Weekly PQs - Westminster.

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Monday 8 May, 2006        No. 264          ISSN 1748-7625

EPM Weekly PQs â€" Westminster reports a selection of written parliamentary questions on education from the House of Commons and the House of Lords. It excludes questions where the answer is given in statistical form by LEA, LSC, university or constituency. These are listed in EPM Weekly Statistics â€" Westminster. Questions are listed alphabetically within departmental and date order. Answers with an asterisk * after the title are oral questions not reached and therefore answered as written questions. The period covered by this report is 2 to 5 May 2006.

The House of Commons

Department for Education and Skills

Teachers

Mr. Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps are being taken to address the shortage of qualified school teachers in key subjects. [67306]

Jacqui Smith: In January 2006 the vacancy rate for teachers of most subjects, including mathematics, science, ICT and English, was lower than in 2005. Since 2000, we have provided bursaries to PGCE trainee teachers in a range of priority subjects. We have also provided them with a Golden Hello" after their first year teaching. From September 2005 the bursary for mathematics and science trainees rose to £7,000, with a £5,000 Golden Hello". From September 2006, financial support will increase to £9,000 for all priority subject trainees. Mathematics and science teachers will also be provided with a Golden Hello" of £5,000 (£2,500 for other priority subjects). Courses to enhance subject knowledge for those planning to train to teach mathematics and physics began in January this year, and chemistry courses will start next January. Financial incentives are offered to training providers who recruit extra trainees to teach maths and science. The Budget announced additional funding to encourage more undergraduates to pursue teaching as a career, and to provide additional training to prepare a wider range of graduates to become teachers of priority subjects. It also said that the School Teachers Pay Review Body would be remitted to advise both on improving current pay flexibilities to improve the recruitment, retention and quality of science and mathematics teachers and also on whether sciences teachers should receive an incentive to complete training to enhance their ability to teach physics and chemistry.

2 May 2006

Academies

Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much her Department has spent to date to promote academies; and how many people are employed (a) in her Department and (b) as consultants for that purpose. [64687]

Jacqui Smith: The information requested in this question relating to costs of promotion is not held in a form that could be retrieved except at disproportionate cost-the term 'promotion' could be interpreted to mean any activity in relation to the Academies programme and the scope of the question covers the six years the programme has been operating. Within the Academies Group in the DfES there are as at today's date 81 staff and 19 consultants, these staff carry out a range of functions including policy, delivery, communications and educational support.

3 May 2006

Learning and Skills Council

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the funding for the Learning and Skills Council for adult learning was in (a) 2004-05, (b) 2005-06 and (c) 2006-07; and what factors she took into account when allocating funds. [51570]

Bill Rammell: The total overall spend on all adult programmes for 2004-05 was reported in the Learning and Skills Council's (LSC) Annual Report and Accounts as £2,999 million. Our planned funding for the LSC's major programmes only for adults for 2005-06 is £2,942 million and for 2006-07 is £2,946 million. Estimated spend on smaller programmes and experience of the previous two years suggests final funding for adults will be in the order of £3.2 billion each year. On 1 October 2005 the Government set out their priorities for post-16 education and training. This established our priorities for the learning and skills sector and the impact on funding in 2006-07 and 2007-08. While overall spend on adult learning will remain broadly constant the pattern of that learning will change. To meet our national priorities, we need to shift the pattern so that we provide a greater number of longer and more expensive courses for adults, to equip them with the range of skills they need for employability and further progression to higher levels of training. We have consistently said that public funding alone cannot and should not pay for all the training necessary in a competitive economy. To support this shift, there has to be a new balance of responsibilities between Government, employers and learners so we do not accept that withdrawal of LSC funding means that courses automatically have to close. Where provision is valued by learners, where it is high quality, and where learners and employers are prepared to pay more, we expect colleges to consider providing courses on a full-cost recovery basis. The Department's guidance to the LSC on the deployment of its funding allocations is outlined in the Secretary of State's annual grant letter to the LSC Chairman and for 2006 to 2008 in Priorities for Success the document that sets out our funding strategy for the next two years. This document is available on the LSC's website.

3 May 2006

List 99

Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many people (a) are on List 99 and (b) have been added to the List in each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement. [44414]

Ruth Kelly: There were 4,045 people on list 99 when I made my first statement about arrangements for vetting those working with children on 19 January 2006. List 99 is continuously updated and the Department does not collect this data on an annual basis. The number added to the list in each of the last 5 years is as follows:

               Number added to List 99
2001                                   169
2002                                   135
2003                                   219
2004                                   321
2005                                   525

3 May 2006

Student Loans

Alan Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many and what proportion of outstanding student loans are in accounts where debt recovery is inactive (a) in total and (b) where no repayments have been made over the last three years; and what the total value of such loans is in each case. [63517]

Bill Rammell: Debt recovery is not inactive on any accounts; the Student Loans Company (SLC) take appropriate action to collect repayments on all accounts. There are 234,600 UK borrowers with a loan balance of £ 754 million with publicly-owned mortgage-style loans past the statutory repayment due date (SRDD) 1 who had made no repayments in the last three years (as at 31 March 2005). They represent 36 per cent. of borrowers who had loans past SRDD during the three-year period. 93 per cent. of those who made no repayments were not required to repay for the whole three-year period, because their gross annual income was below the relevant earning threshold. The remainder were subject to the SLC arrears recovery process. This includes several attempts to contact the borrower by letter and telephone, and where necessary passing the case to SLC's internal specialist tracing or arrears collection agents. Ultimately the borrower may be contacted by an external debt collection agency and/or face legal action. Data is not yet available on income-contingent loans. Borrowers are not required to make repayments if they are earning less than £15,000 and when due these repayments are generally collected automatically through the tax system.

1. Borrowers are not required to repay before they reach the SRDD, which is the April following graduation or otherwise leaving their course.
2. May 2006

Prison Education

John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) if she will list the mentoring programmes run by charitable organisations in prisons; [65575]

(2) if she will increase the role of mentoring in prison education. [65576]

Phil Hope: Information is not collected on the individual programmes run by the voluntary and community sector in prisons. The use of mentors is promoted in the 'Offender's Learning Journey' that sets out the offer to prisoners. Plans to increase the role of mentoring are set out in our recent Green Paper 'Reducing Re-Offending through Skills and Employment'. This will play an important part of our new and stronger focus on employment for prisoners as well as supporting the delivery of literacy, numeracy and communications skills.

John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what research has been undertaken by her Department into the impact of education and training on reconviction. [65805]

Phil Hope: Research on reconviction rates is a matter for the Home Office and they are undertaking a research study 'Surveying Prisoner Crime Reduction' (SPCR). In our recent Green Paper 'Reducing Re-Offending Through Skills and Employment' we outlined that there is research evidence to indicate that improving skills and employment for offenders can have a positive impact on the incidence of re-offending. In particular, evidence strongly suggests that employment and offending are linked, although this relationship is complex.

John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps her Department has taken to inform the general public of the purpose and importance of prison education. [65806]

Phil Hope: A communications campaign is being conducted to inform the public about the importance of learning and skills for all offenders, whether in prison or under supervision in the community. This is promoted through the DfES website, newsletters, conferences and seminars. The recently published Green Paper 'Reducing Re-offending through Skills and Employment' set out our future plans and its launch was covered in local, sectoral and national media.

Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what estimate she has made of education staff turnover rates in prisons in each year since 1997. [66551]

Fiona Mactaggart: Educational staff are generally employed under contract by educational providers. The information requested is not held by the Prison Service or by Department for Education and Skills or could be collated only at disproportionate cost.

4 May 2006

Religion in Schools

Colin Challen: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what requirements are placed on maintained faith schools in relation to respecting the wishes of non-religious pupils and parents; [65144]

(2) what the legal responsibilities of (a) faith and (b) non-faith trust schools are in relation to (i)discrimination by religion in the employment of staff, (ii) the religious education syllabus, (iii) the holding of a daily act of worship and (iv) parental excusal from religious education and collective worship. [65174]

Jacqui Smith: Religious education must be provided for all registered pupils in maintained schools, including trust schools. All maintained schools, including trust schools, are under a statutory duty to provide a daily act of collective worship for all pupils. This will be of a general Christian nature unless the school is designated as having a religious character in which case the collective worship will be in the tenet of the faith school. Parents of pupils at all maintained schools can request that their children be withdrawn from any or all parts of religious education and collective worship and the school is expected to comply with the request.

All schools, including trust schools but excluding voluntary aided schools with a religious designation, will follow the locally agreed syllabus for religious education as drawn up by Standing Committee on Religious Education and agreed by the local authority. Trust schools are foundation schools with a foundation. Where this is a religious foundation and the school is designated as having a religious character the Governing Body, as employers, may take into account any candidates' suitability and ability to preserve and develop the religious character of the school in the appointment of the headteacher and reserve teachers in the schools.

The aforementioned flexibilities do not apply to non-faith schools. There are no such provisions for the appointment of other teaching staff or non-teaching staff. In addition, all employers need to have regard to their responsibilities under employment and European law relating to equal opportunities.

4 May 2006

Specialist Schools

Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many specialist schools there are in England, broken down by specialism; and how many of such schools are electing to select up to 10 per cent. of their intake by aptitude. [67276]

Jacqui Smith: There are currently 2502 designated specialist schools (2378 operational): 408 Arts; 217 Business and Enterprise; 47 Engineering; 72 Humanities; 216 Languages; 222 Maths and Computing; 18 Music; 282 Science; 345 Sports; 583 Technology; 80 Combined and 12 with a Special Educational Needs (SEN) specialism. Specialist schools are bound by the school admissions code of practice. Relatively few specialist schools select by aptitude, our figures suggest that 45 schools or 6.5 per cent. of schools that were specialist in summer 2001 did so.

4 May 2006

Teachers (Preparation Time)

Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment she has made of progress on the implementation of the scheme for allowing time for all teachers for planning, preparation and assessment. [66279]

Jacqui Smith: We, our partners on the Workforce Agreement Monitoring Group and the Training and Development Agency for Schools-Development Directorate (TDA D-formerly the National Remodelling Team) have been working, and continue to work, with schools and local authorities in England to make sure that planning, preparation and assessment (PPA) time for teachers is both introduced successfully and sustained. The latest information we have indicates that almost every school has successfully introduced PPA time, using a range of strategies including greater use of support staff. The TDA-D is actively supporting those schools that have yet to fully implement PPA through its extensive network of local remodelling advisers and is also working to ensure that all schools have sustainable PPA solutions.

4 May 2006

Department for International Development

Education

Mr. Andrew Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will set out the Government's proposals to increase capacity funding to help African and other developing countries develop their 10 year plans for providing education under his delivering education for all initiative. [65187]

Hilary Benn: We anticipate that the fast track initiative's education programme development fund, to which we are doubling our contribution from £2.5 million to £5 million, will be used to help provide technical support to countries with weak capacity to develop or implement sound 10-year education sector plans. This will be the main channel for identifying where technical help is needed, in consultation with other donors who are supporting the education sector. We are also increasing our support to the fast track initiative's catalytic fund from £50 million to £150 million over two years.

2 May 2006

Northern Ireland

Literacy Levels

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will collect and collate statistics on literacy levels in Northern Ireland at (a) ward and (b) sub-ward level. [68034]

Angela E. Smith: There are no plans to collect and collate statistics on literacy levels in Northern Ireland at (a) ward and (b) sub-ward level. Measurement of literacy scores involves the administration of specific tests, and estimates of literacy levels in the population have depended on sample surveys (for example, the International Adult Literacy Survey which was carried out in Northern Ireland in 1996). Sample sizes for this type of survey are not large enough to enable the reporting of results at ward level or lower. Proxy information such as the proportion of the population with no qualifications is available at this level of detail for Northern Ireland (e.g. 2001 Census).

4 May 2006

The House of Lords

Schools: Special Educational Needs

Lord Laird asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether, in view of the recent allegations concerning the treatment of a pupil at Woodlawn Special School in North Tyneside, they intend to introduce guidelines on the cleansing of special needs pupils. [HL5283]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education and Skills (Lord Adonis): Schools and all other settings registered to provide education will already have hygiene or infection-control policies as part of their health and safety policy. This is a necessary statement of the procedures the school will follow if a child accidentally wets or soils him or herself. A guide called Including Me: Managing Complex Health Needs in Schools and Early Years Settings was launched by the Health Needs in Education Consortium, including Mencap, the Council for Disabled Children and the Royal College of Nursing, supported by DfES in November 2005. The guide gives practical advice and solutions to help children who have complex health needs, and contains guidance on continence, facilities and procedures for personal care. The department has no plans to introduce further guidelines on cleansing.

2 May 2006

Children: Health

Earl Howe asked Her Majesty's Government:

What is the response of the Food Standards Agency to the article by Cara B Ebbeling, published in the journal of the American Academy of Paediatrics in March. [HL5479]

The Minister of State, Department of Health (Lord Warner): The Food Standards Agency has noted the results of the study published in the Journal of American Academy of Paediatrics on the effects of decreasing sugar-sweetened drinks on body weight in adolescents. The available evidence on the relationship between sugar and body weight is not clear. More evidence of whether sugar is associated with body weight and obesity is required before definitive conclusions can be drawn.

Earl Howe asked Her Majesty's Government:

What is the average volume of soft drinks consumed each day by children in England and Wales; and whether they will assess the implications for childhood obesity of the calorific content of such drinks; and [HL5480]

Whether they will review possible action to reduce calorie levels in soft drinks through the wider use of calorie-free sweeteners as part of their strategy to halt the rise in childhood obesity. [HL5481]

Lord Warner: The most recent information available on consumption of soft drinks by children dates back to the 1997 national diet and nutrition survey of young people aged four to 18 years. This survey showed that average consumption of soft drinks by the four-to-18-year age group in Britain in 1997 was 441g/day. Just over half of this (264g/day) comprised standard (that is, other than low-calorie) varieties. The causes of obesity are multifactorial. The Government have no current plans to assess the specific implications on childhood obesity of consumption of high-sugar soft drinks. Nor do they intend to promote the use of calorie-free sweeteners in soft drinks as part of their strategy to halt the rise in childhood obesity. The Food Standards Agency has commenced discussions with stakeholders on a strategy to address the calorie levels in foods to improve energy balance; the levels of sugar in some foods, including soft drinks, is being explored as part of this strategy.

4 May 2006

Children: Parental Drug and Alcohol Use

Lord Adebowale asked Her Majesty's Government:

How many incidences of child abuse in the United Kingdom each year are linked to alcohol misuse. [HL5329]

Lord Bassam of Brighton: The Home Office does not collect information on the number of incidences of child abuse that are linked to alcohol.

4 May 2006