House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 25 Feb 2002 (pt 14)

Teachers' Pay

Mr. Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills which establishments qualify for the Teachers' Pay Initiative in (a) South Tyneside and (b) Tyne and Wear [36133]

Margaret Hodge: All further education sector colleges in South Tyneside and Tyne and Wear are eligible for support under the Teaching Pay Initiative (TPI). The following six colleges have submitted "declarations of intent" for TPI and are being paid by the Learning and Skills Council: City of Sunderland College; Gateshead College; Newcastle College; North Tyneside College; South Tyneside College; and Tynemouth College.

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what funding is available for the higher pay spine; [36604]

Mr. Timms: Schools fund the bulk of teachers' pay from their delegated budget provided by their local education authority using resources distributed through Education Standard Spending Assessments. The total of Education SSAs will rise to £23.8 billion in 2002–03—an increase of 5.7 per cent. in cash terms. On top of this, schools will continue to receive special grant to meet the extra cost of teachers who have moved to the first point of the upper pay scale by crossing the threshold. They will also receive a new special grant worth £250 million over the next two years to help meet the cost of performance points they award to classroom teachers—including those on the upper pay scale—and to members of the leadership group.

Excluded Pupils

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what plans she has to ensure that all excluded pupils enter full-time education from September. [36020]

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Mr. Ivan Lewis [holding answer 13 February 2002]: In 1999 the Government made a commitment that all LEAs would offer full-time education to pupils excluded for 15 days or more by September 2002. All LEAs have reported making progress against meeting this commitment. This year LEAs received more than £36 million for the Social Inclusion: Pupil Support grant to help with the provision of full-time education for excluded children compared to some £26 million last year. In addition, LEAs can transfer funding from schools when a permanent exclusion occurs in order to support the reintegration of the excluded child into a new school or to pay for education outside of school. We are supporting LEAs in meeting the commitment, visiting some LEAs to identify whether there are any barriers to achieving the commitment and what further support we might offer them; and involving education advisers and HMIs in this programme of support. We shall publish a good practice guide for all LEAs by the end of February.

Industrial Action

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many days have been lost owing to industrial action by staff in her Department, agencies and non-departmental public bodies in each of the last four years. [36193]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: No days have been lost owing to industrial action by staff in the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), or its predecessor the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE), or its non- departmental public bodies over the last four years.

Pay Scales

Richard Ottaway: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will make a statement on the differential between pay scales in further and secondary education in the last three years for which records are available. [36289]

Margaret Hodge: The main scale pay ranges for teachers in secondary education over the last three years are as follows: 1999 (£14,658 to £23,193); 2000 (£15,141 to £23,843); 2001 (£16,038 to £24,843). The recommended salaries for main scale lecturers in general further education colleges over the two years for which we hold figures are: 2000 (£13,745 to £24,907); 2001 (£14,254 to £25,289). Although the scales are broadly comparable, as independent corporations colleges have their own pay policies and the way in which the recommended pay scales are used will vary from college to college.

Ministerial Boxes

Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills by what means ministerial boxes are conveyed from private offices in her Department to (a) herself and (b) her Ministers; how frequently and at what expense private courier firms are employed for such a task; and which courier firms have been used for such duties. [36272]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: Ministerial boxes originating from this Department are transported to Ministers' homes either by Government car or by a service provided by the Royal Mail.

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Sixth Form Funding

David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what formula is used by the Learning and Skills Council to fund (a) school sixth forms and (b) sixth form colleges. [35981]

Margaret Hodge: The formula for funding school sixth forms and further education sixth form colleges is the responsibility of the Learning and Skills Council. I have therefore asked John Harwood, the council's chief executive, to write to the right hon. Gentleman providing the information requested and to place a copy of his reply in the Library.

City of London Corporation (Events)

John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will list the functions, engagements and events which Ministers, her officials and advisers have attended which have been sponsored, funded, promoted by her Department and hosted by the City of London Corporation since 1997. [35707]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: This information could be supplied only at disproportionate cost. All attendance by Ministers and civil servants at events, engagements and functions is undertaken in line with the guidance and principles set out in the Ministerial Code and departmental staff handbooks.

Tuition Fees

Mr. Steinberg: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what percentage of tuition fees collected since 1997 has been paid directly to universities; [35434]

(3) what the total amount is of tuition fees that have been used to fund higher education since the introduction of tuition fees; and by what percentage funding for higher education would be received if the total amount of tuition fees collected had been used to fund extra higher education; [35967]

(4) what the increase in university funding has been since tuition fees were introduced. [35968]

Margaret Hodge: All tuition fees, whether paid by students or the taxpayer, are paid directly to higher education institutions. Introducing contributions to tuition fees in 1998 has helped the Government to fund the further expansion of the sector while maintaining and increasing the unit of funding per full-time equivalent student from 2001–02. The estimated total amount of private contributions to tuition fees collected by English institutions from 1998–99 to 2001–02 is £963 million. Over the same period, the total of publicly planned expenditure for higher education institutions was over £21 billion. The increase in publicly planned funding from this Department between 1998–99 and 2001–02 was £1,124 million, an increase of 12 per cent. in real terms. Planned public expenditure for the higher education sector in England in the six years to 2003–04 is set to grow by £1.7 billion. This represents a cash increase of 37 per cent. and a real terms increase of 18 per cent.

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Part-time Employment (Universities)

Mr. Steinberg: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many part-time employees were recruited in UK universities in each year from 1999 to 2001; and how many non-EU students were recruited (a) as part-time employees and (b) for more than 100 hours of employment in a year in UK universities in each year from 1999 to 2001. [35371]

Margaret Hodge: The available information for the three most recent years, covering part-time academic staff, is shown in the table. Details of the actual number of hours worked is not held centrally.

Part-time academic staff⁽¹¹⁾ recruited by HE institutions in the UK

Academic year

1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000

Number of part-time staff recruited⁽¹²⁾ 2,940 3,260 3,420

of which:

Those from outside the EU 100 140 160

	Academic year
	1997–98	1998–99	1999–2000
Number of part-time staff recruited⁽¹²⁾	2,940	3,260	3,420
of which:
Those from outside the EU	100	140	160

⁽¹¹⁾ Covers staff who are wholly financed by the institution, and include those who whose primary employment function, according to their contract, is teaching, research, or teaching/research. Only covers part-time staff whose total work commitment exceeds 25 per cent. of a full-time equivalent.

⁽¹²⁾ Including staff recruited from other HE institutions.

Source:

Higher Education Statistics Agency's Staff Record. Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10.

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