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Dyslexia

Mr. Gerrard: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what guidance has been issued to local education authorities on the undertaking of tests to determine whether a school pupil is dyslexic; [89340]

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(2) what his policy is on (a) updating assessments of children who have previously been assessed as dyslexic and (b) the incorporation of support for dyslexia in statements of special educational needs. [89341]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: Guidance on identifying and assessing children's special educational needs is given in the Special Educational Needs Code of Practice, to which schools and local education authorities must have regard. The guidance is organised under four broad areas of need—communication and interaction; cognition and learning; behaviour, emotional and social development; and sensory and/or physical needs—to recognise that children often have needs in one or more areas. Dyslexia is referred to specifically in relation to communication and interaction and cognition and learning. The Department has also produced specific guidance to support pupils with dyslexia as part of the National Literacy Strategy.

Local education authorities (LEAs) must review statements of special educational needs at least annually to ensure that the educational provision specified remains appropriate. It is for individual LEAs to decide whether to reassess children previously assessed as dyslexic, taking into account the provisions of section 328 and 329A of the Educational Act 1996, and the advice contained in the Special Educational Needs Code of Practice. LEAs must also decide upon the appropriate level of support to include in statements for such pupils, having regard to the statutory guidance contained in the Code of Practice and the advice they have obtained as part of the statutory assessment of the child's special educational needs.

Education Act 2002

Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will list (a) schools and (b) local education authorities which have expressed an interest in establishing companies under the provisions of the Education Act 2002; and for what purpose. [88883]

Mr. Miliband: Provisions of the Education Act 2002 concerning school companies will commence on 20 January 2003, at the same time as relevant regulations come into force, and therefore no such school companies yet exist.

Although some schools and LEAs have contacted officials to discuss the power to form or join school companies, these inquiries are purely informal.

Regulation 25 of The School Companies Regulations 2002 and Regulation 17 of The School Companies (Private Finance Initiative Companies) Regulations 2002 provide for the supervising authority of a school company to notify the Secretary of State of certain details concerning the school company. Through this notification the Secretary of State will know the number of school companies in existence at any one time.

Education Facilities (Wokingham)

Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills pursuant to his answer of 20 November 2002, Official Report, column 142–43W, on education facilities (Wokingham), if he will place in the Library the list of criteria against which the PFI proposals were judged; why these criteria were chosen,

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what the (a) scoring system and (b) methodology used to assess the criteria were against which the PFI proposals were judged; and what weighting was given to each criterion when converting the scores into the ranking of the PFI proposal. [89253]

Mr. Miliband: Proposals from local education authorities for the 2003–04 schools PFI bidding round were assessed against five main criteria:

(a) the extent to which the project would contribute to raising educational standards and to tackling the most urgent premises related needs;


(b) the contribution to wider DfES and school priorities and initiatives;


(c) the contribution to wider Government priorities and initiatives;


(d) value-for-money;


(e) the contribution to the future development of public private partnerships, including PFI.

I have today placed a full copy of the bidding guidance for the 2003–04 PFI round in the Library.

Each proposal was evaluated independently by two officials from the Department's schools private finance unit and moderated through discussion with the full team of assessors. Technical assessment was provided by external quantity surveyors and the advice of other officials in the Department was sought, where appropriate.

The scores were weighted across the first three criteria, as follows:

(a) 40 per cent.


(b) 30 per cent.


(c) 30 per cent.

Criteria (d) and (e) were not included in the above weightings but assessed on a pass or fail basis.

Education Funding

Mr. Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the education funding provision is in 2003–04 (a) for Leicestershire and (b) on average for English counties for (i) primary and (ii) secondary pupils. [88622]

Mr. Miliband: The average primary and secondary formula spending share per pupil for Leicestershire and for upper tier authorities is set out in the table.

#

	Average level of primary formula spending share per pupil	Average level of secondary formula spending share per pupil
Leicestershire	2,083	2,663
Upper tier authorities	2,184	2,771

The new system of funding for LEAs consists of a basic entitlement which is the same for all pupils, plus a top up for all deprived pupils, which is the same for all deprived pupils, and a further top up for those LEAs in areas with additional costs for recruitment and retention of staff. The average formula spending share per pupil for upper tier authorities is higher than for Leicestershire, because most upper tier authorities have a higher percentage of deprived pupils, and some have higher area costs.

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Mr. Reed : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will list the (a) cash and (b) percentage change in education funding for Leicestershire County Council local education authority in each year from 1991–92 to the latest year for which figures are available. [88623]

Mr. Miliband: The tables show the Department's total Education Standard Spending Assessment (ESSA), revenue and capital grant allocated to Leicestershire local education authority for the financial years 1997–98 to 2002–03 along with cash and percentage change for these years. 2002–03 figures are to date and provisional. The local government reorganisation and changes in ESSA methodology means that data for financial years 1991–92 to 1996–97 does not conform to current boundaries so comparable figures are not available.

Education standard spending assessment and revenue grant# million

	Total cash	Year on year cash change	Year on year percentage change
1997–98	207.9	N/A	N/A
1998–99	221.8	+13.9	+7
1999–2000	238.6	+16.8	+8
2000–01	266.1	27.5	+12
2001–02	290.2	24.1	+9
2002–03	310.4	20.2	+7

Note:

Revenue funding comprises Standards Fund Grant (Departmental contribution), School Standards Grant, School Budget Support Grant, Education Budget Support Grant, Post 16 Budget Support Grant, Nursery Education Grant, Childcare Grant, Teachers Pay Reform Grant, Education Maintenance Allowance, Transitional Funding and Transitional Insurance Grant.

Capital# million

	Total cash	Year on year cash change	Year on year percentage change
1997–98	2.9	N/A	N/A
1998–99	6.5	+3.6	+124
1999–2000	9.0	+2.5	+38
2000–01	21.0	+12.0	+133
2001–02	15.7	-5.3	-25
2002–03	25.0	+9.3	+59

Note:

Funding includes Basic Need (ACG), Standards Fund Grant (Departmental contribution), Voluntary Aided School Grant, Schools Access Initiative, Supplementary Credit Approvals and, New Deal for Schools Grant.

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General Teaching Council

Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the unit cost is of collecting General Teaching Council registration fees by (a) compulsory deduction and (b) voluntary payments. [88887]

Mr. Miliband: I am informed by the General Teaching Council that it estimates the direct cost to the Council of collecting the registration fee for 2002–03 through voluntary payments from 153,000 teachers to be #90,000. The direct cost incurred by the Council in respect of a further 227,000 teachers whose fee was deducted from salary is estimated to be #166,000. The Council expects administrative costs to reduce next year as fee collection processes bed down.

Individual Learning Accounts

Mr. Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what estimates he has made of the money lost through fraudulent activities associated with the individual learning account scheme. [89309]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: The precise extent of fraudulent activity within the Individual Learning Account programme will not be known until the Department's investigations are complete. However, the Department estimates that fraud and serious irregularities may amount to some #67 million.

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