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Funding (Suffolk)

Mr. Gummer: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much has been spent per head on (a) primary and (b) secondary education in (i) the county of Suffolk, excluding Ipswich and (ii) the town of Ipswich in the last 12 months. [4118]

Mr. Timms: The information requested is not collected centrally: our information relates to local education authority areas, such as Suffolk, rather than districts within them.

Mr. Gummer: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what additional resources her Department will provide for (a) Suffolk county council and (b) Ipswich for education in the next financial year. [4121]

Mr. Timms: Most funding for education in the next financial year will not be known until the autumn when the Local Government Finance Settlement will be announced. Listed are the latest funding allocations for education in Suffolk local education authority for the current financial year. The figures are provisional estimates, as final

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decisions on some funding allocations have yet to be finalised. Allocations can only be given at local education authority level.

2001–02	£ million
SSA	227.3
Grants	27.0
Capital	20.8

The following revenue grants have been included: DfES contributions to the Standards Fund; Class Size Reduction Grant, School Standards Grant, Education Budget Support Grant and Nursery Education Grant for three-year-olds.

School Admissions

Mr. Pope: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what plans she has to reform mainstream schools admissions policy in England. [4268]

Mr. Timms: We are considering changes to the school admissions framework and plan to consult on detailed proposals.

School Sixth Forms

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if the guarantee that school sixth form funding will be maintained in real terms, once learning and skills councils take responsibility for them, will still apply if pupil numbers fall. [4296]

Mr. Ivan Lewis [holding answer 16 July 2001]: Through our Real Terms Guarantee, we are ensuring that no sixth form can lose compared to its 2000–01 funding levels, provided numbers are maintained. For sixth forms that are reducing in size, the guarantee will be maintained but at a proportionately reduced level. The Learning and Skills Council will use a standard per capita figure for all pupil increases or decreases. The size of the initial per capita adjustment applying in 2002–03 will be published by the LSC in September.

Further Education Lecturers

Mr. McNamara: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what action she plans to take in respect of further education colleges which do not award annual pay increases to silver book contract lecturers. [4415]

Margaret Hodge: Further Education colleges are self-governing institutions. The implementation of annual pay awards is a matter for employers and their staff, and is not a matter on which it is appropriate for the Government to intervene. Nevertheless, I can reiterate the reply given by my hon. Friend the Minister for Lifelong Learning on 9 July 2001, Official Report, column 388W, that the additional moneys allocated to FE colleges under the Teaching Pay Initiative are intended to be fairly distributed among all eligible staff.

Standard Spending Assessment (Bedfordshire)

Mr. Selous: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the average annual standard spending assessment is per pupil for each (a) primary school and

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(b) secondary school pupil in England; and what the comparable figures for pupils in Bedfordshire are for the most recent year for which figures are available. [4714]

Mr. Timms: The table shows for 2001–02 the Education SSA per primary and secondary pupil for England and Bedfordshire.

£

SSA	England	Bedfordshire
Primary per pupil	2,590	2,520
Secondary per pupil	3,310	3,240

Literacy and Numeracy Tests

Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what proportion of 11-year-olds achieved level 4 or above in the key stage 2 tests for (a) literacy and (b) numeracy in (i) 2000 and (ii) 2001. [4802]

Mr. Timms: The proportion of 11-year-olds who achieved Level 4 or above in the Key Stage 2 tests in 2000 in (a) English was 75 per cent. and (b) mathematics was 72 per cent. Results for 2001 are not yet available. A Press Notice will be released in mid-September announcing national results for 2001.

DEFENCE

Army Training and Recruiting Agency

Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the Key Targets for the chief executive of the Army Training and Recruiting Agency for the financial year 2001–02 are. [4976]

Mr. Ingram: The Chief Executive of the Army Training and Recruiting Agency has been set the following Key Targets for FY 2001–02.

Key Targets 1

To meet the Army's requirement from the ATRA for 575 trained mainstream officers available to take up their first appointment within a permissible variance of 2 per cent. The 2000–01 performance was an output of 550.

Key Targets 2

To meet the Army's requirement from the ATRA for 9,442 soldiers available to take up their first appointment within a permissible variance of 5 per cent. The 2000–01 performance was an output of 8,738.

Key Targets 3

To achieve a first time pass rate of 98 per cent. for all officers made available to undergo career or professional development training, while maintaining the required standard and within pre-set training times. The 2000–01 performance was a first time pass rate of 97 per cent.

Key Targets 4

To achieve a 96 per cent. first time pass rate for all soldiers made available to undergo career or professional development training, while maintaining the required standard and within pre-set training times. The 2000–01 performance was a first time pass rate of 95 per cent.

Key Targets 5

To achieve an overall 3 per cent. improvement in the efficiency of ATRA operations. The 2000–01 performance was an input efficiency achievement of 3.4 per cent.

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Low-flying Aircraft

Mr. Martlew: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the pattern of military low-flying activity in the United Kingdom during the training year 2000–01. [4977]

Dr. Moonie: The ability to fly fast and low continues to be an essential skill in our armoury of tactics. Training for aircrew to achieve and maintain these skills is vital.

The amount of low-flying training carried out in the UK Low Flying System during the training year April 2000 to March 2001 was the minimum necessary for aircrew to reach and maintain these skills. Hours booked for low-flying training during this period amounted to a small decrease (of 66 hours, or less than 1 per cent.) compared to the previous training year. Since detailed records of hours booked began in 1995, the total overall has reduced by over 36 per cent. (24,360 hours) with fixed wing activity showing the greatest reduction.

The distribution of low-flying training across the UK has not changed significantly. We continue to try and spread it as widely as practicable, but for a variety of operational, geographical and climatic constraints some parts of the country will see more than others.

I have today placed in the Library of the House a paper giving a detailed account of low-flying training in the UK Low-flying System for the period April 2000 to March 2001.

Further copies of the paper can be obtained from the following address:

Directorate of Air Staff


Ministry of Defence


Room 662


Metropole Building


Northumberland Avenue


London WC2N 5BL.

Duke of York's Royal Military School

Ms Munn: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the Key Targets for the chief executive of the Duke of York's Royal Military School for the financial year 2001–02 are. [4978]

Dr. Moonie: The chief executive of the Duke of York's Military school has been set the following Key Targets for FY 2001–02.

Key Targets 1

To achieve 93.5 per cent. of 15 year old pupils gaining five or more passes graded A* to C at GCSE.

Key Targets 2

To achieve 22.5 per cent. of GCSE passes at grades A* or A.

Key Targets 3

To achieve an average GCSE points score per 15 year old pupil of 53.4.

Key Targets 4

To achieve an average of GCE points score per candidate of 20.6.

Key Targets 5

To achieve 37.4 per cent. of GCE passes at grades A or B.

Key Targets 6

To achieve a pupil per capita cost of no more than £12,798.

Key Targets 7

To generate income of at least £550,000.

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Key Targets 8

To achieve at least 290 applications for September 2001 intake.

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