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EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT
Minimum Age Requirements
Mr. Barry Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will list the minimum age requirements enforced by her Department. [15912]
Mr. Robin Squire: The Department for Education and Employment is not in general responsible for enforcing age requirements. However, age requirements do apply to certain education, training and employment measures, including the following:
Children must be aged four to be eligible for the nursery voucher scheme.
The majority of places offered under the assisted places scheme begin at age 11. From September 1996, places are now available for the first time for primary age children as young as five. Assisted sixth form places are also available.
Current regulations require pupils to remain at school until one of two dates: for pupils whose birthday falls between 1 September to 31 January, it is the end of the spring term--that is, the Easter holidays--following their 16th birthday; for those whose 16th birthday falls between 1 February to 31 August, it is the Friday before the last Monday in May. The only exception to the above is for those children who have not been registered at a school at any time during the year preceding their 16 birthday. For these children, the upper limit of compulsory school age is their 16 birthday.
For programmes covered by the training and enterprise councils operating agreement, and other associated contractual documentation:
To receive income-based jobseeker's allowance, claimants must have reached the age of 18; 16 and 17-year-olds may receive JSA however, if they are in circumstances prescribed in the Jobseeker's Allowance Regulations 1996--regulations 59, 60 and 61--or if the Secretary of State decides they would suffer severe hardship unless an allowance was paid. In either case, 16 and 17-year-olds must meet the basic requirement conditions for JSA.
The teachers' superannuation regulations impose minimum age requirements in four areas:
Mr. Martyn Jones:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will list the ways in which her Department has demonstrated the ability to improve efficiency and competitiveness through an
20 Feb 1997 : Column: 663
environmental audit of waste management within those buildings her Department occupies; and if she will make a statement. [16429]
Mr. Robin Squire:
Departmental waste management centres on internal monitoring of procedures; waste segregation and recycling--that is, white paper, newspaper, aluminium cans, cardboard, toner cartridges, redundant furniture and hazardous waste.
Castle View house, Runcorn is the only new building to come onto the Department's headquarters estate in recent years. Following its completion in 1992, a Building Research Establishment environmental assessment method was successfully completed in December 1993. DfEE HQ has set a waste minimisation target of 5 per cent. for the 1997-98 financial year. A cross-site working group has been set up to co-ordinate waste minimisation and encourage the use of the Environment Agency "DIY Environmental Checklist".
Mr. Alan Howarth:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment, pursuant to her answer of 26 November 1996, Official Report, column 173, when she intends to publish the results of the research carried out by the Employment Service occupational psychology division. [16682]
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 Leigh Lewis to Mr. Alan Howarth, dated 20 February 1997:
Mr. Alan Howarth:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what is her latest estimate of the numbers of (a) severe disablement allowance, (b) incapacity benefit and (c) income support claimants who would gain if eligibility for the jobfinder's grant were extended to people in receipt of those benefits at the time of their application. [16673]
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.
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Letter from Leigh Lewis to Mr. Alan Howarth, dated 20 February 1997:
Mr. Jim Cunningham:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment (1) how many students registered in the (a) first, (b) second, (c) third and (d) fourth years of (i) a university and (ii) a college course applied for a student loan between 1990 and 1996; [16522]
(3) what was the percentage of defaults on student loan repayments between 1990 and 1996. [16524]
Mr. Forth:
These are matters for the Student Loans Company. I have asked the chief executive to write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
Mr. Blunkett:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what plans she has to pilot a voucher scheme for education at (a) primary and (b) secondary levels. [16598]
Mr. Blunkett:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will list, for each education authority in England, (a) the number and percentage of pupils entitled to free school meals for each year since 1992 and (b) the spending on school meals in the same period. [16770]
Mrs. Gillan:
As the available information is lengthy, I have arranged for it to be placed in the Library.
Mr. Byers:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what amount of the total budget allocated to training and enterprise councils was subsequently allocated to training providers in the most recent year for which figures are available. [16776]
Mr. Paice:
Government contracts with TECs for a range of activity as set out in TEC business plans. We do not collect detailed information on TEC payments to training providers.
20 Feb 1997 : Column: 665
Mr. Milburn:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what monitoring takes place by her Department of the use of external consultants by non-departmental public bodies. [16760]
Mr. Robin Squire:
Non-departmental public bodies sponsored by the Department for Education and Employment operate within the terms of financial memoranda agreed with the Department.
These require NDPBs to establish an internal audit service whose role is to provide assurance on the control arrangements to the accounting officer of the NDPB. This assurance is provided through the implementation of a risk-based audit plan.
Each plan identifies a cyclical programme of reviews designed, over time, to subject the full range of running cost expenditure to system audit. This process reviews those systems that control the use of external consultants. The frequency and depth of review would depend on the perceived degree of "risk" of the various arrangements within the particular organisation.
young people have to have reached the minimum school leaving age (as above) before they can join youth programmes;
people need to be 18 before they are eligible for training for work;
pupils are eligible to take part in work experience if they are in the last term of year 10 or year 11;
children of school age are eligible to use the child care services provided by the out-of school childcare grant.
membership of the scheme--age 18;
purchase of added years--age 20;
retirement on age grounds--age 60;
premature retirement--age 50.
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about when the results of the research carried out by the Employment Service Occupational Psychology Division will be published. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of the Agency.
My predecessor, Mike Fogden, said in his letter of 26 November that Occupational Psychology Division were considering their findings and a report would be published in due course. In considering those findings we identified the need to examine in more detail aspects of the help we offer former Incapacity Benefit claimants. We have now decided that it would be more practical and useful to publish that further work, once completed, alongside the original work as a single package. I anticipate publication in late Spring. As Mr. Fogden promised in his earlier letter I will ensure that a copy is sent to you and that one is placed in the Library.
I hope this is helpful.
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about possible take-up of the Jobfinder's Grant by claimants in receipt of Severe Disablement Allowance, Incapacity Benefit and Income Support. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of the Agency.
I understand from the Department of Social Security that the current number of claimants in each of the three groups are approximately as follows: Severe Disablement Allowance--331,000; Incapacity Benefit 1,541,000 and Income Support--2,059,000. Some people may be claiming more than one of these benefits.
We do not know what the take-up of the Jobfinder's Grant amongst these groups would be if it was made available. For jobseekers who have been registered unemployed for two years or more it is about 6%, but we would expect it to be lower for these other groups of claimants, perhaps in the order of 2%, giving a possible take-up of around 80,000.
I hope this is helpful.
(2) how many students registered in graduate studies applied for a student loan between 1990 and 1996; [16523]
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