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Skills Development Fund

Mr. Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on the budget for the Skills Development Fund for 1999-2000; how many applications were received for assistance from the Fund for 1999-2000 and how many were successful; and what was the total value of applications for assistance from the Skills Development Fund received for the 1999-2000 bidding round. [110100]

Mr. Wicks: In 1999-2000, a Skills Development Fund budget of £31.75 million was allocated to the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) to enable them to support skills projects. RDAs have provided funding for over 100 SDF projects. The RDAs report that there was considerable interest in the Fund. Information is not held centrally on the number of bids received or their total value.

Training and Enterprise Councils

Mr. Blizzard: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will permit TECs to commit funds to Objective 2 projects during the changeover period to learning and skills councils. [110136]

Mr. Wicks: The Government wish to maintain the level and quality of local projects with a learning and skills focus which are supported by European funding during the changeover to learning and skills councils. My Department is currently developing a framework for managing TECs' involvement in new projects, including European programmes, and will be issuing guidance shortly to TECs and Government Offices. Where it is necessary, transition arrangements will be made for managing any forward commitment, including transferring this to the learning and skills council if this is appropriate.

Higher Education

Dr. Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what data he has collated on the number of people participating in higher education, broken down by socio-economic group, in each of the last three years. [109980]

Mr. Wicks: Figures for the number of acceptances by social class are given in the table.

16 Feb 2000 : Column: 578W

Home domiciled accepted applicants to full-time and sandwich (3) undergraduate courses in the United Kingdom through the Universities and Colleges Admission System (UCAS) by social class (4) 1997 to 1999

	Year of entry
	1997	1998	1999
A Professional	39,644	38,510	38,864
B Intermediate	117,360	115,615	115,667
C1 Skilled non-manual	44,804	44,207	44,474
C2 Skilled manual	37,333	35,610	36,286
D Partly skilled	23,507	22,692	23,097
E Unskilled	5,620	5,329	5,538
Not known	35,050	36,257	39,139
Total	303,318	298,220	303,065

(3) UCAS collect data on full-time and sandwich courses only, therefore no information on part-time acceptances is available.

(4) For students aged under 21, the social class is that of their parents, for those aged 21 and over the social class is that of the student.

Northumberland Education Authority

Mr. Beith: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how much Northumberland Education Authority will receive from the £50 million funding he has announced for the post-16 curriculum; and if he will provide guidance on the amount which should be made available to each high school or college teaching the relevant age group. [109985]

Mr. Wicks: Education Standard Spending for 2000-01 takes into account the estimated recurrent costs-- £35 million--of successfully implementing the forthcoming reforms to post-16 qualifications in LEA maintained schools in that year. There is no meaningful way in which the Department can put a precise figure on how much additional funding for implementing the reforms is included in the Northumberland Education Standard Spending Assessment. Nor would it be appropriate for the Department to offer guidance on the resources which should be made available to individual schools in order to implement the reforms. These decisions are, rightly, made locally, in the light of local needs and circumstances.

Teachers' Pay

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if the proposed arrangements for performance-related pay for teachers in England and Wales will apply to British teachers in European schools. [109941]

Ms Estelle Morris: The proposed performance threshold arrangements and other pay reforms will only have statutory force for those teachers working in England and Wales who are covered by the School Teachers' Pay and Conditions Document. This is not the position for British teachers in European schools.

Literacy and Numeracy Standards

Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list for each year from 1992 to date the percentage of 11-year-olds that met the expected (a) literacy and (b) numeracy standards in Shropshire; and if he will make a statement. [110131]

Ms Estelle Morris: The information requested is shown in the following table.

16 Feb 2000 : Column: 579W

Percentage of pupils achieving Level 4 or above in KS2 English and maths tests

	Shropshire		Telford and Wrekin
Year	English	Maths	English	Maths
1999	73.7	72.4	67.5	66.3
1998	69.1	64.2	59.7	55.8
1997	59.1	51.3	n/a	n/a
1996	55.4	53.7	n/a	n/a

Note:

Primary Performance Tables were first published in 1996. Complete national KS2 test information was not available prior to that year. Telford and Wrekin local authority was established as a Unitary Council in April 1998 from within the boundaries of Shropshire local authority.

Source:

DfEE Performance Tables

The national Literacy and Numeracy Targets for 2002 are that 80 and 75 per cent. of 11-year-olds should reach Level 4 and above in KS2 English and maths tests respectively.

Oath of Allegiance

Mr. Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many letters he has received since 1 May 1997 on (a) constituency matters and (b) other matters of Government policy from each of those Members of the House who have not taken the oath of allegiance. [108410]

Mr. Wills [holding answer 3 February 2000]: Correspondence between MPs and Departments is treated in confidence unless the originating MP chooses to make such issues public.

"Computers for Teachers"

Mr. Levitt: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how the supplying companies were chosen for the Computer for Teachers scheme. [108437]

Mr. Wills: The process of identifying suitable companies involved the DfEE issuing a prospectus, to which interested suppliers responded. Their proposals contained financial and historical information on their business, the specifications of computers being offered and a detailed plan of the ways in which the company would support prospective customers. Detailed checks were made on these responses, including checks on the financial strength and stability of the companies concerned. Final selection was made on the basis of advice provided by BECTa to the Tender Board assembled for the purpose. Their decisions and recommendations to the DfEE were arrived at in the light of the proposals received and the results of the checks carried out.

Mr. Levitt: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what arrangements he has put in place to allow small local suppliers to take part in the Computers for Teachers scheme. [108438]

Mr. Wills: Following the announcement of 12 October, copies of the prospectus were issued on request to interested companies. Nothing in the prospectus precluded applications from small suppliers.

16 Feb 2000 : Column: 580W

Learning and Skills Councils

Mr. Chaytor: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if local authorities will have designated representation on the proposed national and local learning and skills councils. [109083]

Mr. Wicks: We have reiterated during the Lords Committee Stage of the Learning and Skills Bill that we would certainly expect national and local LSCs to include members who understand the needs of local communities through current local authority experience. But we also said it would be wrong to go further than that and specify a particular proportion of places for local authority representatives. It would be difficult then to ensure representation for all the other national partners and stakeholder organisations with an interest in post-16 learning.

We also made it clear that Local authorities will be central partners in the new post-16 arrangements--not just in providing and securing learning opportunities in schools and through adult and community learning but also as organisations which are uniquely placed to provide vision and leadership for communities. The new arrangements will mean that local authorities have a greater influence over the whole range of post-16 provision since local LSCs will be required to consult local authorities on their plans and set out in them the post-16 learning provision which LEAs will secure.

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