§ Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what public funding has been spent on adult(a) literacy and (b) numeracy in (i) Greater London and (ii) each London borough in each year since 1997. [189474]
§ Mr. Ivan LewisThe estimated total spend on Skills For Life (the Government's strategy for literacy, language and numeracy needs of all post-16 learners from pre-entry level up to and including level 2) and on Key Skills (essential skills of communication, application of number and information technology), from April 2001 to July 2003, in the London Learning and Skills Council (LSC) areas is set out in the table:
of Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service reports is; and how many children are involved in those cases. [186991]
§ Margaret HodgeAt 31 July 2004 there were 469 unallocated cases requiring private law reports, representing 5.4 per cent. of the CAFCASS caseload. There has been a dip in performance over the summer, but the overall trend has shown improvement. In March 2004 CAFCASS had 272 unallocated cases, representing 3.2 per cent. of the caseload, compared with 365 unallocated cases in March 2003, representing 4.5 per cent. of the caseload.
At 31 July 2004, there were 287 unallocated public law cases, representing 2.4 per cent. of the caseload. CAFCASS has reduced the backlog considerably; at 31 March 2003 there were 639 unallocated cases, representing 5.1 per cent. of the caseload.
CAFCASS has two measurements for allocating public law cases:
Section 31 cases (care and supervision proceedings) should be allocated within two days from receipt of the request. The current target for CAFCASS is to achieve 70 per cent. of allocations within 2 days by March 2005. CFACASS began collecting information on this basis in November 2003, with the introduction of the "Protocol for Judicial Case Management in Public Law Children Act Cases". In November 2003 CAFCASS was allocating 37.3 per cent. of cases within two days. By July 2004, the proportion had risen to 54.4 per cent.CAFCASS also has a target to allocate 98 per cent. of all case types within 28 days from receipt of the request. At the end of July 2004, CAFCASS was allocating 93.8 per cent. of cases within 28 days, compared with 79.9 per cent. of cases at the end of April 2003.CAFCASS does not keep central statistics about how many children are involved in each case.
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