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Education Budget (Lancashire)
24. Mr. Atkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what representations she has received from Lancashire county council about its education budget settlement. [9439]
Mr. Robin Squire: My right hon. Friend has received no representation from Lancashire county council about its education budget for 1996-97.
Social Chapter
26. Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what assessment she has made of the employment implications for Britain of agreeing to the social chapter. [9441]
Mr. Forth: The social chapter would have damaged the United Kingdom's competitiveness and destroyed jobs. That is why we could not, and will not, accept it.
Training and Enterprise Councils
27. Mr. Miller:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment when she last met
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representatives of the training and enterprise councils to discuss their budgets. [9443]
Mr. Paice:
I regularly meet TEC representatives to discuss a wide range of topics including TEC budgets.
28. Mr. Wilkinson:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what estimate she has made since the Greenwich judgment of the percentage of children who attend schools in London boroughs outside the one in which they reside. [9444]
Mrs. Gillan:
According to information provided by local education authorities in January 1994, approximately 11 per cent. of children of compulsory school age were then attending schools outside the London borough in which they resided.
29. Mr. Dunn:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many single-sex grammar schools there are in England. [9445]
Mrs. Gillan:
There are at present 116 single-sex maintained grammar schools in England.
30. Mr. Campbell-Savours:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will introduce new measures for the creation of employment opportunities for the Workington travel-to-work area. [9446]
Mr. Forth:
New jobs are being created all the time. The latest labour force survey shows that the number of people in employment in Great Britain rose by over 300,000 in the year summer 1994 to summer 1995.
The priority for the Department is to help unemployed people get these jobs. In November, I announced a programme of 1.5 million opportunities to do that, which has more than doubled the number of places on 1-2-1, a programme of intensive help tailored to the needs of the individual jobseeker.
31. Dr. Lynne Jones:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what is the standard education spending assessment for Birmingham local education authority in 1996-97; and what was Birmingham's budget for education in 1995-96. [9448]
Mr. Robin Squire:
Birmingham's provisional education standard spending assessment for 1996-97 is £448.7 million, an increase of 5 per cent. This year Birmingham's education SSA is some £427 million, and its education budget is some £456 million.
32. Lady Olga Maitland:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many children currently have assisted places. [9449]
Mrs. Gillan:
About 30,200 children are now estimated to hold assisted places at schools in England in the current academic year 1995-96.
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33. Mr. Hall:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many schools have balloted in the last six months to become grant-maintained. [9450]
Mrs. Gillan:
Forty-nine schools in England have balloted parents on the question of grant-maintained status since 1 July 1995.
34. Ms Quin:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many men were in full-time employment in (a) 1979 and (b) 1995 or the most recent year for which figures are available. [9451]
Mr. Forth:
In June 1979 there were 14,213,000 men in full-time employment in Great Britain, compared with 12,037,000 in June 1995.
35. Mrs. Ann Winterton:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will make a statement on quality and the diversity of the curriculum in school education. [9452]
Mr. Paice:
The national curriculum aims to ensure that all pupils at maintained schools benefit from a broad and balanced curriculum. The Office for Standards in Education has confirmed that it is already proving to be a successful vehicle for raising standards in school education. The revised national curriculum, introduced in August 1995, removed overload and gave teachers in primary and secondary schools more time to use at their discretion. Diversity is further guaranteed by the ability to choose between different elements of programmes of study.
Mrs. Anne Campbell:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what plans she has to consult on what changes are desired to the national curriculum during the moratorium period. [11131]
Mr. Robin Squire:
The revised national curriculum was introduced into schools only last term and is intended to take them into the next century without further major change. The School Curriculum and Assessment Authority has already begun to monitor the revised national curriculum and will, in due course, consider the need for further revision.
36. Sir Michael Neubert:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what plans she has to improve employment opportunities for older workers. [9453]
Mr. Forth:
We will continue our successful economic policies which have produced growth in jobs for all age groups. And we will pursue the campaign for older workers which seeks to persuade employers to eliminate age discrimination from their employment and recruitment practices.
Mr. Stern:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many and which schools for
24 Jan 1996 : Column: 284
educationally disadvantaged pupils in England are able to offer a full programme of GNVQ foundation courses for key stage 4 pupils provided by staff all qualified to TDLB--Training Development Lead Body--D32/33 or D34. [10884]
Mr. Paice:
This information is not held centrally.
Mr. Donohoe:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will list the total costs that will be incurred by her Department in amending stationery as a result of the merger of the Departments of Education and of Employment, the costs of new signs on buildings; and what other costs have been identified to her Department as a result of the merger of the Education and the Employment Departments. [11101]
Mr. Robin Squire:
The total cost for printing new stationery and production of new signage following the adoption of the merged Department's corporate identity is some £33,000. An estimated additional £57,000 has been incurred in developing the design of the identity and in the associated cost of its implementation throughout the Department, including production of a detailed set of guidelines. There have been significant savings elsewhere as a consequence of the merger.
Mr. Donohoe:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what was the cost to her Department of producing its new logo; which company produced the logo; and what was the cost to her Department of this contract. [11106]
Mr. Squire:
The design of the new logo and corporate identify for the Department for Education and Employment cost £15,000. The design work was carried out by the Central Office of Information after winning a free six-way creative pitch. The total cost of the contract, covering all aspects of design, production of all materials needed for the new Department and the production of a guidelines document is estimated at £90,000--this includes the original design cost of £15,000.
Mr. Blunkett:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many people have applied for assistance through the access to work scheme over each of the last 12 months; and how many of these applicants have received assistance. [11465]
Mr. Forth:
Responsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service agency under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Mike Fogden to Mr. David Blunkett, dated 24 January 1996:
24 Jan 1996 : Column: 285
(14) New procedures for recording information were introduced during April. The first count covered the period from 1 April to 31 May 1995.
Mr. Forth:
Responsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service agency under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about the monthly number of Access to Work applicants.
The attached table shows the number of people accepted for Access to Work support in each month since December 1994. We do not collect information centrally about the numbers of people who apply for support but are not eligible.
I hope this is helpful.
Mr. Blunkett:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment when she expects the review of access to work to be completed; and when the information from that review will be made available. [11466]
Month Beneficiaries
1994
December 622
1995
January 785
February 830
March 868
April/May(14) 1,058
June 929
July 934
August 854
September 896
October 794
November 866
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