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7 Nov 2002 : Column 726W—continued

Departmental Costs

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, what his estimate is of the gross administrative costs of his Department in (a) cash and (b) real terms in each year from 1995–96 to 2002–03; what the growth rate was of each category of expenditure in each year; and if he will make a statement. [80236]

Mr. Charles Clarke: The information requested is set out in the table below; the figures for the Department include Sure Start and the Children's Fund. The information for 1995–96 is not available in the form requested.

(a) DfES Gross Administrative Costs—Cash (#000s)

	1996–97	1997–98	1998–99	1999–2000	2000–01	2001–02	2002–03
DEL	248,103	220,825	206,650	213,987	212,834	217,326	219,170
AME	2,561	6,752	6,998	4,404	8,767	8,269	8,649
Total	250,664	227,577	213,648	218,391	221,601	225,595	227,819
Growth rate	n/a	-9%	-6%	2%	1%	2%	1%

(b) DfES Gross Administrative Costs—Real Terms @ 2002–03 Prices

DEL	288,051	248,707	226,520	229,017	222,846	222,759	219,170
AME	2,973	7,605	7,671	4,713	9,179	8,476	8,649
Total	291,024	256,311	234,191	233,731	232,025	231,235	227,819
Growth rate	n/a	-12%	-9%	0%	-1%	0%	-1%

Note:

DEL figures relate to the Departmental Expenditure Limit

AME figures relate to Annually Managed Expenditure

Education Finance (Cheshire)

Sir Nicholas Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, how many representations he has received from residents of (a) Cheshire and (b) Macclesfield constituency registering their response to his Department's review of revenue grant distribution; when he expects to announce his decision following his Department's consultation; and if he will make a statement. [79274]

Mr. Miliband: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my right hon. Friend the Minister for Local Government on 6 November.

7 Nov 2002 : Column 727W

Student Bursaries

Mr. Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, how many opportunity bursaries have been awarded to students from each Government Office region in the academic years (a) 2001–02 and (b) 2002–03. [80048]

Margaret Hodge: In 2001–02, 6,580 Opportunity Bursaries were allocated to students from Excellence Challenge areas entering higher education in England. In 2002–03, 8,210 new Opportunity Bursaries were allocated for those entering HE in England.

Information on the allocation and uptake of Opportunity Bursaries by government office regions is unavailable.

Child Care Facilities

Mrs. Laing: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, how many (a) day nurseries, (b) childminders and (c) out of school clubs there were on 31 March and what percentage of these were provided by the private sector. [78593]

Mr. Miliband: We are unable to provide a breakdown on providers as requested, however information on the number of places is shown in the following table.

Number of, and places in, day care providers by type⁽²⁸⁾England Position at 31 March 2001

	Number	Places
Day nurseries(29)	7,800	285,100
Registered childminders(29)	72,300	304,600
Out of school clubs(30)	4,900	152,800

Notes:

⁽²⁸⁾ Figures have been rounded to the nearest hundred.

⁽²⁹⁾ Day nurseries and childminders provide care for children under eight years of age.

⁽³⁰⁾ Out of school clubs provide care for five to seven year old children.

Latest figures on Day Care facilities in England were published by the Department in the Statistical Bulletin ''Children's Day Care facilities at 31 March 2001 (08/01)'' in October 2001, a copy of which is available from the Library. An electronic copy of this publication is also available on the Department's web-site (www.dfes.gov.uk/ statistics).

7 Nov 2002 : Column 728W

Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, how much of the Sure Start Rural Fund was spent in (a) 2000–01, (b) 2001–02 and (c) 2002–03 to date, broken down by project. [78408]

Mr. Miliband [holding answer 31 October 2002]: There is no separate fund identified from Sure Start's resources for rural areas. We have to date, however, approved 13 full Sure Start programmes where the catchment area covers predominantly rural areas.

The expenditure committed to each programme, by year is shown in the table.

Round	Programme	Approved revenue grant (#000)			Capital
		2000–01	2001–02	2002–03
1	South Fenland	718	629	805	905
1	East Cleveland	469	597	645	791
2	East Bolsover	218	723	733	163
3	Berwick	—	319	621	839
3	Restormel China Clay	—	441	466	800
3	East Lindsey	—	325	589	750
3	West Allerdale	—	375	737	761
3	Kington and Leominster	—	350	629	800
3	North Devon	—	276	654	800
3	Oswestry	—	441	715	800
4	North East Derbyshire	—	140	480	750
4	Staffordshire Moorlands	—	180	450	750
4	West Somerset	—	109	500	750
	Total grant funding	#1.405m	#4.905m	#8.024m	#9.659m

The capital funding shown above was based on the capital strategy submitted by each programme, and is intended to fund major capital projects in the first three years of the programme. An additional #250,000 per programme may also be available to the programmes, if needed, to meet further capital expenditure in year 4 and 5 or earlier.

We have also established a pilot initiative of 50 smaller Sure Start programmes (48 programmes approved to date) in rural areas and pockets of deprivation, which would not normally be covered by the traditional Sure Start model. These programmes are managed through Early Years Childcare and Development Partnerships and linked to Neighbourhood Nurseries, Early Excellence Centres or other existing provision to deliver Sure Start-type services to some 150–170 children in each catchment area. Revenue funding up to #100,000 for each year and capital of up to #250,000 is available. The total budgeted provision for these programmes in 2002–03 is #10.25m. 48 of the 50 Mini Sure Start programmes have now been approved.

A list of the local authority districts where the 50 Mini Sure Start programmes are located is shown below.

Local Authority	Number of small Sure Start programmes for rural areas and pockets of disadvantage
Bedfordshire	1
Buckinghamshire	1
Cambridgeshire	1
Cornwall	3
Cheshire	1
Cumbria	3
Derbyshire	2
Devon	3
Dorset	1
Durham	2
East Sussex	1
Essex	1
Gloucestershire	1
Hampshire	1
Hertfordshire	1
Leicestershire	1
Lincolnshire	3
Norfolk	3
Northamptonshire	1
Northumbria	2
North Yorkshire	1
Nottinghamshire	1
Oxfordshire	1
Shropshire	1
Somerset	2
Staffordshire	1
Suffolk	2
Surrey	1
Warwickshire	1
West Sussex	1
Wiltshire	2
Worcestershire	1
East Riding of Yorkshire	1
Herefordshire	1
	50

7 Nov 2002 : Column 729W

Ageism

Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, what strategies his Department has to ensure that there is no ageism in recruitment and retention processes. [79288]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: I will write to my hon. Friend when the information is available and will place a copy of my reply in the Library.

Staff Recruitment

Mr. McNamara: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, how much has been spent in recruiting staff to his Department in (a) London and (b) the south east in each year since 1997. [78557]

Mr. Stephen Twigg [holding answer 4 November 2002]: I will write to my hon. Friend when the information is available and will place a copy of my reply in the Library.

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