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16 Mar 2004 : Column 237W—continued
School Year (Tourism)
Jim Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if his Department will issue guidance to local education authorities on the economic impact on tourism of adopting a six-term school year. [161214]
Mr. Miliband: Proposals for a standard six-term school year have been developed by an Independent Commission on the School Year which was established by the Local Government Association. The commission included representation from the tourism industry. My right hon. Friend sees merit in the argument for standardising the length of school terms. Decisions on school term dates and holidays however continue to be the responsibility of individual local education authorities or school governing bodies, depending on the category of school.
Schools (Lockers)
Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what percentage of schools in England provide full locker facilities for all pupils attending school. [161380]
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Mr. Miliband: The Department does not have these figures, nor figures for other types of personal storage in schools. However, the Education (School Premises) Regulations 1999 require that the buildings provided for a school shall be adequate to allow for the storing and drying of pupils' outdoor clothing, and for the storing of their other belongings. Local education authorities are responsible for ensuring that the premises of maintained schools conform to these regulations.
Schools Science Budgets
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the percentage change in the science budget in schools has been in Buckingham in each year since 1997. [161581]
Mr. Miliband: My Department does not collect this information.
Sixth Forms
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will make a statement on the procedure for closing a school sixth form; whether such a decision is accountable to the whole local education authority; and whether there is a statutory appeal process. [160926]
Mr. Miliband: Proposals to close a school sixth form may be published by the LEA or Governing Body depending on the category of school. Proposals to close a school sixth form after two poor Ofsted reports may also be published by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC). For both types of proposals the five stages in the process are consultation; publication; a six week representation period (one month in the case of LSC proposals); decision and implementation. LEAs may determine their own proposals to close schools sixth forms provided there are no objections to the proposals. Where there are objections—including from the school concerned—proposals fall to be considered by the School Organisation Committee (SOC) or schools adjudicator if the SOC cannot reach a unanimous decision. LEAs and LSCs are represented on SOCs along with other key groups.
As part of a reorganisation of 16–19 provision, the LSC can also publish a proposal to close a school sixth form following recommendations in an Ofsted Area Inspection report, or where they can demonstrate that the proposals will improve participation, raise standards or broaden the range of provision. The steps in this process are to publish a preliminary notice and consult for at least two months; publish formal proposals with a further two-month objections period; and submit the proposals to the Secretary of State one month later for a decision.
Neither the SOC nor the school adjudicator is accountable to the LEA. Apart from judicial review, there is no statutory appeals process following decisions by the SOC, the adjudicator or Secretary of State.
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will make a statement on the procedure for opening a new school sixth form; and whether such a decision is made by the local education authority. [161388]
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Mr. Charles Clarke: Proposals to open a new school sixth form may be published by the LEA, or the Governing Body of the school. The five stages in the process are consultation; publication; a six week representation period; decision and implementation. LEAs may determine their own proposals to open school sixth forms provided there are no objections to the proposals. All other proposals are determined by the School Organisation Committee (SOC) or schools adjudicator if the SOC cannot reach a unanimous decision.
As part of a reorganisation of 16–19 provision, the LSC can also publish proposals to open a school sixth form following recommendations of an Ofsted area inspection report or where they can demonstrate that the proposals will improve participation, raise standards or broaden the range of provision. The steps in this process are to publish a preliminary notice and consult for at least two months; publish formal proposals with a further two-month objections and comments period; and submit the proposals to the Secretary of State one month later for a decision.
Teacher Numbers/Vacancies
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many (a) primary school and (b) secondary school teachers there were per pupil of the relevant age-group in each year since 1997. [160478]
Mr. Miliband: The data requested are shown in the table.
| Primary | Secondary | |
|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 23.4 | 16.7 |
| 1998 | 23.7 | 16.9 |
| 1999 | 23.5 | 17.0 |
| 2000 | 23.3 | 17.2 |
| 2001 | 22.9 | 17.1 |
| 2002 | 22.5 | 16.9 |
| 2003 | 22.6 | 17.0 |
Source:
Annual Schools' Census.
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The underlying pupil and teacher figures were published on 25 September 2003 in the statistical volume, "Statistics of Education, Schools in England 2003", a copy of which has been placed in the Library. The table is also available on the statistics section of the DfES website at: http://www.dfes.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/VOL/v000417/index.shtml
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many teacher vacancies there were in Chorley on the latest date for which figures are available; and what steps he is taking to reduce them. [161451]
Mr. Miliband: The information is not available in the form requested. In January 2003, there were 40 vacancies for full-time teachers in maintained schools in the Lancashire local education authority (LEA) area, which includes Chorley.
Like other areas, since 1997 Chorley has benefited from the initiatives that the Government have put in place to recruit and retain teachers and to increase the number of staff supporting them in schools. Since 1997, the number of full-time equivalent regular teachers in maintained schools in the former Lancashire LEA area has risen by 390, from 11,870 to 12,260 in 2003. Over the same period, the number of full-time equivalent school support staff in the area has grown by 2,870 from 3,620 to 6,490 in 2003.
Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many staff the Department employs on a temporary basis through employment agencies; what percentage this is of total staff employed; and how much the Department paid employment agencies to supply temporary staff in (a) 2001–02, (b) 2002–03 and (c) 2003–04 to the most recent date for which figures are available. [158252]
Mr. Charles Clarke: The following table gives the figures for the past three financial years since the Department for Education and Skills was established in 2001.
The significant increase in 2002–2003 was largely due to the implementation of a new range of policy development in Schools Directorate and the general establishment of the new Department.
| Number of agency staff | Financial year | Agency spend of the financial year (£) | Percentage of total staffing budget | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | 1,614 | June 2001 to March 2002(14) | 1,780,629.70 | 1.46 |
| 2003 | 1,746 | April 2002 to March 2003 | 2,688,149.33 | 2.12 |
| 2004 | 117 (Jan.) | April 2003 to January 2004 | 1,456,921.04 | 1.12 |
(14) DfES was created following Machinery of Government changes in June 2001.
University Bursaries
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills which universities have indicated that they will commence bursary schemes from 2006–07 for students from families with incomes (a) between £15,970 and £22,270 and (b) between £22,270 and £33,533; and how much money is being given in each case. [161436]
Alan Johnson: I am placing today in the Library a copy of a letter from Universities UK to me, which outlines these details as currently known. Individual universities are responsible for their own bursary schemes.
Websites
Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the cost in (a) financial and (b) other terms was in (i) each financial year since 1997
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and (ii) 2003–04 until the latest date for which figures are available of (A) developing and (B) maintaining (1) his Department's website and (2) each website for which his Department is responsible; and how many (C) unique hosts and (D) hits there were in each month for each website in (iii) each financial year since 1997 and (iv) 2003–04 until the latest date for which numbers are available. [155850]
Mr. Charles Clarke: The information requested is as follows.
(a) (A and B; 1 and 2) Core programme costs, for developing and maintaining the Department for Education and Skills central website www.dfes.gov.uk and the other sites it is responsible (our six customer portals and Curriculum Online (from 2003)) are as follows:
| Central website www.dfes.gov.uk(15) | Customer facing portals (six sites) | Curriculum online www.curriculumonline.gov.uk | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997–98 | 43,200 | — | — |
| 1998–99 | 84,200 | — | — |
| 1999–2000 | 140,300 | — | — |
| 2000–01 | 266,600 | — | — |
| 2001–02 | 654,800 | — | — |
| 2002–03 | 1,747,000 | — | 2,753,875 |
| 2003–04 | 1,900,000 | 978,000 | 2,394,598 |
(15) From 2002 costs include hosting for other online services provided by the Department Figures for agencies and non-departmental public bodies are not included as collection of this information represents disproportionate costs.
(b) We have assumed that cost in 'other terms' refers to staff overheads. Collection of this information represents a disproportionate cost.
(C) Unique hosts—We have considered this to mean the number of 'hosting services' (virtual and dedicated) that we are contracted to use. We are contracted with one supplier.
(D) (iii and iv)—Our site traffic figures are collected according the standards laid down in the Office of the e-Envoy's Guidelines for UK Government Websites which recommends that web teams should give more importance to unique visitors and page impressions than to hits.
Historical figures are only available for 2000 onwards Site traffic figures are as follows:
| 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| DfES: www.dfes.gov.uk | |||
| Visits | 5,479,049 | 13,037,249 | |
| Unique visitors | 1,293,000 | 1,148,743 | 4,189,925 |
| Page impressions | 43,700,000 | 74,491,274 | 160,164,079 |
| 2003 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Customer portals | ||
| Visits | 4,390,139 | |
| Unique visitors | 1,572,963 | |
| Page impressions | 53,744,094 | |
| Curriculum online: www.curriculumonline.gov.uk | ||
| Visits | 495,408 | |
| Unique visitors | 429,804 | |
| Page impressions | 4,100,100 | |
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