10 Jun 1997 : Column: 363
Written Answers to Questions
Tuesday 10 June 1997
EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT
Minimum Wage
Mr. Tom King: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what research has been commissioned and what estimates have been made by his Department and what information presented to him, regarding the costs per annum to the DfEE budget of the introduction of a minimum wage at (a) £3.50 an hour, (b) £4 an hour and (c) £4.40 an hour; and if he will make a statement. [2113]
Dr. Howells: I refer the right hon. Member to the reply dated Friday 6 June, Official Report, column 310, by my right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Trade.
Assisted Places Scheme
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment (1) what is his Department's range of estimates of the costs of educating the extra children in the state sector who would otherwise have had an assisted place in (a) 1998-99, (b) 1999-00 and (c) 2000-01; and if he will make the relevant background papers available; [2216]
- (2) what estimates his Department has made of the gross savings that will accrue in (a) 1998-99, (b) 1999-00 and (c) 2000-01 from the proposed phasing out of the assisted places scheme. [2221]
Mr. Byers: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 5 June to the hon. Member for South-East Cambridgeshire (Mr. Paice), Official Report, column 245.
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many children in each age group in (a) Portsmouth and (b) Havant benefit from the assisted places scheme; and which schools they attend. [2675]
Mr. Byers: The information requested is given in the following table and relates to the current academic year 1996-97. There are no schools participating in the assisted places scheme in Havant.
| Number of assisted place holders | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age 5-10 | Age 11-15 | Sixth form | Total | |
| Portsmouth Grammar School | 8 | 142 | 38 | 188 |
| Portsmouth High School for Girls | 3 | 107 | 25 | 135 |
| St. John's College, Southsea | none | 156 | 43 | 199 |
| Total | 11 | 405 | 106 | 522 |
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Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment (1) how many children from Devon are funded through the assisted places scheme; and if he will make a statement; [2497]
- (2) how many of the children in Devon schools on the assisted places scheme are from the county of Devon. [2498]
Mr. Byers: Information about the local education authority area from which assisted pupils originate is not collected centrally. In the current academic year 1996-97, there are 942 assisted pupils in eight schools participating in the assisted places scheme in Devon.
Class Sizes
Mr. Colvin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will publish a list by local education authority of average class sizes for the primary school sector at the latest available date. [2699]
Mr. Byers: The information is shown in the following table.
(1) Average size of one teacher classes as taught during a single selected period on the census day.
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Mr. Wilshire:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list the average class size in each primary and secondary school, grant-maintained and local authority controlled, in the Spelthorne constituency on 31 March or the latest available date before that. [2566]
Mr. Byers:
Information on class sizes for individual schools is not published centrally.
Mr. Don Foster:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment when he expects the Form 7 figures to have been processed to provide class size information as at January 1997; and if he will make a statement. [3033]
Mr. Byers:
Provisional figures on class sizes in maintained primary and secondary schools as at January 1997 are expected to be published in a Statistical Press Notice at the end of this month.
Mr. Colvin:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will publish the evidence he has received which suggests that small class sizes deliver better educational standards; and if he will make a statement. [2698]
Mr. Byers:
The electorate have already signalled their support for our policy to bring the educational benefits of smaller classes to all infant pupils, rather than just the few whose parents have paid for smaller classes in the independent sector. Common sense and research evidence here and notably in the United States indicate that class size is a key factor in the early years of education when pupils master the basics. Her Majesty's Chief Inspector has said in the Ofsted report on class size (1995)
Mr. Colvin:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if the undertaking given by the Minister for School Standards on 22 May, Official Report, column 824, that the new Education (Schools) Bill will lead to a reduction in class size for every five, six and seven-year-old in the country applies irrespective of the current size of class of which a child is a member. [2704]
"small class sizes are of benefit in the early years of primary education."
Mr. Byers: Our pledge is to reduce class sizes for all five, six and seven-year-olds to 30 or below by the end of this Parliament.
Single Parents
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many extra staff will be needed in jobcentres to conduct the interviews with single parents announced by the Prime Minister on 2 June; what the gross costs of the exercise will be; and how many single parents are expected to find jobs as a result of it. [2673]
Mr. Alan Howarth: Employment Service help is already available to those lone parents who choose to use it. We will consider what additional support should in time be made available to improve the help to lone parents seeking jobs.
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