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Equal Treatment

Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if she has established a baseline for policy appraisal against which to measure progress on equal treatment; and what progress has been achieved. [66736]

Mrs. Liddell [holding answer 4 July 2002]: My Department does not deliver executive services to the public. No baseline for policy appraisal against which to measure progress on equal treatment has been drawn up.

Open Source Software

Brian White: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what her policy is towards using open source software; and what percentage is used in her Department. [69328]

Mrs. Liddell: My Department does not currently use open source software. The Government will publish its policy for open source software in summer 2002.

22 Jul 2002 : Column 769W

Consultation

Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if she will list the public consultations undertaken by her Department since 1997, indicating for each consultation (a) if copies were available on-line, (b) if copies were available in print, (c) the date the time period given for responses opened and (d) the date the time period given for responses closed. [69798]

Mrs. Liddell: The Scotland Office was established in its present form on 1 July 1999. Since that date, the Department has undertaken one public consultation exercise, on the size of the Scottish Parliament.

Copies of the consultation paper were available in print and on-line. The consultation was launched on 18 December 2001 and the period given for responses closed on 29 March 2002.

Departmental Report

Mr. Beith: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what the cost was of publishing her Department's and its predecessor's annual report for each of the past five years. [70484]

Mrs. Liddell: The Scotland Office was established in its present from on 1 July 1999. The cost of publishing my Department's annual reports were as follows:

1999–2000: £1,020


2000–01: £3,160


2001–02: £3,869.

The costs of publishing reports of the former Scottish Office are not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Departmental Press Officers

Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many (a) full-time equivalents were employed by her press office and (b) secondees were placed in her press office in the last five years; and if she will make a statement. [70546]

Mrs. Liddell: The Scotland Office was established in its present form on 1 July 1999.

Since that date the Department has had four full-time press officers. No secondees have been placed in my Department's press office.

Information Campaigns

Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how much her Department spent on information literature, advertising and campaign material in financial year 2001–02; if she will list the campaigns that spent over £250,000; and if she will make a statement. [70207]

Mrs. Liddell: In 2001–02, my Department spent £180,000 on advertising material. Most of this expenditure related to election or electoral registration matters.

22 Jul 2002 : Column 770W

ADVOCATE-GENERAL

Overtime Payments

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Advocate-General what her policy is on overtime payments for staff in her Department. [49117]

The Advocate-General: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given today by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland.

Departmental Expenditure Limit

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Advocate-General how much and what proportion of the departmental expenditure limit for 2002–03 had been spent by 31 May; what the figures were for 2001–02; and if she will make a statement. [60998]

The Advocate-General: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, on 17 June 2002, Official Report, column 130W.

Building Values

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Advocate-General if she will list the buildings owned by her Department and estimate the market value of each of them. [66951]

The Advocate-General: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, on 3 July 2002, Official Report, column 339W.

EDUCATION AND SKILLS

Further Education

Mr. Caton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment she has made of the effect the pay and conditions of service of further education lecturers has on her strategy for raising standards in the further education sector. [65076]

Margaret Hodge: As independent organisations it is for further education (FE) colleges to agree the pay and the terms and conditions of their staff within the context of the overall resources available to them.

Extra resources have been made available to FE colleges to support improvements in pay and conditions and to help raise standards in colleges. The total funding for FE has increased by over £1.1 billion between 1997–98 and 2002–03, a 20 per cent. real terms increase. In 2002–03, the Learning and Skills Council has increased colleges' participation funding rates by 2.5 per cent. in cash terms, compared to a 1.5 per cent. increase in 2001–02. We planned to increase total spend on FE by over £300 million in 2003–04. However, the Chancellor's statement of 15 July giving additional resources for education, including a 1 per cent. per annum real terms increase for FE in the unit of core funding, will mean more money in 2003–04 than originally planned, and further real terms increases in future years. We also expect to announce in due course substantial additional resources to take forward elements of the "Success for All" strategy for reforming further education and training.

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As part of the overall funding allocation, we are investing more than £300 million in the Teaching Pay Initiative (TPI) to help modernise FE pay arrangements and to recruit, reward and retain teachers and lecturers as part of our drive to improve teaching and learning. We want to see all staff in the sector have a more attractive career structure, increased rewards for their efforts, and support for continuing professional training and development. Developing excellence in teaching and leadership is a key goal in our strategy for reforming the FE sector.

Student Funding

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the unit of funding was for each student in FE and HE in each of the years 1992–93 to 2001–02 as expressed at 2001–02 prices. [65397]

Margaret Hodge [holding answer 1 July 2002]: The unit of funding expressed at 2001–02 prices for FE and HE are set out in the table:

	Unit of funding
	FE total funding	Higher education
1992–93	—	6,320
1993–94	3,910	5,970
1994–95	3,810	5,810
1995–96	3,560	5,550
1996–97	3,470	5,190
1997–98	3,390	5,030
1998–99	3,350	5,030
1999–2000	3,600	5,020
2000–01 (provisional)	3,640	4,970
2001–02 (plans)	3,810	5,020

22 Jul 2002 : Column 772W

Medical Students

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, pursuant to the answer of 24 June 2002, Official Report, column 674W, on medical degree places, how many students applied for medical degree courses in each year since 1997. [71159]

Margaret Hodge [holding answer 18 July 2002]: The information is shown in the table.

Students applying to pre-clinical medical courses in the UK

Year of entry	Applicants(15)
1997	12,076
1998	11,807
1999	10,972
2000	10,226
2001	10,231

⁽¹⁵⁾ Home and overseas students applying via the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS).

Despite a substantial increase in the number of students studying pre-clinical medicine from 5,020 in 1997 to 5,928 in 2001, the number of applications to places remains just under two to one.

GCSE

Mr. Chaytor: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the total GCSE points score for (a) all pupils, (b) pupils in the upper quartile and (c) pupils in the lower quartile was in (i) specialist schools designated on or before September 1 1996 (ii) specialist schools designated after September 1996 and (iii) all schools in each of the last five years. [69693]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: The information is shown in the following table.

Average⁽¹⁶⁾ GCSE/GNVQ point score in academic year

	1996–97	1997–98	1998–99	1999–2000	2000–01
(a) All pupils
Maintained mainstream	37.0	38.0	39.1	39.8	40.0
Specialist pre 1996	41.2	42.5	43.8	45.0	45.5
Specialist post 1996	37.9	38.8	40.2	40.7	41.2
(b) Pupils in upper quartile
Maintained mainstream	59.4	60.9	62.0	62.8	63.4
Specialist pre 1996	62.8	65.0	65.9	67.2	68.1
Specialist post 1996	60.0	61.5	62.3	63.5	64.5
(c) Pupils in lower quartile
Maintained Mainstream	13.4	13.8	14.9	15.2	15.0
Specialist pre 1996	17.6	18.2	19.6	20.7	20.4
Specialist post 1996	14.3	14.7	15.9	16.2	16.1

⁽¹⁶⁾ The average GCSE/GNVQ point score is calculated as the total points achieved by all 15-year-old pupils in the relevant schools divided by the number of 15-year-olds attempting GCSEs.

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