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EU Applicant Countries: Jean Monnet Programme
Lord Harrison asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What they are doing to help young people in European Union applicant countries to attend European Union studies courses, under the European Commission Jean Monnet project; and how they can help the Commission meet the demand for these courses.[HL1651]
Baroness Ashton of Upholland: Applications under the Jean Monnet programme are made directly to the institutions offering the courses, and there is no UK intermediary or agency involved in the process. The British Council actively encourages students in the accession countries to take up all opportunities of attending UK universities, including those offered under the Jean Monnet programme. The Government and the British Council have also introduced a package of changes to support the Prime Minister's initiative to attract international students to the UK. This includes increasing the number of places on the Chevening Scholarship Programme, which enables international students world-wide to study in the UK, easing restrictions on international students taking paid employment and simplifying visa arrangements. The Government also support and encourage student mobility through the Erasmus action of Socrates, which is open to the accession countries.
Individual Learning Accounts: Animal Rights Organisations
Baroness Blatch asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether they have any information that animal rights organisations may have been involved with illicit applications either as providers for, or recipients of, individual learning accounts; and, if so, when it was brought to their notice.[HL1727]
Baroness Ashton of Upholland: The police have arrested 38 people suspected in involvement in animal rights activities. Two of these were registered as ILA providers and the remainder were registered as learners. The police informed DfES of this involvement on 14 June 2001 and worked closely with the DfES Special Investigations Unit to pursue the investigation.
Schools: Food Skills Teaching
Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether they are reviewing or intend to review how issues about food and nutrition are taught in primary and secondary schools.[HL1757]
Baroness Ashton of Upholland: The revised national curriculum came into effect in September 2000. All primary pupils have a statutory entitlement to food technology and learn practical food skills, including food hygiene, and are encouraged to develop positive attitudes to food. At key stage 3 the Government strongly encourage secondary schools to offer pupils the opportunity to study food technology, and 90 per cent do so. The new framework for personal, social and health education encourages schools to link their teaching of food technology with the opportunities for teaching nutrition, health and hygiene.
Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether they are content with the level of knowledge about food and nutrition gained at school by children up to the age of 16.[HL1758]
Baroness Ashton of Upholland: We believe that food education has a much stronger place in schools now than ever before and is meeting the needs of young people being educated for life in the 21st century. Food, nutrition, healthy eating and cooking are covered within design and technology, science and personal, social and health education. Twenty-six per cent of pupils were entered for design and technology (food) GCSEs in 2001, an increase of 5 per cent since 1999.
Early Literacy Support
Lord Prior asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether the materials used to support the early literacy support were tested on representative samples of matched experimental and control children with pre and post testing carried out using standardised tests before their introduction; and whether the results of any such tests will be made available to the public.[HL1769]
Baroness Ashton of Upholland: The Early Literacy Support Programme, which is based on the teaching objectives in the National Literacy Strategy Framework for teaching, was piloted during 2000–01 in about 1,000 year 1 classes in 50 local education authorities. The pilot was monitored by Ofsted, which reported that:
- XIn general, the quality of teaching was good in the Year 1 lessons observed in the vast majority of schools. Pupils' responses to the intervention sessions were overwhelmingly positive. Teachers observed marked gains in pupils' confidence and willingness to contribute within the Literacy Hour".
Leisure Pursuits
Baroness Anelay of St Johns asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What measures the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport has taken in response to the recommendations of the National Heart Forum that policy initiatives for adults and children should focus on increased participation in leisure pursuits such as walking or cycling.[HL1610]
The Minister of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Baroness Blackstone): The Government welcome the recommendations of the National Heart Forum (NHF). DCMS will explore these recommendations with other government departments with which it is working closely to ensure a co-ordinated approach to the Government's agenda to promote physical activity. These departments include the Department of Health, the Department for Education and Skills and the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions.
With regard to funding for cycling, the Millennium Commission has made a £43,500,000 lottery award to Sustrans for the national cycle network. In addition, the Lottery Community Sports Fund has so far made 12 awards to cycling projects worth a total of £1.45 million.
Walking has also benefited from the Lottery Sports Fund by around £- million, including awards to the following: the National Trust received £217,000 for the construction of 10.4 kilometres of footpath in the High Peak; the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority received £84,000 to construct a network of long distance paths in the Dales; and the North York Moors National Park Authority received £165,000 for the improvement of disabled access to the moors.
In addition, the English Tourism Council is currently looking at issues relating to tourism and health. The aim of this is to develop and publicise Xtoolkits" to advise the industry on new markets with potential, such as health tourism. This will be published in January 2002.
Public Entertainment Licences
Baroness Anelay of St Johns asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What is the average cost of making an application for a public entertainment licence as borne by (a) the licensee; (b) the police; (c) the courts; and (d) the local authority.[HL1842]
Baroness Blackstone: There are no costs falling on local authorities, the police and the fire authorities, as public entertainment licensing fees allow the local authority concerned to recover the costs of administration, inspection and enforcement associated with the licensing regime. The magistrates' courts and the Court of Appeal become involved in public entertainment licensing only if a decision of the
licensing authority is appealed, and the courts have the discretion to recover their costs if appropriate.Existing legislation does not provide for any single fee structure. Public entertainment licence fees are set by local authorities and vary enormously. Generally, most fees vary between £40 and £20,000, depending on the venue or scale of the event. There are some higher exceptions. For example, rarer large-scale events involving an audience of more than 5,000 can incur fees between £25,000 and £50,000. For permanent premises, renewal is required annually. The main cost falling on the licensee are the fee, the cost of legal representation, if needed, and the indirect costs of meeting the terms, conditions or restrictions attached to a licence. We estimate that the fee and legal costs to a licensee running permanent premises commonly range between £200 and £25,000 per year. However, no information is available centrally on the indirect costs to licensees of compliance with the terms, conditions and restrictions which may be attached to any licence.
Diabetes National Service Framework
Lord Harrison asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What will be the date of the publication and implementation of the Diabetes National Service Framework; and whether this represents a delay.[HL1653]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): The Diabetes National Service Framework standards will be published this year and the delivery strategy in summer 2002. This will enable the National Health Service to prepare to plan for the 10-year implementation programme which will start in April 2003.
Autism
Baroness Blatch asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What plans they have to improve services for children with autism.[HL1724]
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: Children with autism will benefit from a range of initiatives we are taking to improve services for disabled children. As part of the Quality Protects programme, the Government set new national objectives for children's services which for the first time set out clear outcomes for children and in some instances give precise targets which local authorities are expected to achieve. These were updated in the Learning Disabilities White Paper Valuing Peope, issued in March 2001.
Disabled children have been made a priority area in Quality Protects. The last spending review made substantial additional funding available for the Children's Services Grant, which now totals £180 million in 2001–02, £220 million in 2002–03 and £290 million in 2003–04. Of this, £60 million has been
earmarked for services for disabled children and their families—£15 million in 2001–02 and 2002–03 and £30 million in 2003–04.The Government have also announced that services for disabled children will be a key area to be addressed by the National Service Framework for Children.
The Special Educational Needs Code of Practice 2001 (which will be effective from 1 January 2002) provides strengthened and more focused advice on identifying, assessing and providing for children's special educational needs. Next year the Department for Education and Skills will also be publishing good practice guidance on aspects of provision for children with autism, mainly aimed at schools and local education authorities.
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