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Merseyside TEC

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what level of funding is received by Merseyside TEC per head of population. [98570]

Mr. Wicks: Merseyside TEC does not receive funding on a per head of population basis from the Department for Education and Employment.

However, income received by Merseyside TEC as shown in the 1998-99 Statutory Accounts would equate to an income of £47 per head of population.

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how much funding is realised by the Merseyside TEC from the private sector. [98476]

Mr. Wicks: Merseyside TEC is a private company and as such is not required to divulge how much funding is realised from the private sector.

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School Closures

Mr. Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many times over the last five years he has used statutory powers to take direct action to close schools. [99272]

Ms Estelle Morris: There has been only one occasion in the last five years where the Secretary of State has used legislative powers to take direct action to close a school, and that was under the previous Government. The then Secretary of State made an order under the 1993 Education Act to close Hackney Downs School with effect from 31 December 1995.

Where necessary, the Secretary of State will take direct action to improve the education of children in failing schools; he has the power under the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 to direct that a school in special measures be closed. No school will be allowed to linger in failure. Where schools cannot be improved enough to come off special measures within two years they should be closed or given a "Fresh Start".

Since May 1997, 82 schools in special measures have been closed, following approval of proposals made by local education authorities; of which eight have been replaced by new "Fresh Start" schools, and 379 schools have been removed from special measures having been restored to health.

Music Lessons

Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what representations he has received in the last 12 months on the question of providing musical instrument teaching in schools as part of the curriculum; and what plans he has to increase the provision. [99899]

Jacqui Smith: The Government have made available a £180 million package for music services. Of this, £150 million is available through the Standards Fund over three years to protect and expand local education authorities' music services. Among other things, this money can be targeted to instrumental music tuition. As this is new funding, the Department has received a number of representations over the last 12 months relating to musical instrument teaching.

The remaining £30 million will fund the Youth Music Trust. The work of the Trust will complement Standards Fund provision and will extend access to music making for young people both in schools and outside.

The Department has commissioned a research project to look at the effectiveness of the instrumental music services maintained by local education authorities in order to draw lessons for the future. The project is due for completion in June 2000.

Special Educational Needs Bill

Mr. Corbett: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make the proposed special educational needs Bill available in simple text and pictures to enable children with learning difficulties to comment on it. [99765]

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Jacqui Smith [holding answer 25 November 1999]: No. We will, however, wherever possible, make documents available in an easily understood format, including the use of illustrations where this is appropriate.

School Buildings

Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list all the schools in the

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West Chelmsford parliamentary constituency that have benefited from the Government scheme to improve the structure of school buildings; and how much each school received which has benefited from the scheme. [98516]

Jacqui Smith [holding answer 22 November 1999]: The following table lists capital grants made to schools (including former grant-maintained schools) in the West Chelmsford constituency since May 1997:

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School	Initiative	Grant allocated (£)
The Bishop's CE and RC Primary	VA Capital/Repair Grant	22,702
The Boswells	New Deal for Schools	20,978
The Boswells	Seed Challenge	69,000
Broomfield Primary	Nursery Scheme	65,000
Chelmsford County High School for Girls	New Deal for Schools	20,654
Chelmsford County High School for Girls	Seed Challenge	150,021
The Cathedral School	Disability Access Initiative	22,924
The Cathedral School	Emergency Funding	4,000
Highwood Primary	New Deal for Schools	(9)402,538
Hylands	Seed Challenge	31,109
Hylands	Disability Access Initiative	7,364
King Edward VI Grammar	Seed Challenge	190,165
Moulsham High	New Deal for Schools	(9)402,538
Newlands Spring Primary	Nursery Scheme	60,000
Moulsham Infant	New Deal for Schools	(9)788,049
Our Lady Immaculate RC Primary	Nursery Scheme	65,000
Our Lady Immaculate RC Primary	Disability Access Initiative	5,000
Our Lady Immaculate RC Primary	Challenge Funding	82,500
Rainsford High	New Deal for Schools	70,500
Rainsford High	Challenge Funding	67,698
Little Waltham CE Primary	VA Capital/Repair Grant	144,973
St. Pius X Catholic Primary	VA Capital/Repair Grant	35,610
St. John Payne	VA Capital/Repair Grant	82,831

(9) A share of

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Key Stage Tests

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will place in the Library a list of the schools and local education authorities which made representations to his Department or to the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (a) supporting, or (b) opposing a revision of the test dates for Key Stages 2 and 3 in 2000. [98728]

Jacqui Smith: The change was made in response to concerns from many headteachers, including the General Secretary of the National Association of Headteachers who has welcomed it. Since the change the Department and the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority have received a total of 116 representations opposed to the change of test dates. 18 schools and local education authorities wrote to support the change. Since many of the schools expressed their views in confidence, it would be wrong to name them.

Investors in People

Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what plans he has to include disability awareness in the Investors in People standards. [99327]

Mr. Wicks [holding answer 25 November 1999]: The Investors in People Standard is currently being revised. When the new Standard is launched in April 2000, it will include a specific indicator requiring organisations to demonstrate that all their people have equal opportunity to learn and develop their skills.

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EU-funded Programmes

Dr. Whitehead: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what is the value of EU-funded programmes to schools, colleges, training boards and students in (a) Southampton, (b) Newcastle, (c) Hull, (d) Sheffield, (e) Manchester, (f) Rotherham, (g) Dover, (h) Bristol, (i) Bath, (j) Sunderland (k) Birmingham and (l) Leicester. [98575]

Mr. Wicks: The principal EU programmes for which my Department has responsibility are the European Social Fund, the Socrates and Leonardo da Vinci education and training action programmes and the Youth Programme. These programmes operate differently in a number of ways. With the major exception of the European Social Fund, most of their activities include transnational activity, i.e. where a UK project promoter receives co-funding from the EU to mount a project involving the UK and one or more participating country. Moreover, while project funding data may relate to an applicant organisation in a particular town, activity may take place elsewhere, or involve participants from other towns or areas. It is therefore not currently possible in many instances to disaggregate the data to be able to say exactly how much funding goes to education and training institutions in individual cities or areas, without contacting all the individual institutions concerned. We are working with the European Commission and other member states to simplify the bureaucracy necessary to run these programmes.

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Data are currently available, broadly in the format requested, relating to the total funding under the European Social Fund, the Leonardo da Vinci training programme and the Erasmus Action (Higher Education) of the Socrates Programme. They are set out in the table. It should be noted that in the case of the European Social Fund, an additional £141 million were paid out in 1998 to projects in England following a central application. The information supplied was collated on the basis of postcode.

£000

Town	Total ESF (10)(11)	Leonardo da Vinci (11)(12)	Erasmus-- Socrates (14)
a) Southampton	836	769	133
b) Newcastle	2,978	387	225
c) Hull	1,778	295	167
d) Sheffield	8,605	1,593	236
e) Manchester	6,630	1,318	368
f) Rotherham	4,860	263	0
g) Dover(12)	0	0	0
h) Bristol	2,995	672	218
i) Bath	275	105	111
j) Sunderland	4,310	413	55
k) Birmingham	13,752	1,058	325
l) Leicester	1,749	482	150

(10) Figures are based on payments made during 1998.

(11) Figures relate to the applicant organisation rather than the beneficiary.

(12) There are currently no EU funded projects (ESF, Leonardo) or applicant organisations (Erasmus) in Dover.

(13) Figures are based on projects live in 1999.

(14) Data include grants allocated to HE institutions in the different towns under their institutional contract and to individual students from those institutions as student grants for academic year 1997-98.

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