Answers issued to Members on 1 July 2009

[R] signifies that the Member has declared an interest.
[W] signifies that the question was tabled in Welsh.

Contents

Questions to the Minister for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills

Questions to the Minister for Environment, Sustainability and Housing

Questions to the Minister for Finance and Public Service Delivery

Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services

Questions to the Minister for Heritage

Questions to the Minister for Rural Affairs

Questions to the Minister for Social Justice and Local Government

Questions to the Minister for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills

Paul Davies (Preseli Pembrokeshire): Will the Minister provide details of the cost of administering the EMA scheme? (WAQ54421)

The Minister for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills (Jane Hutt): The EMA scheme provides a financial incentive and support for students to continue in education or training once their compulsory schooling has been completed. The amount of EMA grant paid to students during financial year 2008-09 was £28.9m.

The Students Loans Company (SLC), which administers student financial support throughout the UK, delivers the EMA scheme in Wales. The administration cost paid to the SLC during financial year 2008-09 was £1.3m.

In addition, the scheme also features a learning agreement which is essentially a contract between the student and the school or college and spells out the individual’s learning goals. Each learning centre with ten or more EMA students on its roll received an annual administration payment of £40 per EMA student. The total cost paid to learning centres in financial year 2008-09 was £1.2m.

David Melding (South Wales Central): In the last year for which figures are available how many secondary school exclusions involved Looked After Children, and will she make a statement? (WAQ54423)

David Melding (South Wales Central): In the last year for which figures are available how many primary school exclusions involved Looked After Children, and will she make a statement? (WAQ54424)

Jane Hutt: The performance indicators on exclusion from school for looked after children are reported according to the type of exclusion—permanent or fixed term, not by the age of the child.

The number of children looked after, who were permanently excluded from school during 1st April 2007 to 31st March 2008, was 11 out of 2,607 children of school age who had been looked after for 12 months. This translates to 0.42%.

Over the same period, local authorities reported that 693 exclusions of 5 days or fewer and 93 exclusions of 6 days or more involved looked after children. Further analysis of fixed-term exclusion rates, undertaken as part of the evaluation of the RAISE grant for looked after children, shows that a small number of individual children excluded for long periods is a major factor in pushing up rates of exclusion for this group of pupils.

The Welsh Assembly Government is determined to work with local authorities to bring down the rate of permanent and fixed-term exclusions for looked after children. As part of the RAISE programme, local authorities have been provided with £1m a year since 2006-07 for the specific purpose of raising the educational attainment of looked after children.

Through this grant and other approaches, local authorities should be identifying individual looked after children who are at most risk of exclusion and provide suitable support and advice to address the specific problems which may lead to exclusion if not addressed. As part of the grant, designated teachers in schools are receiving training to gain a better understanding of flash points and behaviour that lead towards a school considering exclusion and how to implement preventative and early intervention measures to avoid any further loss in education by looked after children.

New legislation relating to school admissions for looked after children in Wales came into force in April 2009. The Education (Admission of Looked After Children) (Wales) Regulations 2009 ensures that looked after children have priority for admission to a school. In the undesirable case of a looked after child being or on the verge of being permanently excluded, these regulations will enable a swifter secured place at another school, thus keeping any loss of education or habit forming non-attendance to a minimum.

The National Behaviour and Attendance Action Plan, the School-based Counselling Strategy and the Advocacy Strategy will all play their part in reducing the exclusion of all children, but particularly for those who are looked after.

Paul Davies (Preseli Pembrokeshire): Will the Minister provide details of the cost of the Merfyn Jones Review of Higher Education? (WAQ54425)

Jane Hutt: The costs of the Review of Higher Education in Wales to date total £60,658; this includes costs for 17 Review Panel meetings, and 6 national and regional conferences across Wales for sector groups targeted at businesses, learners and widening access working with Business in the Community, the National Union of Students and the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education respectively. It also includes costs for a written consultation exercise and the secondment of a strategy and policy analyst from higher education.

The Wales and Employment Skills Board member and the Ministerial Advisory Group member both received remuneration as part of their work. All other members, including the Chair, did not receive remuneration; they were only reimbursed on actual costs for travel and subsistence.

Mick Bates (Montgomeryshire): Will the proposed changes to Higher Education Student Finance have any impact on Welsh Students outside of Wales on courses such as veterinary science which are not available in Wales? (WAQ54433)

Jane Hutt: Yes, the changes being made to the student support system for academic year 2010/11 onwards will apply to all eligible Welsh domiciled students, wherever they choose to study. Welsh domiciled students studying outside of Wales will be eligible for the same level of grants and loans as those remaining in Wales.

The level of a full Assembly Learning Grant will be raised from £2,906 in 2009/10 to £5,000 in 2010/11, having a significant impact on students from families with the lowest incomes.

From 2010/11 the Assembly Government will also write off up to £1,500 of student loan debt for continuing Welsh domiciled students who take out a maintenance loan in academic year 2010/11 from Student Finance Wales. Amongst these will be many who were unable to benefit from the Tuition Fee Grant in previous years, including those on courses such as veterinary science which are not available in Wales.

Questions to the Minister for Environment, Sustainability and Housing

Nick Ramsey (Monmouthshire): How much has been spent from the Environment Sustainability and Housing portfolio budget on the third sector in each year from 1999? (WAQ54412)

The Minister for Environment, Sustainability and Housing (Jane Davidson): The information is shown below and reflected in the Third Sector Unit Annual Reports.

The Department for Environment, Sustainability and Housing was established in July 2007. The figures provided for 2001-2 to 2006-7 reflect DESH responsibilities across different Department portfolios prior to that date. The Third Sector Unit Annual Report was not available prior to 2001, so comparable figures are not readily available.

Questions to the Minister for Finance and Public Service Delivery

Kirsty Williams (Brecon and Radnorshire): How much of the Strategic Capital Investment Fund has yet to be allocated? (WAQ54405)

The Minister for Finance and Public Service Delivery (Andrew Davies): The second tranche of the Strategic Capital Investment Fund (SCIF) currently has £125m available to be allocated to innovative, cross-cutting and strategic capital projects.

I announced the first tranche of projects funded from the Strategic Capital Investment Fund in December 2008. It comprised of 19 projects with total SCIF resources of around £350m from a budget of £400m.

The remaining £50 million has been supplemented with an additional £75m from end year flexibility (EYF) making £125m available for allocation in the second tranche of SCIF.

I will announce the second tranche of projects to be funded from SCIF in the autumn.

Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services

Mick Bates (Montgomeryshire): What does the Health Minister have to measure the effects of the NHS restructuring on the quality of services and specifically fragility fracture care? (WAQ54437)

The Minister for Health and Social Services (Edwina Hart): The re-structuring of the NHS in Wales should not have an effect on service provision. The National Service Framework (NSF) for Older People requires the NHS and social care partners to develop and implement a community wide, multi agency Falls and Fractures Strategy for the prevention and treatment of falls and fractures.

Questions to the Minister for Heritage

William Graham (South Wales East): How is the Minister directing policies to grow the tourism industry in South Wales East over the next eighteen months? (WAQ54436)

The Minister for Heritage (Alun Ffred Jones): The Welsh Assembly Government provides Capital Region Tourism (CRT) with annual funding to promote and develop tourism in the region in line with our National Tourism Strategy, Achieving Our Potential. Visit Wales meets regularly with CRT to monitor its activity.

The regional strategy for South East Wales was agreed in August 2008 and is being implemented through the CRT business plan—this identifies as priorities business tourism and 5 leisure tourism experiences: activities (including golf), culture and heritage, countryside and scenery, city breaks and 'browsing’ (food, retail, events).

In addition to CRT’s work I expect Visit Wales to increase its marketing activity associated with the Ryder Cup 2010 over the next year or so and for it to continue to work closely with the Deputy Minister for Regeneration’s Department in bringing to fruition tourism projects within the Heads of the Valleys Strategic Regeneration Area.

Questions to the Minister for Rural Affairs

Brynle Williams (North Wales): Will the Minister make a statement on the Welsh Assembly Government’s plans for an on-farm renewable energy generation? (WAQ54408)

The Minister for Rural Affairs (Elin Jones): Following my announcement on 5 May, the new Glastir scheme will be designed to deliver measurable outcomes at both the individual farm and landscape scales. The all-Wales element will provide action on climate change by supporting the installation of renewable energy technologies on farms with the objective of reducing farm dependency on external generation. The operational details for Glastir are being developed through detailed external stakeholder engagement.

The funding under Glastir will assist the purchase of capital equipment to achieve business and environmental benefits, with the principal benefit of the technologies being towards the farming enterprises, not domestic or diversification use.

Equipment purchased will aim to improve farm business resource efficiency by reducing energy and/or water use and improving the use of other natural resources, and includes the following eligible technologies:

Renewable power—Small scale wind turbine (e.g. 500w-25Kw) and foundations; micro-hydro equipment and installation; grid.

Renewable Heat—Heat recovery systems, biomass boilers, ground source heat pumps and ancillary equipment for all of these.

Solar panel water heating systems for dairy farms (parlour wash down).

Rainwater harvesting/water recycling systems—including fixed pumps, UV filtration systems, piping, and storage tanks.

Purchase of wood chipper and ancillary equipment for biomass production for on-farm heating and/or the substitution of wood chip produced from on-farm timber for straw bedding.

Provision of bounded storage areas for raw wood chip and composted wood chip bedding.

Technical fees associated with the commissioning of the above systems.

Pre project costs associated with site feasibility studies and planning permission (not planning application fees).

Brynle Williams (North Wales): Will the Minister provide a progress update on the Welsh Assembly Government’s review of farm red tape? (WAQ54422)

Elin Jones: I shall make a written statement on this matter in early July.

Questions to the Minister for Social Justice and Local Government

Nick Ramsay (Monmouthshire): How much has been spent from the Social Justice and Local Government portfolio budget on the third sector in each year from 1999? (WAQ54414)

The Minister for Social Justice and Local Government (Brian Gibbons): The portfolio area for Social Justice and Local Government was created in July 2007. Funding information for the Third Sector within this portfolio predating 2007/08 is therefore not directly comparable.

Funding from within my portfolio from 2007/08 is as follows:

Social Justice and Local Government

Figures for 2008/09 are currently being gathered and will be published in the Annual Report on the Voluntary (Third) Sector Scheme 2008/09 in due course.

Detailed information on Welsh Assembly Government spending for the voluntary sector can be seen in the annually published reports on the Voluntary Sector Scheme. These reports demonstrate year-on-year increases in the funding provided to the Sector by successive Assembly Governments. These can be found at the Welsh Assembly Government website at the following link:

http://wales.gov.uk/topics/housingandcommunity/voluntarysector/publications/?lang=en

The reported figures shown above are direct payments to the Third Sector only. The Assembly Government provides other additional funding via intermediary bodies, for example Communities First Partnerships.

Darren Millar (Clwyd West): Will the Minister make a statement on access to free lip-reading classes in Wales for those who have experienced a hearing loss? (WAQ54417)

Darren Millar (Clwyd West): What assessment has the Minister made of the adequacy of provision of free lip-reading classes in Wales? (WAQ54418)

Darren Millar (Clwyd West): What assessment has the Minister made on how lip-reading classes should be funded to ensure that they remain free and accessible to those who have experienced a hearing loss? (WAQ54419)

Brian Gibbons: People who experience a hearing loss can consider accessing a range of alternative communication aids, depending on the extent of their hearing loss and the clinical or assessed care needs of the individual. Attending lip reading classes is one of those alternatives. I would hope that NHS or social services staff would signpost people to where they can access such classes if it was considered appropriate.

The recent benchmarking exercise on services for people with a hearing impairment found that there are 8 Local authority areas where there is no provision of lip-reading classes. There are issues concerning lack of qualified tutors and a grey area concerning responsibility for funding. The benchmarking report recommended that:

'With scarcity of lip reading classes and the shortage of qualified tutors it may prove beneficial for Social Services, Education and Health to develop a joint strategy for future development’.