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24 Nov 2009 : Column 96W—continued
This data relates to self employed contractors employed in care cases (section 31 cases). C1 (Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire) and N4 (North and East Yorkshire and Humberside) have not allocated any new care cases to self employed contractors in the period covered in the table.
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what recent representations he has received on the caseloads of guardians employed by the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service. [301006]
Dawn Primarolo: The allocation and management of guardians' caseloads is a matter for CAFCASS. The Secretary of State has received approximately 20 representations on CAFCASS performance in the last six months. A minority of these refer to the caseloads of guardians employed by CAFCASS.
Family Intervention Projects
James Brokenshire: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what recent estimate he has made of the number of families who have been subject to support from family interventions projects; what funding his Department has committed to provide to family intervention projects in (a) 2009-10 and (b) 2010-11; and how such funding is to be allocated between local authorities. [300243]
Dawn Primarolo: Data published in November 2009 shows that 2,225 families have received support from a Family Intervention project as at 31 March 2009.
The Government allocated £35.5 million for the projects in 2009-10 and are planning to allocate £57 million Government funding in 2010-11. In addition there is anticipated match funding of £9.5 million from Registered Social Landlords, Housing Associations and Youth Offending Teams. Funding has been allocated to local authorities using a range of criteria including levels of antisocial behaviour, youth crime, deprivation, poverty and number of children.
GCSE
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what assessment he has made of the effect of modular GCSE courses on the level of examination grades awarded; and if he will make a statement. [300698]
Mr. Coaker: There is nothing in the regulatory criteria governing GCSEs that requires GCSEs to be modular: it is for awarding bodies to decide whether to develop qualifications in this way.
It is for Ofqual as the independent regulator to ensure that the standard of GCSEs is maintained year on year. They are engaged in work with awarding bodies to make sure that this is the case where the awarding body has chosen a modular approach.
National Curriculum Tests: Contracts
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what progress has been made on the Key Stage 2 test contract for 2010; and if he will estimate the cost to the public purse of this contract. [300701]
Mr. Coaker:
The Secretary of State has approved the QCDA's choice of Edexcel as the test operations contractor to deliver key stage 2 national curriculum tests in 2010. Edexcel has a strong track record in delivery of tests
and exams and successfully delivered key stage 2 results to schools and pupils this year. The value of the contract for the 2010 tests is £23 million.
Primary Education: Lancashire
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what recent representations he has received on proposed primary school closures in West Lancashire. [301416]
Mr. Coaker: None. School place planning is the statutory responsibility of individual local authorities (LAs). This includes making sure there are sufficient school places, and also removing surplus places when required. To facilitate this LAs have the power to propose the closure of maintained schools.
Where LAs propose to make any changes to local school provision, including closures, they must follow a statutory process, which is then decided under established local decision making arrangements. Ministers have no direct role in the process.
Sure Start Programme
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) whether he has plans to extend the operation of the Sure Start programme in (a) Chorley and (b) Lancashire; [301418]
(2) how much his Department has spent on the Sure Start programme in Chorley since the introduction of that programme. [301476]
Dawn Primarolo: Lancashire currently has 73 designated Sure Start Children's Centres offering access to services to approximately 48,800 children under five and their families. Of these centres, six are in the Chorley constituency, with a combined reach of approximately 4,000 children under five and their families. Lancashire is planning a further six centres to be delivered by 2010, with two of these in Chorley.
The Department allocates capital and revenue funding for children's centres and their predecessor Sure Start Local programmes to local authorities. It is for local authorities to decide how to allocate funding between individual centres. The following table contains details of the Sure Start Children's Centre expenditure (both revenue and capital) for Lancashire for the years since the inception of the Sure Start programme.
| Lancashire Sure Start Children's Centre funding (Capital and Revenue) programme allocation table | |
| Capital and revenue allocations | Children's Centre expenditure/Lancashire |
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what his most recent assessment is of the outcomes of the Sure Start programme; and if he will make a statement. [301477]
Dawn Primarolo: I refer the hon. Member to the reply given on 10 November 2009, Official Report, column 354W, to my hon. Friend the Member for Wirral, South (Ben Chapman).
Teachers: Training
Mr. Crabb: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what timetable has been set for the review by the Training and Development Agency for Schools of the qualified teacher status standards. [301431]
Mr. Coaker: Beginning a review of the standards for qualified teacher status has been agreed as one of the operational priorities for the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) for 2010-11. We are currently discussing the TDA's remit for next year, including the detailed timetable for the standards review.
Teenage Pregnancy
Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families whether he has made an assessment of the merits of collecting more detailed information on pregnancies involving one or more underage parents. [300273]
Dawn Primarolo: The conception data supplied by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) are derived by combining birth registration data and abortion notifications. It includes the number of conceptions, the rate of conceptions per 1,000 females and the proportion of conceptions that result in an abortion.
For the purposes of measuring progress against the Government's Teenage Pregnancy Strategy, the under-18 conception rate is used. This is expressed as a rate per 1,000 females aged 15-17. Using rates rather than numbers takes account of changes in the 15-17 female population size and therefore provides a more accurate picture of the proportion of the under-18 population that became pregnant in a given year.
Conception data can be disaggregated to ward level, allowing local areas to target their local strategies in high-rate neighbourhoods. Ward-level data are combined over three years, to comply with ONS's confidentiality rules which do not permit abortion numbers of less than 10 to be published, in order to protect patient confidentiality.
We do not have any plans to change these data collection arrangements.
Between 1998 (the baseline year for the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy) and 2007 (the latest year for which data are available), the under-18 conception rate has fallen by 10.7 per cent; within the overall decline in under-18 conceptions, teenage births have fallen by 23.3 per cent. to their lowest level for over 15 years.
Truancy: Fines
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many parents have been fined as a result of their children not attending school in (a) Lewes constituency, (b) Sussex and (c) the South East in each of the last five years. [301281]
Mr. Coaker: The Department collects data at local authority level on the number of penalty notices issued to parents for their child's unauthorised absence from school. Information is not available at constituency level. These data have been collected since 1 September 2004 and the latest data available relate to the period to 31 August 2008. For each of these four years, the data for Sussex and the south-east are:
| Number | ||
| South-east | Sussex | |
Full penalty notice data can be found at:
United Church Schools Trust
Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families whether his Department has funded sponsorship funds operated by United Church Schools Trust. [301251]
Mr. Coaker: The Department does not provide any funding to United Church Schools Trust (UCST). United Learning Trust (ULT) is a subsidiary charity of UCST and sponsors 17 academies. The Department does not provide any funding to sponsors but to the not-for-profit charitable companies they establish to set up and run the academies. Sponsors, including ULT also provide funding to these charitable companies.
Treasury
EU Budget
Mr. Heathcoat-Amory: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his Department's projections are for the level of the UK's (a) contributions to and (b) receipts from the EU budget in each calendar year from 2009 to 2013 inclusive, in pounds sterling, (i) before and (ii) after abatement. [300979]
Ian Pearson: Table 3.2 of the European Community Finances White Paper of July 2009 (Cm 7640) gives the latest projections for the UK's contributions to and receipts from the EC budget, including the value of our abatement, up to the financial year 2010-11. In line with all other public expenditure estimates, the Treasury does not currently publish forecasts beyond 2010-11. As usual, these figures will, where necessary, be updated in the forthcoming pre-Budget report.
Mr. Heathcoat-Amory: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what forecast his Department has made of UK (a) contributions to and (b) receipts from the EU budget in pounds sterling for each calendar year from 2014 to 2020 inclusive (i) before and (ii) after abatement. [301009]
Ian Pearson: In line with all other public expenditure estimates, the Treasury does not currently publish forecasts beyond 2010-11.
Mr. Heathcoat-Amory: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent discussions his Department's officials have had with (a) other EU member states and (b) EU institutions on the EU Financial Framework 2014-20. [301010]
Ian Pearson: HM Treasury representatives have discussions with EU counterparts on a variety of issues on a regular basis. Formal negotiations on the next Financial Framework have not yet started.
European Investment Bank
Dr. Cable: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what steps his Department has taken to help UK businesses apply for European Investment Bank funds. [300364]
Ian Pearson: The Government are committed to helping UK businesses access European investment Bank (EIB) funding, whether direct loans for large projects and businesses or intermediated loans for small businesses and projects.
In particular, over the last 12 months the Government have:
Announced that UK small businesses stand to benefit from up to £4 billion of lending from the EIB between 2008 and 2011 through intermediating banks.
Called for the EIB to double its financial support for research and development programmes in the automotive sector, by making available €8 billion over 2009 and 2010 through the European Clean Transport Facility.
Announced that UK renewable and energy projects stand to benefit from up to £4 billion of new capital from the EIB, including a specific £700 million intermediated lending scheme for small and medium sized renewable energy projects.
However, while the Government can play a facilitating role, businesses must apply directly to the EIB (or UK banks in the case of intermediated lending) and applications are assessed according to the EIB's (or the relevant UK banks') own internal appraisal processes.
Israel: EU External Trade
Dr. Starkey: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether HM Revenue and Customs has had contact with its Dutch counterpart in relation to its investigation into whether Ahava products originate in whole or in part from the Palestinian Occupied Territories. [300307]
Mr. Timms: There has been no contact.
Dr. Starkey: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what (a) volume and (b) monetary value of Ahava products was imported to the UK in the last 12 months; and what proportion of such imports was eligible for the trading preference under the EU-Israel Trade Agreement. [300308]
Mr. Timms: Commercial confidentiality makes it inappropriate to provide this information for an individual supplier.
Non-Domestic Rates: Parking
Mr. Swire: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what criteria the Valuation Office Agency uses to determine the rateable value of reserved parking spaces. [301567]
Ian Pearson: The methodology is set out in rating manual volume 5 section 200 for car parks and in the individual practice note issued for each five yearly revaluation. These can be viewed on the Valuation Office Agency's website:
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