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19 Nov 2003 : Column 1003W—continued
Graduate Tax
Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will publish side-by-side comparative analyses of the cashflow profiles, showing projected expenditure and receipts of (a) the graduate payback scheme proposed in the White Paper on Higher Education and (b) the principal variants of a graduate tax which his Department has considered. [139342]
Alan Johnson: I refer my hon. Friend to the two letters to my hon. Friend from my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, dated 11 April 2003 and 3 June 2003. Copies of both letters are in the House Library. I also refer my hon. Friend to the Government response to the Education and Skills Select Committee's report on the Higher Education White paper, published on 28 July, and to a letter to my hon. Friend from my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, dated 12 November 2003.
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Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will place in the Library copies of focus group research which his Department has carried out into (a) higher education funding and (b) possible graduate contribution schemes. [139364]
Alan Johnson: Copies of "Student funding: findings from a two-stage programme of qualitative research on the funding of higher education" were placed in the Library and posted on the Department's Internet site on 28 March 2003.
Graduates
Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what recent reports he has received from Barclays Bank in respect of changes to the time it is taking for graduates to find a permanent employed position after leaving university. [139628]
Alan Johnson: The Department has not received any recent reports from Barclays Bank on the changing patterns of graduate employment.
Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what recent reports he has received from Barclays Bank regarding recent levels of average graduate salaries. [139639]
Alan Johnson: The Department has not received any recent reports from Barclays Bank on average graduate salaries.
Higher Education
Mr. Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much has been spent on widening participation in higher education in each year since 1997; on what schemes; and how much will be spent in each of the next five years. [137203]
Alan Johnson: Excluding student support, the relevant schemes and initiatives are as follows:
- Aimhigher (previously called Excellence Challenge) provides grants mainly to schools and colleges to raise the aspirations and attainment levels of young people. The Higher Education Funding Council for England's (HEFCE) Partnerships for Progression provides funds to universities for outreach. The White Paper The future of higher education announced that these two initiatives would be merged to form a new Aimhigher programme. Between 1998 and 2003, HEFCE established regionally based widening participation projects. Expenditure on these schemes and initiatives to 2005–06 are given in the following tables.
In addition, HEFCE uses part of its teaching grant to provide a widening participation premium to universities to assist them with the additional costs of recruiting and retaining students from non-traditional backgrounds. The amount for this is £255 million in 2003–04, which includes £10 million from the Department's Aimhigher/Excellence challenge budget. HEFCE's disability allocation (£10 million in 2003–04) provides additional funding to universities to support recruitment and retention of disabled students.
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| 1998–99 | 1999–2000 | 2000–01 | 2001–02 | 2002–03 | 2003–04 | 2004–05(25) | 2005–06(25) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Excellence Challenge/higher | — | — | — | 50 | 69.5 | 100 | — | — |
| Partnerships for Progression | — | — | — | — | — | 20 | — | — |
| The new Aimhigher | — | — | — | — | — | — | 126 | 128 |
| HEFCE's Regional projects | 1.5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | — | — | — |
| Total non-student support | 1.5 | 5 | 5 | 55 | 74.5 | 120 | 126 | 128 |
Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what models of higher education funding his Department has assessed based on increases to (a) basic rate income tax, (b) basic rate national insurance payable by individuals and businesses, (c) income tax paid by higher rate taxpayers only and (d) national insurance payable by individuals and businesses in respect of higher rate taxpayers only. [139163]
Alan Johnson: I refer my hon. Friend to the two letters to my hon. Friend from my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, dated 11 April 2003 and 3 June 2003. Copies of both letters are in the House Library. I also refer my hon. Friend to the Government response to the Education and Skills Select Committee's report on the Higher Education White paper, published on 28 July, and to a letter to my hon. Friend from my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, dated 12 November 2003.
Household Incomes
Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will publish the latest research he has commissioned on average household incomes by (a) parliamentary constituency and (b) local education authority in (i) England and Wales, (ii) Scotland and (iii) Northern Ireland. [139634]
Ruth Kelly: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Farrelly dated 19 November 2003:
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As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent question relating to research commissioned on average household incomes by (a) parliamentary constituency and (b) local education authority in (i) England and Wales, (ii) Scotland and (iii) Northern Ireland.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has not commissioned any research on average household incomes by parliamentary constituencies or by local education authorities. However, estimates of average household income and household disposable income are available at regional, sub-regional and local area levels (NUTS levels 1, 2 and 3 respectively), and were published in a news release on 26 March 2002, available on the National Statistics website at: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/reg0302.pdf.
In most cases, NUTS level 3 areas are groups of administrative areas that are also local education authorities, but this is not the case throughout the UK.
ONS has also conducted work to develop estimates of average incomes at the ward level, and the results should be published within the next three months. However, these estimates cannot simply be aggregated to parliamentary constituencies or local education authorities. These results will be the best estimates at the ward level, and to produce the best estimates for parliamentary constituencies or local education authorities, different methodologies are likely to be more appropriate.
I understand that there is work carried out by the devolved administrations in Scotland and Northern Ireland on household incomes at various geographic levels.
Key Stage 3
Mr. Flook: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what proportion of children in (a) Wiltshire, (b) Dorset and (c) Devon gained level 5 or above in the Key Stage 3 tests in (i) English and (ii) mathematics in each year since 1997. [138963]
Mr. Miliband [holding answer 17 November 2003]: The percentage of pupils achieving Level 5 or above at Key Stage 3 in (a) Wiltshire (b) Dorset and (c) Devon in (i) English and (ii) mathematics from 1997 onwards are:
| (a) Wiltshire LEA | (b) Dorset LEA | (c) Devon LEA(25) | England | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | Maths | English | Maths | English | Maths | English | Maths | |
| 2003(26) | 74 | 77 | 75 | 77 | 70 | 73 | 68 | 70 |
| 2002 | 70 | 73 | 72 | 73 | 71 | 71 | 67 | 67 |
| 2001 | 69 | 72 | 70 | 73 | 65 | 70 | 65 | 66 |
| 2000 | 70 | 71 | 70 | 72 | 63 | 67 | 64 | 65 |
| 1999 | 71 | 69 | 67 | 69 | 66 | 66 | 64 | 62 |
| 1998 | 71 | 66 | 68 | 65 | 68 | 64 | 65 | 59 |
| 1997 | 63 | 67 | 62 | 68 | 60 | 63 | 57 | 60 |
(25) For 1997, Devon LEA included schools in Torbay and Plymouth. Following the local government reorganisation in 1998, Torbay and Plymouth schools are excluded from the Devon figures.
(26) The 2003 information is based on provisional data.
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