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Grants (Hampshire)

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will list the (a) category and (b) amount of each grant outside the revenue support grant which her Department provided to Hampshire county council in (i) 2000–01 and (ii) 2001–02. [28865]

Mr. Timms: The following table shows the Department's allocated grants to Hampshire local education authority in 2000–01 and 2001–02.

£

2000–012001–02
Standards Fund18,843,77626,224,965
Teachers Pay Reform Grant5,881,4667,727,856
Nursery Education Grant (3-year-olds)(7)1,701,150(7)
Nursery Education Grant (4-year-olds)4,742,626
Special Education Needs Co-ordinators (Early Years)105,037
Early Years Training and Support162,700720,251
Childcare Grant1,386,3203,650,169
School Standards Grant(8)6,701,00014,593,500
School Budget Support Grant1,246,115
Education Budget Support Grant100,000
Education Action Zone(9)702,000(9)
Transitional Funding and Transitional Grant Insurance (former GM Schools)575,891358,349
Capital Grant29,386,00027,272,000

(7) In 2001–02 Hampshire has received funding for the summer and autumn terms 2001 which amounts to £300,823. For the spring term 2002 it has been allocated up to £3,476,088 to fund early education places for 3-year-olds. This is as a result of a funding re-allocation exercise at the end of the autumn term 2001.

(8) 2001–02 figures may be subject to change.

(9) Funding made directly to the Education Action Zone in Hampshire (Leigh Park). Up to £550,000 grant is available to the zone in 2001–02, conditional on the zone receiving £250,000 in eligible private sector sponsorship.

Note:

Amounts are in cash terms.


Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will list the direct grants for schools in Hampshire in (a) 2000–01 and (b) 2001–02. [28866]

Mr. Timms: A table listing the School Standards Grant payable in respect of each Hampshire school in 2000–01 and 2001–02 has been placed in the Library.

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School Statistics

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many pupils there were aged 15 years broken down by ethnic group; what were the average percentage GCSE/GNVQ results of (a) over 5A* to C, (b) over 5A* to G and (c) no passes; what was the average number of (i) authorised and (ii) unauthorised absences for each English parliamentary constituency in the academic year 2000–01; and if she will make a statement. [28958]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: The overall number of pupils in maintained secondary schools broken down by ethnic group is given in the following table; there are no figures for individual ages.

Maintained secondary schools: number of pupils by ethnic group
England—January 2000

Number
White2,780,167
Black—Caribbean44,561
Black—African37,466
Black—Other25,397
Indian83,177
Pakistani76,131
Bangladeshi29,876
Chinese12,318
Any other minority group79,259
Unclassified63,475
Total3,231,827

The primary source of information on GCSE attainment by ethnic group is the Youth Cohort Study (YCS). The YCS is run in alternate years and estimates from the latest survey are provided in the following table.

GCSE/GNVQ achievements by ethnic group England and Wales—1998–99
Percentage

5+ Grades A*-C5+ Grades A*-GNo passes reported
White50914
Black39865
Indian6095(10)
Pakistani29914
Bangladeshi29885
Other Asian72934
Other minority group43899
Not stated266623
Total49915

(10) Not available (too small sample size)

Note:

Estimates exclude pupils in special schools


Neither of the breakdowns is available for parliamentary constituencies.

The data collected on authorised and unauthorised absences do not include ethnic group.

Autonomous Schools

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many schools she expects to have earned autonomy by the end of the current Parliament. [28959]

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Mr. Timms: We intend to consult widely on the criteria for earned autonomy before regulations are laid. We envisage that these criteria will enable around 10 per cent. of schools, including those succeeding in challenging circumstances, to qualify. At this stage, we are not in a position to say how many schools will qualify by the end of the current Parliament.

Under-performing Schools

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many and what percentage of schools are (a) deemed to have serious weaknesses, (b) under special measures and (c) deemed to be under-achieving by Ofsted inspectors. [28960]

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.

Grant-maintained Schools

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) if she will list for each local education authority the level of protected funding given by the LEA over that given by her Department as transitional funding to former grant maintained schools in each of the years 1998–99 to 2001–02; [28961]

Mr. Timms: The Department has not itself provided transitional funding for former grant-maintained schools. Such funding was provided in 1998–99 by the Funding Agency for Schools as part of the schools' annual maintenance grants, and has been provided in subsequent years by local education authorities in accordance with regulations made under section 47 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, with the assistance (in 2000–01 and 2001–02) of a special grant from the Department.

WALES

Standard Spending Assessment (Monmouth)

Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how much SSA per head Monmouth receives; and what the equivalent average figure is for English local government areas. [28008]

Mr. Paul Murphy: Distribution of the revenue support grant in Wales is a matter for the National Assembly.

ELECTORAL COMMISSION COMMITTEE

Democratic Process

35. Kevin Brennan: To ask the right hon. Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission what assessment the Committee has made of the Electoral Commission's plans to encourage greater participation in the democratic process. [26157]

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Mr. Beith: The committee has approved the commission's five-year plan for 2001–06, which provides for research and advertising campaigns directed at the promotion of voter awareness. It was laid before Parliament on 8 January 2002 and copies are available in the Vote Office. I understand that the commission intends to set out its strategy for promoting voter awareness in more detail in its next five-year plan, covering the period 2002–07, which is due to be considered by the Speaker's Committee next month and published later in the spring.

Euro

40. Mr. Dalyell: To ask the right hon. Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission what the anticipated cost would be of conducting a referendum on entry into the euro. [26163]

Mr. Beith: The Electoral Commission has not to date provided the Speaker's Committee with any estimate for the cost of running a national referendum.

The commission's five-year plan for the period 2001–06 makes clear that the commission will need to seek additional resources in the event of a referendum being called, but does not attempt to identify the scale of those costs.

However, I understand from the Chairman that the commission, as part of its normal work, has recently begun to develop its contingency plans for any national or regional referendum, and will be looking at the issue of costs as part of this work.


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