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UfI Ltd.

Mr. Bill Michie: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will set out the framework, including controls, within which the Department will provide financial support to UfI Ltd. [104449]

Mr. Wicks: UfI Ltd. is a private company limited by guarantee established by the Secretary of State in October 1998. The company is seeking charitable status. By making use of information and communications technologies it will encourage innovative and cost- effective ways to learn.

The Department exercises a number of controls over UfI Ltd. The company's Memorandum and Articles of Association were approved by the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State also has the right to appoint the Chairman and between 30 and 49 per cent. of the Board Directors/members of the company, and to approve the appointment of the Chief Executive.

The Funding Agreement between the Secretary of State and UfI Ltd. provides for a number of checks and controls on the spending of public funds. It specifies that a Financial Plan, which sets out the company's financial proposals and reflects the guidance the Secretary of State may give UfI Ltd., shall be submitted to the Secretary of State annually. The Financial Plan must take into account guidance issued by the Secretary of State annually. The Financial Plan must be approved by the Secretary of State and it is subsequently monitored by the Department. The Financial Plan relates UfI Ltd.'s costs to its activities in the year covered by the plan. The Funding Agreement and the Financial Plan provide the basis for financial support.

In recognition of the market in which UfI Ltd. will operate, the company will own the assets it creates (mainly intellectual property rights on learning products) and retain any receipts from the disposal of assets. The Department will take account of any income received by the company as a result of Government investment, including asset disposal proceeds, in fixing the level of future financial support. This regime will apply only so long as the company receives Government support; any such income received by the company after it has achieved financial independence will be treated as its own.

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The Funding Agreement also provides for UfI Ltd.'s intellectual property rights to be assigned to the Secretary of State if the Funding Agreement is terminated due to UfI Ltd.'s breach of contract or insolvency. The Memorandum of the company provides that if the company is wound up or dissolved the Secretary of State has a right of veto over the disposition of any remaining assets.

Higher Education Students

Mr. Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will estimate the additional annual cost of support for students attending higher education institutions in England if the support arrangements applicable in 1979, including grants uprated by inflation, were to be applied to the number of students in the 1998-99 academic year. [101950]

Mr. Wicks [holding answer 13 December 1999]: The student support system for English and Welsh students has changed significantly over the past 20 years and the levels of grant received by higher education students in 1979 are not known precisely. However, assuming that approximately 800,000 eligible English and Welsh students in 1998-99 received the main rates of maintenance grant for the academic year 1978-79 uplifted for inflation over 20 years, we estimate that they would receive slightly less on average in real terms than from the current loans and grant fee package.

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If these 800,000 eligible students had been offered a grant for maintenance and free tuition instead of the current package of a repayable loan for maintenance and private contributions towards the cost of tuition, the additional costs to the Department might have been about £660 million; and we estimate that such a system would cost about £1.6 billion more than full implementation of the new arrangements for fees and income-contingent loans applying for students starting in the current (1999-2000) academic year.

Our student support policies share the costs of higher education more equitably between students who benefit from it and the taxpayer. That has enabled us to halt the decline in investment in higher education and helped provide for a 22 per cent. increase in cash funding by 2001-02.

LEA Administrative Costs

Mr. MacShane: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment, pursuant to his answer of 6 December 1999, Official Report, column 416W, on local education authority administration costs, if he will list, for each local education authority, the percentage of its education budget spent on administration, ranked in decreasing order. [102859]

Ms Estelle Morris: The following table gives, for each local education authority in England, information on administration expenditure, encompassing central management and administration and service, strategy and regulation costs, in decreasing percentage order for the financial year 1997-98.

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Expenditure on administration by LEAs in England for financial year 1997-98

LEA number/nameExpenditure on central management administration and service strategy and regulation costs (£000)Total education expenditure (£000)Administration as percentage of total education expenditure
201 London, City of6403,04521.02
856 Leicester City16,577144,18911.50
813 North Lincolnshire5,22768,5607.62
204 Hackney8,037109,6637.33
320 Waltham Forest7,579104,1707.28
826 Milton Keynes5,12871,4917.17
202 Camden6,01885,1377.07
203 Greenwich8,318119,5006.96
355 Salford6,808100,3026.79
213 Westminster, City of5,14379,1726.50
319 Sutton3,82559,1356.47
211 Tower Hamlets8,867138,0416.42
305 Bromley4,63872,8256.37
921 Isle of Wight3,23353,1176.09
312 Hillingdon3,87864,7065.99
307 Ealing6,576111,6135.89
308 Enfield6,959121,5355.73
922 Kent27,805490,3885.67
303 Bexley4,78084,3285.67
210 Southwark6,505115,5025.63
825 Buckinghamshire10,175183,1225.56
205 Hammersmith and Fulham3,63166,5255.46
315 Merton3,74568,7535.45
206 Islington5,22296,6805.40
803 South Gloucestershire5,22297,6045.35
837 Bournemouth2,25242,8245.26
390 Gateshead4,34385,7535.06
801 Bristol, City of7,427150,6304.93
340 Knowsley3,51872,8874.83
846 Brighton and Hove4,04484,3084.80
836 Poole1,73636,1984.80
393 South Tyneside3,20866,9314.79
805 Hartlepool1,89939,6274.79
207 Kensington and Chelsea2,40950,9304.73
865 Wiltshire5,915125,1834.73
212 Wandsworth3,82381,4184.70
802 North Somerset3,50274,9184.67
301 Barking and Dagenham3,78282,1554.60
381 Calderdale2,88263,0934.57
806 Middlesbrough2,89064,1504.51
857 Rutland3748,3774.46
845 East Sussex7,767174,2004.46
209 Lewisham5,355123,6714.33
841 Darlington1,65638,5864.29
916 Gloucestershire6,431151,1614.25
391 Newcastle upon Tyne5,210124,8614.17
925 Lincolnshire7,965192,6494.13
314 Kingston upon Thames1,88745,8214.12
800 Bath and North East Somerset2,68565,3034.11
384 Wakefield4,961123,7434.01
382 Kirklees6,401160,6683.98
930 Nottinghamshire16,335410,1593.98
341 Liverpool8,431214,6693.93
937 Warwickshire6,914176,6953.91
313 Hounslow3,902100,5503.88
929 Northumberland4,918127,1473.87
344 Wirral5,324137,6923.87
310 Harrow3,44490,6583.80
931 Oxfordshire8,468224,7423.77
318 Richmond upon Thames2,30261,2683.76
936 Surrey11,662311,8063.74
812 North East Lincolnshire2,57369,5143.70
861 Stoke on Trent3,48495,2203.66
420 Isles of Scilly481,3153.65
840 Durham7,556207,9333.63
354 Rochdale3,12486,8803.60
933 Somerset6,492182,6683.55
352 Manchester7,160201,4893.55
905 Cambridgeshire8,392236,4103.55
373 Sheffield6,408185,0783.46
357 Tameside2,93586,1243.41
302 Barnet4,021118,1173.40
855 Leicestershire7,991234,9713.40
334 Solihull2,96087,6643.38
372 Rotherham3,626108,8873.33
923 Lancashire19,887600,3163.31
808 Stockton on Tees2,56277,9533.29
820 Bedfordshire4,738145,6433.25
811 East Riding of Yorkshire4,057125,2703.24
304 Brent2,88389,3183.23
359 Wigan4,094127,4463.21
356 Stockport3,434106,9173.21
850 Hampshire13,474422,2293.19
342 St. Helens2,51978,9613.19
938 West Sussex8,767275,9543.18
810 Kingston upon Hull, City of3,464109,0403.18
831 Derby City2,42876,4923.17
333 Sandwell4,199132,8863.16
383 Leeds9,419298,4063.16
311 Havering2,62383,2663.15
821 Luton2,43677,3493.15
903 Berkshire8,404267,6573.14
316 Newham4,267135,9243.14
336 Wolverhampton3,464112,3403.08
919 Hertfordshire11,744381,0003.08
306 Croydon3,604117,3223.07
815 North Yorkshire6,894226,6123.04
851 Portsmouth1,95264,4173.03
380 Bradford6,516215,2433.03
370 Barnsley2,55584,7613.01
351 Bury2,17372,1523.01
350 Bolton3,284110,5392.97
309 Haringey3,431115,5062.97
807 Redcar and Cleveland1,90765,2032.92
332 Dudley3,070109,3002.81
343 Sefton3,611129,0182.80
330 Birmingham13,139474,9302.77
928 Northamptonshire5,848219,3862.67
866 Swindon1,48556,5292.63
371 Doncaster3,477132,7402.62
358 Trafford1,90673,9782.58
908 Cornwall4,839191,0842.53
911 Devon9,049379,6712.38
317 Redbridge2,566111,1882.31
835 Dorset3,066132,8552.31
932 Shropshire3,549159,3242.23
353 Oldham2,343106,8452.19
906 Cheshire8,888409,1582.17
335 Walsall2,258106,6132.12
816 York, City of1,35964,2542.12
935 Suffolk5,309255,7302.08
909 Cumbria3,581172,5732.08
926 Norfolk5,349261,1042.05
830 Derbyshire4,688246,7211.90
918 Hereford and Worcester4,791255,4771.88
394 Sunderland2,218121,5711.82
331 Coventry2,518148,7661.69
392 North Tyneside1,21779,2191.54
915 Essex5,872423,9071.39
852 Southampton1,05880,8281.31
208 Lambeth768101,0930.76
860 Staffordshire2,243301,9490.74
Total678,57218,898,7373.59

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11 Jan 2000 : Column: 151W


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