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16 Dec 2009 : Column 1356W—continued
Departmental Manpower
Mr. Blunt: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many staff of his Department were in its redeployment pool on 1 (a) January, (b) April, (c) July and (d) October 2009. [306719]
Mr. McFadden: The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) was created in June from the former Department for Innovation for Universities and Skills (DIUS) and former Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR). The information requested is as follows:
| Number of staff | |
Departmental Training
Mr. Baron: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many overseas training courses were attended by his Department's civil servants in the latest period for which figures are available; how many civil servants attended each course; and what the total cost to the public purse was of each course. [305885]
Mr. McFadden: No training courses overseas are funded from the budgets that are held centrally within the Department. The information requested is not held centrally for training budgets that are devolved to individual units in the Department and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Graham Stuart: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many (a) away days and (b) conferences that took place outside his Department's building attended by civil servants in his Department there have been since its inception; and what the cost was of each. [307526]
Mr. McFadden: The Department does not centrally record details of (a) away days and (b) conferences that took place outside of the Department's building attended by civil servants. To obtain this information would require searching through four departmental and IT systems and entail disproportionate costs.
Away days are important for bringing people together, team building, reviewing work priorities and development of staff.
Departmental Written Questions
Mr. Harper: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many and what percentage of Parliamentary Questions tabled for written answer by his Department on a named day in session 2008-09 received a substantive answer on that day. [307536]
Mr. McFadden: I refer the hon. Member to my answer to the hon. Member for Glasgow, East (John Mason) on 9 December 2009, Official Report, column 507W.
Digital Broadcasting
John Battle: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how his Department (a) defines and (b) measures digital inequality; and if he will make a statement. [306996]
Mr. Timms: This Department does not define digital inequality. Instead, we define digital inclusion as
"the best use of digital technology, either directly or indirectly to improve the lives and life chances of all citizens, particularly the most disadvantaged, and the places in which they live".
On measurement, Government stated in the Digital Britain White Paper its intention to evaluate the work of the Consortium for the Promotion of Digital Participation using the following metrics:
1. Reach: access; number of households online, and numbers using the internet outside the home;
2. Breadth of engagement: modes of usage and consumption (communication, retail, content consumed, public services used);
3. Depth of engagement: user contributions, comments, joining networks, user generated content, self publishing, content creation, photos uploaded and shared, etc.; and
4. Social and economic impact: particularly the impact on economic recovery and benefits for disadvantaged groups and communities.
Fire Services: Working Hours
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what recent assessment has been made of the effect of implementation of the European Working Time Directive on (a) full-time and (b) retained fire-fighters. [307088]
Mr. McFadden: In accordance with usual procedure, impact assessments were prepared on the Working Time Regulations 1998 and their extension in 2003 to previously excluded sectors. The Government are well aware of the value of working time flexibility for the labour market in general and firefighting services in particular. The individual right to opt-out from the maximum 48 hour week is important not only for firefighters working the retained duty system (RDS), many of whom work full time for their primary employer, but also for whole-time firefighters who work the flexible duty system or provide RDS cover. This was one of the reasons the Government fought for and secured the maintenance of the opt-out throughout recent negotiations on the revision of the Working Time Directive.
Graduates
Michael Gove: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many and what proportion of students graduated from university with a degree in (a) chemistry, (b) mathematics, (c) physics and (d) engineering in (i) 1990, (ii) 1997, (iii) 2003 and (iv) the last year for which figures are available. [307329]
Mr. Lammy: The latest available figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) are shown in the table. Figures for the 2008/09 academic year will be available in January.
Figures for 1990/91 academic year are not available; the earliest figures available are for the 1994/95 academic year which have been provided as an alternative.
Due to a change in the classification of subject and the way students are allocated in the 2002/03 academic year, earlier years are not directly comparable. This is demonstrated in the table by a break in the time series.
Graduates: Work Experience
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how much his Department has spent creating and maintaining the (a) Graduate Talent Pool and (b) Our future, its in our hands website. [307770]
Mr. Lammy: The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has spent £158,000 (inc VAT) on creation and maintenance of the Graduate Talent Pool website.
The "Our future. Its in our hands" website is owned and managed by the Learning and Skills Council. I have asked the chief executive of the Learning and Skills Council to write to you separately to provide an answer to that part of the question.
Higher Education
Jeff Ennis: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many students from Barnsley East and Mexborough constituency attended university courses in each year since 1996-97. [307161]
Mr. Lammy: The latest information is provided in the table. Figures for the 2008/09 academic year will be available in January.
| Enrolments( 1) from Barnsley East and Mexborough constituency( 2) UK higher education institutions( 3) -Academic years 1996/97 to 2007/08 | |
| Academic year | Enrolments |
| (1) Covers undergraduate and postgraduate students of all ages enrolled on full-time and part-time courses (2) The table does not include enrolments where the constituency of the student cannot be established due to missing or invalid information. (3) Excludes the Open university due to inconsistencies in their coding of students across the time series. Note: Figures are on a snapshot basis as at 1 December and are rounded to the nearest five. Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). | |
Higher Education: Leeds
John Battle: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many students from Leeds city area (a) attended university courses and (b) received student loans to attend university courses in each year since 1996-97. [306593]
Mr. Lammy: The latest figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) on enrolments from the Leeds local authority area are as follows:
| Table 1: Enrolments( 1) from Leeds local authority, UK higher education institutions( 2) | |
| Academic year | Enrolments |
| (1) Covers enrolments to both full-time and part-time undergraduate and postgraduate courses. This includes study on all years of courses, not just new entrants. (2 )Excludes the Open university due to inconsistencies in their data across the time series. Note: Figures are based on a snapshot count as at 1 December to maintain consistency across the time series. Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). | |
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