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Education Funding

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what funding allocation is made to the Learning and Skills Council for the education of 14 to 16-year-olds; and when the funding is approved. [36019]

John Healey: In the financial year 2001–02, none of the Learning and Skills Council's budgets is specifically targeted at 14 to 16-year-olds in school years 10 and 11. £23 million, however, has been allocated for Education Business Link (EBL) activities. These activities will prepare young people for the workplace and adult life by building effective partnerships between schools and business to enhance the delivery of key skills and the national curriculum. EBL funding is aimed at all school children but includes a commitment for all Key Stage 4 pupils to experience at least two weeks' work experience.

In the financial year 2002–03 funding for EBL has been subsumed into the LSC's Youth Programmes Budget of £2,708.493 million. This funding will be increased before the start of the financial year to include funding for the "Increased Flexibility for 14 to 16-year-olds" programme. The aim of this programme is to support the development activity necessary to extend vocational options for young people at Key Stage 4 of the national curriculum, in line with commitments in the White Paper: "Schools: Achieving Success" (July 2001).

There are, of course, in addition to 14 to 16-year-olds in years 10 and 11, large numbers of 16-year-olds being educated in FE colleges and school sixth forms. FE college funding for the financial years 2001–02 and

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2002–03 is included in a number of LSC budgets and school sixth form funding in a separate, new LSC budget for 2002–03.

The LSC is advised of its funding for each financial year in the preceding December by means of a grant letter. It is informed of any new funding throughout the year as this becomes available.

Mrs. Browning: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what plans she has to converge funding streams for all post-16 provision. [36031]

John Healey: We consulted extensively about funding arrangements for post-16 education and training. Planning and implementing these new systems to meet the Government's learning targets is the responsibility of the Learning and Skills Council which has published its corporate plan for the period to 2004 and its plans for developing post-16 funding systems for 2003–04 onwards. The council plans to introduce a common funding approach for 2003–04 in line with our consultations in 1999, 2000 and 2001. Progress to date has been good with development of a consistent national funding system this year for work based learning. Progress in 2002–03 will continue with the development of new funding arrangements for further education and the council's assumption of responsibility for school sixth form funding. We are committed to work with the council to further develop funding systems, to ensure that funding follows the learner and facilitating the development of a rational and coherent approach to funding different forms of post-16 provision.

Excluded Pupils

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what proportion of excluded children in authorities with city technology colleges were admitted to such colleges in each of the past three years. [36021]

Mr. Timms: The information requested is not available centrally.

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Course Completion Rates

Mrs. Browning: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment has been made of the comparative completion rates of on-line learning and those who attend further education colleges. [36029]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: Information collected does not allow a robust comparison of completion rates of students who study on-line with those who attend further education colleges.

Further Education (Rural Areas)

Mrs. Browning: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment she has made of the impact of transportation issues on further education in rural areas. [36030]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: In 2001 we have commissioned a study into transport services and support for students in further education. This highlighted the difficulties in travelling to school and college experienced by students including those in rural areas. Some students do suffer from both a lack of transport services and high costs.

In response to this, we introduced a clause in the current Education Bill in order to revise section 509 of the Education Act 1996 and to clarify the duty on LEAs. This together with new requirements on the Learning and Skills Council and Further Education Institutions will result in more effective transport services and support for students of 16–19. We are also reviewing the transport support available to older students.

I have also made available an additional £9 million to 76 LEAs from April 2002 to help them to develop and test the most effective approaches to providing transport support in both urban and rural areas.

Ministerial Trips

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will list each of the overseas trips made by herself and other members of her ministerial team in each of the last four years, specifying the purpose and cost of each trip. [30171]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: I refer the hon. Member to the reply given by my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister on 4 February 2002, Official Report, column 707w.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

Departmental Salary Costs

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what proportion of the departmental expenditure limit in 2001–02 will be accounted for by salary costs and pension contributions. [32008]

Mr. MacShane: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) departmental expenditure limit (DEL ¹ ) for financial year (FY) 2001–02 is £1,018,976,000. FCO projected departmental salary cost ² for FY 2001–02 is £306,594,875 approximately 30.09 per cent. of the overall DEL.

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¹ DEL figure quoted is FCO Gross voted Resource DEL in "Request for Resources 1" (Promoting internationally the interests of the UK and contributing to a strong world community).
² Departmental salary cost figure quoted is the combined total of the estimated UK based Paybill spend and the estimated Locally Employed (LE) Paybill spend.

Accountancy Services

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the total cost to his Department was for accountancy services in each of the last four years. [34162]

Mr. MacShane: The total cost to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for accountancy services for each of the years in question was as follows:

	£
1997–98	267,431
1998–99	1,002,628
1999–2000	181,720
2000–01	384,391
2001 to date	69,937

Lost/stolen Property

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list those items valued at less than £50 each which have been stolen or lost from his Department in each of the last four years. [34216]

Mr. MacShane: A small number of personal effects have been reported lost or stolen from the FCO estate during the last four years. The estimated replacement value of all items is under £50.

Cayman Islands

Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs on how many occasions since 27 November 2001 the Government of the Cayman Islands has been requested information on taxes by (a) the United States and (b) the United Kingdom; and if he will make a statement. [34625]

Mr. Bradshaw: The information is as follows:

(a) None.

(b) None.

The Cayman Islands signed a tax information exchange agreement with the US Government on 27 November 2001. This does not come into effect until January 2004 for criminal matters, and January 2006 for civil and administrative matters. It will not enable the UK to request tax information from the Cayman Islands.

Enron

Mr. Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs which Ministers in his Department met representatives of Enron between 11 October 1999 and 7 June 2001; what the reasons for the meetings were; and what follow-up action was taken as a result. [34663]

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Mr. Straw: There were no official meetings held between FCO Ministers and representatives of Enron during this period.

English Teaching (Senegal)

Mr. Borrow: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what requests the British Council have received to increase the provision of English teaching in Senegal since 1997; and what response the Government have made. [35014]

Mr. MacShane: The British Council has provided English language training for approximately 300 Senegalese schoolteachers for each of the past three years. This followed a request for increased training from the Senegalese Ministry of Education. The council has also provided training requested by the Ministry of Finance and the Senegalese Youth Council. An English language training centre was established in Dakar in 1997. The centre provides a high quality training programme to fee-paying students.

The British Council also works in partnership with the BBC and four local radio stations to sponsor the transmission of BBC English in four major cities outside Dakar.

There is substantial demand for English Language Teaching throughout Francophone Africa. The British Council is examining how this demand might be met with the resources available to it.

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