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Unemployment, Walthamstow

Mr. Gerrard: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what information is available regarding the lengths of periods of unemployment benefit

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disqualification imposed by adjudication officers in the area which includes Walthamstow. [8976]

Mr. Forth: Responsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from Mike Fogden to Mr. Neil Gerrard, dated January 1996:

The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about the lengths of periods of unemployment benefit disqualifications imposed by adjudication officers in the area which includes Walthamstow.
The Employment Service (ES) does not record statistics relating to periods of disqualifications. However we do publish, quarterly, reports on the volumes of adjudicated decisions both nationally and by ES region. We are unable to provide adjudicated decision based on Parliamentary constituencies.
The publication, entitled "Analysis of Adjudication Officers' Decisions", details cases allowed and disqualified (or disallowed), by question type. The latest information can be obtained from the House of Commons library.

Mr. Gerrard: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many people in Walthamstow have experienced a period of unemployment since April 1992. [8974]

Mr. Forth: Responsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from Mike Fogden to Mr. Neil Gerrard, dated January 1996:

The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question regarding unemployment in Walthamstow.
The Employment Service does not record statistics relating to the number of people who have experienced a period of unemployment.
I can, however, advise you that the number of new claims for unemployment-related benefit made in the constituency of Walthamstow between April 1992 and November 1995 was 22,433. (Data obtained from Central Statistical Office--NOMIS)
As this figure reflects the number of claims rather than the number of clients, people who have left and rejoined the register will have been recorded each time they made a new claim.
I hope this is helpful.

Nursery Education (Inspection)

Ms Estelle Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment (1) what plans she has made to provide additional training in early years education for Ofsted inspectors; [8729]

(2) how many registered Ofsted inspectors have (a) early years teaching qualifications and (b) early years teaching experience. [8728]

Mr. Robin Squire: These are matters for Her Majesty's chief inspectors of schools, who heads the Office for Standards in Education. I have asked Mr. Chris Woodhead to write to the hon. Member.

Primary Literacy and Numeracy Centres

Mr. Blunkett: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment in which areas the establishment of the primary literacy and numeracy

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centres link will relate to the activities of (a) universities and (b) colleges. [8878]

Mr. Robin Squire: In selecting local education authorities to take part in the initiative, one of the criteria against which applications will be assessed is the quality of proposals for involving other partners, including higher education and the private sector, in supporting and extending the work.

Mr. Blunkett: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what existing resources will be drawn on in the establishment of the primary literacy and numeracy centres. [8927]

Mr. Squire: A new grant for educational support and training specific grant will provide for £5 million of expenditure in 1996-97. The Department wrote to all local education authorities on 5 January inviting them to participate. That letter gives further details of how the project will be expected to link into current work in LEAs and draw upon work being carried out by other partners in the project, including Ofsted, the Basic Skills Agency, the Teacher Training Agency and the School Curriculum and Assessment Authority. A copy of the letter has been placed in the Libraries of both Houses and I will arrange for a copy to be sent to the hon. Member.

Teacher Training

Mr. Blunkett: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will list (a) the number of places and (b) the total funding allocated by the Teacher Training Agency for (i) the primary and (ii) the secondary sector for 1996-97. [8879]

Mr. Robin Squire: The allocation of student places and funding for initial teacher training is the responsibility of the Teacher Training Agency. I have therefore asked the chairman of the Teacher Training Agency to write to the hon. Member with this information.

School Inspections

Mr. Blunkett: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what was Ofsted's target number of inspections per year in (a) the primary and (b) the secondary sector in the current cycle; and what the actual number of inspections has been in both sectors for each year since the beginning of the cycle. [8956]

Mr. Robin Squire: This is a matter for Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools, who heads the Office for Standards in Education. I have asked Mr. Chris Woodhead to write to the hon. Member.

Environmental Pollution Report

Ms Ruddock: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment on what dates and on what matters, in connection with the 18th report of the Royal Commission on environmental pollution, "Transport and the Enviornment", she has made representations to the Secretary of State for Transport. [9098]

Mr. Forth: The Department has no major direct interest in the royal commission's report, but we have been kept in touch with colleagues' consideration of the

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issues. No such representations have been made by the Department, by the former Department for Education or by the former Employment Department.

School Maintenance

Mr. Blunkett: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what estimates she has of the backlog of maintenance repairs in schools at the latest date for which figures are available. [8935]

Mrs. Gillan: Estimates based on a 1991 National Audit Office report suggest that the cost of maintenance repairs to local authority school buildings may be around £1.4 billion at current prices. However, since 1990-91, some £3.5 billion has been made available from all sources for capital work at all schools in England.

Reading Tests

Mr. Merchant: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will list those education authorities which carry out average reading score tests in (a) all or (b) some of their primary schools. [9051]

Mr. Robin Squire: The information requested is not collected centrally.

Work Funding

Mr. Byers: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what was the total cost of the evaluation of training for work funding pilots carried out by Coopers and Lybrand. [9520]

Mr. Forth: The evaluation cost £123,024.

Training Programmes

Mr. Pickthall: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what were the outcome figures for employment training in 1994 and for community action between April 1994 and March 1994; and if he will make a statement. [9694]

Mr. Paice: The information available is given in the table:

Training for work/Community actionEngland and Wales Percentage

	Proportion of leavers who:
1994-95	Were in a job(38)	Obtained a positive outcome(39)	Gained a qualification or a credit towards one
Training for work	38	42	45
Community action	15	28	n/a

Notes: n/a--Information not applicable.

(38) Full-time, part-time and self-employment

(39) In a job, full-time education or other government training.

Source:

Training for work national follow-up survey, community action follow-up survey.

Training

Mr. Pickthall: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment when she plans to publish the plan compiled by the efficiency unit, designed to reduce

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administrative burdens and changes on training and enterprise councils and providers of training. [9702]

Mr. Paice: The Department published a report on 14 December following an efficiency scrutiny into the TEC contract and management fee. A copy is in the House of Commons Library.

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