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AS-levels

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many AS-level exam scripts were not formally marked by the examining boards this year; what percentage this is of the total number of AS-level scripts; and if she will make a statement. [10741]

Mr. Ivan Lewis [holding answer 31 October 2001]: It is not possible to give a percentage of the total number of AS-level scripts that were not formally marked in summer 2001, as the number of scripts per subject is variable.

As at 16 August, when provisional results were announced by the Joint Council for General Qualifications, a total of 6,461 special awards were made for AS-level subjects as a result of exam scripts not having been formally marked by the examining boards in summer 2001. This is 0.84 per cent. of 768,630 requests for "cash-in" of AS subject qualifications in England this summer.

Civil Defence Guidance

Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what new civil defence guidance has been issued to schools since 11 September. [12087]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: The further guidance referred to in my previous answer to the hon. Member on 17 October 2001, Official Report, column 1233W, was notified to local education authorities on 19 October for them to use in advising schools.

Language Colleges

Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what are the (a) name, (b) local education authority, (c) character, (d) date of designation, (e) agreed targets for each year within the period of

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designation and (f) unmet targets to date, of each designated language college in (i) south-east England, (ii) south-west England and (iii) London. [11918]

Mr. Timms: Information on the name, local education authority, character and date of designation of specialist language colleges currently operating in south-east England, south-west England and London is set out in the table.

We do not publish targets for individual language colleges. Targets are agreed and reviewed annually with individual schools, and are subject to modification in the light of changing circumstances. However, all language college targets support the delivery of the main aims of the language college programme. These are:

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to raise standards of teaching and learning in Modern Foreign Languages (MFLs) and foster an international ethos and cultural awareness throughout a school;

to ensure young people leave school with the knowledge and skills they and employers need by giving pupils an early understanding of the world of work, through the active participation of business community sponsors in school life, and thereby enhance pupils' understanding of applications of modern foreign languages;

to encourage the dissemination of good practice and the sharing of resources through closer contacts between language colleges, other schools and the wider community.

Individual targets and performance against those targets for each year of operation in the 49 language colleges included in the table could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

School name	LEA	Character	Operational as from September	Region
1. Dartford Grammar School	Kent	Foundation	1995	South-east
2. Hendon School	Barnet, LB of	Foundation	1995	London
3. Bohunt School	Hampshire	Foundation	1996	South-east
4. Bullers Wood School	Bromley, LB of	Foundation	1996	London
5. Convent of Jesus and Mary High	Brent, LB of	Voluntary-Aided	1996	London
6. Katharine Lady Berkeleys	Gloucestershire	Foundation	1996	South-west
7. Millais School	West Sussex	Community	1996	South-east
8. Royal Grammar School (The)	Buckinghamshire	Foundation	1996	South-east
9. Sir Bernard Lovell School	South Gloucestershire	Community	1996	South-west
10. Tavistock College	Devon	Community	1996	South-west
11. Tomlinscote School	Surrey	Community	1996	South-east
12. Torquay Boys' Grammar	Torbay	Foundation	1996	South-west
13. Willink School (The)	West Berkshire	Community	1996	South-east
14. Cranford Community High School	Hounslow, LB of	Community	1997	London
15. Didcot Girls' High School	Oxfordshire	Community	1997	South-east
16. Elliott School	Wandsworth	Foundation	1997	London
17. Haydon School	Hillingdon	Foundation	1997	London
18. Imberhorne School	West Sussex	Community	1997	South-east
19. Penrice Community School	Cornwall	Community	1997	South-east
20. St. John Baptist Catholic Comprehensive School	Surrey	Voluntary-Aided	1997	South-east
21. William Ellis School	Camden, LB of	Voluntary-Aided	1997	London
22. Ashcombe School	Surrey	Community	1998	South-east
23. Lord Grey School	Milton Keynes	Foundation	1998	South-east
24. Holt School (The)	Wokingham	Community	1999	South-east
25. Our Lady's Convent High School	Hackney, LB of	Voluntary-Aided	1999	London
26. Saint George's C of E School	Kent	Voluntary-Aided	1999	South-east
27. Sir John Colfox School	Dorset	Community	1999	South-west
28. Weald of Kent Grammar School	Kent	Community	1999	South-east
29. Bournemouth School	Bournemouth	Foundation	2000	South-west
30. Chatham Grammar School for Boys	Medway	Community	2000	South-east
31. Clevedon Community School	North Somerset	Community	2000	South-west
32. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School	Islington, LB of	Community	2000	London
33. Hele's School	Plymouth, City of	Community	2000	South-west
34. Highcliffe School	Dorset	Foundation	2000	South-west
35. John Bentley School (The)	Wiltshire	Foundation	2000	South-west
36. Kingsmead Community School	Somerset	Community	2000	South-west
37. Mountbatten School (The)	Hampshire	Community	2000	South-east
38. Romsey School (The)	Hampshire	Community	2000	South-east
39. Ryde High School	Isle of Wight	Community	2000	South-east
40. Sir John Cass's Foundation Redcoat School (The)	Tower Hamlets	Voluntary-Aided	2000	London
41. Sir Thomas Rich's School	Gloucestershire	Community	2000	South-west
42. Woodbridge High School	Redbridge	Community	2000	London
43. Aylesbury High School	Buckinghamshire	Community	2001	South-east
44. Connaught School for Girls	Waltham Forest, LB of	Community	2001	London
45. Greenford High School	Ealing, LB of	Foundation	2001	London
46. Hayle Community School	Cornwall	Community	2001	South-west
47. Henry Box School (The)	Oxfordshire	Community	2001	South-east
48. Pate's Grammar School	Gloucestershire	Voluntary-Aided	2001	South-west
49. Piggott School (The)	Wokingham	Voluntary-Aided	2001	South-east

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Social Exclusion (Young People)

Vernon Coaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what progress has been made on implementing the recommendations of the social exclusion report on young people. [9300]

Mr. Denham: The recommendations of the Social Exclusion Unit's Policy Action Team (12) report on Young People centred around four themes; improving the way Government develop and implement policy and services for children and young people; a new focus on preventive services; improving individual services for children and young people; and designing policies around their needs, especially through involving children and young people in thinking about policies and services. Substantial progress has been made in all these areas.

To improve the way the Government develop policy the Prime Minister has established a new cabinet committee on children and young people's services, created the interdepartmental ministerial post of Minister for Young People and established the interdepartmental Children and Young People's Unit to be responsible for this work.

A new focus on preventive services and action to address the social exclusion of children and young people has been provided by the new Children's Fund. The Fund is worth £450 million over 2001–02 to 2003–04, of which £380 million is devoted to the development of preventive services by partnerships throughout England and £70 million is devoted to the Children's Fund Local Network making grants to voluntary organisations working on projects to tackle child poverty.

Improving individual services for children and young people was a key theme of the Spending Review 2000, in particular through the introduction of the Connexions service for 13–19 year olds. The first Connexions Partnerships began to deliver services from April this year. £420 million is being invested in Connexions in 2002–03, rising to £455 million in 2003–04. To ensure that national health service provision is designed around children we have announced the establishment of a new NHS National Service Framework. Targeted programmes to support children and young people's individual education needs were set out in the White Paper, "Schools—achieving success" (Cmd 5230). This progress will be further promoted through the cross-cutting review on children at risk announced by my right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, in response to a written question from my hon. Friend the Member for Preseli, Pembrokeshire (Mrs. Lawrence) on 25 June 2001, Official Report, column 38W.

In "Tomorrow's Future: Building a Strategy for Children and Young People", published on 22 March, the Government set out their commitment to developing an overarching strategy for Children and Young People to ensure that we designed policies around the needs and priorities of young people, including the encouragement of new approaches in Government to ensure effective involvement and participation of children. In the near future, I will be publishing a consultation document on the Government's new strategy for Children and Young People.

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