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Scottish Parliament Building

Pete Wishart: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how much money central Government originally allocated for the planning, construction and equipping of a new Scottish Parliament building; and whether these funds were allocated via the block grant; [119892]

(2) how much money central Government has provided in total for the planning, construction and equipping of a new Scottish Parliament building; and whether these funds were sent via the block grant. [119893]

Mr. Boateng: The costs of the Scottish Parliament are a devolved matter and are met from the overall Scottish block budget. No additional sums have been allocated by the Government.

Winter Fuel Payments

Sue Doughty: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the estimated costs are for winter fuel payments during 2002; what he expects the additional cost of paying a further £100 to those over 80 will be; what the annual expenditure allocated to the Warm Front scheme is for 2003–04; and what the annual expenditure is on the Social Priority Group as designated within the Energy Efficiency Commitment. [119057]

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John Healey: The estimated cost of providing winter fuel payments in Great Britain in 2002–03 is detailed in Table 2 of the Benefit Expenditure Tables 2003, which are available on the statistics pages of the Department for Work and Pensions website.

The cost of providing an extra £100 to households with someone aged 80 and over is detailed in Table A.1 of this year's Financial Statement and Budget Report (HC 500).

The funding allocated to the Warm Front scheme for 2003–04 is £152 million, from a total fuel poverty budget of £156 million. This year's level of funding will enable continued delivery of energy efficiency measures to some of the most vulnerable members of society.

Under the Energy Efficiency Commitment 2002–05, energy suppliers must direct at least 50 per cent. of energy savings to a priority group of low-income consumers over the three-year programme. The annual expenditure will depend on the energy efficiency measures used to generate those savings.

EDUCATION AND SKILLS

Disabled Students

Mrs. Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what action he has taken to support the provision of university courses for disabled students. [117380]

Alan Johnson: The Government are committed to the principle that all those who can benefit from higher education should have the opportunity to do so. We amended the Disability Discrimination Act in 2001 to make it unlawful for higher education institutions to treat disabled applicants less favourably than others and to require them to make reasonable adjustments so that disabled students are not placed at a substantial disadvantage. It is, however, for the institutions themselves to determine which courses they will provide. Through the Higher Education Funding Council for England, we have funded the National Disability Team to promote good practice in learning and teaching across the sector.

Education Funding

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what plans he has to simplify the funding mechanism for post-16 non 'A' Level students at (a) full and (b) part-time levels. [117557]

Alan Johnson: The funding arrangements for post-16 learning are the operational responsibility of the Learning and Skills Council (LSC). I have asked John Harwood, the Council's Chief Executive, to reply to the hon. Member, providing the specific information requested, and a copy of his reply will be placed in the Library.

The LSC is committed to: simplifying further education funding; reducing the bureaucratic burden; and ending the uncertainty of the current system. The LSC has recently consulted on this and the approach to

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funding adult learning. Our Skills Strategy to be published shortly will set out the way forward on funding adult learning.

Education Initiatives

Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will make an assessment of whether the learning strategies recommended in the Assessment for Learning programme are compatible with mixed ability teaching. [117182]

Mr. Miliband: Successful use of assessment for learning is not dependent on a particular form of pupil grouping. The focus is on the individual pupil and the learning needs identified by good quality assessment of their work. The strategies involved—sharing objectives; analysis of performance; feedback, which identifies next steps; peer and self assessment and questioning, which uncovers misconceptions and encourages pupils to explain their thinking—can be employed in a variety of grouping arrangements.

Educational Support Organisations

Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills whether an educational support organisation, which is receiving national funding from the Learning and Skills Council, may also receive the funding required to establish basic skills under a national programme. [118068]

Alan Johnson: I understand that this concerns the access of a certain national learning provider to a national contract for funding. The Learning and Skills Council are driving down bureaucracy by introducing single contracts with providers who operate in more than one local area, and I have asked the LSC to talk to this particular provider about how best to move to a more simplified contractual arrangement.

Further Education

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what growth in student numbers further education is expected to assimilate in order to meet the requirements in Success for All. [117676]

Alan Johnson: Success for All is a programme of reforms, which will raise standards across all post-16 further education and training providers, and will contribute to increases in both participation and achievement. We expect growth in participation in further education to play a major part in delivering our target that by 2010, 90 per cent. of young people by age 22 will have participated in a full-time programme fitting them for entry into higher education or skilled employment.

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what proposals he has to reduce the administration in relation to FE. [117678]

Alan Johnson: The DfES and the LSC are determined to cut the burden of administration across the whole of the learning and skills sector. We will shortly announce the composition of an independent gatekeeper group to reduce bureaucracy. This group will vigorously challenge the Department and the LSC to justify new and existing administrative practices. It was one of the main

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recommendations of the Task Force chaired by Sir George Sweeney which reported in November 2002. We fully accept the Task Force's recommendations on cutting bureaucracy and want to see them implemented quickly.

Andy Burnham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what percentage of 16-year-olds remained in full-time education after finishing secondary school in each of the last three years in each local education authority in England. [117935]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: Participation rates by LEA for 16 and 17-year-olds are published in an annual National Statistics Bulletin, "Participation in Education and Training by 16 and 17 Year Olds in Each Local Area in England". This latest bulletin is published solely on the DfES website: http://www.dfes.gov.uk/statistics/DB/SBU/b0369

Table 3 gives participation rates for 16-year-olds in full-time education by local education authority, 1998 to 2000, the latest year for which figures are available.

Copies of the Bulletin have been placed in the Libraries.

Official Spelling

Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will take steps to ensure that computers and other electronic equipment in schools use spell checks with the recognised English spelling of words and not the US spelling. [118876]

Mr. Charles Clarke: This is generally a software issue. Some software applications do not use a UK English spell checker as the default, and it may be necessary to change an option within any particular application so that it does, before deploying and using the software. This default can also be changed after the software has already been installed.

I have asked our agency, the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta), to provide advice to schools via their ICT Advice website, on how to set generic software to English language setting and also to provide advice to schools on being aware of this issue when purchasing software.

Race Relations

Angela Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what progress has been made in his Department and non-departmental public bodies on implementing the requirements of the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000; and if he will publish the results of the monitoring required by the Act. [117473]

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Mr. Charles Clarke: My Department and our non-departmental public bodies are fully committed to equality and diversity and to meeting our obligations under the amended Race Relations Act. The Department published its Race Equality Scheme in May 2002 in accordance with the statutory requirements.

The Department's Race Equality Scheme identifies those areas of policy development and internal employment practice most likely to impact on reducing inequalities. All of our functions and policies are assessed for their relevance to race equality, and action plans developed for those assessed as having a high relevance. Implementation of these action plans will be monitored through the annual business planning process. Assessments will continue to be made once every three years. We will publish annually the results of our monitoring.

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