---

Disabled Students

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many local education authorities provide information on funding, entrance criteria, institutions' facilities, etc., for disabled students in the form of (a) Braille, (b) audio tape, (c) large print and (d) signing. [62884]

Mr. Mudie: At present local education authorities may provide these facilities if they so wish, but there are no figures collected on the number which do so. Implementation of the remaining provisions of Part III of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 will mean that from October next year service providers (including local education authorities) will be required to make reasonable adjustments to the way in which they provide their service including the provision of information in alternative formats for disabled users of the service.

Secondary School Pupils

Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many secondary schools in (a) Hertfordshire and (b) England have more than 2,000 pupils. [62485]

Ms Estelle Morris: Six maintained secondary schools in England had more than 2,000 pupils in January 1998. None of them were located in Hertfordshire Local Education Authority area.

Exclusions

Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what proportion of secondary school pupils in each local education authority area were permanently excluded from school in 1997-98; and what proportion of all pupils were educated in pupil referral units or equivalent in that year. [62100]

Ms Estelle Morris: The latest available information on pupils permanently excluded from secondary schools in each Local Education Authority area in England, for the 1996-97 school year, was published in Press Notice 45l/98, which is available in the Library.

7 Dec 1998 : Column: 86

Information on pupils in Pupil Referral Units in each Local Education Authority area in England in January 1998 is shown in the following table.

January 1998

	Number (headcount)	Total	Percentage of pupils in pupil referral units
England	7,740	8,260,582	0.1
North East	426	452,060	0.1
Hartlepool	29	17,154	0.2
Middlesborough	0	27,285	0.0
Redcar and Cleveland	55	26,822	0.2
Stockton-on-Tees	51	35,427	0.1
Darlington	41	17,243	0.2
Durham	10	83,946	0.0
Northumberland	0	53,329	0.0
Gateshead	20	32,681	0.1
Newcastle-upon-Tyne	75	46,459	0.2
North Tyneside	79	33,242	0.2
South Tyneside	47	26,731	0.2
Sunderland	19	51,741	0.0
North West and Merseyside	820	1,211,048	0.1
North West	378	952,097	0.0
Cheshire	99	170,267	0.1
Cumbria	160	82,069	0.2
Bolton	5	50,208	0.0
Bury	59	32,416	0.2
Manchester	0	77,066	0.0
Oldham	0	43,930	0.0
Rochdale	0	37,526	0.0
Salford	0	39,802	0.0
Stockport	9	49,308	0.0
Tameside	26	39,022	0.1
Trafford	0	38,760	0.0
Wigan	0	51,468	0.0
Lancashire	20	240,255	0.0
Merseyside	442	258,951	0.2
Knowsley	24	30,149	0.1
Liverpool	212	85,627	0.2
St. Helens	0	31,238	0.0
Sefton	103	52,233	0.2
Wirral	103	59,704	0.2
Yorkshire and Humber	961	866,079	0.1
East Riding of Yorkshire	0	50,723	0.0
City of Kingston-upon-Hull	12	45,713	0.0
North East Lincolnshire	1	29,311	0.0
North Lincolnshire	3	25,943	0.0
York	72	27,354	0.3
North Yorkshire	14	93,097	0.0
Barnsley	0	35,686	0.0
Doncaster	96	53,565	0.2
Rotherham	63	46,590	0.1
Sheffield	136	78,519	0.2
Bradford	39	94,911	0.0
Calderdale	0	36,354	0.0
Kirklees	19	67,326	0.0
Leeds	245	122,667	0.2
Wakefield	261	58,320	0.4
East Midlands	376	699,425	0.1
Derby	47	40,136	0.1
Derbyshire	27	118,638	0.0
Leicester City	0	52,097	0.0
Rutland	0	6,627	0.0
Leicestershire	0	97,370	0.0
Lincolnshire	9	101,163	0.0
Northamptonshire	239	110,780	0.2
Nottinghamshire	54	172,614	0.0
West Midlands	970	934,120	0.1
Hereford and Worcester	202	116,162	0.2
Shropshire	2	72,478	0.0
Stoke	5	40,544	0.0
Staffordshire	58	138,521	0.0
Warwickshire	44	82,779	0.1
Birmingham	391	188,765	0.2
Coventry	24	54,195	0.0
Dudley	34	51,337	0.1
Sandwell	86	52,929	0.2
Solihull	52	40,389	0.1
Walsall	0	50,835	0.0
Wolverhampton	72	45,186	0.2
Eastern	453	882,641	0.1
Luton	11	32,014	0.0
Bedfordshire	14	69,113	0.0
Cambridgeshire	52	112,771	0.0
Essex	23	253,309	0.0
Hertfordshire	184	190,911	0.1
Norfolk	45	117,116	0.0
Suffolk	124	107,407	0.1
London	2,005	1,153,699	0.2
Inner London	1,006	413,708	0.2
City of London	0	1,847	0.0
Camden	84	29,673	0.3
Hackney	88	30,435	0.3
Hammersmith and Fulham	118	20,657	0.6
Haringey	42	34,878	0.1
Islington	50	25,048	0.2
Kensington and Chelsea	71	21,502	0.3
Lambeth	42	29,718	0.1
Lewisham	127	37,309	0.3
Newham	34	46,417	0.1
Southwark	105	39,778	0.3
Tower Hamlets	153	37,158	0.4
Wandsworth	92	35,699	0.3
Westminster	0	23,589	0.0
Outer London	999	739,991	0.1
Barking and Dagenham	0	28,534	0.0
Barnet	48	53,623	0.1
Bexley	68	39,514	0.2
Brent	41	38,719	0.1
Bromley	110	49,558	0.2
Croydon	185	56,961	0.3
Ealing	136	48,583	0.3
Enfield	115	47,778	0.2
Greenwich	75	38,967	0.2
Harrow	52	33,214	0.2
Havering	8	36,972	0.0
Hillingdon	45	42,374	0.1
Hounslow	23	36,174	0.1
Kingston-upon-Thames	28	23,433	0.1
Merton	0	27,937	0.0
Redbridge	36	43,707	0.1
Richmond-upon-Thames	0	27,474	0.0
Sutton	29	29,879	0.1
Waltham Forest	0	36,590	0.0
South East	1,329	1,290,151	0.1
Berkshire	42	138,156	0.0
Milton Keynes	19	35,843	0.1
Buckinghamshire	39	81,988	0.0
Brighton and Hove	25	34,427	0.1
East Sussex	64	72,916	0.1
Portsmouth	48	29,113	0.2
Southampton	118	33,270	0.4
Hampshire	138	189,792	0.1
Isle of Wight	8	19,996	0.0
Kent	365	269,546	0.1
Oxfordshire	119	98,116	0.1
Surrey	260	172,052	0.2
West Sussex	84	114,936	0.1
South West	400	771,359	0.1
Bath and North East Somerset	0	29,286	0.0
City of Bristol	1	60,791	0.0
North Somerset	29	28,418	0.1
South Gloucestershire	0	40,449	0.0
Cornwall	0	75,688	0.0
Isles of Scilly	0	268	0.0
Devon	86	165,660	0.1
Bournemouth	0	22,735	0.0
Poole	20	21,097	0.1
Dorset	29	58,815	0.0
Gloucestershire	57	91,831	0.1
Somerset	54	77,987	0.1
Swindon	23	29,263	0.1
Wiltshire	101	69,071	0.1

(11) Excludes pupils who are also registered at a mainstream or special school

7 Dec 1998 : Column: 88

Age Diversity

Ms Perham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what key criteria he intends to put in place to monitor the effectiveness of the code of practice on age diversity in employment. [62178]

Ms Hodge: Key indicators which will measure the labour market position of older workers are given in Annex E of "Action on Age", the report on the year long consultation undertaken on age discrimination in employment. These indicators include the employment rate, the claimant count and ILO measures of unemployment, as well as economic activity rates. These indicators will be reviewed each year in June.

In addition, we have commissioned a research project which will evaluate the Code's effectiveness in promoting an age diverse workforce. The research will cover a wide range of employers, looking in detail at employer policies and practices in recruitment and employment and the impact on age diversity in their workforce. As we said in "Action on Age", the full evaluation will be completed by February 2001.

Sixth-form Students

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what plans he has to increase the levels of (a) home to study transport and (b) other support for 16-18 year old students in (i) the FE sector and (ii) LEA sixth forms. [62089]

7 Dec 1998 : Column: 89

Mr. Mudie: The Secretary of State has announced an extra £67 million for a comprehensive package of post-16 student support over the next 2 years. It will fund the new Education Maintenance Allowance pilots, and boost and extend Access Funds for students in further education and introduce a new access fund for pupils in school sixth forms as well as supporting specific provision for child care and resident attendance at college. Provision for transport is allowed for in both the access funds, and there will be other funding available to help LEAs to co-ordinate and integrate post-16 transport.

---