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Departmental Legislation
Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what additional legislation, not currently before Parliament, was assumed in the production of his Department's spending allocation for 1999-2000 to 2001-02 in the Comprehensive Spending Review. [68423]
Mr. Mudie: There is a long-standing convention that legislative proposals for each year are not announced before the Queen's Speech at the start of the relevant Session.
Departmental Responsibilities
Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what responsibilities which his Department had prior to the Comprehensive Spending Review are to be (a) discontinued by his Department, (b) transferred to another department, (c) transferred to an executive agency and (d) added to his Department over the period 1998-99 to 2001-02. [68407]
Mr. Mudie: Leaving aside the changes in the Department's responsibilities as a result of legislation in the 1997-98 and 1998-99 Sessions, the following changes since 1998-99 have taken or will take place:
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responsibility for the grant support in respect of projects to address educational disadvantage in ethnic minorities under section 11 of the Local Government Act 1966 transfers from the Home Office to DfEE from April 1999;
responsibility for the regulation of day care under Part X of the Children Act 1989 transferred from the Department of Health to DfEE in April 1998; and
from April 1999, the Department has a new responsibility, jointly with HM Treasury and the Department of Health, for the Sure Start initiative to provide integrated services for children aged 0-3 in deprived areas.
Surplus School Places
Lorna Fitzsimons: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what the numbers and percentages of surplus places are in each local education authority in England; and if he will make a statement on his policy on surplus places in schools. [69657]
Mr. Charles Clarke:
The supply of and demand for school places must be brought more closely into balance to maximise parental preference and ensure good quality education in the most cost-effective way. Empty school places represent a poor use of resources, especially where those schools with high levels of surplus are also performing poorly or where parental preference is not being met elsewhere in the authority. When planning school provision, authorities should initially focus on those schools with a quarter or more of their places unfilled, having particular regard to standards at those schools. The annual survey of surplus school places provides the Department with an opportunity to monitor action by each authority.
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The tables set out the numbers of surplus places as at January 1998 for each local authority area, separately for primary and for secondary, together with the proportion that these represent of total capacity. They also include the numbers of schools which at that date had a surplus of 25% or more, and at least 30 surplus places, together with the proportion that these represent of the total number of schools. The data are drawn from the returns made during 1998 by local education authorities in respect of their schools and by the Funding Agency for Schools in respect of grant-maintained schools in stage 2 and 3 authority areas. Data on surplus places in grant- maintained schools in stage 1 authorities are not available. These returns indicate that there were 761,671 surplus school places in January 1998, representing 10% of the total capacity of 7.6 million places. This is an overall reduction of just over 12,000 places on 1997 figures. The number of schools with a surplus of 25% or more, and at least 30 surplus places, also fell by 167 to 2,529 which represents 12% of the total number of schools.
The returns also provide the Department with details of what action authorities propose to take on schools with a 25% or more surplus. The returns indicate that in many cases action is being taken. Where there is no indication of action to reduce the surplus and no substantial reasons given, the Department will write to those authorities.
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(5) Primary figures show surplus after taking account of any summer entry
(6) Actual surplus is defined as the difference between capacity and number on roll for all schools where capacity exceeds number on roll
(7) Schools with less than 30 surplus places are not included
(8) Stage two for planning purposes (see
(9))
(10) Stage three for planning purposes (see
(11))
(12) Stage 1 = LEA has sole responsibility for planning the supply of school places
Stage 2 = LEA and the Funding Agency for Schools share responsibility for planning the supply of school places
Stage 3 = The Funding Agency for Schools has sole responsibility for planning the supply of school places
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