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17 Dec 2003 : Column 970W—continued

Teacher Vacancies

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills pursuant to his Answer of 4 December 2003, Official Report, column 191W, on teacher vacancies, what recent assessment he has made of the number of secondary school teachers in Portsmouth; what steps he is taking to increase numbers; and if he will make a statement. [143963]

Mr. Miliband: The number of full-time equivalent regular teachers in maintained secondary schools in Portsmouth local education authority in January of each year was as follows:

	Number
2000	600
2001	650
2002	640
2003	620

Source:

DfES annual 618G survey.

A number of incentives have been introduced aimed at encouraging teacher supply and retention. Students on Postgraduate Certificate in Education courses, for example, receive a £6,000 training bursary as well as having their tuition fees paid by the Government. Those who qualify in priority subjects also receive a £4,000 Golden Hello after induction. The Government will continue to take such measures as it believes appropriate to ensure that teacher supply meets demand.

Teachers

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what proportion of teachers working in English schools and colleges were trained in the United Kingdom. [144282]

Mr. Miliband: The information is not available in the form requested. In January 2003, there were 408,400 full-time equivalent regular teachers in the maintained schools sector in England with qualified teacher status (QTS).

Qualified Teacher Status is normally obtained either by successfully completing an accredited course of initial teacher training in England, or under mutual recognition of qualifications arrangements with other countries.

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Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many teacher training places have been provided in (a) higher education and (b) further education institutions in each of the past five years; and what estimate he has made of the number in each of the next five years. [144283]

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Alan Johnson: The table shows the number of places on courses of initial teacher training allocated by the Teacher Training Agency to higher and further education institutions in England in each of the last five years. The data do not include places allocated to other sorts of training providers, or places on employment-based training routes.

Allocated places

	1999/2000	2000/01	2001/02	2002/03	2003/04
Higher education institutions	25,955	27,353	28,275	30,183	33,259
Further education institutions	222	231	233	233	313

Source:

Teacher Training Agency

We expect the final numbers of places for 2004/05 and indicative numbers of places in 2005/06 and 2006/07 to be announced later this month.

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what estimate he has made of the number of teachers who have been recruited by schools from further education colleges in the past three years. [144285]

Mr. Miliband: The following table shows the number of regular teachers in full or part-time ¹ service in the maintained school sector in England in March of each year shown, who were in full-time service in further education in England in the preceding March.

Year moved to schools sector	Number moving
2000	210
2001	300
2002	540

Source:

Database of teacher records.

¹ Around 10 to 20 per cent. of part-timers may not be included.

University Students

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how many university students there were in the UK in (a) 1973, (b) 1980 and (c) 1990; and how many there are currently; [143696]

(2) how many students from the Bassetlaw constituency entered university in (a) 1973, (b) 1980, (c) 1990 and (d) 2003. [143694]

Alan Johnson [holding answer 11 December 2003]: Figures for the number of students who enter higher education are not collated centrally by constituency. The total number of students in HE for these years is shown in the table.

Higher education students⁽²⁵⁾ in the UK

Academic year	Students (thousands)
1973/74	682
1980/81	827
1990/91	1,175
2001/02	2,163

⁽²⁵⁾ Covers all students from the UK and overseas on postgraduate or undergraduate courses.

Voluntary Aided Schools

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what discussions he has had with the bodies representing voluntary aided schools about their contribution to capital expenditure arising from departmental initiatives. [144067]

Mr. Miliband: Officials in my Department have regular discussions with the Church of England Board of Education and the Catholic Education Service in connection with the funding of work at Voluntary Aided schools.

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will make a statement on the contribution that the sponsors of Voluntary Aided Schools have to make to capital projects when (a) the project is initiated by the school and (b) the project is initiated by the Department. [144073]

Mr. Miliband: Voluntary Aided Schools must usually contribute at least 10 per cent. towards the cost of capital work at their schools and for which they receive grant support for the remaining 90 per cent. from my Department. Legislation allows grant to be paid at a rate of up to 100 per cent. in exceptional circumstances, although those circumstances are not defined in the relevant legislation. Our published guidance indicates that such an example might be where Ministers have initiated a specific policy programme which also applies to Voluntary Aided Schools.

West Sussex County Council

Mr. Tyrie: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how much of the schools damping grant allocated to West Sussex county council for 2003–04 is as a direct result of the education funding changes in 2003–04; [143866]

(2) if he will list the local education authorities that have had an increase in (a) schools damping grant and (b) local education authority damping grant for 2003–04; [143867]

(3) for how many years he will continue to provide schools damping for West Sussex county council at the 2003–04 rate. [143872]

Mr. Miliband: The Government introduced a new funding system for local authorities in 2003–04, replacing Standard Spending Assessments with Formula Spending Shares. In order to phase in the

17 Dec 2003 : Column 973W

distributional changes implied by the Education Formula Spending Shares, the Government introduced floors and ceilings arrangements for both the school and LEA funding blocks. All of the "damping" amounts within the school and LEA Formula Spending Shares are therefore attributable to the education funding changes in 2003–04. 2003–04 was the first year of this system within the Schools and LEA Formula Spending Shares and it is not therefore possible to calculate an increase in damping amount for 2003–04 over previous years.

These arrangements will continue for as long as necessary. The actual amount allocated will be determined year-on-year and announced at the provisional local government finance settlement.

Work-related Stress

Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what progress has been made towards the creation of a central register for cases of work-related stress in the Department. [141691]

Mr. Charles Clarke: My Department is committed to protect the physical and mental health of its employees by providing a safe and healthy working environment. This includes providing occupational health and employee assistance services that offer professional advice to individuals, and to line managers, to help identify and address stress related issues.

My Department is currently developing a written strategy to help reduce stress-related illnesses and absences building on the guidance in the HSE publication "Real Solutions, Real People: A Managers' Guide to Tackling Work Related Stress" My Department has no plans to create a central register for cases of work-related stress.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

Biological Weapons Convention

Tony Lloyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list those countries he deems in contravention of the Biological Weapons Convention. [143493]

Mr. MacShane [holding answer 15 December 2003]: The UK routinely monitors the compliance of all States Parties to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC).

The UK is a Depositary Government of the BTWC, which entered into force in 1975, and currently numbers 151 countries.

We continue to view the issue of compliance with the Convention as being of central importance and made specific reference to this point in our statement to the BTWC Review Conference in November 2002.

However, it is not our policy to list or name those individual countries we judge to be in contravention with their obligations.

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