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Individual Learning Accounts
Alistair Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what recent representations she has received from the Association of Colleges concerning losses sustained in the further education sector following closure of the ILA scheme; and what response her Department has made. [35206]
John Healey [holding answer 11 February 2002]: I received correspondence dated 25 January 2002 from David Gibson, Chief Executive of the Association of Colleges, about the closure of Individual Learning Accounts. I was able to send a full reply on 8 February 2002.
Alistair Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what advice she received from the Further Education Funding Council in May 2000 concerning the setting up of the individual learning accounts scheme; and if she will make a statement. [35207]
John Healey [holding answer 11 February 2002]: Further Education Funding Council staff discussed a number of aspects of the design of the ILA programme at liaison meetings with the Department. These included issues about the quality assurance and audit arrangements for providers. In the final design of the ILA programme, there were light touch quality assurance arrangements so that the scheme could be as simple and non-bureaucratic as possible. Successor arrangements for ILAs will be based on stronger quality assurance arrangements for providers.
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many learning providers in the individual learning account scheme fall into each decile
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measured by the amount owed to them by her Department on 31 January; what was the range of each decile; and what was the total owed. [36484]
John Healey: The figures for amounts owed on 31 January 2002 include amounts withheld from providers already suspended prior to the closure of the programme on 23 November and amounts withheld pending validation checks on claims. The total amount withheld is £14,723,997.
| Decile | Range start (£) | Range end (£) | Number of registered providers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 100,826 | 113 |
| 2 | 100,826 | 201,651 | 22 |
| 3 | 201,651 | 302,477 | 9 |
| 4 | 302,477 | 403,303 | 6 |
| 5 | 403,303 | 504,128 | 0 |
| 6 | 504,128 | 604,954 | 2 |
| 7 | 604,954 | 705,780 | 0 |
| 8 | 705,780 | 806,606 | 1 |
| 9 | 806,606 | 907,431 | 0 |
| 10 | 907,431 | 1,008,257 | 1 |
| Total | 154 |
Working Conditions and Practices
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many people are employed in her Department on a job share contract; and what percentage of vacant positions was advertised on this basis in the last 12 months. [35358]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Department does not specifically employ staff on job share contracts; however, 12 per cent. of staff are employed under a range of part-time working patterns.
Job sharing is only one of a number of alternative working patterns that staff can take up. The Department promotes and supports the use of a range of flexible working patterns to enable staff to balance home and work responsibilities; other examples, besides part-time working, include condensed hours and home working.
Advertised vacancies in the Department are open to all staff, irrespective of their working arrangements or pattern of work.
School Review (Harrow)
Mr. Gareth R. Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment she has made of the system of school review used by Harrow local education authority; and if she will make a statement. [35066]
Mr. Timms: Assessments of the way in which local education authorities perform their functions are made by Ofsted and the Audit Commission during inspections of those authorities. Harrow local education authority was inspected in September 2001 and the inspection report is available from Ofted's website at: www.ofsted.gov.uk.
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Entertainment Costs
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will list for 1997–98 and for each subsequent financial year, including the current year to date, the amount spent by (a) her Department, (b) its agencies and (c) its non-departmental public bodies on (i) food and (ii) alcohol, indicating how much was spent on guests, and how much in respect of (A) Ministers and (B) staff, broken down to show how much was provided directly by her Department and how much reclaimed. [34462]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: This information could be supplied only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Events
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will list the (a) conferences, (b) seminars, (c) workshops, (d) exhibitions and (e) press conferences which have been sponsored by her Department and which took place on non-departmental premises in each of the last four years giving the title, purpose, date and cost of each. [34298]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: We organise a large number of events for different target audiences and purposes each year, ranging from small-scale workshops to introduce practitioners to new procedures or initiatives, to larger- scale events to promote policy initiatives or present the bigger picture of the Department's activities to external partners.
Examples of these range from the Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership roadshows—a series of local seminars organised annually in the autumn for LEAs and child care providers to share best practice—to the conferences held with LEAs and teachers in autumn 2001 on the proposals set out in the White Paper "Schools: achieving success".
To give details of every event held over the last four years would be possible only at disproportionate cost.
Data Protection Act
Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many requests the Department has received under the Data Protection Act 1988 for (a) electronically held information and (b) paper documentation. [33581]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Department has received 31 requests for information under the Data Protection Act 1998.
Requests for information to the Department for Education and Skills have usually asked for all information held on the individual, irrespective of medium.
Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many responses the Department has completed to requests for information made under the Data Protection Act 1998 for (a) electronically held information and (b) paper documentation. [33574]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Department has completed 26 responses to requests for information under the Data Protection Act 1998.
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Requests for information usually ask for all information held on the individual, irrespective of medium.
Playing Fields
Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will list applications made to her Department in the last three years for consent to allow development on school playing fields giving in each case (a) the outcome of the application, (b) what steps were taken to ascertain whether adequate sports facilities would remain if permission were granted and (c) where consent was given, what assurances were secured as to how proceeds of sale would be used. [33633]
Mr. Timms: Although the Department does not collect information in the form requested, the following table lists applications to dispose of areas equal to, or larger than, a sports pitch, together with their outcome.
Before October 1998, there was nothing to prevent a local authority selling a school playing field if it wanted to. Section 77 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 was introduced in October 1998 to stop the
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indiscriminate sale of school playing fields. Local authorities and governing bodies of all maintained schools are now required to obtain the Secretary of State's consent before disposing of playing fields or any part of a playing field. Applications to dispose, or change the use, of school playing fields are assessed against the following criteria:
- (a) schools' needs: that playing field provision and curriculum requirements at the school making the disposal, and at other schools in the local area, will be met;
(b) community needs: that community use of a school's playing fields is taken into account, with alternative facilities made available if necessary;
(c) finance: that any sale proceeds are re-invested to provide new or improved sports facilities at schools, or are used to help to raise standards by providing better educational facilities.
Notes:
1. 'Sports pitch' means areas of open grassed land which are equal to, or larger than, the Football Association's recommended area for games played by under-10s, that is 2,000m
(13) and which have a configuration making them suitable for sports pitches (whether they are so laid out or not).
2. The table excludes applications withdrawn by the applicant and applications where schools would retain the same, or a better, level of access to the same sports pitch or to an equivalent sports pitch.
3. The table includes applications from grant-maintained schools, where the application was made under section 231 of the Education Act 1996 but the decision was made in accordance with the draft criteria and then the criteria published in Circular No. 3/99, "The Protection of School Playing Fields". It also includes applications in respect of foundation and voluntary schools considered under Schedule 22 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 since 1 September 1999.
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Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many (a) primary schools, (b) secondary schools, (c) colleges of further education and (d) local authorities have (i) playing fields, (ii) sports pitches, (iii) swimming pools and (iv) athletic tracks; and if she will provide the figures for each year since 1992. [36726]
John Healey: As part of the data collected for local education authorities asset management plans, the Department has information on the numbers of playing
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fields, team game playing fields and swimming pools at primary and secondary schools. The team game playing field data do not distinguish between sports pitches, athletic tracks, or other outdoor team game areas. The Department is currently validating the data with a view to publishing the analysis later this year.
The data referred to above were collected mainly in 2000. The Department does not hold data for previous or subsequent years.
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The Department does not hold the requested information for colleges of further education or for local authorities.
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