| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
11 Mar 2010 : Column 456W—continued
Departmental Taxis
Ian Stewart: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what contracts his Department has with private hire taxi companies; and what expenditure his Department has incurred on such contracts in each year since his Department was established. [300837]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: The Department for Children, Schools and Families was created in June 2007. The Department does not currently have any contracts with private hire taxi companies but does have an arrangement with the Government Car Despatch Agency (GCDA). Any other expenditure incurred would be through account arrangements or through spot hire.
Expenditure incurred for each year with companies through accounts or spot hire since the Department was established is as follows. These figures also include expenditure (GCDA).
| £ | |
Stroud
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families if he will set out, with statistical information related as directly as possible to Stroud constituency, the effects on that constituency of the policies and actions of his Department and its predecessors since 2000. [321479]
Mr. Coaker: Since 2000 the Government have transformed education and child care with improved outcomes for children and young people. Figures showing the performance at Key Stage 2 and GCSE and equivalents in Stroud are given in the following tables:
| Key Stage 2 results of 11-year-old pupils attending schools( 1 ) in the Stroud constituency | |||
| Percentage of pupils gaining level 4 and above | 2000 | 2009( 2) | Percentage point improvement 2000-09 |
| (1) Includes pupils attending all maintained schools (including academies and city technology colleges). (2) Revised data. Source: School and College Achievement and Attainment Tables. | |||
| GCSE and equivalents( 1) results for pupils( 2) attending schools( 3) in the Stroud constituency: | |||
| Percentage of pupils gaining | 2000 | 2009( 4) | Percentage point improvement 2000-09 |
| (1) From 2004 results incorporate GCSEs, GNVQs and a range of other qualifications approved pre-16. Prior to 2004 results are based on GCSEs and GNVQs only. (2) From 2006 figures are for pupils at the end of Key Stage 4. Prior to 2006 results are based on pupils aged 15. (3) Includes pupils attending all maintained schools (including academies and city technology colleges) and from 2000 does not include pupils recently arrived from overseas. (4) Revised data. (5) England figures also include independent schools as well as hospital schools and PRUs. Source: School and College Achievement and Attainment Tables. | |||
Further information by constituency is provided within the Department's "In Your Area" website available at:
Information available at constituency level includes the number of specialist schools, number of operational academies, number of teaching assistants and other support staff, number of teachers and pupil:teacher ratios. Where information is not available at constituency level it has been provided at local authority level.
Additional information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Support for All: The Families and Relationships
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much has been allocated to fund specialist relationship counselling services for families with disabled children as referred to in the Green Paper, "Support for All: the Families and Relationships" in the last 12 months. [318284]
Dawn Primarolo: The funding for the proposals outlined in "Support for All: the Families and Relationships" Green Paper has been allocated from current budgets. We have provided over £3.5 million of strategic funding to a range of third sector organisations, such as Relate, Marriage Care and the Asian Family Counselling Service, who provide relationship counselling for families, including those with disabled children. Over the past year, we have also provided funding of £3.1 million to support families through the recession, including £1 million to Relate for more face-to-face and telephone counselling to families, again including those with disabled children.
In addition, around £400,000 for 2010-11 has been re-prioritised from the current Aiming High for Disabled Children budget to provide specialist relationship counselling services for families with disabled children and to enhance helpline support for these families through third sector organisations.
Defence
Armed Forces: Food
Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the duration is of his Department's contract with Purple Foodservice Solutions for armed forces food supply; and when that contract will be reviewed for the purpose of inviting competitive bids. [320754]
Mr. Quentin Davies: The Ministry of Defence (MOD) food supply contract with Purple Foodservice Solutions (PFS) commenced in October 2006; it is a five-year contract with two two-year extension options. The MOD has taken up the first of these options and the contract is currently due to expire in October 2013. The MOD is considering the merits of extending the current contract with PFS against the benefits of competition.
Armed Forces: Health Services
Mr. Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many British soldiers have been treated at the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre, Headley Court in each of the last five years. [321327]
Mr. Kevan Jones: The following table presents the number of personnel from all three services treated at the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre (DMRC) Headley Court from September 2008, by patient status (in-patient/out-patient/residential patient). Patients are treated for injuries and illnesses requiring rehabilitation that have arisen as a result of both operational and non-operational circumstances.
| 2008 (September-December) | 2009 | |
| Notes: 1. An in-patient is a patient that has been admitted and allocated a ward bed. A residential patient is a patient that is on a three week rehabilitation course; they are not allocated a ward bed, but reside in dormitory style accommodation. An outpatient is a non-resident patient attending DMRC for treatment. 2. Patients include naval service personnel, Army personnel (including those from the Gibraltar Regiment), RAF personnel, and reservists. The totals shown exclude special forces and other nations service personnel. 3. The Defence Patient Tracking System (DPTS) is a live system that is constantly being updated. Therefore data are provisional and subject to change. | ||
Information on the total number of patients treated at DMRC has only been captured by the DPTS since 1 September 2008. Prior to this date only patients treated at DMRC following aero-medical evacuation to the UK were captured on the DPTS. Figures between October 2007 and August 2008 are included in monthly statistics published by MOD's Defence Analytical Services and Advice (DASA) organisation on armed forces personnel returned to the UK from Iraq and Afghanistan as a result of an injury or illness who have been treated at the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine (RCDM) Birmingham and at Headley Court. Monthly reports for the whole of 2007, 2008 and 2009 are available both in the Library of the House and on the DASA website at the following link:
Equivalent verified data prior to this date are not available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many British soldiers have been treated in Selly Oak Hospital in each of the last five years. [321331]
Mr. Kevan Jones: The Ministry of Defence's Defence Analytical Services and Advice (DASA) organisation publishes information on Armed Forces personnel returned to the UK from Iraq and Afghanistan as a result of an injury or illness, who have been treated at the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine (RCDM) Birmingham. Monthly reports covering the period October 2007 to January 2010 are available both in the Library of the House and on the DASA website at:
Equivalent verified data prior to this date are not available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
The following table offers a summary of the DASA data, showing Armed Forces personnel treated at RCDM Birmingham and the cause of their injury/illness.
| Battle injury | Non-battle injury | Natural causes | All | |
| (1 )October to December. Notes: 1. A battle injury includes those wounded as a result of hostile action. This includes injuries sustained while avoiding direct and indirect fire. A non-battle injury is any injury that is not caused by a hostile act and includes any accidental injuries such as sports injuries, road traffic accidents etc. 2. Patient totals include Naval Service personnel, Army personnel (including those from the Gibraltar Regiment), RAF personnel, and reservists. These totals exclude Special Forces, other nations' Service personnel, and patients returned from theatres other than Iraq and Afghanistan. Numbers include both in- and out-patients. 3. Some data are provisional and subject to change. | ||||
Armed Forces: Rescue Services
Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the UK's long-distance fixed-wing search and rescue capability following the withdrawal from service of the Nimrod MR2. [321289]
Bill Rammell: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 1 February 2010, Official Report, column 47W, to the hon. Member for Woodspring (Dr. Fox) and the answer I gave him on 25 February 2010, Official Report, column 678W.
Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the operational radius is for Sea King helicopters based at RAF Lossiemouth for the search and rescue task. [321291]
Bill Rammell: The maximum operational radius for the RAF Sea King Mk 3/3a is 240 nautical miles. The Sea King undertakes short range Search and Rescue tasks.
Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) what multi-agency radio communication equipment is available for RAF C-130 Hercules aircraft for communication with fishing and merchant vessels during long-range search and rescue missions; [321292]
(2) what onboard communications capability the C-130 Hercules has to co-ordinate search and rescue agencies involved in major off-shore incidents. [321322]
Bill Rammell: The Aeronautical Rescue Co-ordination Centre (ARCC), based at RAF Kinloss, is responsible for co-ordinating major off-shore incidents and multi-agency rescues. An on the scene co-ordinator may be designated, if required, by the ARCC. If appropriate, this could be an RAF aircraft.
RAF Hercules C130K and C130J have HF, UHF and VHF radios using aeronautical and marine frequency bands as standard equipment. This would enable them to communicate with and co-ordinate civil and military aircraft, ships and ground stations including the ARCC and HM Coastguard.
Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence on how many occasions a UK-based Hercules C-130 has been called out on a search and rescue mission in each of the last five years. [321324]
Bill Rammell: In the last five years a Hercules C130 aircraft has been utilised on a Search and Rescue task only once, to provide on-scene co-ordination for the rescue of a civilian casualty from a ship at sea.
Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence on (a) how many occasions and (b) for what duration search and rescue assets at RAF Gannett have been unavailable during the last 12 months; and on what proportion of such occasions those assets were unavailable because of (i) aircrew shortages and (ii) technical problems. [321334]
Bill Rammell: During the period 1 March 2009 to 28 February 2010, the Search and Rescue aircraft at HMS Gannet were available for 97 per cent. of the time. There were 46 occasions when an aircraft was not available at the required notice of 15 minutes by day, 45 minutes by night. These occasions were all due to technical problems. The average down-time was three and a half hours, although there were four occasions when an aircraft was not available for a period of over 24 hours. These four occurred during a period when Gannet had loaned one of its complement of three aircraft to its sister SAR unit, 771 Naval Air Station based at RNAS Culdrose.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |