, how many proposed centres planned to open by that date were not operational on that date. [296808]
Dawn Primarolo: At the end of September 2009 Hertfordshire local authority had a total of 55 designated Sure Start Children's Centres, with a further 27 planned to be designated by March 2010, in order to provide universal coverage of children's centre services for children under five and their families. Of the 55 designated centres, seven are located in Hemel Hempstead and six in Dacorum. All centres due for designation were designated and have been in operation since September 2009 as planned.
Departmental Public Expenditure
Mr. Todd: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) what steps his Department is taking to implement the efficiency recommendations of the Operational Efficiency programme relating to his Department; [296048]
(2) which Minister in his Department has been assigned responsibility for overseeing the delivery of value for money in his Department; whether his
Department has established a public sector reform team to implement service reforms; and what training is available to (a) Ministers and (b) officials of his Department in respect of the delivery of value for money savings; [296051]
(3) what steps his Department is taking to implement the efficiency recommendations of the Operational Efficiency programme relating to his Department; and what training is available to (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department. [296061]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: Responsibility for the Department's value for money (VfM) remit has been assigned to me. This will include oversight of our CSR07 Efficiency programme and the additional Operational Efficiency programme (OEP) efficiencies agreed at Budget 2009. The Department has not provided specific training, but she receives regular briefing on progress.
Both of these programmes are managed by a value for money team who co-ordinate activity across the Department, throughout its NDPBs and within the sectors in which they operate.
Progress towards targets set for the CSR07 Efficiency programme and the additional Operational Efficiency programme (OEP) will be stated in the 2009 autumn performance report in December 2009.
Departmental Telephone Services
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families if he will consider the merits of securing accreditation of his Department's helplines to the Helplines Association's quality standard; and if he will make a statement. [295730]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: All of the DCSF telephone helplines on which we hold information centrally were contracted through COI (Central Office of Information).
All DCSF helplines run through the COI Framework have one or more of the following accreditations: Contact Centre Association (CCA), COPC (Customer Operations Performance Centre) and/or Customer Excellence. It is also mandatory for them to either have or be planning to attain (in the next 12 months) the standards ISO9001 (quality management) and the ISO27001 (information security).
There are no plans to use the Helpline Association's quality standard.
Digital Communications Unit
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much has been spent by his Department on its Digital Communications Unit in each year since its inception; how many people are employed by the unit; and what the unit's functions are. [295508]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: The Digital Communications Unit was created in 2008. The programme budget in the year 2008-2009 was £12.5 million and in 2009-10 planned expenditure of £10.8 million.
The number of full-time equivalent members of staff engaged in the Digital Communications Unit is currently 15 with no vacant posts, employed at a cost of £713,387 for 2008-09, with planned expenditure for 2009-10 being £705,553 The remit of the unit covers all online services from the Department including elements of Direct Gov, Teachers TV and essential email communications and phone line support services to local authorities, Regional Government Offices and to all schools.
Education: Finance
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families pursuant to the answer of 20 October 2009, Official Report, columns 1408-9W, on education: finance, how much of the allocation to Making Good Progress will be spent on the single level tests; and if he will make a statement. [296264]
Mr. Coaker: The Department has allocated a total of £5.22 million to the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency during the financial year 2009-10 to develop and administer single level tests (SLTs). This covers funding for SLTs as part of the Making Good Progress pilot, which ran until July 2009, and for the extended SLT pilot, announced in the Department's response to the Expert Group on Assessment's report. Funding has not been confirmed yet for the financial year 2010-11.
In addition the Department is allocating in 2009-10 a participation allowance to schools participating in the extended SLT pilot of £2 per pupil to support participation in evaluation activity. £0.4 million has been allocated in this financial year for the independent evaluation of the MGP pilot (which includes SLTs) and of the extended SLT pilot.
Family Courts: Guardians
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what recent representations he has received on the adequacy of supply of guardians in the family courts; and if he will make a statement. [296505]
Dawn Primarolo: The Department is aware of issues regarding the adequacy of supply of guardians in the family courts, and my officials are working with CAFCASS to address delays in allocating cases to guardians.
A sharp rise in the number of care applications since December 2008 has put pressure on the family justice system in general, and the supply of guardians in particular. As of 30 September 2009, CAFCASS had a work load of 13,355 public law cases, 979 of which were awaiting allocation to a guardian.
A number of steps have been taken to reduce the number of unallocated cases. This Department recently provided £1.6 million of additional funding to CAFCASS in this financial year to tackle the backlog in the London area. CAFCASS itself has developed operating priorities to enable guardians to manage their work load as efficiently and effectively as possible. The President of the Family Division has also issued interim guidance, to operate until March 2010, which aims to reduce the number of cases without guardians in the family courts.
Free School Meals: Eligibility
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families if he will make it his policy to extend the provision of free school meals to families on working tax credit; and if he will make a statement. [296859]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: We have no plans to extend free school meals to families on working tax credit.
However, we are currently running a two-year pilot in three local authorities in deprived areas to test different approaches to free school meals. Wolverhampton is extending the free school meal eligibility rules to include pupils whose parents receive working tax credit and have an annual income of up to £16,040. Durham and Newham are piloting free school lunches to all primary pupils. We want to learn the lessons of those pilots before making decisions on any national extension.
GCE A-Level: Tamworth
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what average total point score was achieved by pupils taking A-level or equivalent qualifications in each school in Tamworth constituency in each of the last 10 years. [294095]
Mr. Coaker: The information can be found in the Achievement and Attainment Tables found in the House of Commons Library and published on the following website:
Figures for the 2008/09 academic year are not available until early January 2010.
Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Month
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much his Department has given to support Gypsy, Roma and Traveller month. [294897]
Mr. Coaker: Since its inception in 2008, the Department has contributed £195,000 towards the costs associated with the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller history month in June 2008 and 2009. The funding has been used to stage events around the country to raise awareness, celebrate and explore the history, culture and language of these communities, and to produce materials and resources for use in schools and local authorities. The month gives an opportunity to correct the myths, tackle the prejudice and offer a balanced view of issues facing the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities.
We have also established a Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Education Stakeholder Group, comprising representatives from all three communities. The group, in addition to offering advice, will actively engage in raising awareness and helping to change attitudes and behaviours, as well as supporting our work to improve levels of ascription, attendance, transition and attainment to Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils.
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