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Osteopathy

Mr. Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what estimate he has made of the current cost to public funds of training an osteopath at the John Wernham College of Classical Osteopathy. [130014]

Mr. Wicks [holding answer 11 July 2000]: The John Wernham College of Classical Osteopathy is not a publicly funded institution. The four year BSc. Honours degree course in Osteopathic Medicine, taught at the College under contract from a publicly funded institution, has been specifically designated by the Secretary of State for fees support and student loans purposes. The public fee rate of £1,025 in the 1999-2000 academic year applies to this course. Eligible students receive fees support subject to a means test and may apply for student loans.

Head Teacher Vacancies

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many vacancies there were for head teachers in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools between (i) June 1998 and June 1999 and (ii) June 1999 and June 2000. [130011]

Ms Estelle Morris [holding answer 11 July 2000]: Information about the annual number of vacancies for head teachers is not collected centrally.

Temporarily filled vacant head teacher posts(1) in maintained nursery, primary and secondary schools in England at January in the years 1998-2000(2)

LEA maintained only(3) All maintained
199819992000
Temporarily filled vacant head teacher post
Nursery and primary470400390
Secondary605090
Temporarily filled vacant head teacher posts as a percentage of head teachers in post
Nursery and primary2.52.22.1
Secondary1.81.62.2

(1) Temporarily-filled full-time permanent appointments. A post is included in this table:

a. if there is no incumbent who is expected to return to the post;

b. whether or not filled on a temporary basis, i.e. either without a contract or on a contract of less than one year;

c. whether or not advertised;

d. if an appointment has been made but not yet taken up.

(2) Data are collected in January of each year.

(3) Excludes vacancies in grant maintained schools.

Head teachers have a key role in boosting standards in schools. We are establishing a National College for School Leadership to give a focus to school leadership

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development, and are designing a coherent package of training and development programmes for aspiring, new and serving head teachers.

Nursery Schools

Mr. McNamara: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what proposals he has to enable nursery schools whose numbers have increased above the full-time equivalent of 105 pupils after 20 January to receive an additional £3,000. [128797]

Ms Estelle Morris: There are no plans to pay additional School Standards Grant to schools to take account of increases in their number of pupils after 20 January 2000. This was the date of the annual Schools Census, and the allocation of available funds between schools was most effectively done by using data from that source.

City Academies

Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment (1) if he will list the expressions of interest he has received regarding the promotion of city academy Pathfinder projects; [129786]

Ms Estelle Morris: A number of potential sponsors have had discussions with local education authorities about the possible location of City Academies.

Circulars

Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what circular documents are in preparation to send to (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in the next six months. [129785]

Jacqui Smith: Following the commitment made by the Secretary of State to cut by one third the number of documents and by a half the number of pages sent automatically to all schools in the next school year, this Department is reviewing all plans to send documents to schools from September 2000. When that review has been completed, I will write to the hon. Member with a list of planned documents and place copies in the House of Commons Library.

Modern Apprenticeships

Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what instructions he has issued (a) through Government offices and (b) otherwise to training and enterprise councils to confine funding for modern apprenticeships to (i) 16 and 17 year olds and (ii) 18 to 24 year olds. [130087]

Mr. Wicks: The Planning Guidance for TECs/CCTEs, which is part of their contract, says that for 2000-01 the Department expects increasing numbers of 16-17 year olds in Work Based Training (including both Foundation Modern Apprenticeships and Advanced Modern Apprenticeships) and similar levels of starts for 19+ trainees compared with the previous year but focused on Advanced Modern Apprenticeships.

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ENVIRONMENT, TRANSPORT AND THE REGIONS

GM Crops

Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will list Part C GM crop trial plantings in Shrewsbury and Atcham; and if he will make a statement. [126883]

Mr. Meacher: There is no requirement to notify the Department of releases of a GM crop which has a Europe-wide Part C marketing consent for cultivation. However, the industry body SCIMAC has agreed to provide location details for the GM maize being grown in the Farm Scale Evaluations under a Part C consent. All Farm Scale Evaluations sites are listed at www.environment.detr.gov.uk/fse/location/index.htm. None are in Shrewsbury and Atcham.

The terms of the Government's agreement with SCIMAC precludes general cultivation of GM crops until after the end of the farm scale evaluations, however small scale plantings for trial purposes are permitted.

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Regional Government

Mr. Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what (a) is the current cost, (b) was the cost in each of the last five years and (c) is the projected cost of each of the Government Offices for the Regions. [127992]

Ms Beverley Hughes [holding answer 27 June 2000]: The current running costs, and the running costs for the last five years for each of the Government Offices for the Regions, are set out in the table. The projected costs for the next financial year and beyond are the subject of negotiation between Departments, in the light of the recommendations of the PIU Report "Reaching Out".

The increase in running costs for the Government Offices Central Unit (GOCU) reflects the transfer of functions to the unit by parent Departments. The Central Unit also hold a number of budgets centrally on behalf of GOs.

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Government Office running costs
£000

Government Office1995-961996-971997-981998-991999-20002000-01(4)Total
North East8,842.768,687.158,616.758,618.848,312.058,221.6251,299.17
North West9,983.719,839.099,442.5913,690.1313,048.5813,397.9269,402.02
Midlands4,753.844,349.954,199.5312.24----13,315.56
Total North West/Midlands14,737.5514,189.0413,642.1213,702.3713,048.5813,397.9282,717.58
Yorkshire and The Humber9,060.518,765.048,475.018,683.928,888.689,183.8753,057.03
West Midlands10,435.7310,040.379,757.799,474.359,330.159,794.4458,832.83
East Midlands7,116.856,616.676,436.246,754.396,951.287,176.9741,052.40
East of England6,122.846,168.976,270.626,269.437,005.477,391.2639,228.59
South West7,574.147,140.746,825.736,985.037,796.878,226.9844,549.49
South East8,331.068,406.188,544.998,561.408,658.618,952.7951,455.03
London11,106.2614,106.4713,458.8213,238.1213,715.7913,747.1079,372.56
Central Unit1,136.601,696.344,355.963,095.293,702.743,129.9217,116.85
Total84,464.3085,816.9786,384.0385,383.1487,410.2289,222.87518,681.53

(4) Allocations for 2000-01

Note:

The North West and Midlands Government Offices merged during 1998-99

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Mr. Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many people (a) are and (b) were in each of the last five years employed by each of the Government Offices for the Regions. [127993]

Ms Beverley Hughes [holding answer 27 June 2000]: The information is set out in the table:

20001999199819971996
North East267261286269332
North West402401383428445
Yorkshire and Humber282251275274302
West Midlands271275348325341
East Midlands247222215218241
East of England195178185182185
South West227204196255218
South East248215197224220
London398350334329295

Prior to 1996, this information was not collated centrally and could not be provided without disproportionate cost.

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The increase in the number of staff in the Government Office for London reflects the transfer of responsibility for transport policy in London from DETR to GO-L and GO-L's work on the establishment of the GLA as a whole. GO-L is already declining in number and expects staff numbers to decrease further.

Mr. Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what functions are carried out by each of the Government Offices for the Regions; and what functions have been transferred from them to Regional Development Agencies. [127994]

Ms Beverley Hughes [holding answer 27 June 2000]: The Government Offices for the Regions operate within a Policy Framework and a set of objectives endorsed by their parent Departments. The Policy Framework covers five areas of cross-departmental activity comprising

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Regeneration, Sustainable Development, Competitiveness, Social Inclusion and Partnership. The main departmental activities include:




The Single Regeneration Budget and administration of Inward Investment activity (with the exception of GO-East and GO-London, which retain some residual responsibilities for inward investment activity) transferred from the Government Offices to the Regional Development Agencies. The GOs have a major role in sponsorship of the RDAs.

The Government are currently reviewing the regional activities of all Whitehall Departments in the light of the PIU Report "Reaching Out", to ensure strengthened co-ordination of policy initiatives with a regional and local impact. All Departments whose responsibilities affect regional or local activities are committed to better co-ordination of key policies by involving Government Offices.

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