---

14 Apr 2003 : Column 548W—continued

Tax Revenues

Mr. Howard: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much revenue was received in (a) income tax and (b) corporation tax from companies based in the City of London in each year since 1997. [108462]

Dawn Primarolo: Information on income tax and corporation tax receipts for companies, based in a particular area of the UK, is not available.

Websites

Mr. Yeo: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the (a) cost of and (b) number of visitors to each website operated by his Department and each agency and non-departmental public body for which his Department is responsible in each year since its establishment. [107599]

Ruth Kelly: The costs and number of visitors to each website operated by each Department and each agency and non-departmental public body for which the Chancellor of the Exchequer is as follows:

Department	Site address	Costs (£)	Visits
HM Customs and Excise	www.hmce.gov.uk	388,577	2,715,850
HM Customs and Excise	www.uktradeinfo.com	284,000	439,693
HM Customs and Excise	www.hmce-recruitment.org.uk/	4,970	No figures. Site closed March 2003
HM Treasury	http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/	140,634 excluding staff costs, yearending 31 January 2002	18 million year ending 31 January2002
Inland Revenue	www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/	247,000	45,575,672
Government Actuary's Department	www.gad.gov.uk	18,400	246,000
Royal Mint	www.royalmint.com/	86,251	952,953
National Savings and Investments	www.nsandi.com	165,000 estimated cost (excludingSBS payments) (3)	12.6 million since July 2002
Office for National Statistics	www.statistics.gov.uk/	672,542	2,675,833 since July 2002
Debt Management Office	www.dmo.gov.ukwww.pwlb.gov.ukwww.crnd.gov.uk	63,000 (estimated)	91,255 projected visitors
Office of Government Commerce	www.ogc.gov.uk
www.sds.ogc.gov.uk
www.gps.ogc.gov.uk
www.cot.ogc.gov.uk
www.pfi.ogc.gov.uk
www.supplyinggovernment.gov.uk	397,145	(26)244,560 (estimated visitors)
Office of Government BuyingSolutions	www.ogcbuyingsolutions.gov.uk
www.gcat.gov.uk
www.scat.gov.uk
www.watermark.qov.uk	87,376	(27)298,527
Valuation Office	www.voa.gov.uk/	95,332	698,000 projected visitors

⁽²⁶⁾ Office of Government Commerce (OGC) (1) figures for visitors are estimated on the basis of available data because OGC have no facility to accurately measure discrete visits to publicly accessible websites due to the use of security firewalls and proxy servers that disguise the identity of individual computers connecting to a website. (2) Visitor data is unavailable for some of OGCs websites prior to June/July 2002.

⁽²⁷⁾ Office of Government Buying Solutions visitor data is unavailable for some of OGCbuying.solutions websites prior to May 2002.

EDUCATION AND SKILLS

Parental Leave Directive

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many staff in his Department have used their leave entitlement under the Parental Leave Directive since it came into force. [108422]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: Ten members of staff in the Department for Education and Skills have taken leave under the provisions of the Parental Leave Directive since its introduction. The Department welcomed the provision as supporting its commitment to family-friendly policies and helping its employees to achieve a better balance between work and home life, thus improving the recruitment, retention and motivation of its staff.

14 Apr 2003 : Column 549W

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what powers he has to override (a) schools admissions decisions and (b) the design of school catchment areas. [108474]

Mr. Miliband: School admissions decisions, such as setting admission arrangements and oversubscription criteria and deciding which children should be allocated a school place in accordance with those arrangements, rest with the admission authority for the school in question: the local education authority for community and voluntary controlled schools, the governing body for foundation and voluntary aided schools.

My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State can intervene only in limited circumstances. First, if a school governing body or local education authority is acting unreasonably or in default of a statutory duty, he may—if he thinks this expedient—direct them to put things right. These direction powers might be used, for example, to secure a child's entry to a community or voluntary controlled school if the governing body had refused to comply with the decision of the LEA (the admission authority) to admit that child. Secondly, if a LEA intends to direct the governing body of a foundation or voluntary aided school, which has refused to admit a child, to admit him or her, and the governing body refers the matter to the Secretary of State, he may uphold the LEA's decision to make the direction, or decide that the child should be admitted to another school instead.

Many admission authorities use catchment areas to help decide which children should be admitted, if there are more applicants than places. The Admissions Code of Practice includes catchment areas in its list of common and acceptable over-subscription criteria. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State would only direct an admission authority to make changes to its choice of catchment area if he was satisfied both that the admission authority had acted unreasonably in the very strict sense the courts defined in the 'Wednesbury' case, and that it was expedient for him to intervene.

A-Levels

Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the average number of A-level points obtained per head of total 18-year old population was (a) in England and (b) in each local education authority in the last year for which figures are available. [108783]

Mr. Miliband [holding answer 11 April 2003]: The information requested is contained in tables, copies of which have been placed in the Libraries.

Access Regulator (Higher Education)

Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) when he will announce the name of the Access Regulator for Higher Education; [107042]

(2) when he will publish the consultation document on the proposed Access Regulator for Higher Education. [107043]

Margaret Hodge [holding answer 4 April 2003]: We published our plans on 8 April 2003.

14 Apr 2003 : Column 550W

Barnet

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what net percentage increase per pupil Barnet is receiving from central Government funds in 2003–04; and if he will make a statement. [109184]

Mr. Miliband: Figures for 2003–04 for all central Government funding for education, including formula funding and grants, and which are fully comparable with those of 2002–03, are not yet available. In particular not all grant allocations have yet been made. Compared with 2002–03, Barnet's Education Formula Spending Share per pupil for 2003–04 has increased by 7 per cent.

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment he has made of the (a) percentage and (b) cash increase necessary in (i) the schools budget and (ii) the individual schools budget in Barnet fully to meet his passporting requirements. [109185]

Mr. Miliband: Based on the passporting targets given to authorities in December 2002, Barnet was required to increase its schools budget from £133.5 million in 2002–03 to £167.4 million. This increase of £34 million includes the LSC provisional grant of £18 million and £1.5 million of specific formula grants. The required passporting increase thus equates to an increase of £15 million or 11.3 per cent. over the 2002–03 schools budget figure.

The Secretary of State's passporting requirements do not extend to the individual schools budget; it is for local education authorities, in consultation with their school forums, to make decisions on the distribution of funding within the schools budget.

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment he has made of representations from Barnet council that (a) the cost pressures on schools to set a statemented budget in Barnet equate to 8.5 per cent., (b) the net loss in support from the changes to the standard fund is £4 million net and (c) the centrally retained budget is one of the lowest in (i) London and (ii) the country; and if he will make a statement. [109186]

Mr. Miliband: The Department does not collect information on the distribution of salaries by local education authority. It is therefore not possible for us to assess cost pressures on an individual local authority basis.

The Standards Fund DfES grant has changed from £9.8 million in 2002–03 to £7.6 million in 2003–04—a reduction of £2.2 million. The figure for 2002–03 includes class size grant of £109,333. The funding for class size grant is now distributed via the Education Formula Spending Shares. Barnet received an increase in EFS per pupil of 7.0 per cent on a like for like basis.

In terms of dealing with cost pressures, it is the increase in central spending, rather than the size of that spending in relation to other authorities, which will have a significant impact on the increase which Barnet's schools will see.

14 Apr 2003 : Column 551W

---