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28 Nov 2002 : Column 394W—continued
School Buildings (Private Finance Initiative)
34. Mr. Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will make a statement on private finance initiatives in school buildings in Cheshire. [82000]
Mr. Miliband: Cheshire County Council signed a schools PFI contract with the Eric Wright Group on 22 October, covering a number of schools in Ellesmere Port. The project will rebuild or modernise five primary schools, provide sports and drama facilities at one secondary school and provide additional community facilities. The project is supported by £16.1 million in PFI credits from the Department for Education and Skills for the educational facilities, and by £1 million in PFI credits from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for the community facilities.
Secondary Education
Mr. Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what percentage of English students completed upper secondary education in the last year for which figures are available. [83202]
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Mr. Miliband [holding answer 25 November 2002]: The information available is not held centrally.
EU Education Benchmarks
Mr. Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many extra sixth form higher education and further education places will be required in England by 2010 to meet the EU education benchmarks. [83203]
Margaret Hodge [holding answer 25 November 2002]: The structure and organisation of education systems is the responsibility of individual EU member states. There are no education benchmarks at EU level that we are required to meet. Education Ministers will consider next year whether or not to use some existing international indicators and/or benchmarks to help share and spread best practice in education.
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Mr. Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what estimate he has made of the additional spending required in England to meet EU educational benchmarks. [83204]
Margaret Hodge [holding answer 25 November 2002]: The structure and organisation of education systems is the responsibility of individual EU member states. There are no education benchmarks at EU level that we are required to meet. Education Ministers will consider next year whether or not to use some existing international indicators and/or benchmarks to help share and spread best practice in education.
Home Education (Somerset)
Mr. Flook: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many pupils of school age were educated at home in each age group in (a) Somerset and (b) Taunton in each of the last five years. [82612]
Mr. Miliband: The available information is shown in the table:
| Somerset Local Education Authority | England | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils aged 5–10 | Pupils aged 11–15 | Pupils aged 16+ | Total | Pupils aged 5–10 | Pupils aged 11–15 | Pupils aged 16+ | Total | |
| 1998 | 71 | 234 | 9 | 314 | 2,462 | 10,587 | 545 | 13,594 |
| 1999 | 83 | 308 | 5 | 396 | 2,232 | 11,351 | 422 | 14,005 |
| 2000 | 93 | 344 | 3 | 440 | 2,825 | 12,264 | 585 | 15,670 |
| 2001 | 24 | 337 | 1 | 362 | 3,037 | 12,843 | 427 | 16,307 |
| 2002 | 64 | 119 | 19 | 202 | 3,361 | 15,187 | 386 | 18,934 |
The available figures record for each local education authority the number of pupils not in school and being otherwise educated under arrangements made by the authority. As well as covering pupils taught at home, this includes but does not separately identify, traveller children and asylum seekers at further education colleges or with voluntary providers. It does not however include pupils who are being educated at home through parental choice and independent of local education authority arrangements.
Illegal Immigrants
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what estimate his officials have made of the (a) number and (b) cost of children in this country receiving state education (i) who do not have the legal rights to settle in the UK and (ii) whose parents are illegal immigrants. [80957]
Mr. Stephen Twigg: The requested information is not collected centrally.
All children are entitled to education regardless of their immigration status.
Local education authorities receive funding for these children in the same way that they do for other children on school rolls. Other financial support is available through the Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant for help with the provision of English as an additional language and through a one-off grant for children of asylum seekers supported by schools in the dispersal areas.
Learning and Skills Councils
Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, how many and what percentage of members of (a) each local learning and skills council and (b) the National Learning and Skills Council declare a record of political activity, broken down by party. [80990]
Margaret Hodge: Appointments to the LSC have been made through fair and open competition, in complete accordance with guidance issued by the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments (OCPA). Working with the LSC we have sought to attract applications from individuals with a wide range of appropriate experience, regardless of any political affiliation they may have. Information is provided in the table below and shows those Council members who have declared a political interest. This does not necessarily mean that individuals are or have been politically active; they have simply declared an affiliation to a political party. These figures exclude the
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Executive Directors of LLSCs since they were not required to declare political activity when applying for these posts.
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Figures in brackets show the number of local authority councillors.
| Local LSC | Labour | Conservative | Liberal democrat | Others |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| North East | ||||
| County Durham | 1 | — | — | 1 |
| Northumberland | 1 | — | — | — |
| Tees Valley | 4(1) | 1 | — | — |
| Tyne and Wear | 3(1) | — | — | — |
| East Midlands | ||||
| Derbyshire | 6(2) | — | — | — |
| Leicestershire | 3 | — | — | — |
| Lincolnshire and Rutland | 1 | — | 1(1) | 1 |
| Northamptonshire | 1(1) | 1(1) | — | — |
| Nottinghamshire | 3(2) | 1 | — | — |
| Yorkshire and Humberside | ||||
| South Yorkshire | 4(2) | — | — | — |
| North Yorkshire | — | 2(2) | — | — |
| Humberside | 1(1) | — | — | — |
| West Yorkshire | 3(1) | — | — | — |
| West Midlands | ||||
| Birmingham and Solihull | 5(1) | — | — | — |
| The Black Country | 2(1) | — | — | — |
| Coventry and Warwickshire | 2(1) | — | 1 | — |
| Herefordshire and Worcestershire | 2(1) | — | — | — |
| Shropshire | 2 | — | 1(1) | 1 |
| Staffordshire | 4(1) | — | — | — |
| North West | ||||
| Cheshire/Warrington | — | — | 1 | — |
| Cumbria | 2(1) | — | — | — |
| Lancashire | 4(1) | — | — | — |
| Greater Manchester | 4(1) | — | — | — |
| Greater Merseyside | 4 | — | 1(1) | — |
| South West | ||||
| Devon and Cornwall | — | — | 1(1) | — |
| Bournemouth, Dorset and Poole | — | — | 2(1) | — |
| Gloucestershire | 2 | — | — | — |
| Somerset | 1 | 1 | 1(1) | — |
| Wiltshire and Swindon | 1(1) | 2(2) | 1 | — |
| The West of England | 2(1) | — | — | — |
| East of England | ||||
| Bedfordshire and Luton | 4(1) | — | — | — |
| Cambridgeshire | — | — | 1(1) | 1 |
| Essex | 3(1) | 2(1) | 1 | — |
| Hertfordshire | 1 | 1(1) | — | — |
| Norfolk | 2(1) | 1 | — | — |
| Suffolk | 3(2) | 1(1) | — | — |
| South East | ||||
| Berkshire | None Declared | |||
| Hampshire, Portsmouth, Southampton and IOW | 1 | — | — | — |
| Kent and Medway | 2(1) | 3(1) | — | — |
| Milton Keynes, Oxfordshire and Bucks | 3(1) | — | — | — |
| Surrey | 1 | 1(1) | — | — |
| Sussex | 2(1) | — | — | — |
| London | ||||
| London Central | 3(1) | 3 | — | — |
| London East | 4(2) | — | — | — |
| London North | 3(1) | — | — | — |
| London South | 2 | 1(1) | — | — |
| London West | 3 | — | — | — |
28 Nov 2002 : Column 399W
Of the 15 members appointed to the National Council, 6 declared political activity with the Labour Party, 1 of whom is a local councillor. There were no declarations with respect to other parties.
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