---

19 Jun 2003 : Column 365W—continued

Efficiency Savings

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the target is for efficiency savings in 2003–04 expressed (a) in money terms and (b) as a percentage of the Department's expenditure limit. [114107]

Mr. Charles Clarke: My Department does not have a target in the terms expressed. The Department has value for money targets arising from the Government's spending reviews in 2000 and 2002 (SR2000 & SR2002). Following SR2000, schools can now meaningfully compare costs with one another and thus improve value for money year on year. We established a framework of Consistent Financial Reporting requiring all maintained schools to report their accounts in a standardised way, which has been operational since 1 April 2003. Following SR 2002, the Department is developing a challenging target covering minimum performance and value for money in FE colleges and other post-16 providers.

Excluded Children

Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much it cost to educate excluded children through (a) pupil referral units, (b) home tuition, (c) emotional and behavioural disorder day units, (d) emotional and behavioural disorder residential units and (e) other provision for excluded children in each year since 1995. [116635]

Mr. Ivan Lewis [holding answer 3 June 2003]: The information requested is not collected centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Free School Meals

Mr. Gardiner: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what change there has been an increase in applications for free school meals since the introduction of new rules in April. [119313]

Mr. Miliband: The information requested is not currently available. The number of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is collected in January each year via the Annual Schools' Census. As a result, trend data on the number of pupils known to be eligible for free meals since the introduction of new rules in April 2003 will not be available until 2004.

Hayfever

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what guidance he has issued to examining boards on the account which should be taken of the effects of hayfever on the performance of children taking public examinations. [119865]

19 Jun 2003 : Column 366W

Mr. Ivan Lewis: Arrangements for candidates affected by personal illness are set out in The Joint Council for General Qualifications (JCGQ) document, "Regulations and Guidance for Candidates with Particular Requirements".

Examination centres may request special consideration from awarding bodies for candidates affected by chronic hayfever during an exam where exam centres are able to provide evidence that the candidate was affected at the time of the examination.

Modern Apprenticeships

Rob Marris: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills who the 10 largest providers of Modern Apprenticeships were in 2002–03; how many contracted places there were with each of those providers; and what the individual success rates were of each of those providers, expressed as (a) the proportion of NVQs successfully passed out of those taken and (b) the proportion of Modern Apprenticeships successfully gained out of those started. [118935]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: This is a matter for the Learning and Skills Council. John Harwood, the Council's Chief Executive, will write to my hon. Friend with the information requested and will place a copy of his reply in the Library.

Rob Marris: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills when the full achievement rates for Modern Apprenticeship Frameworks for 2002–03 will be issued; and how those rates will be made available. [118939]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: Data on Modern Apprenticeships are published by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) in Statistical First Releases (SFR). The next SFR is due to be published on 24 July 2003. Current plans are that this SFR will contain Modern Apprenticeship framework completion and NVQ achievement rates for the period August 2001 to July 2002. An early indication of figures for the period August 2002 to January 2003 is also planned. Framework completion and NVQ achievement rates for the whole period from August 2002 to July 2003 will not be available until December 2003.

Pay Audits

Angela Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what progress has been made on completing a pay audit in his Department and its non-departmental public bodies to measure any disadvantage in terms of remuneration for (a) women, (b) ethnic minorities and (c) people with disabilities; and if he will publish the results of such an audit. [117440]

Mr. Charles Clarke: My Department has submitted a report on Gender Pay Equality (including an action plan) to the Cabinet Office. A copy of the report will be placed in the Library of the House, when discussions

19 Jun 2003 : Column 367W

with Cabinet Office are concluded. Non-departmental public bodies were not required to submit an equal pay report to Cabinet Office, although many have conducted a similar audit, as best practice. It has not been possible to provide the requested information for my Department's non-departmental public bodies without incurring disproportionate cost.

A further pay equality review, covering not only gender but also ethnicity and people with disabilities, will begin in my Department when this year's pay award has been delivered, towards the end of this year. The results will be made available on completion of the exercise.

Prison Education

Mr. Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many staff have been employed in Prison Education in each year since 1997, broken down by (a) teaching staff and (b) non-teaching staff. [119432]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: There are currently around 1,600 full- and part-time teaching staff employed in delivering education in Her Majesty's Prison Service through the education contract. This includes around 220 Learning Support Assistants, who are employed in juvenile facilities on a ratio of one to every 10 learners. We do not have figures for previous years. Each juvenile establishment has a Special Needs Co-ordinator who is responsible for the assessment of learners, drawing up specialist learning programmes, supervising Learning Support Assistants and supporting all staff on special educational needs issues. We have also appointed Heads of Learning and Skills in all juvenile facilities to co-ordinate learning and skills provision, and will be appointing a further 110 in adult prisons this year. Other non-teaching staff involved in prison education include Instructional Officers, Prison Officer Instructors, other prison staff and voluntary workers.

Pupil Numbers

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will list, by LEA, total pupil numbers in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools since 1990. [118769]

Mr. Miliband: The information requested has been placed in the House of Commons Library.

Qualifications and Curriculum Authority

Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills pursuant to his Answer of 17 March 2003, Official Report, column 567W, what the average time taken for a qualification to be approved by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority following a recommendation from an awarding body is; and if he will make a statement. [120015]

Mr. Miliband: In 2002 it took an average of eight weeks from the submission of an NVQ by an awarding body to its accreditation by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA). Vocationally related qualifications are typically more diverse and have taken an average of 20 weeks. There have been very few general qualifications accredited over the last 18 months.

19 Jun 2003 : Column 368W

QCA will be implementing a streamlined accreditation process in autumn 2003. This will build on proposals currently being piloted that have resulted in NVQs being accredited in six weeks and vocationally related qualifications in seven weeks.

Research Funding

Mr. Wray: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how universities qualify for research funding; what measures are in place to ensure that funding is fairly distributed to smaller universities; and what plans he has to concentrate research funding into a smaller group of universities. [119666]

Alan Johnson: The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) distributes a portion of its block grant to higher education institutions according to the quality of their research as measured by the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), and the volume of research they carry out. This provides equitable funding to institutions of all sizes. The White Paper, "The future of higher education", set out plans to strengthen higher education research by increasing substantially the funding available, providing further support to the best research departments and institutions, promoting collaboration and encouraging and supporting promising departments and emerging subject areas. HEFCE is considering how best to implement the White Paper plans. Some institutions have seen reductions in their research funding for the coming year, typically where most of their research falls below international standards of excellence. However, the Government do not intend to restrict research funding to a particular group of universities. In the longer term funding may be affected by Sir Gareth Roberts' review of research assessment, commissioned by the higher education funding bodies. The report of that review was published for consultation last month (http://www.ra-review.ac.uk/). It recommends a more flexible system of research assessment, including different types of assessment for institutions and departments with different levels of research. As now, HEFCE would decide how to use the assessment results in funding institutions.

---