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Learning and Skills Council
Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will make a statement on progress with the Learning and Skills Council and local LSCs. [5678]
Margaret Hodge: The Learning and Skills Council is a single unitary organisation. It has made a good start, helping to introduce real and lasting change, and I look forward to the publication of its first Corporate Plan.
Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills when the LSC will publish its funding allocation framework. [5681]
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Margaret Hodge: This is a matter for the Learning and Skills Council. I have therefore asked John Harwood, the Council's Chief Executive, to write to the hon. Member with the information requested and to place a copy of his reply in the Library.
Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what arrangements have been made to secure financial accountability by the further education sector to the Learning and Skills Council. [5682]
Margaret Hodge: The LSC has a responsibility to ensure the proper accountability of all its providers, including those in the FE sector, and will be building on the FEFC's accountability and audit arrangements.
Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what proportion of staff posts have been filled by (a) the Learning and Skills Council and (b) local LSCs. [5679]
Margaret Hodge: This is a matter for the Learning and Skills Council. I have therefore asked John Harwood, the Council's Chief Executive, to write to the hon. Member with the information requested and to place a copy of his reply in the Library.
Teachers
Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what plans she has to relate teaching pay initiative moneys in further education to performance indicators. [5684]
Margaret Hodge: Colleges receive a Teaching Pay Initiative allocation in proportion to their main funding allocation from the Learning and Skills Council and the Higher Education Funding Council for England. We will explore with the Learning and Skills Council and college representative bodies whether it would be right to refine the arrangements from 2002–03 for distributing funding above these minimum annual allocations, to recognise the different retention and achievement rates at different colleges while having regard to the prior attainment of their students.
Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills when her Department will next publish figures for (a) teacher vacancies and (b) admission appeals. [5821]
Mr. Timms: Provisional January 2002 figures from the annual survey of teacher vacancies in England are due to be published in April 2002.
Provisional admission appeals figures for maintained primary and secondary schools in England 2000–01 are due to be published in June 2002.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many teachers in England have applied for performance-related pay; how many of these received such a payment; what percentage of eligible teachers this constitutes; and if she will make a statement. [5826]
Mr. Timms: Just over 200,000 teachers applied for the performance threshold in the first round. This was equivalent to about 80 per cent. of eligible teachers. Applications were assessed by headteachers or, for teachers employed directly by LEAs, heads of service. Heads' assessments were verified by external assessors. Assessor visits to schools and LEAs have recently been
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completed. The Department is still analysing the results and it is too early to be precise. But it seems clear that well over 150,000 teachers have passed the threshold.
Education Expenditure
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what target she has set for the share of national income which is spent on education for each of the next five years; and if she will make a statement. [5689]
Estelle Morris: United Kingdom education spending is forecast to rise from 5.0 per cent. of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2001–02 to 5.3 per cent. in 2003–04. By comparison the share in 1996–97 was 4.7 per cent. of GDP. The Government have a manifesto pledge to increase the share of national income for education in this Parliament, so that education spending as a share of GDP will be higher than 5.0 per cent., the figure for 2001–02, in the final year of the Parliament. We are therefore on course to meet this pledge.
Plans for later years up to 2005–06 will be set in the 2002 Spending Review, announced by my right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary to the Treasury on 25 June 2001, Official Report, column 39W.
Construction Industry Training Board
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will list the benefits of aligning the levies for the CITB and the ECITB. [5843]
John Healey: I do not believe there is any basis for aligning the levies of the CITB and the ECITB. It is for each board, in consultation with the employers in its industry, to propose its own levy arrangements, including the rate of levy. These proposals are subject to the approval of Ministers and Parliament. The levy rate must reflect the board's general policy and plans for training in the industry and the costs of those plans. Just as the plans of each board will vary, so also will the levy rate.
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what representations she has received from tool hire companies regarding the CITB requiring them to pay the CITB levy. [5844]
John Healey: I have received representations from 21 companies in the plant and tool hire sector.
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will review the operation of the CITB levy in order to identify if there are operations which are required to pay the levy but do not qualify for benefits. [5845]
John Healey: I have just approved the new CITB grants scheme which will operate from 1 August 2001. This will include grants for all types of training, including management and IT, identified in individual company training plans. All construction employers who train should benefit from the new scheme.
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what proportion of the CITB levy raised is spent on training provision within tool hire companies. [5846]
John Healey: In 2000, companies involved in the plant and tool hire sector paid around £1.8 million in levy to the CITB and those who trained and claimed grants
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received direct financial support from the board of around £2.2 million. This equated to 2.57 per cent. of the board's total levy income. In addition to direct grants the CITB maintains substantial plant training facilities in four locations throughout the UK, sets standards to help raise skill levels in the industry, offers advice to companies on training and administers a certification scheme for plant operators on behalf of the industry.
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what representations she has received from companies paying the levy regarding the forthcoming review of the CITB levy. [5847]
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John Healey: I have received representations from 36 companies concerning the fact that they are required to pay a training levy to the CITB.
Welsh Universities
Adam Price: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many students from the UK were educated at Welsh universities in the last five years. [6404]
Margaret Hodge: The information requested is shown in the following table.
| Postgraduates | Undergraduates | Total | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All years | First years | All years | First years | All years | First years | |
| 1996–97 | 10,955 | 6,434 | 67,521 | 29,801 | 78,476 | 36,235 |
| 1997–98 | 11,182 | 5,729 | 68,807 | 28,655 | 79,989 | 34,384 |
| 1998–99 | 11,027 | 6,418 | 70,038 | 29,637 | 81,065 | 36,055 |
| 1999–2000 | 11,451 | 6,699 | 71,357 | 30,807 | 82,808 | 37,506 |
| 2000–01(102) | 12,465 | 7,237 | 72,803 | 32,707 | 85,268 | 39,944 |
(101) Full-time and part-time students, as at 1 December
(102) Provisional
Convention on the Rights of the Child
Linda Perham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what guidelines have been issued to schools and local education authorities concerning the rights of children and young people to participate in decisions that affect them, as defined by Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. [5020]
Mr. Timms: The Government strongly support the need to ascertain the views of young people in relation to decisions that affect them. Citizenship, a statutory secondary subject from September 2002, will teach young people about their rights and responsibilities and how to participate in the decision-making processes. This month, guidance written by teachers to support the effective delivery of citizenship in secondary schools was made freely available in draft form. This includes tried and tested teaching and learning ideas to encourage active participation by young people, for example through local democratic processes and student councils. It will be sent to all schools and LEAs in the autumn and is on the Department's Standards website.
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