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Exchange Rate
Mr. Mitchell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is his policy on the exchange rate between sterling and the deutschmark. [80404]
Ms Hewitt: The Government's aim is for a stable and competitive exchange rate over the medium term, consistent with the objective of price stability. The only sure path to long-term exchange rate stability is through the pursuit of macroeconomic policies aimed at achieving sustained growth, sound public finances and low inflation.
EU Financing Arrangements
Mr. Whittingdale: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the effect on the (a) gross and (b) net contributions of each member state of the European Union of the changes to EU financing arrangements agreed at the Berlin summit. [80015]
Ms Hewitt:
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by the Prime Minister to my hon. Friend the Member for Swansea, East (Mr. Anderson) on 29 March 1999, Official Report, column 737.
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Financial Services and Markets
Ms Lawrence: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he will publish further clauses of the draft Financial Services and Markets Bill. [80811]
Ms Hewitt: I have today made available to the Joint Committee on Financial Services and Markets four additional Parts of the draft Bill. These relate to official listing, collective investment schemes, disclosure of information and insolvency. Copies have been placed in the Libraries of the House.
Endowment Policies
Mr. Cousins: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he has requested (a) the Financial Services Authority and (b) the Personal Investment Authority to consider the advice required on the early termination and surrender of endowment policies. [80510]
Ms Hewitt:
The Financial Services Authority is monitoring sales of mortgage-linked endowment policies. If there is a need for regulatory guidance, in respect of early termination and surrender, the regulator will act accordingly.
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Mr. Fallon:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will provide a breakdown by job centre of vacancies notified for postal workers in the last year for which figures are available. [80453]
Mr. Andrew Smith:
Responsibility for the subject of this 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 and a copy placed in the Library.
Mr. Don Foster:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what representations have been made by his Department regarding the censorship at Skyline College in the United Arab Emirates referred to in the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education report 1998. [79941]
Mr. Mudie:
The Department has not made any representations on this issue, but we believe that universities should always consider the ethical dimension of their activities.
The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) conducts a programme of audits of institutions' overseas partnerships, and we are aware of the QAA audit report about the quality assurance arrangements of the collaborative partnership between the University of Lincolnshire and Humberside and Skyline College, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. We note that the QAA has asked the University to examine without delay the possible implications of restrictions in learning materials, which may be excluding its students from a body of scholarship on grounds of authors' race or creed.
Mr. Stephen Twigg:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many young unemployed people he estimates will join the New Deal programme in 1999-2000, broken down by suitable locality. [80899]
Mr. Andrew Smith:
The New Deal for young people is delivered through local partnerships. For planning purposes, the Employment Service has provided its partners in each local unit of delivery with an indicative assumption for the numbers of young people who might join the programme in 1999-2000. Those planning assumptions are based on current unemployment levels. They are not forecasts of the actual numbers who will join the programme. They do however enable the Employment Service and its partners in each local area to plan on a better informed basis, and they help to ensure that adequate plans are in place locally to meet potential demand.
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I am placing in the Library a list showing the indicative planning assumption for the New Deal for young people in each unit of delivery.
Mr. Stephen Twigg:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will publish details of his Department's Departmental Investment Strategy. [80900]
Mr. Charles Clarke:
Copies of the Departmental Investment Strategy report have been placed in the Library. In line with Government policy on electronic government this document will also be available on the DfEE internet site shortly.
Mr. Stephen Twigg:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will announce his decision on the recent competition for the provision of digital educational broadcasting services to support the GCSE curriculum. [80901]
Mr. Charles Clarke:
Following careful consideration of the bids received and presentations of the various proposals we are now inviting the short-listed bidders to take part in demonstration projects to test curriculum modules to support GCSE subjects. The resultant materials will be tested and evaluated as a basis for further decisions at a later date.
Mr. Stunell:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what plans he has to recover the cost of education in the state sector of foreign children temporarily resident in the United Kingdom whose parents have received specific educational grants from their home Government; and if he will make a statement. [79689]
Ms Estelle Morris:
We have no plans to change the current arrangements. We believe that all children resident in this country should be entitled to receive a free school education. Foreign children are treated in the same way as other children in the calculation of the Government's support for education through the standard spending assessment system.
Mrs. May:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many staff are employed within the Local Education Authority Support Division of his Department; and what is (a) the cost of that division in 1998-99 and (b) the budgeted cost for 1999-2000. [80388]
Ms Estelle Morris
[holding answer 13 April 1999]: The Local Education Authority Support Division, within the Department for Education and Employment, has a staffing establishment of 50 people; a further 4 people are currently employed to support the change process to the new organisational structure.
Appointments to the Division, made through open competition, include existing staff from within the
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Department and the Funding Agency for Schools as well as some external candidates.
The budget cost of the Division in 1998-99 was £440,000.
The budget cost for the Division in 1999-2000 is £1,629,000.
Mr. Field:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what statistical data he has collated on the destination of those who have completed a 12 month educational training option on the New Deal for 18 to 25 year olds. [80563]
Mr. Andrew Smith
[holding answer 13 April 1999]: Statistics are collected on various aspects of New Deal performance including destinations of those leaving New Deal from an Option. The latest figures are available in table 11 of the New Deal Statistical First Release, which is held in the Library. However, as New Deal for 18 to 24 year olds only started in Pathfinder areas in January 1998 and nationally in April 1998, very few will have had the opportunity to complete a 12 month Full-Time Education and Training Option. The results of early quantitative evaluation of Options in the Pathfinder areas will be published in the Summer.
Mr. Chope:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list (a) those local education authorities in England which are budgeting to spend more in 1999-2000 than provided for in their education standard spending assessment, and (b) which of these authorities are proposing a budget increase for education in 1999-2000 which is less than the increase in their education standard spending provision compared with 1998-99. [80499]
Ms Estelle Morris
[holding answer 13 April 1999]: Authoritative information will not be available until June 1999 when local education authorities' returns in accordance with section 52 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 have been collated and checked.
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