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New Deal for Schools

Mr. Michael J. Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list the schools in Worcester constituency which have received funding through the New Deal for schools; and in each case for what purpose the money was allocated. [128880]

Jacqui Smith: The table shows the information requested for the Worcester constituency.

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School	Purpose of grant allocation
Northwick Manor Infants	Replacement of three temporary classrooms
Northwick Manor Infants	Enclosure of open courtyard, development of library and IT areas
St. Clement's CE Primary	Replacement of two temporary classrooms
Nunnery Wood High	Conversion of two science laboratories
St. Barnabas CE Primary	Replacement of four temporary classrooms
Bishop Perowne CE High
Christopher Whitehead High	Asbestos testing, recording and marking
Nunnery Wood High
The Elgar High
Cherry Orchard Primary
Cranham Primary
Dines Green Primary
Elbury Mount Primary
Gorse Hill Primary
Lyppard Grange
Northwick Manor Infant
Northwick Manor Junior
Nunnery Wood Primary
Oldbury Park Primary
Perdiswell Primary
Pitmaston Primary
Red Hill CE Primary
Ronkswood Infants
Ronkswood Juniors
St. Barnabas CE Primary
Stanley Road Primary	Roof-lights risk assessment
Warndon Infants
Warndon Juniors
Our Lady Queen of Peace RC Primary
St. Clement's CE Primary
St. George's CE Primary
St. George's RC Primary
St. Joseph's RC Primary
Christopher Whitehead High
Nunnery Wood High
The Elgar High
Bishop Perowne CE High
Manor Park Special
Rose Hill Special
Thornton House Special
Oakfield Pupil Referral Unit
The Pines Pupil Referral Unit
Gorse Hill Primary	Replace boilers and heating system
Pitmaston Primary	Replacement of double mobile classroom
Rose Hill	Replace dilapidated Life Skill post--16 base and science facilities
98 selected First and Primary Schools(9)	Asbestos testing, recording and marking
2 schools(9)	Rewiring
2 schools(9)	Replace heating system and controls
3 Primary schools(9)	Reconstruct paved areas
Perdiswell Primary	Replace warm air heating
Composite Health & Safety Bid(10)	Safety filming and glazing
Composite Health & Safety Bid(10)	H&S Switches--Machines
Cherry Orchard Primary	Refurbishment of library
Christopher Whitehead High	Refurbishment of showers and changing room
Pitmaston Primary	Replace fire alarm
Dines Green Primary	Replace fire alarm
Red Hill CE Primary	Replace distribution boards, lighting and fire alarm
Our Lady Queen of Peace RC Primary	Replace fire alarm and emergency lighting
St. George's RC Primary	Replace fire alarm
Cranham Primary	Replace fire alarm
Ronkswood Junior	Replace fire alarm
Rose Hill Special	Reconstruct concrete play area
St. George's RC Primary	Reconstruct path and reception play area
Rose Hill Special	Craft Design and Technology/Art refurbishment
Elgar High	Disabled access (lift)
Bishop Perowne CE High	Refurbish Craft Design and Technology facilities
St. Joseph's RC Primary	Security/administration improvements

(9) Individual schools not identified by the LEA at the time of bidding in NDS Phase 3. Some schools in the Worcester constituency may be included.

(10) Individual schools not identified by the LEA at the time of bidding in NDS Phase 2. Some schools in the Worcester constituency may be included.

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6 Jul 2000 : Column: 275W

Departmental Vehicles

Mr. Pearson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list for his Department and its agencies the approved list of manufacturers of (a) cars and (b) commercial vehicles; and if he will make a statement on his Department's leasing and purchasing policy. [128986]

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Mr. Wills: The DfEE and the Employment Service do not operate an approved list of manufacturers for cars and vans.

The DfEE and the Employment Service do not lease vehicles. Cars and vans are bought from the manufacturer that offers the best value for money across a range of vehicle specifications. This is determined by competitive tender. The current contract was awarded to Vauxhall in 1999.

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Private Finance Initiative

Mr. Alan Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list the PFI contracts entered into by his Department, indicating (a) their dates of commencement, (b) their value, (c) if they have been subject to refinancing and (d) if his Department has a claw-back entitlement to share in savings arising from refinancing. [129047]

Mr. Wills: The Employment Service has entered into three Private Finance Initiative contracts since 1997. It has established private finance deals for the delivery of procedural guidance via networked personal computers, for the delivery of all IT and related services, and for pay and personnel records. These are listed in the following table:

£ million

PFI contract	Commencement date	Capital value
ESCOM	February 1997	4.0
IT Partnership	May 1998	116.0
HR Partnership	January 1999	5.8

The commencement date is the date of financial close.

None of these contracts has been subject to refinancing, although there is provision in the IT partnership contract for refinancing. There is no claw-back entitlement to share in savings arising from refinancing of this project. If any refinancing were proposed, the parties would be required to negotiate suitable terms.

National Skills Task Force

Mr. Sarwar: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what steps he is taking to ensure that the Government's response to the National Skills Task Force study on literacy, numeracy and skills levels will be co-ordinated across the United Kingdom between his Department and the devolved Administrations. [128583]

Mr. Wills: Education and Training are devolved matters for Administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. There are liaison arrangements in place to ensure co-ordination between my Department and these Administrations. These arrangements will apply to work in response to the National Skills Task Force as they do in other areas of policy.

City Academies

Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment, pursuant to his oral statement of 27 June 2000, Official Report, column 755, if pupils at schools which are to be designated as city academies will have an entitlement to attend the city academy if they so wish. [128592]

Ms Estelle Morris: We expect most pupils at schools replaced by city academies to have the option of transferring to the city academy. In some cases, the establishment of a city academy will be part of a re-organisation involving several schools and where this happens pupils may transfer to the city academy or to another local school. Parents may also choose to send their children to a school other than the city academy.

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In all cases, the admission arrangements for each city academy will be agreed with the Secretary of State as a condition of the funding agreement and will be clear, fair and objective.

Special Educational Needs

Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what arrangements are made for the provision of support, including (a) regular access to his Department's documentation, (b) access to funding for the National Grid for Learning and (c) funding for continuing professional development, for local education authority support services for children with special needs. [128324]

Jacqui Smith [holding answer 4 July 2000]: At the moment, all local education authority (LEA) support services for children with special educational needs (SEN) receive "SPECTRUM" a monthly update of new DfEE publications from which support services can place orders for documentation. Each month all the publications DfEE has sent automatically to schools are posted on the EASEA website, where there is also a searchable archive of documents from past months. School and LEA staff can register with the service at www.easea.co.uk to receive a regular e-mail alert when new information fitting their personal profile of interest, is on-line. Work is in hand to automatically provide LEA support services for children with SEN with the monthly batch mailing to schools from September. Funding for the National Grid for Learning is made available to LEAs through the Standards Fund. A total of £205 million has been made available for 2000-01 of which £155 million has been provided specifically to allow LEAs to continue to equip schools in line with their ICT development plans. As such it is not available to LEA support services. Additionally, under the Standards Fund for 2000-01, £26 million is being provided to support in-service training in special educational needs. LEA support services are eligible for this funding.

Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many special education needs tribunal hearings took place in each of the last five years; and what proportion of them in each year resulted in a determination in favour of a material change in provision for the pupil in question. [128791]

Jacqui Smith: The information requested is shown in the table.

Year	Decisions issued	Upheld	Dismissed
1994-95	242	150	92
1995-96	904	522	382
1996-97	981	556	425
1997-98	1,135	701	434
1998-99	1,220	921	299

Note:

'Decisions issued' is the terminology used in the Special Educational Needs Tribunal's Annual Reports where this information is published. It equates to hearings that have taken place.

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