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22 Mar 2004 : Column 634W—continued
UN Convention (Children's Rights)
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills in what ways his Department is carrying forward the Government's commitment to the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child. [161414]
Margaret Hodge [holding answer 17 March 2004]: Many of the provisions of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child have been reflected in the Government's priorities for many years, such as ensuring the rights of children to education, health, housing and safety, freedom from poverty and the right to participate in decisions that affect them.
Recent action taken by the Government further to promote the provisions of the Convention includes the following:
- the introduction of the Children Bill. This aims to improve the systems for preventing abuse and neglect such as that suffered by Victoria Climbié. In the spirit of Articles 4 and 12 of the Convention, it will with Parliamentary approval also set up a post of Children's Commissioner in England, whose task it will be to collect children's views, act as their champion and ensure that they have access to quick and easy complaints procedures;
- the draft Advocacy Services and Representations Procedure (Children)(Amendment) Regulations 2004, which were laid on 11 March 2004 (SI 2004/719) under the Adoption and Children Act 2002. When made, these Regulations will impose on local authorities the duty to make arrangements for the provision of advocacy services for children and young people making or intending to make a complaint, again in the context of Article 12 of the Convention;
- ratification on 24 June 2003 of the Optional Protocol on the involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, in the context of Article 38;
- the Sexual Offences Act 2003, which brought UK legislation on sexual offences in England and Wales into line with the requirements of the Optional on the sale of children, prostitution and pornography. When implemented in May 2004, it will introduce further new offences such as paying for sex with a child and causing or inciting child prostitution or pornography, as well as further extending the controls on child trafficking, in the context of Articles 34 and 35 of the Convention.
Undergraduates (Greater London)
Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many undergraduate students in Greater London have declared themselves bankrupt in each year since 1992; and if he will make a statement. [158455]
Alan Johnson: The following table shows the number of student loan borrowers, both graduates and undergraduates whose awarding Local Education Authority is in the Greater London area, who have had bankruptcy orders made against them since 1992. There are no figures showing undergraduates as a separate group.
We are proposing through the Higher Education Bill to amend legislation in order to exclude student loans from bankruptcy debt so that student loan debt will not be written-off on discharge.
22 Mar 2004 : Column 635W
| Bankrupt year(54) | Number of Borrowers(55) , (56) , (57) , (58) |
|---|---|
| 1992 | — |
| 1993 | — |
| 1994 | — |
| 1995 | — |
| 1996 | — |
| 1997 | 1 |
| 1998 | 0 |
| 1999 | 1 |
| 2000 | 0 |
| 2001 | 5 |
| 2002 | 3 |
| 2003 | 21(59) |
| Total | 31 |
(53) Borrowers whose awarding Authority [LEA] is in Greater London area.
(54) Calendar Year in which the borrower became bankrupt.
(55) Data shows the number of borrowers who have applied to SLC for a loan in respect of all eligible HE courses.
(56) Includes borrowers who may or may not have graduated from their course.
(57) Includes all types of students (including PGCE—Postgraduate Certificate of Education students).
(58) Data covers both types of student loan—Mortgage Style (including loans sold to the private sector) and Income Contingent.
(59) The increase in the numbers of bankruptcies in 2003 seems to be as a result of greater public awareness that students loans are provable in bankruptcy.
Source:
Student Loans Company
Workforce Reform
Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what plans he has to support the cost of workforce reform after 2005–06; and if he will make a statement. [161991]
Mr. Miliband [holding answer 17 March 2004]: The implications of workforce reform after 2005–06 will be considered by my right hon. Friend as part of Spending Review 2004, which will determine spending plans for the years 2006–08. Decisions on priorities between and within the services for which he is responsible will not be made until later this year.
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER
Benefit Fraud
Mr. Webb: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many staff in his Department have been (a) suspended, (b) dismissed, (c) prosecuted and (d) convicted for involvement in benefit fraud in each of the last six years; and what the amounts involved in each of those cases listed were. [154651]
Yvette Cooper: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) was established on 29 May 2002. Since its establishment, no staff in the office, its agencies or Government offices have been (a) suspended, (b) dismissed, (c) prosecuted or (d) convicted for involvement in benefit fraud.
22 Mar 2004 : Column 636W
Local Government
Mr. Wiggin: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many local government employees there were in each year since 1997. [162674]
Mr. Raynsford: Figures for Great Britain, which are available in an article published in 'Economic Trends' (September 2003), show the following numbers of local government employees for the years between 1997 and 2002.
| Number of local government employees (GB) | |
|---|---|
| 1997 | 2,593,000 |
| 1998 | 2,579,000 |
| 1999 | 2,704,000 |
| 2000 | 2,682,000 |
| 2001 | 2,735,000 |
| 2002 | 2,741,000 |
Civil Servants
Dr. Cable: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how much space, expressed in square metres, the Department occupies for the offices of civil servants in (a) central London and (b) Greater London. [150284]
Yvette Cooper: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister currently occupies approximately 54,000 m 2 of space in inner London. This includes, where appropriate, office space for Ministers and their advisers as it is not possible to separate this out. The figure for outer London is approximately 1,400 m 2 .
Space is defined as the internal area i.e. includes toilets, storage, basement etc. rather than useable office space.
Dee Estuary
Mr. Wiggin: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will make a statement on the undertaking given during his visit to the Airbus factory in Broughton, Flintshire on 5 March to ensure that permission is granted for the Dee Estuary to be dredged. [162685]
Keith Hill: I understand that the competent authorities are considering this issue under the terms of the Habitats Directive.
Departmental Staff
Mr. Prosser: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will make a statement on the future staffing of his Department's Hemel office. [161477]
Yvette Cooper: Any decisions on the staffing levels of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's Hemel Hempstead office will be taken in the light of the overall needs and priorities of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and other customers, in line with Government policy.
Fire and Rescue Services Bill
Mr. Liddell-Grainger: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, what help will he give to help retain fire stations under the new Fire Bill. [181866]
22 Mar 2004 : Column 637W
Mr. Raynsford: The Fire and Rescue Services Bill re-enacts the existing statutory duty for a fire and rescue authority to make provision for extinguishing fires and protecting life and property from fires within its area. The Bill also includes duties covering the role of fire and rescue authorities in dealing with road traffic accidents and other serious emergencies and promoting fire safety.
The Government's previously recommended standards of fire cover will be superseded from 1 April 2004 when Fire and Rescue Authorities implement their first agreed Integrated Risk Management Plans (IRMPs). These plans will detail locally determined response standards on the basis of Authorities' assessment of risks to life in the community.
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has provided authorities with written guidance and supported the development of their IRMPs with an HM Fire Service Inspectorate-led implementation support team. By mid-April the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister will also have provided each fire and rescue service with a computer toolkit known as Fire Service Emergency Cover (FSEC) that models the impact of fire cover in reducing risk.
The outcome of individual IRMPs, in some cases, will be the re-distribution of fire and rescue resources, including possible relocation of stations and appliances, where this is determined by the assessment of risk to the community. All IRMPs are subject to public consultation.
The draft National Fire and Rescue Framework recognises the vital contribution of the retained section of the service and acknowledges the need to find solutions to these recruitment and retention challenges. That is why the Government announced on 15 December 2003 that there would be a review of issues affecting the retained section of the service. The review will examine the issues that contribute to these challenges, including equality and diversity, public awareness, engagement with the business community, deployment, community participation, role, reward and conditions of service. The recommendations of the review will be submitted to the Practitioners' Forum in the summer.
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