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Lord Cocks of Hartcliffe asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether they will examine if Bristol Council has been fair to the people of Bristol South in proposing to close Gay Elms and Whitehouse primary schools so soon after the closure of Merrywood school, Knowle West, Bristol.[HL698]
Baroness Blackstone: This Government believe that proposals which affect the organisation of schools should be decided locally. It is for local education authorities and other partners in education to bring
forward proposals. This Government have introduced a framework of local decision-making whereby decisions such as closures are considered by the local partners in education through the School Organisation Committee (SOC) or the Schools Adjudicator if the SOC can not reach a decision.Bristol City Council members met on 13 February 2001 to consider the proposals to close Gay Elms and Whitehouse primary schools. Members of the city council voted to reject these proposals. The matter will therefore not proceed to the School Organisation Committee or the Schools Adjudicator.
Lord Cocks of Hartcliffe asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Given the need for autistic children to have long-term stability and consistency, whether they will examine the proposal to close Gay Elms school to see whether it is compatible with the well-being of the autistic children who attend the school.[HL699]
Baroness Blackstone: This Government believe that decisions which affect the organisation of schools should be taken locally. The proposal to discontinue Gay Elms primary school expected that the resource base for autistic children would remain in its current accommodation on the site of the former Gay Elms infant school. A development group was established to identify a new host school and to secure new accommodation for the future.
Members of Bristol City Council met on 13 February 2001 to consider the proposed closure of Gay Elms school. It is my understanding that the council members voted to reject the proposal.
Health Department and FSA DEL
Lord Dubs asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether they have any plans to amend the Department of Health and Food Standards Agency departmental expenditure limit and running costs limit for 2000-01.[HL824]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimates for Class II, Votes 1 and 2, the overall departmental expenditure limit for Class II, which includes the Department of Health and the Food Standards Agency, will be increased by £196,888,000 from £45,090,755,000 to £45,287,643,000.
Of this increase, the Department of Health departmental expenditure limit for 2000-01 will be increased by £196,888,000 from £44,997,888,000 to £45,194,776,000. The increase is the net effect of changes to Class II, Vote 1 (hospital, community health, family health and related services, England) of £156,025,000, made up of £74,977,000 in respect of take-up of end year flexibility, (£35,217,000) for capital and (£39,760,000) for family health services, as set out in Table 7 of the Public Expenditure Outturn White Paper Cm4812 published on 18 July 2000, and
£82,214,000 trust end year flexibility; transfers from Northern Ireland of £1,373,000 (£1,307,000) for out of area treatments and (£66,000) for contributions to medical training costs of royal colleges; £144,000 from the Scottish Executive for contributions to medical training costs of royal colleges; £92,000 from the National Assembly for Wales for contributions to medical training costs of royal colleges and £88,000 from Class III, Vote 1 (Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions) for the rough sleepers unit; partially offset by transfers of £512,000 to the National Assembly for Wales for out of area treatments; £1,065,000 to Class XII, Vote 2 (Department of Social Security: administration) for operating costs of the road traffic accident element of the Compensation Recovery Unit; £536,000 to Class IV, Vote 1 (Home Office administration, police, probation, immigration and other services, England and Wales) (£221,000) for drug action teams development funding and (£315,000) for drug action teams recruitment initiative and £750,000 to Class I, Vote 1 (Department for Education and Employment: programmes and central services) for the Institute of Psychiatry new research facilities.An increase of £1,352,000 for Class II, Vote 2 (Department of Health, administration, miscellaneous health and personal social services, England) is the net effect of transfers (detailed below) and the take-up of £4,000,000 (running costs) end year flexibility as set out in Table 7 of the Public Expenditure Outturn White Paper Cm4812 published on 18 July 2000. Transfers of £1,106,000 from the Scottish Executive (£141,000 running costs) for reserved health bodies; £19,000 (running costs) from Northern Ireland for reserved health bodies; £459,000 from Class IV, Vote 1 (Home Office administration, police probation, immigration and other services, England and Wales), £130,000 (running costs) for the Youth Justice Board inspections and (£329,000) for drug grants and drug related initiatives; £200,000 from Class XII, Vote 3 (Department of Social Security: administration) for the teenage pregnancy campaign; offset by net transfers of £464,000 to Class X, Vote 1 (Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food) (£1,118,000) for the BSE inquiry, less (£654,000) for research into BSE; and £388,000 to Class 1, Vote 1 (Department for Education and Employment: programmes and central services) (£455,000) for the drug advisers project, less (£67,000) for Protection of Children's Act Tribunal costs; and transfers of £3,000,000 to Class V, Vote 1 (Lord Chancellor's Department) for start-up costs for the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Services (CAFCASS) and £580,000 to Class III, Vote 1 (Department of Transport, Environment and the Regions) for the rough sleepers budget.
Within the departmental DEL there is also a net transfer of £308,000 from Class II, Vote 2 (Department of Health, administration, miscellaneous health and personal social services, England) to Class II, Vote 1 (hospital, community health, family health and related services, England), of which £500,000 is reclassified as running costs following agreement by HM Treasury that Mental Health
Review Tribunal clerk costs should no longer be classfied as programme costs. There is no increase in Mental Health Review Tribunal costs as a result of this change.The Department of Health's gross running cost limit will be increased by £4,790,000 from £302,490,000 to £307,280,000 as detailed above.
The external finance limit for NHS trusts has decreased by £140,242,000 from £451,000,000 to £310,758,000, comprising a reduction in voted trust loans of £173,853,000 partially offset by a take-up of £33,611,000 (non-voted) from HM Treasury for public finance initiative schemes.
The external finance limit for the Medicines Control Agency has increased by £5,900,000 from £700,000 to £6,600,000 in respect of take-up of end year flexibility entitlement as mentioned above.
There are no changes to the Food Standards Agency element of the DEL.
All increases will either be offset by transfers to or from other departmental expenditure limits (detailed above) or charges to the DEL reserve and will not therefore add to the planned total of public expenditure.
Vehicle Emissions: Roadside Testing
Lord Bradshaw asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What progress is being made in the implementation of the scheme for roadside testing of vehicle emissions by local authorities.[HL831]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (Lord Whitty): We are currently completing essential background work necessary to enable the scheme to work effectively when it is made available to local authorities which have declared air quality management areas, as designated under Section 83 of the Environment Act 1995. We hope that the scheme will come into operation from April 2002, and we plan to consult further with interested parties on detailed issues over the next few months.
Aviation Industry
Lord Hanningfield asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What is the predicted growth in the aviation industry; and what steps they are taking to accommodate any change.[HL852]
The Minister of State, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (Lord Macdonald of Tradeston): The UK air traffic forecasts produced by my department in June 2000 showed that unconstrained demand for passenger air travel may more than double by 2015, reaching approximately 340 million passengers per annum. Cargo air traffic is
also predicted to grow. Future unconstrained growth is projected at a rate of 7.5 per cent a year to 2010.
We intend to publish a new White Paper on air transport that will provide a framework for the future development of aviation in the UK. We issued a consultation document last December on the future of aviation. This is the first major step towards the White Paper. It invites views and ideas on a wide range of aviation and airports issues that underpin our air transport policy. The consultation document does not specifically address new capacity at airports. We have commissioned a series of regional air service studies that assess options for future capacity. Later this year we will issue individual regional consultation documents on options in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the south west of England, the north of England and the Midlands. They will examine options for the development of a capacity at regional airports and include an appraisal of the economic, environmental and social impacts of these options. We are also studying issues in the south east and east of England on a separate timescale. The South East and East of England Regional Air Service Study (SERAS) is examining all options for the future development of airports in the south east, ranging from no development other than that already included in the planning system, to additional runway and terminal capacity to meet demand in full. This study will be followed by public consultation that will follow the decision on Terminal 5. All of these strands of work will feed into the White Paper on air transport.
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