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11 Dec 2009 : Column WA165
Written Answers
Friday 11 December 2009
Climate Change
Question
Asked by Lord Kirkwood of Kirkhope
To ask Her Majesty's Government what scientific research they have commissioned to support the United Kingdom delegation to the Copenhagen climate change conference; and when they will publish the research. [HL51]
The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): Early this year DECC and Defra initiated a major new research programme (AVOID), aimed at assessing how the world can avoid dangerous climate change. AVOID is being delivered by a consortium of experts, led by the Met Office, and including the Grantham and Walker Institutes and the Tyndall Centre. A significant component of AVOID during the past 10 months has been to deliver new climate science evidence, specifically to inform the UK delegation ahead of Copenhagen, in particular with respect to emission pathways associated with limiting global temperature rises to 2 degrees Celsius, a review of climate change impacts and the costs associated with impacts and mitigation action. Key results to date are available on the programme websitel and it is expected that associated research papers will, be published in the scientific peer-reviewed literature in the new year.
A summary of results will be presented at the Copenhagen negotiations in December.
Climate Change: Carbon Dioxide Emissions
Question
To ask Her Majesty's Government what are their projections for the carbon dioxide price in the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) over the next five years; and to what extent they intend to support the price of carbon dioxide in the ETS. [HL547]
The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): The Government's forecast for the traded price of carbon, published in July 2009, is €35 in 2020 with an EU reduction target of 20 per cent below 1990 emissions. This published value will be updated on a yearly basis, taking into account the latest evidence. The Government do not publish any other projections on the carbon price.
The Government have no plans to support the price of carbon. Whilst the UK's 2003 energy White Paper said we would leave the option open of intervening in the carbon market, we do not currently consider that there is a case for such an intervention.
11 Dec 2009 : Column WA166
Common Agricultural Policy: Single Farm Payment
Question
To ask Her Majesty's Government what financial penalties they anticipate being imposed by the European Union authorities on the Rural Payments Agency in respect of their administration of the single farm payment scheme in 2006, 2007 and 2008; and what arrangements have been made to finance the payments of any such penalties. [HL293]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Davies of Oldham): The European Commission has yet to reach a view on what, if any, disallowance should be applied in respect of the single payment scheme (SPS). However, provisions totalling £205 million have been made in Defra's accounts in respect of the administration of the 2005 and 2006 single payment schemes in England. No provisions have been made for subsequent scheme years.
Funding for near cash implication of any SPS related disallowance that is finally imposed in the current Comprehensive Spending Review period will be drawn in the first instance from a ring-fenced sum that Defra has agreed with HM Treasury for this purpose. Should any disallowance exceed that sum, the necessary additional funding would be met from within Defra's budget.
Education: Home Schooling
Questions
To ask Her Majesty's Government why Sutton, Worcestershire, Tameside, Sandwell, Telford and Wrekin, Brent, Leicestershire County, Hounslow, Sheffield, Birmingham City, Knowsley, Bracknell and Suffolk local authorities, who filled in the supplemental questionnaire in relation to home education, do not appear on the list of local authorities to have done so published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families. [HL406]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Children, Schools and Families (Baroness Morgan of Drefelin): There have been three separate requests to local authorities for data relating to home education. A list of authorities that responded to the first request is found at (http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/foischeme/subPage. cfm?action=collections.displayDocument&i_document ID=881&i_collectionID=346), the list of authorities that responded to the second request is found at (http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/foischeme/subPage.cfm?action=collections.displayDocument&;i_ documentID=899&i_collectionID=347) and a list of authorities responding to the third request is found at http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/foischeme/. Where local authorities responded late to a data request their response may have been too late to be included in any analysis. Sutton, Sandwell, Telford and Wrekin, Brent, Leicestershire County, Birmingham City, Bracknell and Suffolk responded
11 Dec 2009 : Column WA167
To ask Her Majesty's Government for each local authority for which they have data, (a) how many home-educated children are considered to be receiving no education, (b) what is the total number of home-educated children, and (c) how many of the home-educated children considered to be receiving no education (1) are from traveller families, (2) are children who first became home educated in years 10 or 11 with a previous history of irregular attendance, and (3) are children who have not yet been assessed. [HL407]
Baroness Morgan of Drefelin: I attach a table showing the number of electively home educated children in each local authority that responded to the questionnaire on home education distributed in September. The department's policy is not to release any information that might lead to individual children being identified where data released could be combined with other data. As 69 local authorities identified a total of 210 home educated children that they assessed as receiving no education at all, we are not able to release a breakdown of these data by local authority as the numbers for each individual authority would be very small and individual children might be identified.
We did not collect information on the ethnic or cultural background of home educated children receiving no education, nor their age, so we are unable to provide information on the number from a traveller background, or the number that are in years 10 or 11. Home educated children awaiting assessment were included in the data collection as a separate category.
| Local Authority | Total Elective Home Educated (EHE) Population |
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