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Press Subscriptions
Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) if she will list the newspapers subscribed to (a) Monday to Saturday and (b) on Sunday by her Department, stating for each subscription (i) the number of copies taken, and (ii) the annual cost; [52817]
- (2) if she will list the magazines and periodicals subscribed to by her Department, stating for each subscription the (a) number of copies taken and (b) annual cost. [52818]
Mr. Ivan Lewis [holding answer 26 April 2002]: This information could be supplied only at disproportionate cost.
Digital Equipment
Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many digital radios are owned by her Department for use in departmental buildings from which Ministers work; and what the (a) cost and (b) date of purchase of each radio was. [52850]
Mr. Ivan Lewis [holding answer 26 April 2002]: The information requested could be supplied only at disproportionate cost.
Productivity Growth
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what performance indicators and targets she has established by which to assess her Department's contribution to the Government's objective of raising the UK's sustainable rate of productivity growth. [52933]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: Education and Skills policy is central to achieving the Government's objective of raising the UK's sustainable rate of productivity growth. The Department's objectives and targets have a crucial role to play in achieving this.
The DTI UK Competitiveness Indicators Report suggests that economic performance has been held back by poor basic skills and a shortage of intermediate-level qualifications. Our targets to raise the proportion of 19-year-olds achieving level 2 and level 3 qualifications will help to address this.
By 2010, it is forecast that 80 per cent. of new jobs will be in higher level occupations, which are the ones graduates are most likely to fill. This illustrates the importance of our target to increase participation in higher education to 50 per cent. of 18 to 30-year-olds by 2010.
Isolating the effect of education and skills policy on productivity is not straightforward, but productivity is strongly linked to earnings. We are committed to reducing
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the number of adults who have poor literacy or numeracy skills by 750,000 by 2004. The returns to better numeracy skills are estimated to be between 6 per cent. and 10 per cent. of earnings, and the returns to better literacy skills up to 6 per cent.
In addition, there are significant social returns to post-compulsory academic and vocational qualifications. For example, the social rates of return to A levels and first degrees are estimated to be in the range of 14–21 per cent. and 8–10 per cent. respectively.
Further Education (Achievement)
Mr. David: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what percentage of students in further education achieved the qualification for which they were studying in the last two years. [53060]
John Healey: Achievement rates for Further Education colleges in England are defined as the number of qualifications achieved as a proportion of the number of completed qualifications. The achievement rate in 1999–2000 was 73 per cent. of completed qualifications and the figure for 1998–99 was 71 per cent. Individual learners may be taking more than one qualification.
Qualifications
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what progress has been made in achieving national targets for Level 2 qualifications. [53088]
John Healey: We have already achieved our target for 2002 for 50 per cent. of pupils to achieve five or more GCSEs at grades A*-C (or equivalent). On current trends the target of 85 per cent. of 19-year- olds achieving a Level 2 qualification by 2002, set in 1998 with advice from the National Advisory Council for Education and Training Targets, is unlikely to be reached. We are working closely with the Learning and Skills Council to ensure maximum progress is being made by implementing specific local and innovative approaches to improving level 2 attainment. The Government are introducing a range of new initiatives which will increase participation in learning and attainment by young people post 16 including Education Maintenance Allowances, Connexions and the reforms to the 14–19 curriculum published in the Green Paper (14–19—Extending Opportunities; Raising Standards) though these will not impact by 2002.
Jobcentre Plus
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment she has made of Jobcentre Plus's capacity to support her Department's policies to improve adult literacy and numeracy skills; and what steps she is taking in conjunction with the Department for Work and Pensions to increase the number of referrals from Jobcentre Plus to providers of basic learning skills. [53092]
John Healey: The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is working with us to implement "Skills for Life": our national strategy for improving adult literacy and numeracy skills. DWP has developed and increased Jobcentre Plus's capacity to do this, including, from April 2001, national screening for basic skills need of jobseekers and those on voluntary New Deals at the six month stage of unemployment. The impact of these
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changes is now being evaluated. In addition, we are examining the early results of six pilots, testing the effect of new approaches to improving the basic skills of those on jobseeker's allowance, which ran from September 2001 to March 2002. These measures, together with the continued training of Jobcentre Plus staff, will ensure that the number of referrals from Jobcentre Plus to providers of basic learning skills will continue to increase and that by working effectively across Government, we can together achieve our target of 750,000 adults with better basic skills by 2004.
Sector Skills Development Agency
Jeff Ennis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills when she expects to announce the location for the Sector Skills Development Agency. [53337]
John Healey: I announced on 25 April that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and Skills has chosen the Callflex business park in the Dearne valley, south Yorkshire as the location for the Sector Skills Development Agency. The business park is a new office development in the Dearne valley enterprise zone that was developed as part of the Dearne valley regeneration strategy, in the wake of coal mine closures in the 1980s.
Solar Panels
Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what buildings owned by her Department have solar panels installed. [53497]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: Buildings owned by my Department have no solar panels installed.
Teachers
Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how many supply teachers are working in each local education authority area; and what percentage supply teachers comprise of the total number of teachers in each case; [53664]
- (2) pursuant to the publication of Teachers in Service and Teacher Vacancies, January 2002 (Provisional), if she will provide a breakdown by local education authority of each of the 12 tables. [53670]
Mr. Timms: The information requested is not yet available for every local education authority.
Information on teachers and vacancies by local education authority will be published in the Teachers in England statistical volume in December 2002.
Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many teachers have passed through the performance threshold, expressed as (a) a total and (b) a percentage of these eligible to do so. [53666]
Mr. Timms: About 194,000 maintained sector teachers in England were assessed as meeting the threshold standards in the first (2000) round of assessment. This is equivalent to about three quarters of those estimated to have been eligible to apply. The outcomes of the second (2001) round are still being analysed.
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Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many teachers in each local education authority were teaching a subject for which they had no relevant subject qualifications on the date of the 2002 Teacher Census; and what percentage this was of the total number of teachers in post in that LEA area. [53668]
Mr. Timms: The information requested was not collected in the 2002 Teacher Census. It will be collected at national level as part of the Secondary Schools Curriculum and Staffing Survey. Preparations for the next survey are in hand.
Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) if she will provide a breakdown, by country of origin, of teachers in maintained schools in England without qualified teacher status and not on routes to QTS, giving the number of teachers from each country; [53669]
- (2) how many teachers without qualified teacher status in maintained schools in England came from (a) outside and (b) within the European economic area. [53671]
Mr. Timms: Information is not collected on country of origin of teachers.
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