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Greenwich Travel to Work Area

30. Mr. Fabricant: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what forecast he has made of the level of employment in the Greenwich travel to work area in January 2001. [138392]

Ms Jowell: The Department for Education and Employment does not forecast the future level of employment at either national or local level.

There is no Greenwich travel to work area, but in the London borough of Greenwich, in October 2000, there were 6,236 unemployed claimants, an unemployment rate of 7.5 per cent., compared with the overall UK unemployment rate of 3.6 per cent.

Over the last 12 months, however, unemployment in Greenwich has fallen by 1,173, or 16 per cent., against a national fall over the same period of 13 per cent.

PFI (School Buildings)

31. Dr. Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what assessment he has made of the value for money of using the private finance initiative for school buildings. [138394]

Jacqui Smith: Value for money is the prime consideration in any decision to support a school's PFI project. Local authorities assess value for money by comparing the cost, in net present value terms, of the PFI scheme against what would be the assessed cost of a similar public sector project that would achieve the same outcomes. This assessment is done at the outline business case stage before the Project Review Group approves the project, and also confirmed at the full business case stage before the contract is signed.

To date, all schools' PFI schemes have demonstrated a positive value for money benefit compared to the assessed cost of a comparative public sector project.

Mathematics Teachers

32. Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many mathematics

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graduates were recruited onto PGCE courses for teaching in secondary schools commencing in (a) September 1997, (b) September 1999 and (c) September 2000. [138395]

Ms Estelle Morris: The table shows the number of students entering full-time and part-time postgraduate courses of initial teacher training in mathematics in England:

Academic year	Postgraduate recruitment
1997-98	1,178
1998-99	928
1999-2000	1,109
2000-01	(6)1,135

⁽⁶⁾ This figure is provisional and does not include 37 graduate trainees in mathematics who have taken up places on the employment-based Graduate Teacher Programme since 1 September 2000

Source:

Teacher Training Agency survey of initial teacher training providers

School Improvement

Mr. Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on support for school improvement. [138371]

Ms Estelle Morris: We have set challenging targets for all schools, backed with increased resources. All schools receive School Improvement Grant--£290 million this year. We are targeting additional resources on schools facing the greatest challenges. The Excellence in Cities programme is already having a very significant impact. From April next year, all secondary schools with fewer that 25 per cent. of pupils achieving 5 GCSEs A*-C will receive more resources to back their plans to raise attainment.

Grammar Schools (Referendums)

Sir Teddy Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many referendums on the future of grammar schools are in progress; and if he will make a statement. [138390]

Ms Estelle Morris: Officials are aware of three separate petitions to determine whether ballots on the future of selective admissions to grammar schools should be held. One petition concerns the grammar schools in Buckinghamshire, and two concern the two groups of grammar schools in Birmingham.

It is for campaigners to use existing mechanisms and raise petitions requesting a ballot of local parents to decide the future admission arrangements of grammar schools.

Temporary Employees (Spain)

Dr. Tonge: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what representations he has made to the Spanish Government concerning the issuing of permits to stay in cases where young British citizens wish to take temporary employment. [136761]

Mr. Wicks [holding answer 6 November 2000]: I will write to the hon. Member and place a copy of my reply in the Library.

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New Deal (Tooting)

Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many (a) men and (b) women living in the Tooting parliamentary constituency have benefited from the New Deal for the under-25s; and if he will make a statement. [138519]

Ms Jowell: Latest figures show that to the end of August 2000, 621 men and 349 women have participated the New Deal for Young People in Tooting. 393 young people in Tooting have gained employment through New Deal.

Individual Learning Accounts

Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on the decision to impose a maximum contribution of £200 in individual learning accounts to students taking a private sector course to obtain (a) CLAIT or (b) ECDL. [138344]

Mr. Wicks [holding answer 15 November 2000]: The main purpose of the 80 per cent. discount is to encourage people who would otherwise be unlikely to do so to take steps towards improving their computer literacy skills. The discount is available for a targeted range of provision, much of which is of short duration and therefore not expensive, but includes CLAIT and ECDL. We have introduced a maximum contribution of £200 for each person to ensure that as many people as possible benefit from this discount. The maximum contribution is available to people who want to undertake learning in both the public and private sectors.

Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what steps he is taking to ensure (a) value for money and (b) quality control in the issuing of individual learning accounts to private training providers in connection with the enhanced 80 per cent. fees contribution for CLAIT, ECDL and qualifying mathematics courses. [138345]

Mr. Wicks [holding answer 15 November 2000]: We have placed a cap of £200 on the 80 per cent. discount on learning, available to holders of Individual Learning Accounts, to contain overall costs to the public purse and encourage value for money. This will ensure that as many people as possible will be able to access learning at lower costs from learning providers in both the public and private sectors.

We have restricted additional public support through the 80 per cent. discount to a range of courses leading to a recognised qualification. These courses include CLAIT, the European Computer Driving Licence, GCSE Maths and Key Skills 2 Maths. We will also conduct customer satisfaction surveys on a regular basis to see whether learners are satisfied with the quality of the learning they have undertaken. Wider issues of added value will be covered by a comprehensive evaluation of Individual Learning Accounts.

Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many individual learning account credits have been issued to (a) further education colleges and (b) private training providers since the scheme went national. [138346]

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Mr. Wicks [holding answer 15 November 2000]: Since Individual Learning Accounts (ILAs) became available through the national framework, a total of 3,327 training providers have registered with the service provider, Capita. Of these 263 are FE colleges, 862 are other public training providers (such as Higher Education institutions with continuing education departments, local education authorities and voluntary sector providers), and 2,202 are private training providers. About 437,000 people have opened ILAs to date (237,000 since the introduction of the national framework, adding to the 200,000 accounts opened locally through Training and Enterprise Councils). It is for the individual to decide with whom they register for learning.

Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what consultations he has had with (a) further education colleges and (b) private training providers in connection with the capping of maximum individual learning account entitlements for IT training. [138347]

Mr. Wicks [holding answer 15 November 2000]: Although the introduction of capping the Individual Learning Account 80 per cent. discount on the cost of IT courses was discussed with a number of private and public learning providers, no formal process of consultation took place. When the 80 per cent. discount was introduced a small number of learning providers used the lack of a cap on the amount of public subsidy available for this discount to their advantage, finding ways to divert the moneys available into paying for very expensive courses. Had this been allowed to continue, the Department would have been able to help far fewer people than intended through this incentive. We intend to review the way the new arrangements are working early in the new year, at which point we will consult with both colleges and private learning providers.

Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on public resources available for IT training in the private sector for the individual student through (a) ILAs and (b) the previous tax allowance against vocational training. [138348]

Mr. Wicks [holding answer 15 November 2000]: The total amount of money available to holders of Individual Learning Accounts is approximately £80 million. We expect the total to be made available to learners through the 80 per cent. discount for IT training introduced in September to be around £20 million. £60 million is being made available to 400,000 account holders through the £150 incentive available to the first million people who enrol for learning, including IT training. Because many of these accounts were opened locally by Training and Enterprise Councils, we do not have national data on the amount of money spent through these accounts on IT training.

In the last full year of Vocational Training Tax Relief (1999-2000) Exchequer costs across the UK were estimated to be £55 million; the estimated cost of the final period (April 2000--August 2000) was £30 million. As information about personal taxation is confidential, these figures cannot be disaggregated to give information about IT training.

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