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EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT
Training and Enterprise Councils
Mr. Pawsey: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what is the total amount of Government funding currently provided to the TECs. [14277]
Mr. Paice: The total amount of funding provided to training and enterprise councils by the Department in 1995-96 is £1.216 billion. The Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of the Environment also provide TECs with additional Government funding.
The responsibility for TECs in Wales lies with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales.
Mr. Sheerman:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what is the total annual cost to the Exchequer of the running of the training and enterprise councils. [14466]
Mr. Paice:
The Department does not collect this information. Training and enterprise councils are private companies. The Department makes a contribution to the council's administration costs. In 1995-96 the contribution is £126 million.
Mr. Byers:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment when she expects to reach an agreement with training and enterprise councils about their operating agreement for 1996-97. [15081]
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Mr. Paice:
The published agreement will be with training and enterprise councils by the third week of February. Negotiations with TECs on budgets and targets for 1996-97 are progressing. Officials from the Department expect to sign agreements with TECs by 25 March 1996, the start of the new contract year.
Mr. Robert Banks:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will set out the league tables of achievement for the schools in the Yorkshire counties. [14141]
Mr. Paice:
The annual secondary school performance tables published by the Department list schools alphabetically rather than in order of achievement. Copies of the performance tables for the Yorkshire area are in the public domain and are available in the Library.
Mr. Blunkett:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment (1) if new asylum seekers will qualify for the same concessionary fee status as asylum seekers in receipt of benefit under the new regulations; [14478]
(3) how many asylum seekers are currently receiving concessionary fees and FEFC funding for part-time courses; and if these arrangements will continue when the new regulations come into force. [14477]
Mr. Paice:
The FEFC has only recently begun to collect separate data on asylum seekers eligible for student fee remission, so it is not at present possible to give the number of those currently benefiting from fee remission.
It is estimated that the number of students likely to be affected by the change in regulations will be very small. However, I understand that the FEFC has decided that if any further education colleges are seriously affected by the loss of recurrent funding from this source it will consider their cases sympathetically.
Arrangements for fee remission for asylum seekers studying at FE colleges are a matter for the FEFC, and I am asking the chief executive to write to the hon. Member.
Mr. Steinberg:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment (1) how much each region has received from the FEFC each year since its formation; [14518]
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Mr. Paice:
Details of the allocation of funding to colleges, and the number of FEFC-funded colleges in each region are matters for the Further Education Funding Council. I am therefore asking the council's chief executive to write to the hon. Member.
Mr. Steinberg:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how much it costs annually to run the Further Education Funding Council. [14517]
Mr. Paice:
The amounts paid to the council to cover running costs in each financial year from 1992-93 to 1994-5 are as follows:
The council's running costs are expected to be lower in subsequent years. Estimated totals for 1996-97 to 1998-99 are as follows:
Mr. Blunkett:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what plans she has to use value added criteria in her proposed performance tables for 11-year-olds. [14482]
Mr. Robin Squire:
I have asked the School Curriculum and Assessment Authority to report on the potential of different models of value added at key stages 2 and 4. It expects to do so by December 1996. The possibility of including value added measures in primary school tables, at some point, will be addressed in the light of that report.
Mr. Blunkett:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment when she will publish the performance tables for 11-year-olds in national assessment tests; in what format the information will be published; and if she will make a statement. [14481]
Mr. Squire:
I intend to publish this summer's assessment results for 11-year-olds in school performance tables early in 1997. I shall consult in due course on the format of the tables.
Mr. Barry Field:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many cases the Equal Opportunities Commission have brought before a tribunal where there has been no formal complaint in each of the last five years. [14411]
Mrs. Gillan:
The Equal Opportunities Commission has no power to bring complaints to an industrial tribunal in its own name on behalf of an individual alleging sex discrimination.
13 Feb 1996 : Column: 531
(2) what estimate she has made of the financial impact on further education colleges required to cease claiming recurrent funding from the Further Education Funding Council for those asylum seekers with concessionary fees who are no longer eligible for income support after 5 February; [14479]
Financial Year
In the current financial year there is provision of £24.2 million to cover the council's running costs.
1992-93: £4.3 million
1993-94: £18.8 million
1994-95: £23.7 million.
Financial Year
1996-97: £23.6 million
1997-98: £23.0 million
1998-99: £23.0 million.
| Year | Number of cases |
|---|---|
| 1991 | 4 |
| 1992 | 2 |
| 1993 | 0 |
| 1994 | 3 |
| 1995 | 6 |
Mr. Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment (1) what guidelines have been issued to the Equal Opportunities Commission in respect of cases where job applicants have failed to comply with the jobseeker's scheme; [14412]
- (2) what guidelines have been issued to the Equal Opportunities Commission in respect of pursuing cases in the absence of a complaint (a) in general and (b) in respect of small businesses. [14410]
Mrs. Gillan: The Equal Opportunities Commission is an independent body which decides what cases to pursue with reference to its statutory duties to work toward the elimination of discrimination and to promote equality of opportunity between men and women generally. The Government have not issued guidelines in respect of pursuing cases.
Access to Work
Mr. Spearing: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what factors led her to reduce her Department's expenditure for disbursement via the access to work scheme for disabled employees; and what estimate she has made of the number of persons in employment on account of this scheme whose employment will be terminated by the planned reductions. [14761]
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. Nigel Spearing, dated 13 February 1996:
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The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about the expenditure on Access to Work; and for an estimate of the number of people, in employment on account of the programme, whose employment will consequently be terminated.
The expenditure on Access to Work has not been reduced. The Secretary of State announced on 14 December that additional funds had been allocated to meet the demand made on the programme this year. You may know that by the end of December some 12,000 people had been helped--close to 2,000 more than for the whole of 1994/95.
We are continuing to support people in employment to whom we have an existing commitment and I would not expect there to be any change to their employment position.
I hope this is helpful.
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