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Network Rail sought a formal short-term network change at each of the loops to formalise the temporary reduced capability of the infrastructure. The Department for Transport has objected to the proposed temporary loss of capacity on the line.

Railways: High-speed Lines

Question

Asked by Lord Dykes

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the High Speed Two rail project will be included in their future spending plans. [HL4830]

The Secretary of State for Transport (Lord Adonis): High Speed Two will report to Government at the end of the year on a route proposal, including financing and construction options, for a new line between London and the West Midlands and the potential for new lines beyond the West Midlands at the level of broad corridors. A decision on the route between London and the West Midlands will be taken following a public consultation during 2010.

Schools: Teacher Training

Question

Asked by Baroness Hooper

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to encourage initial teacher training providers to incorporate training in teaching resource availability and use in initial teacher training provisions. [HL4640]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Children, Schools and Families (Baroness Morgan of Drefelin): The Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) has been running a substantial programme of support to encourage the use of information technology as a teaching resource in initial teacher training. The standards for teachers, including the standards that trainee teachers have to meet to gain qualified teacher status (QTS), make specific references to ICT. To gain QTS a teacher must know how to use ICT to support their teaching and wider professional activities and be able to design opportunities for learners to develop their ICT skills. All trainee teachers have to pass skills tests in numeracy, literacy and ICT as a prerequisite of gaining QTS.

Over the past six years nearly £20 million has been made available to ensure that the new teachers leaving teacher training have the necessary skills to use ICT effectively in their teaching and in their professional development.

Initially, the funding was targeted at laptops for trainee teachers. Funding has also been provided for interactive whiteboards for teacher training establishments to mirror the substantial government investment in

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interactive whiteboards for schools. Funding and support was also directed to areas such as video capture and analysis. Several projects involving handheld technologies have been supported to test out the value of these in teacher training.

A number of alternative methods of video conferencing between teacher training institutions and schools have been tested. Several regional seminars run by the TDA jointly with the Government supported Janet Videoconferencing Service to provide advice to teacher trainers.

With support from the British Educational Suppliers Association and working in partnership with the IT in Teacher Education group there is now in place a special software licence for teacher trainers that recognises the particular nature of teacher training and allows a reduced cost for educational software. The TDA also has an agreement with eight major educational software companies that some of their software can be made available to teacher trainers at no cost.

The TDA is currently funding more than 100 small e-portfolio and research projects with teacher trainers. The Teacher Training Resource Bank has been established by the TDA to provide internet access for teacher training providers and trainees to the research and evidence base informing teacher education.

The TDA has provided support for teacher training in e-safety and helped develop support for trainee teachers in this area. A suite of e-safety materials are available to support e-safety with children including information and advice for parents. This material is being supplemented by an e-safety module, commissioned by the TDA, as part of the European Pedagogical ICT Certificate for teachers.

Taxation: Income Tax

Questions

Asked by Lord Selkirk of Douglas

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many of those domiciled in (a) England, (b) Scotland, (c) Northern Ireland, and (d) Wales pay income tax; and what those figures represent as percentages of the respective populations. [HL4607]

Asked by Lord Selkirk of Douglas

To ask Her Majesty's Government how HM Revenue and Customs determines which taxpayers are English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish. [HL4608]

The Financial Services Secretary to the Treasury (Lord Myners): The numbers of people liable to pay income tax in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales can be found in Table 2.2 "Number of individual income taxpayers by country and region" on the HM Revenue and Customs website at http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/income_tax/menu.htm.

The published table includes the information shown below.

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Number of individual income taxpayers by country (thousands)(1)
Year	England	Wales	Scotland	Northern Ireland
2006-07(2)	26,600	1,480	2,700	785
2007-08(3)	27,000	1,500	2,740	796
2008-09(3)	25,900	1,430	2,630	761
2009-10(3)	24,600	1,360	2,510	721

(1) Estimates have been rounded to three significant figures.

(2) Latest year of the Survey of Personal incomes.

(3) Projected estimates based on the 2006-07 Survey of Personal incomes in line with Budget 2009.

The postcodes of taxpayers are mapped to a range of administrative, political and other geographical categorisations for statistical purposes.

The proportion of the total population, or adult population, which taxpayers in each country represent, can be based on population estimates and projections published by the Office of National Statistics on their website at http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/Product .asp?vlnk=15106and http://www.statistics.gov.uk/ STATBASE/Product.asp?vlnk=8519.

Population estimates and projections for all ages are given in the table below.

Estimated mid-year resident population (thousands)
Year	England	Wales	Scotland	Northern Ireland
Mid-2006(1)	50,762.9	2,965.9	5,116.9	1,741.6
Mid-2007(1)	51,092.0	2,980.0	5,144.2	1,759.1
Mid-2008(2)	51,487.6	2,993.4	5,157.1	1,773.6
Mid-2009(2)	51,888.3	3,007.7	5,174.6	1,786.9

(1) Population estimates.

(2) Population projections.

Asked by Lord Selkirk of Douglas

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether HM Revenue and Customs has procedures in place to determine who is a Scottish taxpayer for the purpose of a decision by the Scottish Parliament to vary the basic rate of income tax for Scottish taxpayers under Part IV of the Scotland Act 1998. [HL4609]

Lord Myners: Yes.

Teachers: Qualifications

Question

Asked by The Earl of Listowel

To ask Her Majesty's Government what place child development and behaviour management will have in the new post post-graduate certificate in education qualification. [HL4589]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Children, Schools and Families (Baroness Morgan of Drefelin): One of the four key content areas of the Masters in Teaching and Learning (MTL)

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includes coverage of child development and behaviour management. All participants will be required to cover the four content areas during the course of their MTL. These are set out in the MTL National Framework, which is the basis on which MTL providers are developing their MTL programmes. The MTL National Framework can be viewed at www.tda.gov.uk/mtl . As the MTL is a practice-based qualification, we would expect to see teachers emerging from the programme with well developed knowledge, skills and understanding relating to child development and behaviour management.

Terrorism: Anti-terrorist Hotline

Questions

Asked by Baroness Neville-Jones

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many calls have been received by the anti-terrorist hotline in each quarter since its introduction. [HL4412]

To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the purpose of the anti-terrorist hotline at its inception. [HL4413]

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of the anti-terrorist hotline. [HL4414]

To ask Her Majesty's Government how much they have spent on the anti-terrorist hotline in each year since its introduction; and what proportion of its funding was spent on publicity. [HL4415]

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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord West of Spithead): The confidential anti-terrorist hotline is administered by the Metropolitan Police Service. The hotline receives, on average, 243 calls per month.

In March 2009, the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) launched a national media campaign to raise counterterrorism awareness. The anti-terrorist hotline received more than 1,800 calls in March 2009 and more than 1,100 in April 2009.

The anti-terrorist hotline is a 24-hour facility for members of the public to volunteer information to specially-trained police officers, in confidence, regarding any activity which they suspect to be terrorism-related.

The police service considers the anti-terrorist hotline to be a valuable means for the public to volunteer information in confidence. It is assessed that more than 80 per cent of calls received by the hotline contain information relevant to terrorist activity.

It is estimated that the anti-terrorist hotline costs approximately £120,000 to run each year.

A national media campaign to raise counterterrorism awareness was launched earlier this year by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), costing a total of £1.7 million. The anti-terrorist hotline number was included in all related publicity material.

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