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Mature Students

Mr. Colman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what proportion of higher education students entitled to receive the proposed new maintenance grant are estimated to come under the category of mature students. [110462]

Margaret Hodge: The information requested is currently not available. I refer my hon. Friend to the response given by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and Skills to my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Selly Oak (Lynne Jones) on 6 February 2003, Official Report, column 357W.

Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what financial support is available for mature students undertaking a full-time degree course at university with no earnings from any source. [110758]

Margaret Hodge: We have greatly increased the financial support available to mature students. Nearly £250 million is being spent in 2002/03 on support for students with particular financial needs, including mature students, compared to £124 million five years ago.

Under the Education (Student Support) Regulations eligible full-time mature students without earnings have all of their tuition fees paid from public funds. In the academic year 2003/04, they may also receive a student loan of £4,000, or £4,930 if studying in London, to assist with their living costs.

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Statutory provision also includes additional grants for students with dependent children. The childcare grant pays 85 per cent. of actual child care costs covering the whole year. In the academic year 2003/04, a student parent with one child may receive a child care grant of up to £5,967 whilst students with two or more children may receive up to £8,840. A new parents' learning allowance of up to £1,300 a year is also available to students with dependent children to assist with course-related costs.

Access and hardship funds and hardship loans are discretionary support available through institutions of higher education for students who may need extra financial support for their course. Mature students are a priority group for this support and are assessed according to their individual needs.

Our White Paper "The future of higher education" proposes a number of new measures to provide more up-front support for students from less well-off backgrounds and to ensure that all students have sufficient support throughout their courses.

Modern Languages Courses

Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what efforts his Department is making, through reform of the 14–19 curriculum, to increase the number of entrants aged under 21 years to modern languages courses at higher education institutions in the UK. [110874]

Mr. Miliband: We are committed through our National Languages Strategy to increasing the number of higher education students taking modern foreign languages as all or part of their degree, by increasing the opportunities available to them to do so. Students who continue to study languages post 14 are more motivated and more likely to continue studying a modern foreign language into higher education. So we are requiring all [maintained] secondary schools to ensure that modern foreign languages remain available to any 14–16 year old pupil who wishes to study them. Our goal is to move to a position where young people are motivated to study modern foreign languages, rather than being forced to do so.

Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what discussions he has had with (a) the Home Office, (b) the Local Government Association and (c) representatives of local education authorities on the implementation provisions contained in sections 36 and 37 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002; and if he will make a statement. [111082]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: Discussions with the Home Office continue on a regular basis. Representatives from local education authorities for the areas where accommodation centres have been proposed and from the Local Government Association attended meetings with officials from the Department for Education and Skills and the Home Office on 20 August 2002, 20 September 2002, 14 October 2002 and 15 January 2003.

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NUT Conference

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what representations he has received following the recent National Union of Teachers Conference. [110698]

Mr. Miliband: My right hon. Friend has received no such representations.

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will make a statement on the recent National Union of Teachers Conference. [110699]

Mr. Miliband: My right hon Friend set out publicly on 18 February 2003 his reasons for not attending the National Union of Teachers' conference. Beyond this, the annual conference and other internal affairs of the National Union of Teachers are a matter for its membership.

Private Finance Initiative

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will make a statement on the expected saving to public funds from the private finance initiative schemes due to become operational in 2003. [105719]

Mr. Miliband: I refer the hon. Member to the reply given by my right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary to the Treasury on 10 April 2003, Official report, column 400W.

Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills who will cover PFI repayments on schools closed before the end of the repayment period. [110682]

Mr. Miliband: Closure of a school which is part of a PFI contract would represent partial or full termination of the contract, depending on whether it was a grouped or single schools project. Termination of a contract would not lead the Government to reassess the level of revenue support due to a local authority, other than in exceptional circumstances.

Qualifications

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what percentage of working age people in the constituency of Buckingham hold a qualification at degree level or equivalent; and what the national average is. [105711]

Margaret Hodge: The latest available figures from the Local Area Labour Force Survey 2001 show that the proportion of people of working age resident in the constituency of Buckingham who hold a qualification at NVQ level 4 or above is 29.9 per cent., with a 95 per cent. confidence interval of 26.6 per cent. to 33.2 per cent. This compares to a figure of 23.7 per cent. for Great Britain. NVQ level 4 covers degrees, HMDs and other undergraduate qualifications.

SATs

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what advice he will be issuing to teachers regarding SATs for the under 12s. [110696]

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Mr. Miliband: The National Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Arrangements booklets for Key Stage 1 and 2 are issued to schools in October of each year. The booklets contain important information about the administration of the National Curriculum tasks, tests and teacher assessments.

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what action he will be taking regarding teachers who boycott SATs for under 12s. [110697]

Mr. Miliband: My right hon. Friend opposes any form of action that will harm children's education. Any action taken against such teachers would be an internal disciplinary matter for their employer.

School Exclusions

Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will make a statement on provisions to deal with excluded pupils (a) under 11 and (b) aged 11 to 16 in North Shropshire. [110046]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: Shropshire Local Education Authority offers all permanently excluded pupils of compulsory school age in North Shropshire full-time educational provision, where appropriate, after 15 school days. The provision would typically involve either an alternative school, the tuition service or, for older pupils, a shared placement arrangement with the further education sector and other providers. Schools set and mark work for pupils they exclude for short fixed period, and also during the early stages of a longer exclusion. For longer fixed period exclusions, schools will involve the LEA as necessary in planning for the child's return. The nature, management and organisation of provision for excluded pupils is a matter for the LEA having regard to pupils' individual circumstances.

School Standards

Mr. Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much has been spent on projects and initiatives to (a) improve behaviour in schools and (b) increase standards in rural schools since 1997. [110095]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: Funding for both behaviour improvement and to increase standards in rural schools comes from a wide variety of sources and to varying degrees of aggregation with funding to support other areas of activity. It is not therefore possible in either case to give discrete total figures. Key contributions on behaviour-related initiatives have been the around £560 million (including Government grant and LEA contributions) allocated through the Standards Fund between 1997–2003 and the £50 million provided to targeted LEAs since September 2002 to improve behaviour and attendance. Specific contributions on rural schools have included some £56 million of funding for rural Excellence Clusters and rural EAZs. Many rural schools are also small schools and benefit from the Small Schools Fund, which was set up in 2001 by the merging of two previous grants (the Administrative Support Fund for Small Schools and the Small School Support Fund). The Small Schools Fund is worth a total of £80 million a year.

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