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EDUCATION AND SKILLS

Sixth Forms and Colleges

Mr. Hurst: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how many A-level pass certificates were awarded to students in (a) sixth forms in mainstream schools and (b) colleges of further education in England in each year from 1995 to 2001; [52585]

(2) how many students completed A-level courses at (a) sixth forms in mainstream schools and (b) colleges of further education in England and Wales in each year from 1995 to 2001. [52589]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: The information requested for England is shown in the table.

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	(a) Mainstream schools	(b) FE sector colleges
	Number of 17-year-olds entered for GCE A-levels
1994–95	89,868	54,284
1995–96	91,796	57,636
1996–97	100,281	62,308
1997–98	105,855	62,582
1998–99	106,857	60,328
1999–2000	108,134	59,168
2000–01	111,141	59,133
	Number of GCE A-levels resulting in a pass(8)
1994–95	231,709	122,603
1995–96	247,198	133,503
1996–97	274,574	149,929
1997–98	293,596	153,805
1998–99	298,692	151,447
1999–2000	303,762	150,627
2000–01	314,274	157,179

⁽⁸⁾ Grades A-E

The information for schools and colleges in Wales is the responsibility of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales.

Education Statistics

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what corrections have been made to the Statistics of Education in England (a) 1999, (b) 2000 and (c) 2001 editions; if she will list the tables that needed correcting with amendments after each of the volumes were published; and what steps were taken to notify those who received the volumes of such corrections. [44400]

Mr. Timms [holding answer 19 March 2002]: No errata were issued in 1999, 2000 or 2001 for the following volumes:

Local Labour Force Survey


Public Examinations GCSE/GNVQ and GCE/AGNVQ in England


Student Support England and Wales


Higher Education Statistics in the UK


National Curriculum Assessments of 7, 11 and 14-year-olds by local education authority. Education Statistics for the United Kingdom

In 1999 and 2001 there were typographical errors in the volume titled, "Education Statistics for the United Kingdom" and in 2000 there were errors with three single figures. These referred to time series data. The first was in table 2.1 (1990–91 figures), the second in table 3.1 (1998–99 figures) and the third in table 3.24 (1995 figures).

No erratum notes were issued for these errors. They were, however, noted and corrected in the volume the following year.

Schools in England

In 1999 there was an error in the Schools in England volume on table 12. The column listing the pupils' ages was incorrectly labelled for the three and four-year-olds. No erratum was issued.

There were no amendments to the volume for 2000.

In the 2001 volume, tables 13, 36, 47a, 47b and 48 contain incorrect data. This was due to a programming error which was not identified until after the volume was published. A note has been placed on the DfES Statistical website informing customers of the errors.

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Teachers in England

There were several errors detected in the "Teachers in England 2001" volume as follows:

General:


There are no footnotes stating that totals may vary due to rounding.


Tables 7(i), (ii) and (iii):


The total rows for men and for women (though not for men and women) have not been correctly tabbed, so that they appear in the wrong columns


Table 12:


The calculation of the London turnover and wastage rates originally used an incorrect definition of Inner and Outer London. The actual figures differ slightly from those published.


Table 14:


The 1999 entry for Education elsewhere: Qualified teachers currently reads 3060, whereas it should read 3950


Table 24:


The headings on the right hand page (53) are the same as those on the left, and need correcting as follows:

Existing heading	Required heading
Education	Social studies
Medicine	Language studies
Technology	Arts other than languages
Agriculture	Music, drama and visual arts
Mathematics	Other
Other Science	Total all subjects

Table 25:


The left table (p. 54) has the sub-headings 'Special and PRU' and 'Total'. The right table (continued) headings should correspond: they currently read 'Special' and 'All Sectors'. Some of the sub-headings in the right table are not in bold.


Table 39:


The left table (p. 72) has the sub-heading 'Special and PRU'. The right table (continued) heading should correspond: it currently reads 'Special'.


Table 48:


The title should read Retirements: Type of award by last known sector of service and grade: 2000–01 rather than . . . grade: 1999–2000.

These volumes are issued by the Stationery Office rather than the Department. Corrected version can be downloaded free of charge from the Department's website.

Teenage Pregnancies

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what percentage of girls excluded from full-time education were pregnant, broken down by regions in each of the last 10 years. [51532]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: Information on the number of pregnant girls excluded from school is not collected centrally.

Public-private Partnnerships

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) for what reason she rejected Surrey county council's PPP application; [52513]

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(2) if she will list the local education authorities which received backing from her Department for PPP schemes in the past 12 months; and for what purpose those applications were made; [52534]

(3) if she will list the LEAs which have applied for PPP funding in the past 12 months, and the purposes for which those applications were made. [52535]

John Healey: The application from Surrey local education authority (LEA) for PFI credits in 2003–04 was not supported as it did not meet the criteria, as set out in the guidance issued to LEAs on 31 July 2001, to the same extent as those applications from other authorities which were supported. Officials from the Department are arranging to meet with officers from Surrey LEA to provide detailed feedback and to explore how the application might be strengthened for future years.

Details of those authorities that were prioritised for provisional PFI credit support were announced in a Press Notice on 26 March, a copy of which is available in the Library of the House.

53 bids were received in the recent PFI capital round, with a total value of over £3 billion and an average value of over £56 million. In exercises of this nature, there are inevitably some worthwhile potential projects which do not receive funding. However, officials from the Department are responding to requests for advice on how these applications can be strengthened for the future. It would incur disproportionate costs to provide details of every LEA which applied for funding, successful or otherwise, and the full purposes of their applications.

Teachers' Pay

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what cost of living allowances will be paid, over and above basic salaries, to teachers in (a) Surrey and (b) London in this financial year. [52523]

Mr. Timms: Teachers working in inner London, outer London and the London fringe areas are paid mandatory London allowances at the following values:

Inner London: £3,105


Outer London: £2,043


Fringe: £792.

Teachers working at schools in inner London, and the outer London boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Brent, Ealing, Haringey, Merton, and Newham receive the inner London allowance. Teachers working in all other outer London boroughs receive the outer London allowance. Teachers in all areas of Surrey outside the metropolitan area receive the fringe allowance.

In addition, schools may pay recruitment and retention allowances to individual teachers of up to £5,262 per annum.

Recruitment

Dr. Julian Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps she is taking to encourage entry into the teaching profession in areas where the cost of living is high. [52574]

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Mr. Timms: The Government have introduced a number of measures, including training bursaries and "golden hellos", to boost teacher recruitment nationally. These are already having an effect, and there are nearly 10,000 more teachers in post now compared to January 2001—the largest increase in a single year since the 1970s.

We have also reformed the teachers' pay system to ensure that those teachers who perform well are well rewarded. The introduction of the threshold for experienced teachers, leading to the upper pay scale, has provided a career structure which will allow our best classroom teachers, in time, to earn over £32,000 at today's rates, excluding additional allowances. And we have implemented cost of living pay rises at above inflation rates for all teachers in each of the last four years.

All teachers working in the London area are paid mandatory London allowances on top of their basic salary. These allowances were increased last year by 30 per cent. and are currently inner—£3,105; outer—£2,043; and fringe—£792. In addition, schools are able to pay recruitment and retention allowances to individual teachers of up to £5,262 per annum. Schools can decide to pay this as a lump sum covering up to three years.

It is open to local authorities to help teachers with housing, relocation and travel costs through the Recruitment and Retention Fund established by my Department. We have made £77 million available to 2003 for this purpose. And we have made £250 million available to 2004 to help key public sector workers, particularly nurses, teachers and police, to buy homes in or near the communities they serve through our starter home initiative scheme.

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