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18 Mar 2004 : Column 476W—continued

School Innovation

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many schools have applied to the Department for (a) power to innovate, broken down by area of innovation applied for and (b) earned autonomy, broken down by reason for the application, as a result of the Education Act 2002. [162240]

Mr. Miliband: There have been 46 applications from schools to use the Power to Innovate as follows:

Quantity	Relevant legislation	Innovation
4	The Changing of School Session Times (England) Regulations 1999	To extend the length of the school day mid academic year, rather than wait until the beginning of the new school year. The purpose of the innovation was to provide extra curricular activities for pupils, freeing up time for teachers to work on planning, preparation, and to draw up education plans for individual pupils.
1	The Changing of School Session Times (England) Regulations 1999	To change the timings of the school day without the requirements set out in regulations to give the minimum of three months notice to parents and to consult parents at a meeting (instead parents were consulted by correspondence). The purpose of the innovation was to end the school day one hour early on alternate Wednesdays from September 2003, allowing staff to have a dedicated two-hour period once a fortnight for planning, preparation, assessment, and to hold meetings.
1	The Education (National Curriculum) (KS2 Assessment Arrangements) (England) Order 2003	Exemption sought from Key Stage 2 National Curriculum testing while replacing these tests with on-going teacher assessment procedures.
1	The Education (National Curriculum) (KS3 Assessment Arrangements) (England) Order 2003	Exemption sought from Key Stage 3 National Curriculum testing while replacing these tests with teacher assessed levels and within school monitoring and evaluation processes.
1	The Education (School Day and School Year) (England) Regulations 1999	To deliver the National Curriculum over four extended days freeing up Fridays to offer targeted activities for pupils.
38	The Education (School Day and School Year)	To increase the number of INSET days for activities including:
	(England) Regulations 1999	Target setting days
		Collaborative work between schools
		Professional development days for teachers
		Curriculum planning

18 Mar 2004 : Column 477W

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Ashford (Mr. Green) on Earned Autonomy on 23 September 2003.

School Meals

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what guidance has been issued to local education authorities in relation to the (a) cost and (b) quality of free school meal provision; [162078]

(2) what guidelines he has issued to assist schools and local education authorities in assessing the nutritional value of school meals. [162093]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: The Department for Education and Skills has produced guidance entitled 'Healthy School Lunches' for school caterers on implementing national nutritional standards, the standards apply to both free and paid for meals. Annex cii of the guidance provides details to caterers on how to assess the nutritional value of school meals. The guidance can be viewed on the website: www.dfes.gov.uk/schoollunches. In addition, the Secretary of State recommends that the value of a free school meal should be set to enable children to have a standard two course lunch and drink.

School Staff Redundancies

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many (a) teachers and (b) support staff in (I) primary and (ii) secondary schools he estimates will be made redundant in (A) 2003–04 and (B) 2004–05 as a result of falling rolls; and if he will make a statement. [162079]

Mr. Miliband: My right hon. Friend has made no such estimates. Decisions on the employment and deployment of teachers and support staff are for local education authorities and school governing bodies.

Sector Skills Councils

Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills when the network of sector skills councils will be operational. [160681]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: Good progress is being made in setting up the Skills for Business Network. Eleven Sector Skills Councils (SSCs) have now been awarded five year licences to operate by the Secretary of State. We expect to have around 20 SSCs in place by summer 2004 with a further three joining the network by the end of 2004.

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Security Passes

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how many security passes have been reported (a) lost and (b) stolen by staff in (i) his Department and (ii) departmental agencies in the last 12 months; [147904]

(2) how many security passes have been reported (a) lost and (b) stolen by staff in his Department in the last 12 months. [150404]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: My Department has since 1 January 2003 the following lost and stolen passes reported:

401 security passes have been reported lost by staff in the Department for Education and Skills.

32 security passes have been reported stolen by staff in the Department for Education and Skills.

No security passes have been reported lost or stolen in the Department for Education and Skills' agencies.

Skills Courses (London)

Martin Linton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many students were attending (a) English as a second language and (b) basic skills courses in London in the latest month for which figures are available, broken down by borough. [162110]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: The numbers of enrolments in Greater London on (a) English as a second language (ESOL) and (b) other Basic Skills courses in London in 2002/03 are set out below. A breakdown by borough is not available, a split is provided by Local Learning Skills Council (LSC).

Enrolments on adult basic skills courses in Greater London in 2002–03⁽³¹⁾Thousands

Local LSC	(a) ESOL	(b) Basic skills in literary and numeracy
London Central	49	21
London East	43	30
London North	23	10
London South	17	11
London West	38	11
Total	170	83

⁽³¹⁾ Note figures are based on learning aims so may count a learner more than once.

Source:

Learning and Skills Council

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Schools Funding

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much public funding has been allocated to schools in Chorley for information and communications technologies since 2001. [161556]

Mr. Charles Clarke: I refer my hon. Friend to my response to his question about funding for computers in schools in Chorley for the last seven years on 16 March 2004, Official Report, column 226W.

Skills Shortages

Tony Lloyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will make a statement on the Government's policy on addressing skills shortages through programmes developed in conjunction with the Learning and Skills Council. [162129]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Skills Strategy White Paper—"21st Century Skills, Realising Our Potential"—set out our ambitious programme to tackle skills shortages. It commits the Government, the Learning and Skills Council and other key partners to a radical strategy of demand-led provision of skills, meeting the needs of employers as expressed through the new Sector Skills Councils, 12 of which are already licensed. New Regional Skills Partnerships will bring together the key players to ensure specific regional skills shortages are addressed, and the whole strategy is overseen at a national level by the Skills Alliance.

Small Businesses (Support)

Brian Cotter: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will list the support programmes for small businesses that (a) his Department and (b) its agencies have financed in each of the last five years; how much money was allocated for each scheme in each year; how much money has gone unclaimed under each scheme; and how many small businesses have benefited from each scheme. [161254]

Mr. Charles Clarke [holding answer 15 March 2004]: The Cross-cutting review of Government services for small business was published in December 2002, and outlines the services provided to small businesses from across Government. My Department and its agencies provides indirect support to small business through measures aimed at workforce development. Some support, but are not restricted to, small businesses, others are specifically for small businesses. The principle programmes through which my Department has supported small business over the last five years are:

The Small Firms Training Loans

(SFTL) programme was introduced in Great Britain in 1994 and closed on 1 February 2003. Firms could borrow between £500 and £125,000 for vocational training, with a repayment holiday of between six and 12 months. The Department paid the interest on the loan during this period and provided a loan default guarantee. The loan repayment term was for up to seven years. Over the life of the scheme 211 loans totalling £1,344,000 were made by Banks, at a programme cost of £533,000.

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Key Worker Initiative

For businesses employing 10 to 49 people was launched in 1998 and finished in 2000. Training and Enterprise Councils (TECs) delivered this programme.

Employer Learning Networks

A £2.5 million ELN challenge fund was set up in 2000–01 to encourage collaborative action by employers in England. The fund supported 18 projects, which covered some of the smaller firms (with less than 50 employees) across a range of sectors.

Investors in People (IiP)

The National HP programme 1997 included targets for coverage of the workforce and small firms (employing 10 to 49 people) to be achieved by 2002. TECs delivered this initially, it was taken over by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) when it succeeded the TECs in April 2001.

Investors in People Small Firms Initiative

(SFI) was launched on 27 February 2003, as a partnership between the LSC, IiP UK and the SBS. SFI aims to boost the performance, capability and competitiveness of small firms by encouraging them to achieve recognition against the HP standard. The initiative offers business support up to the value of £1,250 to individual small companies on a first come first served basis. The initiative has a budget of £30 million; we will know final take up in March 2005.

Employer Training Pilots (ETPs)

ETPs are currently operating in 12 Learning and Skills Council (LSC) areas. six began in September 2002 with a budget of £ 40 million. A further six commenced in September 2003 and the existing six were extended for a further year using an additional £ 130 million. Of the 7,000 employers that had signed up for ETPs at the end of January 2004 71 per cent. (4,970) had less than 50 employees. In December 2003 the Chancellor announced an extra £ 120 million to extend the existing 12 by a further year and to create a further six pilots.

Leadership and Management

In collaboration with DTI, IIP, Ufi, LSC and others we are trialling a new flexible Leadership and Management development programme for owner-managers and CEOs of SMEs (20—250 staff). The overall budget is £43.7 million over the period 2003–04 to 2005–06. Six Pathfinder areas are setting up in February and March and employers are expected to participate from April 2004.

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