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19 Dec 2002 : Column 968W—continued
EDUCATION AND SKILLS
Appointments
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills to which bodies his Department makes appointments; how many members there are (a) in total and (b) in each body; and how many of those appointed are (i) businessmen, (ii) businessmen in SMEs and (iii) businessmen in micro-businesses. [87388]
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Mr. Stephen Twigg [holding answer 16 December 2002]: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given yesterday by my hon. Friend the Minister of State, Cabinet Office.
Connexions Service
Mr. Phil Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills whether the Connexions Card will have an electronic purse to (a) manage payments from Education Maintenance Allowances paid by LEAs and (b) manage training allowances paid by the Learning and Skills Council. [87957]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: There are no plans for the Connexions Card to have an electronic purse for the purposes of managing payments from Education Maintenance Allowances or training allowances.
Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills when the Connexions Card is to be launched. [87958]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Connexions Card is now available to all 16 to 19-year-olds in England.
From February 2003, there will be an extensive national launch programme of activities aimed at young people across England.
Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many personal advisors worked for the Connexions Service in (a) 2001–02 and (b) 2002–03. [87959]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The information in the table below shows the number of full time equivalent personal advisers who had worked for the Connexions Service in the last two years.
| Period | Number of personal advisers (full time equivalents) | Number of operational Connexions Partnerships |
|---|---|---|
| 2001–02 | 2,175.9 | 15 |
| 2002–03(9) | 5,958.9 | 42 |
(9) Data available to end October 2002
Education Maintenance Allowances
Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many 16 to 19-year-olds used their allowance for (a) travel costs, (b) books and equipment and (c) other living costs during the education maintenance allowance pilots; and what research has been undertaken to ascertain these figures. [87954]
Margaret Hodge: Independent evaluation of the education maintenance allowance scheme has been carried out by a consortium led by the Centre for Research in Social Policy. They have collected a great deal of data, including information on how young people spend their EMA, and this was included in the quantitative report on the first year of the scheme. The findings so far show that recipients of EMA are as likely as non-recipients to make a contribution to housekeeping costs, and more likely to pay towards the cost of transport, books and equipment for school. They
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spent no more than non-recipients on entertainment and were more likely to say that transport, books and equipment were their main item of expenditure.
Free School Meals
Mr. Pike: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he plans to change the criteria for qualification for free school meals; and if he will make a statement. [88270]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: During the passage of the Education Act 2002, the Secretary of State made it clear that she would protect the free school meals' entitlement of families who would otherwise lose this entitlement because they cease to be entitled to income support or income based jobseekers allowance and begin receiving child tax credits instead. The new system will be slightly more generous than the old system with around 75,000 more children from low income families eligible for free school meals from April 2003.
Language Teaching
Mr. Wray: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many primary schools in the UK teach languages; how many secondary schools do not teach languages; which languages are taught in schools; what proposals he has to increase the range of languages available; what teaching there is in schools on non-European languages; and if he will make a statement. [87367]
Mr. Miliband: A survey conducted by Warwick university estimated that around 20 per cent. of primary schools currently provide some form of language teaching.
Secondary schools are required to offer at least one of the working languages of the EU. When schools have met this requirement they are free to offer non-European languages.
Ofsted is not aware of any secondary schools that have no provision for language teaching.
We do not collect data on the number of languages taught in secondary schools. However, we are aware that overall around 20 languages are offered by 157 Specialist Language Colleges including Chinese, Japanese, Urdu and Gujerati.
Our Languages Strategy which was published on 18 December, sets out how we intend to improve the country's capabilities in language skills.
Ministerial Meetings
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills when he last attended a ministerial meeting with European Union Ministers for Education. [87008]
Margaret Hodge: My right hon. Friend has not yet attended a meeting of European Union Ministers for Education. I represented the Secretary of State at the most recent meeting of the EU Education Council which was held in Brussels on 12 November.
Plant Hire
Sir Teddy Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what estimate he has made of the
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number of employees in the plant hire industry who have received educational and other benefits from the facilities provided by the Construction Industry Training Board. [87319]
Mr. Ivan Lewis [holding answer 18 December 2002]: During 2002 approximately 5,000 employees of plant hire companies received educational and other benefits through the Construction Industry Training Board.
Post-16 Funding
Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what research his Department has undertaken to ascertain the extent to which school sixth form and college access funds are used for (a) travel costs, (b) books and equipment and (c) other living costs. [87953]
Mr. Stephen Twigg: The Department for Education and Skills has commissioned a two-year study by the Institute of Employment Studies to evaluate the use and effectiveness of the learner support funds in further education institutions. The interim report was made available in April 2001 and can be accessed via the DfES website at: www.dfes.gov.uk (young people/further education funding support/report). Publication of the final report is expected in spring 2003.
The interim research found that 81 per cent. of further education institutions use learner support funds to subsidise travel costs. Around 40 per cent. of the available funding is spent on transport services and residential provision.
A total of 367,055 awards were made in 2000–01. The table shows the number of awards made against the three categories.
| Number of awards | |
|---|---|
| Transport | 83,714 |
| Books and equipment | 81,837 |
| Other (inc. living/general) | 37,474 |
Postcodes
Mr. Truswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what use his Department and its agencies make of postcode areas for (a) the collection and publication of data, (b) devising formulae for the distribution of grants and awards and (c) the delivery of services; and when such usages were last reviewed. [87746]
Mr. Miliband: Wherever possible, the Department and its agencies collect information on an on-going basis on the postcode of usual residence of individual learners and/or place of learning to facilitate the compilation of statistics on education and skills at various geographical levels—for example, local education authorities and coalfield areas. Some of these statistics are then used with others as a basis for funding allocations—for example, postcodes are used to obtain a measure of resident pupils, one factor in calculating Education Formula Spending Shares. The Department is fully committed to working closely with the Office for Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) and others to produce better information for small areas. This will allow DfES and
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other Government Departments to develop and evaluate locally targeted policies and interventions as well as helping to tackle Neighbourhood Renewal.
Progress Files
Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what proportion of secondary schools have used Progress Files for pupils aged 13 and over in (a) 2001–02 and (b) 2002–03. [87960]
Mr. Miliband: The proportion of secondary schools which have ordered Progress File materials for pupils aged 13 and over is approximately 25 per cent. in 2001–02 and 40 per cent. in 2002–03 academic years to date.
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