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Disabled People

Mr. Wigley: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many disabled people have been given assistance (a) to obtain employment and (b) to remain in employment in each of the last four quarters for which information is available; what was the expenditure during that period by her Department on the access to work scheme; and what sums were obtained from employers towards the cost of the scheme during the period. [2742]

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 M. G. Fogden to Mr. Dafydd Wigley, dated 11 November 1996:

The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about the number of disabled people assisted to obtain employment and to remain in employment in each of the last four quarters; and what was spent on disabled people through the Access to Work programme, and the amounts contributed by employers.
The number of disabled people the Employment Service has helped to obtain and remain in work through the Access to Work programme in the four quarters to September 1996 is given in the attached Table 1.
Expenditure on Access to Work brought to account during the same period is given in Table 2. The pattern of expenditure means that each quarter's expenditure does not necessarily relate directly to the number of people helped in that quarter.
The Employment Service does not receive money from employers or others towards the cost of providing help through Access to Work. Since June 1996, for employed people, Access to Work has contributed up to 80% of the approved costs of help between £300 and £10,000, and 100% of costs above £10,000.
I hope this is helpful.
Table 1: People helped through access to work

Quarter ending	New people helped to obtain work	New people helped to remain in work	People in work being helped on a continuing basis
December 1995	501	1,738	4,061
March 1996	367	1,006	4,098
June 1996	331	330	3,423
September 1996	334	456	4,233

Table 2: Access to work expenditure

Quarter ending	ATW expenditure £ million
December 1995	4.7
March 1996	5.0
June 1996	3.5
September 1996	3.0

11 Nov 1996 : Column: 81

Availability for Work Rule

Mr. Alan Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what is her estimate of the revenue implications of changing the availability for work rule to 16 hours per week for people undertaking part-time work or study, or whose normal work pattern is part time. [2769]

Mr. Forth: No such estimate has been made with regard to changing availability rules for people who wish to undertake part-time work or study. It is clear, however, that for people to be available only for work of up to 16 hours per week would significantly restrict the number of jobs for which they were available and reduce their chance of finding work.

Book and Equipment Shortages

Mr. Blunkett: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment (1) how many schools have been found by inspectors to have shortages of books and equipment which have adversely affected the standard of lessons in each of the last three years; and what percentage of schools examined this is; [2764]

(2) when the Office for Standards in Education report on the effects of book and equipment shortages is to be published. [2765]

Mr. Robin Squire: These are matters 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.

"30 Tough Questions for LEAs"

Mr. Blunkett: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what was the cost of the leaflet, "30 Tough Questions for LEAs", produced by the Grant-Maintained Schools Foundation. [2751]

Mr. Forth: Within the total of grant which the Department allocates each year to the Grant-Maintained Schools Foundation, details of expenditure on individual items are a matter for the foundation.

Grant-maintained Status (Expenditure)

Mr. Blunkett: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what has been the expenditure of her Department in respect of grant-maintained status on (i) promotional publications and videos, (ii) "Going GM" conferences, (iii) press advertisements and associated telephone lines, (iv) expenses for speakers attending meetings in schools, (v) conferences and training for speakers, (vi) grants to the Grant-maintained Schools Centre and Grant-maintained Schools Foundation, (vii) the Funding Agency for Schools and (viii) the Electoral Reform Society in each year since 1988-89. [2752]

11 Nov 1996 : Column: 82

Mr. Forth: The information requested, where available, is given in the following table:

							£ thousand
	(i)	(ii)	(iii)	(iv/v)	(vi)	(vii)	(viii)
1988-89	n/a	nil	nil	nil	25	nil	34
1989-90	n/a	nil	nil	nil	250	nil	42
1990-91	87	nil	nil	nil	425	nil	85
1991-92	35	nil	nil	nil	600	nil	224
1992-93	246	154	200	19	577	nil	525
1993-94	320	254	207	33	783	1,044	414
1994-95	380	185	nil	70	695	10,927	165
1995-96	179	265	nil	45	835	11,534	67
1996-97	193	73	2	23	549	12,500	56

1. Headings relate to the following items of expenditure:
(i) information publications and videos
(ii) "Going GM" conferences (cost of venues and organisation of conferences)
(iii) press advertisements and telephone service
(iv/v) GM Speakers; expenses, conferences, and training
(vi) Grant-maintained schools centre and foundation
(vii) Funding agency for schools
(viii) Electoral reform society
2. Figures relate to financial years
3. Figures for the financial year 1996-97 are expenditure incurred to date (except for the Funding Agency for Schools, column vii, which is the estimated full year figure).
4. GM Speakers' expenses and conferences and training cannot be disaggregated for all years.
5. The Grant-Maintained Schools Centre became self-supporting from the financial year 1994-95, when the Grant-Maintained Schools Foundation was set up.
6. Figures for the funding agency are for setting up, membership and running costs. They do not cover grants for GM schools administered by the agency.

Secondary Schools Staffing Survey

Mr. Blunkett: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment when the results of the 1996 staffing survey will be published. [2757]

Mr. Forth: It is planned to publish information from the 1996 secondary school curriculum and staffing survey in a statistical bulletin by September 1997.

Maintenance Work

Mr. Geoffrey Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what is the current backlog of maintenance work in (a) primary schools, (b) secondary schools and (c) institutions of further education. [2797]

Mrs. Gillan: It is for local education authorities and school governors to assess the need for maintenance work in respect of school premises which they own and maintain.

Further education colleges left local authority control in April 1993 with a maintenance backlog of £839 million. This included £359 million for urgent health and safety works, which the Further Education Funding Council estimates were three quarters complete by April 1996.

11 Nov 1996 : Column: 83

Education Spending

Mr. Blunkett: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what was (i) the actual spending per pupil in each local education authority and (ii) the education standard spending assessment per pupil in (a) primary schools, (b) secondary schools and (c) total in 1996-97. [2758]

Mr. Robin Squire: Actual spending per pupil for 1996-97 will not be known until the year has ended. The following table shows the 1996-97 education standard spending assessment per pupil in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools for each local education authority, and (c) the England averages.

Secondary School and College Students

Mr. Byers: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many (a) 16-year-olds and (b) 17-year-olds were in full-time education at school or college in the autumn term of each year since 1985. [3592]

Mr. Paice: I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to him in a letter on 21 October 1996 which gave student numbers for the census dates for the academic years requested. A copy of this letter is available in the Library.

Information is not collected on a term by term basis, the census date is in January for schools and in November for further education colleges. However, a new survey which is calculated each September shows the number of pupils in maintained schools at the start of the autumn term from 1994. This information is not available for colleges.

Maintained schools (including maintained special schools)

				Thousands
	September 1994	January 1995	September 1995	January 1996
Pupils aged 16	160.3	153.4	170.3	163.2
Pupils aged 17	109.5	106.9	112.7	111.0

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