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1 Apr 2004 : Column 1549W—continued

Free School Meals

Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the cost of free school meals was per child, broken down by local education authority, in the last 12 months for which figures are available. [165029]

Mr. Miliband: This information is not collected centrally.

Gap Year

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will commission research into the number of post-A level students who take a gap year before entering university over the next three years in order to help evaluate the impact of changes in higher education student fees and indebtedness. [163989]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Government will continue to monitor the number of students accepted to university with deferred entry, as made available by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS).

In addition information will be available through the independent commission established to consider all aspects of the new arrangements based on the first three years of variable fees. The Terms of Reference of this commission were announced by the Secretary of State on 26 January 2004.

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what (a) proportion and (b) number of post-A level students took a gap year before entering university in each of the last five years. [163991]

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Mr. Ivan Lewis: The available information comes from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) and covers deferred entry for 18-year-old, full-time, accepted applicants to first degree and HMD study in the UK. Figures are in the following table.

UK domiciled 18-year-old applicants, accepted through UCAS with deferred entry

Year ofapplication	Total accepted applicants	Total accepted on deferred basis	Percentage deferred
1998/99	148,301	14,261	9.6
1999/00	146,670	14,975	10.2
2000/01	147,986	16,007	10.8
2001/02	156,790	18,840	12.0
2002/03	161,032	19,600	12.2

Source:

UCAS.

This information excludes students who defer making their application to UCAS until they are already taking a gap year.

Healthy Eating

Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what meetings he has had with the (a) retail and (b) food and drink industry to discuss healthy eating in schools. [165033]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and Skills has had several meetings with the retail and food industries to discuss healthy eating in schools.

Individual Learning Accounts

Mr. Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what plans he has to compensate companies forced to close due to the termination of individual learning accounts. [164783]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Department has no plans to compensate learning providers in relation to their participation in the individual learning accounts (ILA) programme following the closure of the programme on 23 November 2001. The extent to which organisations made business decisions around ILA participation is something each organisation determined for itself.

Isle of Wight Youth Trust

Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what grants he has paid to the Isle of Wight Youth Trust, Wight2BHeard, in each of the last three years; and under what programme. [162764]

Mr. Ivan Lewis [holding answer 22 March 2004]: During the last three years I have made no payments to the Isle of Wight Youth Trust, Wight2BHeard.

Opinion Sampling

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what his estimate is of total expenditure by his Department on (a) focus groups and (b) opinion polls in each year from 1995–96 to 2003–04; and if he will make a statement. [162754]

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Mr. Charles Clarke: The Department commissions tightly focused market research to help with the strategic development of publicity campaigns and their evaluation. The expenditure on opinion and market research projects for the years since 1995 is listed in the following table. Information is not held in a form which would allow the projects to be differentiated into the categories requested; some would involve a combination of methodologies.

	£000
1995–96	596
1996–97	647
1997–98	863
1998–99	1,409
1999–2000	1,687
2000–01	2,340
2001–02	1,256
2002–03	2,078
2003–04 (to date)	1,564

Overseas Employees

Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many nationals of sub-Saharan African countries are employed by (a) state schools, (b) local education authorities and (c) his Department (i) directly and (ii) through private agencies. [164421]

Mr. Miliband: Information on the nationality of employees in state schools, local education authorities and this department is not collected centrally.

Overseas Students

Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many students in higher education are from each EU country; what proportion from each country are assisted from public funds to meet the cost of fees or maintenance; and to what extent. [164081]

Alan Johnson [holding answer 26 March 2004]: The Government are required under Article 12 of the EC Treaty to treat EU students no less favourably than UK students with regard to tuition fees. EU students make a means-assessed contribution to their tuition fees, with the remainder being made up by the Government (via HEFCE). EU students are not entitled to receive support with maintenance costs.

Table A shows the number of full-time undergraduate students enrolled in England and Wales in 2002/03 by domicile. The percentages refer to the numbers of students qualifying for assistance with the means-assessed element of the tuition fees.

The percentage number of EU students qualifying for assistance is lower than the percentage of UK full-time undergraduate students enrolled in England and Wales in academic year 2001/02 who are receiving full or partial support with their tuition fees, as Table B shows.

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Table A

		Percentage
Domicile	Enrolments	Full assistance	Partial assistance
Greece	9,304	47	11
France	6,739	22	7
Germany	6,932	15	6
Irish Republic	3,998	36	7
Spain	4,253	27	4
Italy	2,597	32	7
Sweden	2,276	46	11
Finland	1,382	32	11
Belgium	1,291	7	3
Netherlands	1,041	17	6
Portugal	1,103	50	7
Denmark	863	39	8
Austria	697	17	7
Luxembourg	456	3	2
Gibraltar	490	10	4
Total	43,422	32	8

Table BPercentage

	Full assistance	Partial assistance
UK students	43	16
EU Students	32	8

Parliamentary Questions

Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills when he will answer the Questions tabled by the hon. Member for Torbay on 3 March for answer on 5 March, reference 159415 and 159416. [165493]

Margaret Hodge: A reply has been issued today.

School Building

Mr. Gardiner: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment he has made of whether, in the Building Schools for the Future programme, adequate changing facilities are incorporated in school designs to allow all children to engage in sport on a daily basis to ensure that the Government can at least meet its targets on school sport and physical activity. [164837]

Mr. Miliband: The Building Schools for the Future programme aims to rebuild or refurbish all secondary schools to a high standard that will include sports facilities for both pupils and, outside schools hours, the local community to use. Changing and shower facilities remain a requirement of the Education (School Premises) Regulations 1999 for pupils who have attained the age of 11 years, and non-statutory guidance on the area and design of these spaces is included in the 'Area Guidelines for Schools': both current (building Bulletin 82) and revised (from April 2004, Building Bulletin 98: Briefing Guide for Secondary School Projects).

School Finance

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will list the schools in

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Carshalton and Wallington which ran a budget deficit in the year ending 31 March 2003; and how much this deficit was for each school. [163689]

Mr. Miliband: The information requested is submitted to the Department according to local education authority areas rather than districts within an area. Carshalton and Wallington is a district of Sutton local education authority. The information for Sutton LEA is as follows:

Schools which ran a deficit budget in the year ending 31 March 2003£

School name	Deficit budget
Rushy Meadow Primary School	(57,769)
Devonshire Primary School	(54,017)

Notes:

1. The data are as reported by Sutton LEA as at 26 March 2004 and taken from their 2002–03 Section 52 Outturn Statement submitted to the DfES.

2. Section 52 is collected at local education authority level not constituency level and there were two schools in Sutton LEA with a deficit budget in 2002–03. Of these, Rushy Meadow Primary School is in Carshalton.

3. Deficit budget is taken from Table B column 13-other revenue balance. This includes the cumulative balance of income less expenditure from revenue funding sources during the financial year and the balance from previous years.

4. Figures are rounded to the nearest pound.

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