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ONE Service

Ms Perham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment when a decision will be made on the future of the ONE Project. [153223]

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Ms Jowell: The 12 existing ONE pilots are due to run until March 2002, and we are investing considerable resources in a thorough evaluation. Clearly, we do not want to prejudge the results of the full evaluation, but the lessons we are learning from the pilots are helping to inform the development of the service to be delivered by the Working Age Agency, which will bring together the services of the Employment Service and working age-related elements of the Benefits Agency. On 14 March of this year, the Secretary of State for Education and Employment, and the Secretary of State for Social Security, together announced the establishment from October this year of around 50 Pathfinder sites for the Working Age Agency. The Government's commitment to expanding the approach tested in ONE is being taken forward through these Pathfinders, which will deliver a ONE-style service to all working age benefit claimants. This will form the basis for the service we expect the Working Age Agency to deliver, over time, across the country.

Promotional Campaigns

Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list the television, newspaper and radio advertising and other promotional campaigns conducted by (a) his Department, (b) its agencies and (c) its departmental public bodies, in each of the past five years, showing for each the expenditure incurred by his Department; and if he will make a statement. [153419]

Mr. Wills [holding answer 12 March 2001]: I refer the hon. Member to the replies given on 18 January 2001, Official Report, columns 330-33W and on 26 February 2001, Official Report, column 380W.

Advertising campaigns undertaken by the Employment Service in the past five years are:

1996-97

Just the Job: To advise unemployed people of the range of opportunities available and to encourage them to use Jobcentre services--£700,709

Employer Campaign: To encourage employers to use Jobcentre services to recruit unemployed jobseekers--£1,076,000

1998-99

Launch of Employment Service Direct: To promote the launch of the Agency's new telephone job finding service--£2,500,000

1999-2000

One in a Millennium: To encourage employers and jobseekers to use Jobcentre services--£500,000.

Information on expenditure by Non-Departmental Public Bodies is not held centrally.

Further Education Colleges

(Concessionary Fees)

Mrs. Betty Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what advice he has given to colleges of further education about the age at which men may be offered concessionary fees where women are offered such fees at the age of 60 years. [154056]

Mr. Wicks: Colleges of further education are generally free to vary or waive fees as they wish. The Further Education Funding Council (which is succeeded, from 1 April 2001, by the Learning and Skills Council) will

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compensate them where they remit fees to certain groups of individuals, but these groups do not automatically include those aged 60 years and over.

Learning and Skills Council

Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what guidance he has issued to the Learning and Skills Council regarding the minimum size for a school sixth form to be considered viable. [154156]

Mr. Wicks [holding answer 16 March 2001]: My right hon. Friend has no plans to issue such guidance. Viability is a matter for schools and local education authorities, not the Learning and Skills Council. The LSC only has a role in respect of sixth forms which fail two consecutive Ofsted inspections.

University Funding

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on the funding requirement identified by the final report from the Funding Options Review Group of Universities UK; and what plans he has to meet this requirement. [154026]

Mr. Wicks [holding answer 16 March 2001]: The Government welcome the report from the Funding Options Review Group of Universities UK as a helpful contribution to the debate about the funding of higher education. The Government are increasing funding to universities and higher education colleges in England by £1.7 billion over the six years to 2003-04; funding per full-time equivalent student will increase in real terms in 2001-02 for the first time in over a decade. The funding shortfall identified in the Universities UK report is for 2003-04. The Government will address the funding needs of the sector from 2003-04 in the next Spending Review.

Science A-levels

Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many candidates have entered for A-level (a) mathematics, (b) physics and (c) chemistry in each of the last five years. [154158]

Mr. Wicks [holding answer 16 March 2001]: The number of candidates entered for A-level mathematics, physics and chemistry in each of the last five years is given in the following table:

	Mathematics	Physics	Chemistry	All subjects
1995-96	51,862	24,847	29,800	178,328
1996-97	54,000	25,652	31,669	192,425
1997-98	54,980	26,440	32,269	198,479
1998-99	54,111	26,277	31,039	196,969
1999-2000	52,811	25,469	31,385	197,583

The number of candidates entered for the specified subjects expressed as a percentage of all candidates is given in the following table.

Percentage

	Mathematics	Physics	Chemistry
1995-96	29	14	17
1996-97	28	13	16
1997-98	28	13	16
1998-99	27	13	16
1999-2000	27	13	16

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Specialist Schools

Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what estimate he has made of the net change in the number of specialist schools which will arise from the proposals in the Special Educational Needs and Disability Bill [Lords]. [154155]

Jacqui Smith [holding answer 16 March 2001]: The Government want an inclusive education service to offer excellence and choice. Where parents want a mainstream place for their child everything reasonably possible should be done to provide one. Equally where more specialist provision is what is sought, it is important and right that the wishes of parents are listened to.

There is a continuing and vital role for special schools. As has always been the case there will be changes to provision to reflect local needs and circumstances. While some special schools have closed, others have been enlarged and new special schools have opened. The overall size of the special school sector has remained broadly the same since 1996 and caters for 1.2 per cent. of all pupils. The Government do not envisage this will change dramatically.

Sundorne Secondary School

Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on the funding of a replacement playground for Sundorne Secondary School in Shrewsbury. [154460]

Jacqui Smith: This is a matter for Shropshire local education authority (LEA) to manage, working with the school. I understand that the school has made representations to the authority to secure funding for this project.

Several possible sources of funding exist for this project. In January this year, we announced New Deal for Schools (NDS) Condition and New Deal for Schools (NDS) Devolved formula funding for the next three years to 2003-04. From that funding, Shropshire LEA and its schools will receive around £4.08 million NDS Condition funding and £5.82 million NDS Devolved formula funding over the period. The NDS Devolved formula allocation will be increased by the extra funding announced in the Chancellor's Budget statement on 7 March. As a result, I estimate that Sundorne Secondary School will receive over £16,000 in total next year under the NDS Devolved capital funding programme, with increased amounts in later years, for it to use on priority capital work.

New Deal for Schools (NDS) Modernisation funding, totalling £555 million for schools in England, will further increase funding available to Shropshire LEA from 2002-03.

Supply Teachers

Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many (a) agency teachers and (b) teachers on contracts of one term or less are employed in schools in England and Wales. [154153]

Ms Estelle Morris [holding answer 16 March 2001]: There were 4,800 agency supply teachers on a contract of less than one month in the maintained schools sector in

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England working for the whole of the survey date of 20 January 2000. There were a further 11,860 non-agency supply teachers on contracts of less than one month.

At January 2000 there were 750 full-time teachers (including agency teachers) employed on a fixed term contract of one month and less than one term in the maintained nursery, primary and secondary sector in England. Agency teachers on contracts of one month or more are not identified centrally.

Information for Wales is the responsibility of the National Assembly for Wales.

A number of factors may have affected the demand for short term supply teachers in January 2000 including the requirement for schools to give teachers in their induction year a 10 per cent. reduction in timetable, and a flu epidemic that some education authorities reported.

The number of regular teachers (excluding short term supply teachers) in the maintained schools sector in England in January 2000 was 404,600, the highest for 10 years, and 6,900 higher than January 1998.

There was a growth of more than 2,300 in the number of people training to be teachers between 1999-2000 and 2000-01, the first such increase since 1992-93.

From April 2001 new graduate recruits can expect to earn £17,000 a year (up 6 per cent. from the previous year) and starting salaries in Inner London will rise to £20,000 (up 9 per cent. from the previous year).

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