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School Budgets (North Tyneside)

Mr. Alan Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many school budgets in North Tyneside local education authority were in deficit in each of the last 10 years. [164363]

Mr. Miliband: The information requested is not available for the last 10 years. However, the number of schools in budget deficit in North Tyneside LEA for the last four years is shown in the following table:
Numbers of North Tyneside schools with a deficit budget in each of the last four years

	Number of schools
1999–2000	21
2000–01	20
2001–02	18
2002–03	32

Notes:
1. The data are as reported by North Tyneside LEA as at 29 March 2004 and taken from their 2002–03 section 52 outturn statement submitted to the DfES.
2. The 2002–03 data is subject to changes by the LEA which may alter the results for that period.
3. For 1999–00 to 2001–02 the data are taken from the Balance Carried Forward column. In 2002–03 data comes from Other Revenue Balance column.
4. Section 52 data is available from 1999–00. Prior to then the ODPM's R01 statement provides information but not at school level.




 
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School Transport (North Tyneside)

Mr. Alan Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the cost of home to school transport in North Tyneside local education authority was in each of the last five years. [164364]

Mr. Miliband: The information requested is contained within the following table:
Cost of home to school transport in each of the last five years

	(£000)
1997–1998	950
1998–1999	985
1999–2000	1045
2000–2001	1125
2001–2002	1246

Notes:
1. The financial data are taken from North Tyneside LEA's Section 52 Outturn Statement submitted to the DfES from 1999–2000 onwards and the ODPM's R01 statement prior to then.
2. Figures are in £000s.
3. Total transport expenditure and parental contributions includes that incurred in relation to pre-primary, primary, secondary and special school education as well as in education out of school, continuing education and the management and support elements.

Europass Scheme

Ms Stuart: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills pursuant to the answer of 30 March 2004, Official Report, column 1395W, on the Europass Scheme, what steps will be taken to participate in the Europass initiative; and what the timescale is for each stage of the process. [165845]

Alan Johnson: The UK is already participating fully in the current implementation of Europass Training, set up under Council Decision 1999/51/EC of 21 December 1998 on the promotion of European pathways in work-linked training, including apprenticeship.

If the current proposals for the new Europass Programme are adopted by co-decision of the European Parliament and Council of Ministers this year, it is expected that the initiative will begin on 1 January 2005. We will appoint a National Europass Centre to coordinate Europass activities within the UK. We expect the National Centre to be in place for the start of the Programme.

Free Pre-school Places

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many (a) free nursery and (b) pre-school places were available for (i) three and (ii) four year olds in Chorley in each of the last seven years. [161596]

Margaret Hodge: The information is not available in the form requested.

Figures on the number of free nursery education places taken up by three and four year olds in Lancashire local education authority area are shown in the table.
 
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Number of free nursery education places1, 2 taken up by three and four year old children in maintained nursery and primary schools and private, voluntary and independent providers Lancashire Local Education Authority area1997–2003 Position in January each year

Year	3 year olds	4 year olds
1997	4,400	12,400
1998	4,400	13,500
1999	4,400	16,000
2000	4,300	15,900
2001	9,400	15,700
2002	9,400	13,000
2003	10,100	12,600

⁽¹⁵⁾ Part-time equivalent number of free nursery education places taken up by three and four year old children.
⁽¹⁶⁾ A free nursery education place comprises five two and a half hour sessions of early years education per week, for thirty-three weeks of the year, usually three terms of eleven weeks.

The latest figures on provision for three and four year olds in England were published in a Statistical Bulletin 'Provision for children under five years of age in England—January 2003' which is available on the Department's website www.dfes.gov.uk/rsgateway/.

Since 1 April 2004, six months ahead of our original target, all three year olds in England whose parents want one, will have access to a free, part-time early education place.

ICT Training (Birkenhead)

Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many women in Birkenhead have visited an information and communications technology training centre in order to learn skills to return to work. [166331]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: Birkenhead is served by both UK online centres and learndirect provisions.

An estimated 226 women use UK online centres in Birkenhead each quarter. This information is calculated from UK online quarterly management information (quarter ending Dec 03) which shows that, on average, each UK online centre has 101 users and that 56 per cent. of UK online users are female.

To date, 493 women living in Birkenhead (postal districts CH41 and 42) have visited a learndirect centre.

Modern Apprenticeships Task Force

Phil Sawford: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills when he expects to receive a report from the Modern Apprenticeships Task Force. [166202]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Secretary of State and I are kept regularly informed of progress in the work of the Task Force. However, Sir Roy Gardner the chair of the Task Force intends to submit the group's Interim Report in Autumn 2004. The report will be sent, in the first instance, to the Task Force joint sponsors: the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Secretary of State for Education and Skills and the Chair of the Learning and Skills Council,
 
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and published shortly afterwards. In the meantime information on the work of the group is available on the Task Force's website www.employersforapprentices. gov.uk.

Teachers (North Somerset)

Brian Cotter: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the pupil to teacher ratio was for the North Somerset Local Education Authority for (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in each year since 1997. [165604]

Mr. Miliband: The data requested are shown in the following table.
Maintained Primary and Secondary Schools⁽¹⁷⁾: Pupil: Teacher Ratios⁽¹⁸⁾—North Somerset Local Education Authority

Position at January	Pupil: Teacher ratios(18)
each year: 1997 to 2003	Primary schools	Secondary schools
1997	23.8	16.0
1908	24.2	17.1
1999	24.4	17.0
2000	24.2	17.3
2001	24.0	17.6
2002	23.7	17.2
2003	23.9	17.2

Notes:
⁽¹⁷⁾ Includes middle schools as deemed.
⁽¹⁸⁾ The pupil:teacher ratio within schools is the ratio of all pupils on the schools registers (counting each part-time pupil as 0.5) to all qualified teachers (including the full-time equivalent of part-time teachers).
Source:
Annual Schools' Census.

Recruitment

Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the cost of recruitment of civil servants for the Department was in each financial year since 1996–97, broken down by (a) delegated or    contracted out recruitment procedures and (b) recruitment procedures carried out by the Department. [158189]

Mr. Charles Clarke: The Department was established in June 2001. Information is available for the first full financial year of 2002/03. The figures below include Senior Civil Service recruitment.
(£000)

Year	Cost of delegated or contracted out recruitment	Cost of recruitment procedures carried out by the Department
2002/03	916,602.71	76,046.52

 
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