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6 Apr 2010 : Column 1354W—continued
Music: Primary Education
Lembit Öpik: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what steps his Department is taking to encourage the teaching of music in primary schools; and if he will make a statement. [320841]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: Music is a legal entitlement for all young people aged five-14 in England as it is a statutory subject within the national curriculum.
In addition the Government have, since 1999, provided funding to local authorities through the Standards Fund Music Grant to support local music provision. Since the Government's pledge in 2001 that over time all primary pupils who wanted to should have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, the widening of access to instrumental provision at Key Stage 2 has been a priority call on the Music Grant. Also, since 2006, there has also been an additional element to the grant solely for delivering local instrumental and vocal tuition to children at Key Stage 2. Some local authorities also make their own contribution to local music making.
Another important element of the Government's £332 million commitment to music education 2008-11 is their support for the national singing programme, 'Sing Up'. The programme, which receives £10 million a year, aims, by March 2011, to enable every primary school-aged child to take part in daily high-quality singing activity, and for all primary schools in England to become 'Singing Schools'.
Over the current academic year, music is being celebrated through "Tune In-Year of Music". The wide range of music related experiences available to children and young people across England will be showcased over the year, and all children-whatever their talent-are being encouraged to get involved in music.
Olympic Games: Canada
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many (a) Ministers and (b) officials from his Department are planning to attend the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in February 2010; and what estimate he has made of the cost of such attendance. [310854]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: Since 1999, the Government have published, on an annual basis, a list of all overseas visits by Cabinet Ministers costing in excess of £500, as well as the total cost of all ministerial travel overseas. From 2007/08, the list was extended to include all Ministers. The list also provides information on the number of officials who accompany Ministers. Copies are available in the Libraries. Information for 2009/10 will be published as soon as the information is available.
All travel by Ministers and civil servants is undertaken in accordance with the 'Ministerial Code' and 'Civil Service Management Code', respectively.
Primary Education: Curriculum
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much his Department had spent on preparations for implementation of the recommendations of the Rose Review of the Primary Curriculum on the latest date for which figures are available. [324173]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: From the beginning of the current financial year until the end of February 2010, the Department had spent £158,000 on preparations for implementation of the recommendations of the Rose Review of the primary curriculum.
In addition to this figure, the Department has allocated £2,014,000 this financial year to the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency for this purpose and a further £250,000 to the National College for Leadership of Schools and Children's Services.
Public Sector
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what steps his Department is taking to share services, functions and back offices with local authorities as part of the Total Place initiative. [323958]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: The Government's report on Total Place will be published alongside Budget 2010.
School Meals
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what guidance schools have been given on the implementation of the Healthy Eating in Schools paper; and how much has been spent on that implementation. [316092]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: In March 2006, Ofsted published its report 'Healthy Eating in Schools', which assessed how schools had responded to guidance on school meals and healthier eating.
The report made a small number of recommendations relating to: the training of catering staff; lunch time management and the dining environment; school food policies; involvement of pupils and parents and quality monitoring by schools. Those recommendations have all been addressed over the course of the last four years, during which time mandatory standards have been introduced for all maintained primary, secondary and special schools, covering all food served by schools during a school day.
A number of pieces of guidance have been produced by the School Food Trust, as the Department's key delivery partner, including: A Fresh Look at the School Meal Experience; Guide to the Nutrient-based Standards for School Lunches; Nutritional Analysis Support Package (NASP); Calculating the Nutrient Content of School Lunch Recipes: A Caterer's Guide; and Special Educational Needs Schools guidance.
There has been significant government investment of over £676 million between 2005 and 2011. This includes funding to help support the cost of a school lunch, to help build or refurbish kitchen and dining facilities, to better support the development of training centres for the school food work force and for improved marketing and communications to increase take up.
Schools: Cadets
Lembit Öpik: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much Government funding school combined cadet forces have received in each year since 2005; and if he will make a statement. [323634]
Mr. Kevan Jones: I have been asked to reply.
The information is not held centrally.
Funding for any particular MOD Sponsored Cadet Force, such as the Combined Cadet Forces, comes from a wide variety of sources including the single services, the use of subsidised facilities, and non-Government sources such as local donations and fundraising efforts. To determine how much funding has been allocated to specific Cadet Forces would require a manual search of records and incur a disproportionate cost.
The Government remain committed to the Cadet Organisation whose origins date back 150 years. It is one of the oldest and most successful voluntary youth organisations in the world. Today it numbers 131,000 young people, led by 25,000 adult volunteers, in well over 3,000 sites across the country.
Schools: Email
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much (a) primary, (b) secondary, (c) special and (d) all schools spent on maintaining email addresses for school staff and pupils in the last 12 months for which figures are available. [311879]
Mr. Coaker:
Schools are funded for technology purposes by the Harnessing Technology Grant. Schools are also free to use money from other sources on technological services and infrastructure. However, data on funding of email addresses specifically are not collected, and
schools and local authorities are free to decide locally how to apportion the funding across the various types of technology.
Schools: Racism
Mr. Pope: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families if he will extend the terms of reference of his Department's review of the provisions which prevent the promotion of racism in schools to include the activities of Hizb ut-Tahrir. [311557]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: The Secretary of State announced on 30 September 2009 that he had asked Maurice Smith, the former chief inspector of schools, to look into the issue of racism in maintained schools and report his findings by the end of January 2010. Maurice Smith's report was published on 12 March and a copy placed in the Libraries.
The Secretary of State has accepted the recommendations in full and has asked Maurice Smith to conduct an additional review looking at the safeguards in place in independent schools. The handling of the review will be a matter for Maurice Smith to determine, although he will be free to gather evidence about the activities of any group or organisation. He has been asked to submit his report to the Secretary of State in September 2010.
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families if he will place in the Library a copy of the list of all organisations consulted by (a) Mr Maurice Smith and (b) officials of his Department assisting Mr Maurice Smith as part of Mr Smith's review of provisions against the promotion of racism in schools. [314908]
Mr. Coaker [holding answer 2 February 2010]: The Secretary of State announced on 30 September 2009 that he had asked Maurice Smith, the former chief inspector of schools, to look into the issue of racism in maintained schools and report his findings by the end of January 2010. Maurice Smith's report was published on 12 March. The report includes details of all the organisations that contributed to the review and a copy has been placed in the Libraries.
A copy of the report has been placed in the Libraries when it was published, and it included details of all the organisations that contributed to the review.
Schools: St. George's Day
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families whether his Department plans to promote St. George's Day in schools in 2010. [322600]
Ms Diana R. Johnson:
There are no plans for the Department to promote St. George's day in schools.
The citizenship curriculum already contributes towards building and promoting a British identity and shared British values, and it offers opportunities to explore what it is to be British. However, it is a local decision for schools to choose if they wish to celebrate St. George's day or not.
Schools: Vetting
Robert Neill: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Peterborough (Mr. Jackson) of 25 February 2010, Official Report, column 695W, on vetting: local education authorities, what the timetable is for the review of requirements for Criminal Records Bureau disclosures. [323035]
Dawn Primarolo: I refer the hon. Member to the written ministerial statement of 23 March 2010, Official Report, column 29WS.
Social Services: Children
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what proportion of children in custody have previously been in care. [323434]
Dawn Primarolo: This information is not collected centrally.
However, Her Majesty's inspectorate of prisons (HMIP) and the Youth Justice Board publish an annual survey of children and young people in custody. The survey for 2008-09 involved 1,100 young people detained in 18 establishments across the secure estate. This reported that 24 per cent. of young men and 49 per cent. of the 54 young women in the survey had been looked after at some point in their lives. It is important to understand that that the overall number of children with a care background in custody is small relative to the total number of looked-after children above the age of criminal responsibility.
This report is available from the HMIP website at:
Sure Start Programme: Greater London
Justine Greening: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many Sure Start (a) centres and (b) health visitors there were in each London borough in each year since 2003. [325563]
Dawn Primarolo: The following table details how many designated Sure Start children's centres there were in each London borough in each year since 2003.
Figures for the number of health visitors working in children's centres in each London borough since 2003 were not collected centrally.
| Year of designation | ||||||||
| Local authority | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | ( 1) 2010 |
| (1) Figures valid up until end of February | ||||||||
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