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12 May 2004 : Column 409W—continued

Railways

Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport when he expects that the Strategic Rail Authority will have developed the November 2005 Performance Trajectory with the train operating companies and the National Task Force. [171400]

Mr. Darling: The National Task Force (which includes representatives of the ORR, SRA, train operator owner groups and Network Rail), on behalf of the rail industry, has developed a performance trajectory to help them measure progress on industry efforts to improve rail performance. The National Task Force will review the trajectory in October 2004.
 
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Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether he expects the Strategic Rail Authority to achieve delivery of the Train Operating Company operational performance trajectory projections for November. [171401]

Mr. Darling: The Strategic Rail Authority believes that the increased focus on improving operational performance will enable the train operating companies to continue an upward performance trend between now and November 2004.

Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list the railway and land sites which have been identified by the Strategic Rail Authority as being suitable for disposal since 2002. [171403]

Mr. Darling: Since the end of 2002, the Strategic Rail Authority has identified 36 sites as suitable for disposal. The table lists the sites.

Location	Site description
Alloa	Site of former crossing at Hilton       Road Whinhill
Aylesbury	Railway club and sports ground Perm       Road
Banbury	Fields by Woodford closed line
Banbury	South end of closed line in Woodford       Halse
Bexhill	Former Galley Hill sidings
Brize Norton	Part of former Fairford branch
Cassington	Part of former Fairford branch
Castlethorpe	Former goods yard
Challow	Former station yard
Colchester Town	Lower Yard, Magdalene Street
Corby	Land at Cottingham Road
Dunstable	Land at Skimpot Road/Jeans Way
Elstree	Former goods yard
Exeter	Former goods yard
Exeter	Land and building (Red House)
Exeter	Tan Lane former goods yard
Formby	Andrew's Lane
Frome	Former east goods yard
Glasgow	Eastfield Depot
Goring-by-Sea	Land south of railway
Greenhithe	Land by station
Haltwhistle	Alston branch
Hullavington	Former goods yard
Horwich	Land at site of former railway works
Hunslet	Land between Ivory Street and Jack       Lane
Kincardine	Plot of land beneath electricity pylon
Kings Lynn	Land at Extons Place
Lechlade	Part of former Fairford branch
Liverpool, James Street	Moor House
Melrose	Leaderfoot Viaduct
Reddish	Former depot, Wayland Road
Shoreham-by-Sea	Land at Queens Place
Tunbridge Wells	Former goods yard
Walsall	Land off Littleton Street West
Watford	Wiggenhall Road
Wivelsfield	Land at Rockery Lane

David Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport when he envisages the full restoration of passenger rail services between Coventry and Nottingham. [171505]

Mr. McNulty: The change in service will be permanent. The decision to curtail direct services is aimed at better matching services to demand and improving performance. This was determined under the
 
12 May 2004 : Column 411W
 
Strategic Rail Authority's "Midland Main Line/East Midlands Route Utilisation Strategy", on which they consulted last year. Passengers will be able to travel from Nottingham to Nuneaton, from where a shuttle service will operate to Coventry.

EDUCATION AND SKILLS

Education Services (South Ribble)

Mr. Borrow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what public funding has been spent on adult (a) literacy and (b) numeracy in South Ribble in each of the last five years. [171707]

Mr. Ivan Lewis [holding answer 10 May 2004]: The estimated total spend on Skills For Life (the Government's strategy for literacy, language and numeracy needs of all post-16 learners from pre-entry level up to and including level 2) and on Key Skills (essential skills of communication, application of number and information technology), from April 2001 to July 2003, in the Lancashire Learning and Skills Council (LSC) area is set out in the following table:
£000

	Basic skills	Key skills
April 2001 to July 2001(22)	3,370	1,270
August 2001 to July 2002	6,577	1,857
August 2002 to July	7,815	1,948

⁽²²⁾ The figures for April to July 2001 include costs incurred from August 2000 on learning aims continuing into April 2001.

From the information available to the LSC it has not been feasible to obtain estimates at constituency level or separate figures by subject without incurring disproportionate cost. Likewise it has not been feasible to obtain comparable figures for periods before April 2001 when the Skills for Life strategy was launched and the LSC was formed, but information shows it was considerably less than at present.

Mr. Borrow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how many and what percentage of 11-year old pupils in South Ribble reached Level 4 in (a) mathematics and (b) English in each of the last seven years; [171660]

(2) how many and what percentage of pupils in South Ribble reached the (a) mathematics and (b) English standard in each of the last seven years. [171662]

Mr. Miliband: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I have given to the hon. Member of Westmorland and Lonsdale (Mr. Collins) on 10 May 2004, Official Report, column. 34W.

Mr. Borrow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many teacher vacancies there were in South Ribble on the last date for which figures are available; and what steps he is taking to reduce them. [171708]

Mr. Miliband [holding answer 10 May 2004]: Information on teacher vacancies is not available by constituency as it is collected at local education
 
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authority level. In January 2003, the latest information available, there were 40 full-time teacher vacancies in Lancashire local education authority.

Like other areas, since 1997 South Ribble has benefited from the initiatives that the Government has 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.

Adult Literacy and Numeracy

Mr. McNamara: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment he has made of progress in meeting his Department's target to improve adult literacy and numeracy skills. [169738]

Mr. Ivan Lewis [holding answer 4 May 2002]: Skills for Life is the national strategy for improving the adult literacy, language (English for Speakers of Other Languages—ESOL) and numeracy skills needs of all post-16 learners, from pre-entry level up to and including Level 2. It aims to help create a society where adults have the basic skills they need to find and keep work and participate fully in society thereby increasing the economic performance and social cohesion of the country.

Following the launch of Skills for Life in March 2001, we have made significant progress towards our Public Service Agreement target of achieving 1.5 million adults with better basic skills by 2007.

We are confident that we have met our milestone of 470,000 achievements by July 2003. We are also on track to meet our interim target of 750,000 achievements by 2004. In terms of participation, from April 2001 to July 2004 an estimated 2.1 million learners will have taken up 4.3 million Learning and Skills Council (LSC) funded basic skills learning opportunities.

Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what public funding has been spent on adult (a) literacy and (b) numeracy in Cambridgeshire in the last five years. [170842]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: The estimated total spend on Skills For Life (the Government's strategy for literacy, language and numeracy needs of all post-16 learners from pre-entry level up to and including level 2) and on key skills (essential skills of communication, application of number and information technology), from April 2001 to July 2003, in the Cambridgeshire Learning and Skills Council (LSC) area is set out in the table.
£000

	Basic skills	Key skills
April 2001 to July 2001(23)	610	389
August 2001 to July 2002	2,354	577
August 2002 to July 2003	4,376	345

⁽²³⁾ The figures for April to July 2001 include costs incurred from August 2000 on learning aims continuing into April 2001.



 
12 May 2004 : Column 413W
 

It has not been feasible to obtain comparable figures for periods before April 2001 when the Skills for Life strategy was launched and the LSC was formed, but information shows it was considerably less than at present.

Mr. Meacher: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what public funding has been spent on adult (a) literacy and (b) numeracy in Oldham West and Royton in each of the last five years. [170908]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: The estimated total spend on "Skills For Life" (the Government's strategy for literacy, language and numeracy needs of all post-16 learners from pre-entry level up to and including level 2) and on Key Skills (essential skills of communication, application of number and information technology), from April 2001 to July 2003, in the Greater Manchester Learning and Skills Council (LSC) area is set out in the following table:
£000

	Basic skills	Key skills
April 2001 to July 2001(24)	8,925	2,598
August 2001 to July 2002	15,369	3,586
August 2002 to July 2003	27,258	4,210

⁽²⁴⁾ The figures for April to July 2001 include costs incurred from August 2000 on learning aims continuing into April 2001.

From the information available to the LSC it has not been feasible to obtain estimates at constituency level or separate figures by subject without incurring disproportionate cost. Likewise it has not been feasible to obtain comparable figures for periods before April 2001 when the Skills for Life strategy was launched and the LSC was formed, but information shows it was considerably less than at present.

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