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Teacher Training
Ms Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what plans she has to ensure a percentage of teacher training places are available to schools and graduates in North Staffordshire. [27380]
Mr. Timms: In allocating college-based and employment-based initial teacher training places, the Teacher Training Agency gives priority to high-quality provision. In allocating college-based places the agency also has regard wherever possible to the need for a balanced geographical distribution.
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Graduate Trainee Programme
Ms Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what criteria are set for (a) schools and (b) graduate applicants in respect of a successful application to the Graduate Trainee Programme. [27381]
Mr. Timms: All entrants to the Graduate Teacher Programme (GTP) must meet the general requirements both for admission to postgraduate courses of initial teacher training laid down in my Department's Circular 4/98 and for admission to employment-based teacher training prescribed by the Education (Teachers' Qualifications and Health Standards) (England) Regulations 1999, as amended. Decisions on which applications to approve are taken by the Teacher Training Agency, which administers the programme on my Department's behalf. The criteria which the agency applies to reach those decisions are published in the booklet "How to Apply for the Graduate and Registered Teacher Programmes in England", a copy of which has been placed in the Library.
Ofsted
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many Ofsted inspections have been carried out in schools in the Buckingham constituency in each year since 1997. [27768]
Mr. Timms: This is a matter for HM Chief Inspector of Schools and I have therefore asked Mike Tomlinson to write to the hon. Member and to place a copy of his letter in the Library.
Early Years Excellence
Mr. Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, pursuant to her answer of 9 January 2002, Official Report, column 934W, on Early Years Excellence, (1) when she expects to announce the results of the assessment of the interests of Somerford Infant School; [27726]
- (2) by what means her Department plans to follow up interest in Somerford Infant School; [27727]
(3) whether the further guidance issued on 5 October 1991 was sent direct to Somerford Infant School; and if she will make a statement. [27728]
Margaret Hodge: The additional guidance issued on 5 October 2001 was not sent to Somerford Infant School, but to Early Years Development and Childcare Partnerships, local authorities and others who received the February 2001 guidance, in response to which the school submitted its expression of interest in joining the programme.
Officials provided feedback to Somerford on their proposals in June 2001, and will shortly further follow up Somerford's interest in the programme by contacting the headteacher of the school in the first instance.
Following expressions of interest, the Department announces only the names of newly designated Early Excellence Centres. Such announcements are made periodically.
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School Meals
Mr. Edward Davey: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how the funding for the national food in schools programme has been allocated; and if she will make a statement. [20501]
Yvette Cooper: I have been asked to reply.
The majority of funding for the food in schools programme has not yet been allocated. We are working with the Department for Education and Skills to develop proposals that cover the breadth of opportunities for food in schools. The programme will aim to bring together all food related initiatives in schools and after-school clubs to improve both health and learning, and ensure consistent information is given about health and nutrition. Following an advisory forum meeting in the summer, proposals are being put together into a series of pilot schemes that can be tested throughout the country. This includes assessing existing initiatives as well as new ones to ensure that the programme builds on and supports existing work in schools by a number of organisations.
TREASURY
Departmental Expenditure Limits
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his estimate is of the level of contingency reserves in (a) departmental expenditure limits and (b) annually managed expenditure in (i) 2002–03, (ii) 2003–04 and (iii) 2004–05. [26994]
Mr. Andrew Smith: The Government's latest view of the planned DEL Reserve and the forecast AME Margin are given in tables B16 and B13 respectively of the pre-Budget report (Cm 5318), up to the final year for which public spending plans have been published (2003–04).
Local Authorities' Capital Receipts
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what statistical assessment he has made of the effect of the release of local authorities' capital receipts on the public sector borrowing requirement. [27449]
Mr. Andrew Smith: The release of local authorities' capital receipts is taken into account in the published forecasts of public borrowing.
All-party Parliamentary Groups
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many all-party Parliamentary groups have received funding in each of the last four years; and how much was received in each year by each group. [27478]
Mr. Andrew Smith: Four all-party parliamentary groups have received funding from the Treasury in the last four years. They are the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), the British American Parliamentary Group (BAPG) and the British-Irish Parliamentary Group (BIPG).
The amount of grant in aid paid to each of the groups in each of the last four years is set out in the table.
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| IPU | CPA | BIIP | BAPG | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998–99 | 785,000 | 888,750 | 149,000 | 82,124 |
| 1999–2000 | 785,000 | 868,300 | 201,700 | 73,350 |
| 2000–01 | 853,000 | 2,498,683 | 218,000 | 84,600 |
| 2001–02 | 0 | 93,750 | 95,000 | 85,420 |
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans he has to change the criteria which his Department applies in awarding grants to all-party parliamentary groups. [27479]
Mr. Andrew Smith: There are no fixed criteria. Grants in aid for all-party parliamentary groups are financed from the Treasury's Resource Departmental Expenditure Limit, on the basis of an assessment of competing pressures.
Public Services Productivity
Matthew Taylor: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to his answer of 11 December 2001, Official Report, column 769W, on public services productivity, how many seminars have been held on the paper; on which dates these seminars have occurred; who attended the seminars; and if he will make a statement. [27615]
Mr. Andrew Smith: No seminars have been held on the paper.
Public Expenditure
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the increase in public expenditure in real terms in each of the last three years. [27467]
Mr. Andrew Smith: The increases in total public spending (Total Managed Expenditure—TME) and Departmental Expenditure Limits (DEL) after inflation for each of the last three years on the previous year are given in the table. These figures are consistent with figures published in the pre-Budget report 2001.
| Financial year | Percentage real increase in DEL on previous year | Percentage real increase in TME on previous year |
|---|---|---|
| 2000–01 | 3.4 | 3.7 |
| 1999–2000 | 3.2 | 0.8 |
| 1998–99 | 2.8 | 0.2 |
Tax Evasion
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much money was lost to the Inland Revenue in each of the last 10 years as a result of tax evasion. [27926]
Dawn Primarolo: No such figures are available.
Working Families Tax Credit
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will give for each local authority in East Lancashire the most recent take-up rates for working families tax credit and the last available take-up rates for family credit. [28180]
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Dawn Primarolo: It is not possible to produce reliable estimates of take-up rates for each local authority.
Mr. Hepburn: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many households in South Tyneside have benefited from the working families tax credit. [28064]
Dawn Primarolo: The number of recipients of working families tax credit and disabled person's tax credit in each local authority and in each constituency are shown in "Working Families' and Disabled Person's Tax Credit Statistics. Geographical analyses", copies of which are in the Library and on the Inland Revenue website, www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk, under "Statistics".
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many employers have been (a) fined and (b) prosecuted for wrongly calculating employees' entitlement to working families tax credit. [27466]
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