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EDUCATION

School Construction

Mr. Collins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will list the new schools to be built in (a) Bassetlaw, (b) Birmingham, Northfield, (c) Birmingham, Perry Barr, (d) Blaydon, (e) Blyth Valley, (f) Bootle, (g) Bradford, West, (h) Braintree, (i) Burton, (j) Coventry, North-West, (k) Coventry, South, (l) Dover, (m) Ealing, North, (n) Eltham, (o) Feltham and Heston, (p) Forest of Dean, (q) Gateshead, East and Washington, West, (r) Hammersmith and Fulham, (s) Hendon, (t) Hornsey and Wood Green, (u) Ilford, North, (v) Kettering, (w) Knowsley, South, (x) Lancaster and Wyre, (y) Leeds, North-East, (z) Leeds, West, (aa) Leicester, East, (bb) Lewisham, Deptford, (cc) Liverpool, Riverside, (dd) Loughborough, (ee) Manchester, Withington, (ff) Milton Keynes, North-East, (gg) Northampton, South, (hh) North-West Leicestershire, (ii) Reading, East, (jj) Reading, West, (kk) Rugby and Kenilworth, (ll) Sheffield, Attercliffe, (mm) Sheffield, Hillsborough, (nn) Sittingbourne and Sheppey, (oo) Stevenage, (pp) Stockton North, (qq) Stoke-on-Trent, (rr) Stourbridge, (ss) Thurrock, (tt) Tyne Bridge, (uu) Wallasey, (vv) Wansbeck, (ww) Waveney, (xx) West

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Lancashire, (yy) Wirral, West, (zz) Wolverhampton, North-East and (aaa) Wolverhampton, South-East; and when the decision was taken to build them. [153776]

Mr. Miliband: The following annex lists the schools and academies that, to our knowledge, are being built or are scheduled to be built in the near future.

However, as the majority of capital funding is now allocated to local education authorities by formula, so that they can fund locally agreed priorities, the Department does not collect detailed information about all new schools being built within an authority. Therefore additional information on this should be held locally.

Overall capital investment is set to rise from £3.8 billion this year to over £5 billion in 2005–06, compared to under £700 million in 1996–97. Within the overall funding for 2003–04, £512 million has been allocated on the basis of demonstrated basic need (new pupil places). However, it is for local education authorities to decide whether or not they need to build a new school in order to accommodate all pupils in their area.

The hon. Member will be aware that we have just announced successful projects for the first wave of the Building Schools for the Future programme, which aims to rebuild or renew all secondary schools within a 10–15 year period.

List of schools being built or due to be built in the near future

Constituency	School name
(a) Bassetlaw	Bassetlaw post 16 and community learning centre—December 2002Bircotes and Harworth Community Secondary School—December 2002Hartland Comprehensive School—December 2002Portland Comprehensive—December 2002Retford Oaks High—December 2002The Elizabethan High School—December 2002The King Edward VI School—December 2002Tuxford Comprehensive School—December 2002Valley Comprehensive School—December 2002
(c) Birmingham, Perry Bar	Kingsland Primary School—March 2003St. James CE Jl School (VC)—March 2003
(k) Coventry, South	St. Mary's and St. Benedict's Catholic Primary—2002
(m) Ealing, North	West London Academy—December 2002
(q) Gateshead, East and Washington, West	St. Edmund Campion Roman Catholic—2003
(s) Hendon	Akiva—2004
(y) Leeds, North-East	Allerton Grange—November 2003Carr Manor new High School—November 2003
(bb) Lewisham, Deptford	Ashmead Primary School—April 2002Childeric Primary School—April 2002Lewisham 2 Haberdashers—March 2004Crofton School—April 2002Gordonbrock Primary School—April 2002
(cc) Liverpool, Riverside	Shorefields School—June 1999Vauxhall VA Primary School—June 1999Liverpool 2 Kensington—August 2003
(ff) Milton Keynes	Christ the Sower—2003St. Bernadettes—2002
(gg) Northampton, South	Delapre Middle School—December 2002Duston Upper School—December 2002St. Crispins Primary—December 2002
(ll) Sheffield, Attercliffe	Westfield School—November 2002
(rr) Stourbridge—Dudley	Colley Lane Primary School—June 2000
(xx) West Lancashire	Guerdon Church—2003

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School Deficits

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will the list the deficit for each school as at 31 March 2003, broken down by local education authority. [154605]

Mr. Miliband: The information requested is not yet available. The Department is awaiting a complete dataset relating to the 2002–03 financial year from a number of local education authorities. I shall write to the hon. Member when all of the information for 2002–03 is to hand.

School Funding

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what (a) financial and (b) other assistance is available to help schools adapt to the change in funding they receive as a result of falling rolls. [152134]

Mr. Miliband: The minimum funding guarantee, which is part of the package of measures to restore stability and certainty to school funding over the next two years announced by the Secretary of State on 29 October, specifically recognises that schools with falling rolls have fixed costs for items such as cleaning, repairs and heating which do not reduce when pupil numbers go down. Such schools are guaranteed a per pupil funding increase in 2004–05 of more than 4 per cent., which is our guaranteed increase for schools where numbers do not change. In addition, LEAs can have safety nets in their local funding formulae to assist schools with falling rolls, and the mechanism which provides revenue support grant to authorities has one year data lag built into it designed to assist LEAs with overall falling rolls in their schools.

School Meals

Mr. Hurst: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the net cost of the provision of school meals was to Essex county council in each year from 1990 to 2003. [150910]

Mr. Miliband: My Department does not collect this information from schools or local education authorities.

David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much money on average was spent per pupil per day on school meals by East Riding of Yorkshire local education authority in each of the last three years in (a) primary schools and (b) secondary schools. [153284]

Mr. Miliband: My Department does not collect this information from schools or local education authorities.

Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many local authorities have delegated the school meals service to primary schools; and if he will make a statement. [151764]

Mr. Miliband: My Department does not collect this information.

Schools (Nottingham)

Mr. Allen: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what advice his Department gave to the City

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of Nottingham on its bid under the Building Schools for the Future programme; and if he will make a statement on the quality of the bid. [152954]

Mr. Miliband: In July 2003, we announced guidance on the Building Schools for the Future programme which invited all authorities to apply for funding in the first wave of the programme, or to express an interest in inclusion in later waves. My officials then held a series of road shows around the country, to which all authorities were invited, where they were able to discuss the programme and the guidance in open sessions and also in one-to-one sessions with my officials.

Proposals for inclusion in the first wave of funding from 2005–06 have now been rigorously appraised against the criteria for prioritisation in the guidance, and we are shortly to make an announcement. Announcements on subsequent wave funding will be made later this year.

We propose to give detailed feedback to authorities which are not successful in applications for wave one funding.

Schools for the Future

Mr. Allen: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the criteria are for his decisions on the allocation of money for Schools for the Future; and if he will place a copy in the Library. [154604]

Mr. Miliband: I refer my right hon. Friend to the answer I gave on 15 January 2004, Official Report, column 896W. We published our criteria for prioritisation in the Building Schools for the Future Programme in July 2003, and is available for reference in the Libraries of the House.

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