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Departmental Staff

Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many employees of (a) her Department and (b) agencies sponsored by her Department work in (i) London, (ii) areas benefiting from EU Objective 1 status, (iii) areas with Objective 2 status and (iv) other areas. [12244]

Mr. Ivan Lewis [holding answer 2 November 2001]: The number of permanent employees in the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) who work in:


711 permanent staff also employed by DfES work throughout the Government office network. A breakdown into the above categories could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

DfEs has no agencies.

High Quality Teaching

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how she will monitor expenditure on rewarding high quality teaching over the next three years; and if she will publish the results. [12310]

Mr. Timms: We are currently providing funding to support teachers' performance pay through special grants paid to local authorities. A requirement of special grants is that they are fully and properly audited. Auditors appointed by the local authority make certain that the funds are spent for the purposes for which they are paid. Local authorities are required to provide me with copies of these audits. The new special grant, providing £250 million to support performance pay across the period April 2002 to 2004, will be subject to these same audit requirements.

Ministerial Travel

Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will list overseas visits undertaken by Ministers in the (a) Department for Education and Employment and (b) Department for Education and Skills since 1 May 1997. [12333]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: The overseas visits undertaken by Ministers since 1 May 1997 are as follows:


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All travel complied with the requirements of the "Ministerial Code" and "Travel by Ministers".

Qualified Teacher Status

Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what minimum level of qualifications is required for teachers without qualified teacher status in maintained schools. [12365]

Mr. Timms [holding answer 5 November 2001]: Decisions on the suitability of the qualifications held by applicants for employment as teachers in maintained schools are matters for the professional judgments of head teachers taking into account the legal requirements of the Education (Teachers' Qualifications and Health Standards) (England) Regulations 1999 as amended.

Sixth Forms

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many schools have (a) opened and (b) closed sixth forms since 1997. [12403]

Mr. Ivan Lewis [holding answer 5 November 2001]: Since 1997 proposals have been approved to open 27 school sixth forms and close 13 school sixth forms.

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many sixth forms have closed since 1997. [12973]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: Thirteen proposals for the closure of school sixth forms have been approved since 1997.

Recruitment

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many people, with respect to Annexe A of her Department's press release "Recruitment to Teacher Training Hits Seven Year High" of 1 November, are already registered; and what estimate she has made of how many will be registered in the rest of the year. [13106]

Mr. Timms: The figures published on 1 November comprised the results of the Teacher Training Agency's annual survey of training providers. As in previous years, these included both the numbers of trainees recruited to courses up to and including 11 October 2001, and providers' estimates of the numbers expected to start training later in the 2001–02 academic year. The Agency's survey showed 28,966 recruits to training, including 1,719 people expected to begin their courses in the spring and summer 2002 terms.

The estimate of recruitment for 2000–01 that my right hon. Friend published on 20 November 2000 was 0.25 per cent. lower than final recruitment for that year.

Computer Crime

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many cases of computer (a) hacking, (b) fraud and (c) theft her Department recorded in (i) 2000 and (ii) 2001; and on how many occasions in those years computer systems have been illegally accessed by computer hackers (A) within and (B) outside her Department. [13143]

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Mr. Ivan Lewis: There have been no detected cases of computer hacking, either by insiders or by persons outside of the Department in either 2000 or 2001. There were four cases of insider fraud in each of the years in question. There were three cases of theft of IT equipment by insiders from Departmental offices in 2000 and one case in 2001.

School Governors (Reports)

Vera Baird: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will reduce the level of detail required in the annual reports produced by school governors. [13252]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: Yes, we shall. Earlier this year we consulted on reducing the requirements within both governor's annual reports and school prospectuses, and on the possibility of schools combining these two documents. Following that consultation, we are proceeding with streamlining the requirements and making it easier for schools that choose to do so to combine the two documents. We aim to amend the relevant regulations and send revised guidance to schools early in the new year.

Departmental Assets

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what stocks of (a) antiques, (b) paintings and (c) fine wines are held by her Department; if she will list such assets sold over the last three years together with the sale proceeds from such transactions; what plans she has to sell further such assets over the period of the current Comprehensive Spending Review; and if she will make a statement. [10847]

Mr. Ivan Lewis [holding answer 31 October 2001]: The stocks of antiques, paintings and fine wines held by the Department are as follows: There have been no assets sold over the last three years and there are no plans to sell further such assets over the period of the current Spending Review.



Individual Learning Accounts (Bromley)

Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many people in the borough of Bromley had individual learning accounts; how many account

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holders were the victims of fraud; and what plans there are to allow Beckenham account holders to complete the training plans they had begun. [12697]

John Healey: On the basis of the recorded postcode information available, by 31 October 2001, 12,015 people in the borough of Bromley had opened an individual learning account through the national framework launched on 4 September 2000.

The police have made 30 arrests in England involving four individual learning account (ILA) providers registered at the ILA centre. No allegations of fraud have yet been brought to court.

The individual learning account centre will continue to accept and process bookings for learning up until 7 December 2001, for all present members. The learning start date to which the bookings relate must be within six months of the date of booking. Learners do not have a deadline in which to complete an episode of learning.

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