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Child Benefit

Mr. Kirkwood: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the rates of child benefit for the first and subsequent children from April 2002 required to ensure that if a higher rate taxpayer in receipt of child benefit paid tax on it at (a) the higher rate or (b) the standard rate, the net cash amount of benefit received remained at the level already announced from April 2002; and if he will estimate (i) the gross annual programme cost of increasing child benefit to those levels and (ii) the net cost to the Exchequer of raising child benefit to those levels (1) with no taxation and (2) with higher rate taxpayer recipients paying tax on the benefit at the higher rate, taking into account the consequential effects on working families tax credit, income support payments and other means-tested benefits. [22058]

Mr. Andrew Smith: Child benefit will be £15.75 per week for the first child and £10.55 per week for subsequent children from April 2002. If it were taxable at the basic rate, in order for a taxpayer to receive the same net benefit it would have to be increased to £20.20 per week for the first child and £13.55 per week for subsequent children. If it were taxable at the higher rate, the corresponding figures would be £26.25 per week for the first child and £17.60 per week for subsequent children.

The gross programme cost of increasing child benefit to £20.20 per week for the first child and £13.55 per week for subsequent children would be £2.5 billion in 2002. The gross programme cost of increasing child benefit to £26.25 per week for the first child and £17.60 per week for subsequent children would be £6 billion in 2002. The net cost to the Exchequer of these increases would depend on how they were treated in income-related benefits and working families tax credit.

EDUCATION AND SKILLS

Maths Teachers

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many maths teachers were employed in

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secondary schools in (a) 1984, (b) 1988, (c) 1992, (d) 1996 and (e) 2000; and what their qualifications were. [8405]

Mr. Timms: Full-time teachers who spent some or all of their time teaching maths in English maintained secondary schools are as follows:

	Academic year
	1983–84(13)	1987–88	1991–92	1996–97
Maths teachers	40,500	35,500	31,000	25,200
	Qualifications—maths main subject(14)
Degree	28	27	30	40
BEd	6	8	9	16
PGCE	0	7	10	11
Cert. Ed.	19	15	15	12
Other	3	3	4	2
Maths subsidiary or related subject(14)	18	14	10	—
Other subjects(14)	26	25	22	20
Total(14)	100	100	100	100

⁽¹³⁾ 1983–84 survey did not separately identify PGCEs which trained students to teach maths. Most maths-qualified teachers with a PGCE will be included in the 'degree' or 'other' columns

⁽¹⁴⁾ Percentage

In 1996–97, subjects were not designated as main, subsidiary or related. All subjects were treated as at the same level. The concept of related subject was not used for maths.

The percentages of teachers with each qualification have been rounded to the nearest whole number and as a result the component parts may not add to 100 per cent.

Data for 1996–97 are the latest available.

Teacher Vacancies

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the levels of teacher vacancies were in January in (a) primary, (b) secondary and (c) special schools broken down by (i) Government office region, (ii) subject and (iii) level; and what changes there have been in these totals from those issued in the SFR 16/2001 on 20 April. [9109]

Mr. Timms: Teacher vacancies as a percentage of teachers in post in the English maintained schools sector in January 2001 were as follows:

	Nursery and primary	Secondary	Special	All maintained schools sector
Grade
Head	0.8	0.8	1.0	0.8
Deputy head	1.8	1.2	2.9	1.7
Classroom teacher	1.5	1.5	2.3	1.4
	Government office region
North East	0.6	1.0	0.1	0.8
North West	0.4	0.6	0.9	0.5
Yorkshire and the Humber	0.3	0.6	0.6	0.5
East Midlands	0.7	0.6	2.2	0.7
West Midlands	0.7	1.1	1.5	0.9
East of England	1.7	1.7	1.8	1.7
London	3.3	3.8	4.6	3.5
South East	1.6	2.1	4.4	2.0
South West	0.6	0.7	1.3	0.6
England	1.2	1.4	2.2	1.4

The number of teacher vacancies in the maintained schools sector in January 2001 was as follows:

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	Nursery and primary	Secondary	Special	All maintained schools sector
Grade
Head	150	30	10	190
Deputy head	270	80	30	380
Classroom teacher	1,690	2,480	240	4,400
	Government office region
North East	60	100	(15)—	160
North West	110	150	20	280
Yorkshire and the Humber	60	110	10	190
East Midlands	100	100	20	210
West Midlands	140	240	30	400
East of England	310	340	20	670
London	820	880	90	1,790
South East	420	550	90	1,060
South West	90	110	10	210
All vacancies	2,110	2,590	280	4,980

⁽¹⁵⁾ Less than five

Note:

Totals may not appear to equal the sum of the component parts because of rounding.

Classroom teacher vacancies in maintained secondary schools by subject were as follows:

	Vacancies as a percentage of teachers in post	Number of vacancies
Mathematics	2.1	410
Information Technology	2.8	120
Sciences	1.6	400
French	1.6	160
German	0.8	30
Other languages	3.2	50
All languages	1.5	250
English	1.8	360
Drama	1.7	60
History	0.5	40
Social Sciences	0.4	20
Geography	0.6	50
Religious education	1.8	100
Design and technology	1.3	210
Commercial/business studies	1.3	40
Art, craft or design	0.7	50
Music	1.8	80
Physical education	0.8	100
Careers	4.3	10
Other main and combined subjects	1.7	200
All subjects	1.4	2,480

Note:

Totals may not appear to equal the sum of the component parts because of rounding.

As in previous years, the provisional numbers of vacancies published in SFR16/2001 have changed slightly following further validation checks on the data. The total vacancy figures for the nursery and primary phase remain unchanged at 1.2 per cent. and 2,110 posts. The total vacancy figure for the secondary phase has increased from 2,580 to 2,590; the rate remains unchanged at 1.4 per cent. The total secondary schools classroom teacher vacancy figure has increased from 2,470 to 2,480; the rate remains unchanged at 1.4 per cent. The total vacancy figures for special schools remain unchanged at 2.2 per cent. and 280 posts.

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Capital Spending (Schools)

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what proportion of grant allocation for capital spending in schools is (a) discretionary and (b) must be spent on items stipulated by the Government. [19709]

John Healey: The table shows, for next year, the proportion of capital investment in schools through discretionary funding which is un-hypothecated; discretionary funding which is hypothecated for schools capital investment; and funding which must be spent on specific schools capital projects. The table shows this for both capital grants and for all capital support.

Percentage

Percentages related to the financial year 2002–03	Grant	Total capital support
Discretionary: un-hypothecated	—	16
Discretionary: hypothecated for schools capital	74	41
Project specific	26	43

Notes:

1. Discretionary un-hypothecated: denotes capital support that is allocated to local authorities for schools, but which they are able to use for other services.

2. Discretionary hypothecated for schools: denotes funding that is allocated to local authorities or schools to be spent on school capital works in accordance with their highest priorities.

3. Project Specific: denotes funding that is allocated to local authorities or schools to be spent on specific agreed projects.

4. Total capital support includes grant and credit approvals including PFI credits.

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will list the Government grant allocation for capital spending on schools by LEA in each year since 1997, excluding centrally managed initiatives. [19710]

John Healey: Tables showing the capital allocations by local education authority in England from 1997–98 to 2001–02 have been placed in the Libraries. Table A shows this for capital grants, table B shows this for all capital support.

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