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Training and Enterprise Councils

Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will list the cases of (a) suspected fraud and (b) misuse of public funds notified to her Department involving training and enterprise councils, and in each case the sums involved, for each financial year up to 31 March 2001; which ones have been the subject of investigation by her Department; how many cases have been referred by her Department to the police; how many of the investigations (i) have been terminated, and for each of those cases the grounds on which that decision was taken, (ii) have resulted in a criminal prosecution and

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(iii) continue, and what sums have been recovered as a result; what controls were put in place for training and enterprise councils to minimise the possibility of fraud and misuse of public funds; what lessons her Department drew from the cases; and how these were applied in relation to individual learning accounts. [33785]

John Healey: Training and Enterprise Councils (TECs) were required to notify Government Offices (GOs) of instances of suspected fraud or financial irregularity in accordance with their contracts with the Department. Details of cases notified to the Department are as follows:

	Number of Cases Notified	Number of Cases Investigated by DfES	Number of Cases Referred to the Police	Number of Cases Terminated	Number of Cases Still Ongoing
1994–95	3	3	1	1	—
1995–96	41	41	10	40	1
1996–97	24	24	9	24	—
1997–98	44	44	14	44	—
1998–99	35	35	10	35	—
1999–2000	20	20	9	18	2
2000–01	15	15	2	9	6
Total	182	182	55	173	9

The reasons for terminating cases are shown in the following table:

	Reason For Closure
	Number of Cases Terminated	Criminal Prosecution	Malpractice	No Evidence to Substantiate	Poor Administration
1994–95	3	1	—	2	—
1995–96	40	—	13	19	8
1996–97	24	1	11	4	8
1997–98	44	1	25	8	10
1998–99	35	—	22	2	11
1999–2000	18	1	12	1	4
2000–01	9	—	4	5	—
Total	173	4	87	41	41

In total, the amount involved and identified as recoverable was £18,167,000. The amounts identified as recoverable from TECs were notified to GOs in order to initiate recovery action. Details of actual recoveries are not held centrally.

The Department's financial control mechanisms applied to TECs developed and improved, drawing on the experience gained from managing the contracts with TECs and lessons learned from investigating cases of fraud and misuse of public funds. Key elements of the controls were:
(a) A detailed legal contract for the provision of the public funds, legally binding. The contract and supporting material reflected input from specialist professional financial control staff, spelling out the specifics of what was being paid for, evidence requirements and other specific conditions on the provider. It was a requirement on TECs to notify the Secretary of State immediately if it had reason to suspect that a fraud had or was occurring;
(b) Legal contractual remedies that could be followed quickly if any of the contractual conditions were not met; Job No: 715993 Folios: 000-000Operator: Operator No 3. Date: 08/03/02

(c) Visits from Government Office Financial Assurance and Management Teams to TECs and providers to ensure that public sector standards of regularity and propriety were maintained and that public funds were properly spent, well managed and safeguarded;

(d) A specialist national Financial Assurance Unit consisting of a mix of professional field audit, accounting and software database staff, working with Government Office financial control field teams, performing regular contract audit monitoring visits to the 72–75 TECs and their 5,000+ providers and supporting NAO visits as required;


(e) A Special Investigations Unit (SIU) based in the Department with a national remit to investigate serious cases of fraud; and

(f) Quarterly reports to the Departmental Audit Committee on emerging or serious issues so that timely decisions could be taken on financial control risk management and on early preventative action.

The Department drew a range of lessons from the TEC experiences applicable in relation to Individual Learning Accounts (ILAs) and other Departmental business, including for example: retaining expertise in

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the DfES Special Investigations Unit. The SIU was involved in investigations of alleged ILA fraud and abuse at the earliest opportunity working closely with ILA policy team. They are currently involved in investigations into the activities of 97 ILA learning providers.

Computers

Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) if she will make it her policy to turn the Computers Within Reach pilot scheme into a permanent scheme; [39110]

(2) how many people were provided with recycled computers under the pilot Computers Within Reach Scheme; and how many people applied unsuccessfully. [39111]

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John Healey: The Computers Within Reach pilot scheme closed on 31 October 2001, having delivered over 24,000 computers into 22 pilot areas. We are currently evaluating the scheme and considering options for the bet way of using the remaining funding available.

Information on the number of unsuccessful applications could only be supplied at disproportionate cost.

Pupil:Teacher Ratios

Mr. Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the ratio of teachers to pupils was in (a) all schools, (b) primary schools and (c) secondary schools for each year since 1996 in (i) East Sussex Local Education Authority, (ii) the South-East region and (iii) England. [37911]

mickm

Mr. Timms: The available information is shown in the table:

Pupil:teacher ratios in schoolsPosition in January each year

	East Sussex Local Education Authority1			Brighton and Hove Local Education Authority
	Primary schools	Secondary schools	All schools	Primary schools	Secondary schools	All schools
2001	22.7	17.1	16.6	21.6	16.5	15.4
2000	22.4	17.1	16.5	22.6	16.5	16.1
1999	23.8	16.9	17.0	23.4	16.4	16.5
1998	23.3	16.6	16.8	23.3	16.3	16.5
1997	22.8	16.2	16.5	—	—	—
1996	22.7	16.0	16.3	—	—	—

Source: Annual Schools' Census

— Not applicable.

1 Data for 1996 and 1997 include Brighton and Hove LEA.

In April 1997 East Sussex Local Education Authority was subject to Local Government Re-organisation and was split into Brighton and Hove Local Education Authority and East Sussex Local Education Authority.

	South East Region			England
	Primary schools	Secondary schools	All schools	Primary schools	Secondary schools	All schools
2001	22.9	17.4	17.2	22.9	17.1	18.1
2000	23.2	17.3	17.3	23.3	17.2	18.3
1999	23.6	17.1	17.5	23.5	17.0	18.4
1998	23.6	16.9	17.4	23.7	16.9	18.5
1997	23.2	16.7	17.3	23.4	16.7	18.3
1996	—	—	—	23.2	16.6	18.2

Source: Annual Schools' Census

— Not applicable

In 1997 Government Office Region definitions altered and data for previous years are therefore not comparable.

Class Sizes (Lincolnshire)

Shona McIsaac: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many (a) five, (b) six and (c) seven-year-olds in North East Lincolnshire and North Lincolnshire were in class sizes over 30 in each year from 1990 to 2001. [37752]

Mr. Timms: The available information is shown in the table.

Number of classes with 31 or more Key Stage 1 pupils and the number of pupils in such classes in Maintained Primary Schools in North East Lincolnshire and North Lincolnshire Local Education AuthoritiesPosition in January each year

	North East Lincolnshire ClassesPupils		North Lincolnshire ClassesPupils
1997	71	2,393	53	1,738
1998	73	2,467	66	2,229
1999	53	1,767	0	0
2000	20	633	0	0
2001	3	98	0	0

Source: Annual Schools' Census

Prior to 1997 North East Lincolnshire and North Lincolnshire were part of Humberside Local Education Authority which was subject to Local Government Re-organisation in April 1996.

Information on Key Stage 1 classes and pupils was not collected prior to 1996.

Job No: 715993 Folios: 000-000Operator: Operator No 3. Date: 08/03/02

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