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Railtrack

Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (1) if he will publish the grant payment deed for (a) NGCL and (b) Renewco; [22067]

(2) if the grant payment deed for NGCL formed part of the paper presented to the court on 8 October for consideration of his Department's petition to place Railtrack plc into administration; [22068]

(3) when the grant payment deed for NGCL was (a) drawn up and (b) passed to the Office for National Statistics. [22069]

Mr. Byers [holding answer 10 December 2001]: The SRA prepared and negotiated a draft Deed of Payment of SRA grant for NGCL (ie Renewco) over the summer. A draft was sent to the ONS on 17 September. The draft was not relevant to the decision to take Railtrack into administration.

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, pursuant to his answer of 19 December 2001, Official Report, column 494W, ref. 21483, on what date he expects a response to the application. [26562]

Mr. Spellar: A response to the Secretary of State's application is a matter for the European Commission.

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (1) if he will list the organisations with which he or his Department have held meetings to discuss the future structure of Railtrack since 7 October 2001; [26463]

(2) if he will list the external organisations with which he and his Department held discussions about Railtrack between 1 July and 7 October 2001. [26462]

Mr. Spellar: Ministers and departmental officials have held meetings with a wide range of organisations about Railtrack since July 2001, including Railtrack and its advisers, the Office of the Rail Regulator (ORR), the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA), trade unions, the administrator, potential bidders and groups representing passengers, shareholders and transport interests more widely.

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if he will make a statement on the progress made to date in bringing Railtrack out of administration. [26293]

Mr. Spellar: This is a matter for the administrator. He shares the Government's objective that the process should be completed as quickly as possible.

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Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, pursuant to his answer of 19 December 2001, Official Report, column 494W, ref 21483, if the amounts exceed the specific funding provisions encompassed in the commercial loan agreement. [26561]

Mr. Spellar: Yes.

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what assistance he has requested from the Railtrack administrator under section 8.1.3 of the commercial loan agreement. [26305]

Mr. Spellar: None.

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions whether the Railtrack administrator will be permitted to sell railway property assets to raise funding to repay the liabilities incurred under the commercial loan agreement. [26301]

Mr. Spellar: The Railtrack administrator is not permitted to sell Railtrack plc property assets to raise funding to repay the commercial loan agreement.

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions how many relevant dates for repayment have been defined, as referred to in section 9.3 of the Railtrack commercial loan agreement. [26306]

Mr. Spellar: None.

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, pursuant to his answer of 19 December 2001, Official Report, column 495W, Ref. 23211, for what purpose the funding is required. [26459]

Mr. Spellar: No funding has as yet been requested from this facility.

EDUCATION AND SKILLS

Individual Learning Accounts

Alistair Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what her latest estimate is of the overspend in relation to the individual learning accounts scheme; and what impact she expects this to have on her Department's budget in (a) 2001–02 and (b) 2002–03. [26477]

John Healey [holding answer 11 January 2002]: At 31 December the overspend on individual learning accounts was £62.9 million. This takes account of the total budget available and expenditure in England over the two years 2000–01 and 2001–02. This includes both DfES budget allocations and money that has been recycled from TEC resources. The final overspend, which will not be known until later in 2002–03, will depend upon a number of factors, in particular: the full extent of claims outstanding and bookings for learning that had been

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confirmed by 23 November; the extent to which claims will be validated after investigation; and analysis by officials and the amount of money recouped from providers who have filed invalid claims for payment.

The final overspend will be met from within the Department's existing resources. The majority of financial activity will have occurred in 2001–02, minimising the impact on the 2002–03 budget.

Alistair Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what investigations are taking place in relation to alleged fraud in the operation of the individual learning accounts scheme with particular reference to (a) the contractor Capita, (b) its contractors and (c) its employees. [26475]

John Healey [holding answer 11 January 2002]: The Department's Special Investigation Unit has had 86 learning providers referred to it: four learning providers did not require investigation and 82 learning providers are in the process of being investigated. Of these, the police are already investigating 13 learning providers and the SIU is discussing a further 42 with the police. To date the police have made 39 arrests in connection with cases involving two registered learning providers. One individual has been charged.

Investigations into the control and security arrangements that were in place in the ILA system continue and we have engaged consultants from Cap Gemini to support that process. We are working closely with Capita on this work.

Standard Spending Assessment

Mrs. Anne Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) if she will give the standard spending assessment per pupil for the primary and secondary sectors for (a) Cambridgeshire and (b) Suffolk in each year from 1990–91 to 2001–02, adjusted for inflation at current values; [27633]

(2) if she will list the standard spending assessments per pupil for the primary and secondary sectors by local education authority for England and Wales in each year from 1990–91 to 2001–02, and projected for the financial year 2002–03, adjusted for inflation at current values. [27632]

Mr. Timms: The information requested for England is contained in tables, copies of which have been placed in the Libraries. Funding for schools in Wales is the responsibility of the National Assembly for Wales.

Mrs. Anne Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will list for shire counties (a) the education service block standard spending assessment for each county divided by the total number of full-time equivalent pupils financed by that county, (b) the primary education service sub block SSA for each county, divided by the number of primary pupils financed by that county and (c) the secondary education service sub block SSA for each county divided by the number of secondary pupils financed by that county, in the financial year 2002–03. [27626]

Mr. Timms: The information requested is in the following table.

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Provisional education SSA per pupil for 2002–03

LEA	Primary per 5–10 pupil	Secondary per 11–15 pupil	Total education per 4–19 pupil(21)
Bedfordshire	2,663	3,408	3,074
Buckinghamshire	2,656	3,411	3,072
Cambridgeshire	2,533	3,225	2,859
Cheshire	2,469	3,149	2,826
Cornwall	2,594	3,335	3,000
Cumbria	2,581	3,299	2,965
Derbyshire	2,492	3,197	2,848
Devon	2,559	3,290	2,919
Dorset	2,494	3,179	2,851
Durham	2,628	3,378	3,039
East Sussex	2,713	3,498	3,116
Essex	2,710	3,465	3,094
Gloucestershire	2,497	3,186	2,847
Hampshire	2,582	3,322	2,901
Hertfordshire	2,750	3,503	3,169
Kent	2,708	3,470	3,105
Lancashire	2,589	3,319	2,962
Leicestershire	2,411	3,094	2,764
Lincolnshire	2,586	3,311	2,972
Norfolk	2,606	3,325	2,978
North Yorkshire	2,557	3,244	2,927
Northamptonshire	2,529	3,232	2,890
Northumberland	2,562	3,288	2,983
Nottinghamshire	2,506	3,219	2,913
Oxfordshire	2,671	3,399	3,057
Shropshire	2,534	3,228	2,875
Somerset	2,529	3,245	2,856
Staffordshire	2,451	3,146	2,827
Suffolk	2,526	3,221	2,907
Surrey	2,718	3,466	3,072
Warwickshire	2,489	3,173	2,832
West Sussex	2,638	3,365	3,007
Wiltshire	2,509	3,220	2,844
Worcestershire	2,472	3,157	2,817

⁽²¹⁾ Total education SSA divided by total pupils aged 4 to 19 (includes 4-year-olds in PVI—private and voluntary institutions.

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