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Student Voting
Mr. Lammy: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list by constituency of origin the number of students attending university who went to a school within the constituency of their parental address. [152411]
Mr. Wicks: The data are not collated centrally on a constituency basis.
Physical Education
Mr. Greenway: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will set higher targets for physical education within the National Curriculum for all pupils, in response to the recent NAO report on obesity. [152537]
Jacqui Smith [holding answer 6 March 2001]: My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister announced on 11 January that all children should receive an entitlement
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to two hours of physical activity. This will be delivered during and after school through the PE curriculum and study support. We will be consulting with parents, teachers and relevant organisations to see how the two hour entitlement can be best delivered, and we are working closely with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, to look at ways of increasing the opportunities available to children to participate in physical activities. The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority are also producing evidence that demonstrates how schools can achieve the two hours entitlement. Over the last two years, seven out of 10 schools have increased their provision of out of school hours activities, of which sport is the most popular, and over a half plan to increase provision in the coming year. The current curriculum is designed to promote positive attitudes towards active and healthy lifestyles, and the importance of fitness and health is a part of each Key Stage. We are working closely with the Department of Health on the National Healthy School Standard, which seeks to promote health and well being in schools.
Invalidity Care Allowance
Ms Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will disregard invalidity care allowance paid to the natural parent of a young person applying for an educational maintenance allowance where a sibling is disabled and in need of the benefit arising from the invalidity care allowance; and if he will make a statement. [152641]
Mr. Wicks: Education maintenance allowance (EMA) is paid on the basis of an assessment of the income available to a student's parents. In line with long established practice, taxable benefits are included in the income to be assessed. Invalid care allowance (ICA) is classed as a taxable payment because it is intended to compensate a carer for the lost earnings which result from not being able to work full-time. Exempting income-replacement benefits from tax would discriminate against those whose income comes from earnings. But other benefits which are intended to meet a specific need of the claimant--such as attendance allowance and disability allowance--are not subject to tax, and are not included in the income to be assessed in deciding on eligibility for EMA.
Paperwork (Teachers)
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what action he is taking to reduce paperwork for teachers. [151697]
Jacqui Smith [holding answer 7 March 2001]: The Government are fully committed to reducing paperwork for teachers in order to allow teachers to concentrate on teaching and raising standards. Examples of our action to do so include: guaranteeing to cut by a third the number of documents, and by a half the number of pages, that the Government send automatically to schools during this school year--last term we reduced paperwork to secondary schools by 60 per cent. and to primary schools by 40 per cent.; harnessing DfEE and Cabinet Office resources to simplify some of the paperwork that schools complete--the first results of this joint project are set out in the "Making a Difference: Reducing School Paperwork" report. This shows that a typical school is
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expected to save over 200 hours of paperwork every year--equivalent to more than a month's work for one person; and across the school system 4.5 million hours will be saved annually; simplifying radically the operation of next year's Standards Fund--we have replaced bidding, claiming and reporting with a single expenditure returns sheet; we have allowed schools to vire funds between almost all grant headings; we have allowed schools to carry funds over to the end of the school year; and we have introduced monitoring against existing targets; placing model schemes of work on the DfEE website to underpin all National Curriculum subjects at Key Stages 1 to 3--they are entirely voluntary and teachers may use them directly or adapt them as they wish. We also have plans to place model lesson plans on the website in a further effort to reduce paperwork and make the necessary lesson preparation as straightforward as possible; and developing new ICT resources, including the launch of:
- (a) EASEA--a full electronic in-tray and document archiving service for head teachers, teachers and governors that now has 7,000 registered users,
- (b) TeacherNet--a single web page offering links to the full range of educational resources on the internet,
- (c) an internet based "A-Z" of school leadership and management--an electronic encyclopaedia for heads with succinct, practical guidance on a wide range of topics, full search facilities, and links through to reference material on organisational and legal issues, and examples of good practice.
School Dinners
Mr. William Ross: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what guidance he provides to (a) head teachers, (b) school governors and (c) local education authorities on choosing the suppliers of ingredients for school dinners. [152768]
Jacqui Smith: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State does not provide guidance on choosing suppliers of school meal ingredients. It is for local education authorities and schools in England to obtain supplies or contract for meals provision in line with relevant legislation. They have a general duty to ensure the health and safety of pupils.
From 1 April this year, local education authorities and schools in England will have to meet compulsory minimum nutritional standards for school lunches. The new standards will ensure that a nutritionally balanced
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lunch must be available to pupils every day. Our guidance for caterers on the standards offers advice, for example, on menu planning, suitable ingredients, and healthy cooking methods.
School Uniforms
Mr. Todd: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many local education authorities provide assistance towards the cost of school uniforms. [152955]
Jacqui Smith: This information is not collected centrally. Local education authorities have a discretionary power, but not a duty, to offer grants towards the cost of school uniform and school clothing in cases of hardship. It is for them to decide whether to offer assistance and, if they do, what the eligibility criteria should be. It is also for them to defend their policies locally in the light of local needs and priorities.
Departmental Policies (Warrington, North)
Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will set out, with statistical information relating as directly as possible to the Warrington, North constituency, the effects on Warrington, North of his Department's policies and actions since 2 May 1997. [152316]
Mr. Wills [holding answer 6 March 2001]: The information requested has been placed in the Libraries.
SCOTLAND
New Deal
Ms Squire: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many young people in each constituency in Scotland have received full-time education, training or work experience with the voluntary sector or the Environmental Taskforce as a result of the New Deal in each constituency in Scotland. [152467]
Mrs. Liddell: The table shows for each constituency in Scotland the number of young people who have received help through full-time education, training or work experience with the voluntary sector or the Environmental Taskforce options of New Deal for Young People between April 1998 and December 2000.
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