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Higher Education (Selby)

Mr. Grogan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many people from each ward in Selby district received higher education in each year since 1997. [109014]

Alan Johnson: Figures for the number of people who go on to higher education are not collated centrally on a ward or constituency basis. The closest available information, as given in the table, shows the number

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of students from North Yorkshire local education authority who were enrolled on higher education courses in UK HE institutions.

Students from North Yorkshire Local Education Authorityon HE courses⁽¹⁵⁾

Academic Year	Students
1996–97	16,400
1997–98	16,100
1998–99	18,400
1999–2000	16,100
2000–01	16,500
2001–02	17,000

⁽¹⁵⁾ Covers full-time and part-time students on both postgraduate and undergraduate courses. Numbers have been rounded to the nearest hundred.

Source:Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA)

Independent Schools

Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what account will be taken of the position of children from lower income families in receipt of scholarships or bursaries at independent schools under his proposals set out in 'Widening participation in higher education'. [118396]

Alan Johnson: Paragraph one of Section four of "Widening participation in higher education" sets out a range of proposals which will help students from lower income families.

Leadership Incentive Grant

Mr. Cameron: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many (a) selective, (b) grammar and (c) independent schools have received funding under the Leadership Incentive Grant; and if he will make a statement. [119239]

Mr. Miliband: 1402 mainstream secondary schools are eligible for the new Leadership Incentive Grant which began in April. Twenty nine of these are grammar schools which select wholly or mainly by ability. Independent schools are not eligible for the Grant.

One of the primary aims of the Leadership Incentive Grant is to stimulate and embed collaborative working to improve standards of teaching and learning amongst local groups of schools. As part of the initiative, schools are required to invest significant resources in working collaboratively. Groups of schools have developed collaborative plans which set out shared priorities for action. Collaborative plans are based upon a rigorous self and peer review of individual schools' strengths and weaknesses, identifying capacity which can be shared to raise standards across the community of schools.

Leading Edge Schools

Mr. Cameron: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many schools in counties in the South East of England have received funding as Leading Edge Schools; and if he will make a statement. [119232]

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Mr. Miliband: We will shortly be making an announcement of the schools that have been successful in this round of the Leading Edge Programme, at which stage a full list of schools that have been successful will be available.

Maintained Schools

Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills for what reasons it is his policy that maintained schools must use a different external adviser each year in carrying out the performance review of the head teacher; and under what statute this power to direct is derived. [119168]

Mr. Miliband [holding answer 13 June 2003]: Maintained schools are not obliged to use a different external adviser each year. Our current guidance to schools is that the same accredited external adviser may advise the governing body in carrying out the performance review of their headteacher up to three times.

Ministerial Visits

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will list official ministerial visits made to schools, broken down by date, school and minister, since 2001. [118123]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: The information requested has been placed in the Library.

Nanotechnology

Mr. Gardiner: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills whether his Department has examined the extent to which nanotechnology should be part of the science national curriculum. [117009]

Alan Johnson: While nanotechnology is not specified in the statutory National Curriculum, there is potential in the National Curriculum for science teachers to explore some of the scientific aspects of nanotechnology with their students. At Key Stage 4, students learn about making and changing molecules, which is a precursor to understanding nanotechnology. The QCA are currently consulting on changes to the programme of study for science Key Stage 4, following their recent review. The new science GCSE, Science in 21st Century, which is being piloted from September 2003 includes emphasis on students' understanding of the ethical issues surrounding potential applications of controversial new scientific technologies. The Applied Science GCSE, introduced in September 2002, provides an opportunity for young people to study for a science qualification which focuses on vocationally-related aspects of science.

There is also potential for the social implications and ethical aspects of new scientific technologies such as nanotechnology and genetic engineering to be covered in Citizenship, introduced in the National Curriculum in secondary schools in September 2002.

Official Spelling

Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will make it his policy that all official

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(a) correspondence, (b) reports and (c) documentation from his office uses the English spelling of words where this differs from the US version. [118862]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: I can confirm it is this Department's policy to use the English spelling of words in preference to the US version and to write all correspondence in plain English. Departmental publications are prepared in line with Guidance on the Work of the Government Information and Communication Service.

Pay Rates (Non-teaching Staff)

Mr. Cameron: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what recent discussions ministers have had with UNISON about the appropriate rates of pay for non-teaching staff in schools; and if he will make a statement. [119238]

Mr. Miliband: I have met support staff unions on a number of occasions in recent months. Meetings have focused in particular on monitoring the implementation of the National Agreement on Raising Standards and Tackling Workload, which was signed by government, the local authority employers and school workforce unions on 15 January this year.

The government's position remains that the terms and conditions of employment of school support staff are best determined locally, in light of local needs and circumstances. The National Agreement will improve training and career progression opportunities for support staff and makes clear that we expect their pay to reflect their level of training, skills and responsibilities.

Public-Private Partnerships

Mr. Streeter: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of PPP contracts for educational provision in England in the past 12 months; and if he will make a statement. [115949]

Mr. Miliband: Contracts with private sector providers for education provision are for the most part the responsibility of local education authorities, who assess their effectiveness as part of the contract management process. Ofsted has in the past 12 months inspected seven authorities which had contracted out significant education functions at the time of the inspection, or previously had entered into short-term management support contracts as part of an intervention solution. In all cases, performance had improved by at least one grade since the previous inspection. The recently published Indepen/Bannock Consulting Evaluation of new ways of working in LEAs studied three cases where education provision or senior management had been contracted out. In all three cases, they concluded that the arrangements were organisationally robust, had already or promised well to improve performance, represented value for money, and were likely to be sustainable and replicable.

PPP contracts have also been used for three schools in Surrey. These are the responsibility of Surrey Education Authority who let the contracts and it is for the LEA to assess the effectiveness of the contracts.

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Pupil Numbers

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will list, by LEA, the future estimates his Department has made of (a) primary and (b) secondary school pupil numbers. [118768]

Mr. Miliband: This information is available only at national level.

Projected pupil numbers for England as a whole000s⁽¹⁶⁾

At January	Maintainedprimary schools	Maintained secondary schools
2002(17)	4,214	3,264
2003(18)	4,167	3,308
2004(19)	4,099	3,334
2005(19)	4,048	3,325

⁽¹⁶⁾ Full-time equivalents, counting each part-time pupil as 0.5.

⁽¹⁷⁾ Actual

⁽¹⁸⁾ Provisional

⁽¹⁹⁾ Projected

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