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Teacher Morale

19. Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of state for Education and Skills what assessment he has made of the impact of school funding on teacher morale. [121713]

Mr. Miliband: We know that this is a difficult year for some schools and for their teachers because of the changes to the school funding system. Our key priority now is to work with all stakeholders to secure a better, more stable and predictable funding system for next year and to ensure that all schools can expect to receive a reasonable per pupil settlement for 2004–05.

Community Cohesion

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps he is taking to ensure that community cohesion is emphasised within the school environment. [121024]

Mr. Stephen Twigg [holding answer 25 June 2003]: In December 2002, the Local Government Association, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, the Home Office, and the Commission for Racial Equality jointly published "Guidance on Community Cohesion". This gives advice to local authorities on the practical steps they can take to promote community cohesion through all their policies and services, including education.

The Government is also expanding the Specialist Schools Programme which requires schools to set objectives and targets to work with partner schools and the wider community, to spread the benefits of specialism to other schools and beyond.

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Excellence in Cities establishes important links between the schools which deliver the programme and the communities they serve. In particular, City Learning Centres, Excellence in Cities Action Zones and Learning Mentors all work directly with the wider community as well as with pupils and students.

In addition, citizenship education, which has been a compulsory subject in secondary schools since September 2002, plays a part in building community cohesion in schools by teaching pupils tolerance, respect and understanding. It helps pupils learn how to become helpfully involved in the life and concerns of their school and develop socially and morally responsible behaviour towards those in authority and each other.

Correspondence

Mr. Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills when he intends to reply to the letter to him dated 19 May from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton (Mr. Kaufman) with regard to Annaliese Katherine Ginnaw. [121433]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, replied to the right hon. Member's letter of 19 May on 19 June 2003.

Disabled Students

Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will make a statement on the (a) funding, (b) staffing and (c) activities of the National Disability Team established to promote good practice in relation to disabled students. [120957]

Alan Johnson: The National Disability Team was set up by the Higher Education Funding Council for England to improve provision for disabled students in higher education. Between January 2003 and December 2005 it will receive a total of £1.2 million from the Higher Education Funding Council for England and the Department for Employment and Learning in Northern Ireland. The National Disability Team is staffed by a Director, a Deputy Director, three co-ordinators and some administrative staff. More detailed information on their activities can be found on their website at www.natdisteam.ac.uk.

Education Funding

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many local education authorities have failed to passport 100 per cent. of resources to schools in the present financial year. [121700]

Mr. Charles Clarke: I recognise that this is a difficult year for some schools because of the changes to the school funding arrangements. But part of the difficulty has been where LEAs have decided not to passport the full increase in their school funding to their schools budget. My Department has been in discussion with a number of the 19 authorities who were shown as not passporting in the analysis of local education authorities' budget returns I published on 2 May. Our latest figures show that 11 LEAs are not passporting.

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We do not yet know to what extent balances will be used by schools in 2003–04 because in many cases local education authorities are still considering schools' budget plans.

David Taylor : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills What representations he has received from schools about the adequacy of financial resources for 2003–04 to deliver the Government's standards targets. [121703]

Mr. Miliband: We have received a large amount of correspondence concerning education budgets for the current financial year from both schools and local education authorities, as we do each year.

Ethnic Minority Pupils

Mr. Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills whether Ofsted assesses ethnic minority intake as part of its inspection process in (a) school sixth-forms, (b) sixth-form colleges and (c) further education colleges; and if he will make a statement. [121278]

Mr. Miliband: This is a matter for Ofsted. HM Chief Inspector, David Bell, will write to my hon. Friend and place a copy of his letter in the Library.

Regulatory Impact Assessments

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, if he will make a statement on the Department's Regulatory Impact Assessment procedure; and how many RIAs have been reviewed in respect of the Department over the last year. (120852)

Mr. Stephen Twigg: A Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) must be completed for all policy proposals that have a potential impact on businesses, charities or the voluntary sector. It includes details of the arrangements for monitoring and evaluating policy proposals and their impact.

Information on the number of RIAs that have been reviewed in respect of the Department in the last year is not held.

From this year, the National Audit Office (NAO) has a new role in independently evaluating a selection of RIAs. In their Annual Report, published in February 2003, the Better Regulation Task Force put forward suggestions of RIAs for the NAO to review.

The NAO review will focus on the quality of analysis in the RIAs and the thoroughness with which the RIAs have been undertaken. The findings and recommendations of best practice will be fed back to departments. It will play a valuable part in driving up standards of RIAs.

Schools Budget (Wandsworth)

Martin Linton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what plans he has to use his powers under the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 to compel Wandsworth Borough Council to increase its schools budget. [121705]

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Mr. Miliband: My right hon. Friend has no power to compel a local education authority to increase its actual school budget. His reserve power under the School Standards and Framework Act to set a minimum schools budget for an authority applies where he considers that the authority's proposed schools budget for the following year, as notified to the Secretary of State by 31 January, is inadequate.

School Funding Taskforce

Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps he has taken to ensure that head teachers are represented on the interdepartmental taskforce on school funding. [120474]

Mr. Miliband: The Department for Education and Skills is working in partnership with LEA and school representatives to identify changes that need to be made to the funding system for 2004–05 so that all schools can expect to receive a reasonable per pupil settlement in that year.

Headteachers are represented at these discussions. We will be discussing how best to ensure sufficient funding increases for every LEA; the right balance between support through general grant and through ring-fenced and targeted grant; confidence that schools and pupils will receive the money intended for them; the right balance between school and LEA central provision; that variations in the budget increases received by different schools within each LEA are appropriate and fair; and that workforce reform, in line with the National Agreement, can be sustained. We will aim to ensure that changes are in place in good time to allow LEAs and schools to plan for 2004–05 and so provide increased predictability and stability in school funding.

Student Finance

Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what estimate he has made of the number of undergraduate students undertaking courses for which annual per capita funding is less than £1,100. [121971]

Alan Johnson: No publicly funded courses in England attract less than £1,100 per full time equivalent student a year.

Sustainable Development

Mr. Roger Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what remit relating to sustainable development is required by his Department's (a) executive agencies; (b) advisory non-departmental bodies; (c) executive non-departmental bodies; (d) tribunals; (e) public corporations and (f) other bodies. [116669]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: The Department for Education and Skills has no executive agencies. Our executive non-departmental public bodies were tasked, in a letter sent in October 2000, with ensuring that sustainable development is incorporated into their activities and operations. As an example, in the remit letter issued to the Learning and Skills Council in November 2000, there are clear strategic objectives relating to sustainable

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development. Otherwise, we have one small independent tribunal, whose administrative function is provided by the Department.

My Department is developing a sustainable development action plan for the education sector. It will seek a step change in the environmental operations of all publicly-funded educational establishments in England and in how people learn about sustainable development in all contexts. The Department itself will aim to become a model of best practice and would expect the same to apply to all of our associate bodies.

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