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22 Jun 2004 : Column 1401W—continued
Specialist Schools
Andrew Selous: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills whether funding for specialist school status is allocated on a per pupil basis. [179577]
Mr. Miliband: Yes, in terms of recurrent funding. Each specialist school also receives a one-off capital grant—irrespective of pupil numbers—to enhance the accommodation, facilities and/or equipment in the specialist subjects.
Student Loans
Mr. Simmonds: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what estimate his Department has made of the number of university graduates making repayments of nine per cent. of gross income over £10,000 to the Student Loans Company Limited in each year since 2001. [179445]
Alan Johnson: In general, repayments of income-contingent loans are collected through the tax system. Repayments are notified to the Student Loans Company (SLC) after the end of the tax year, after which time has to be allowed for SLC to reconcile the repayments notified with their records. There will therefore be some borrowers who have repaid their accounts in financial years 2001–02 and 2002–03, but this will not have been reported yet. Therefore data for those years understates the true number of borrowers making repayments. However, latest information from the SLC shows the following:
| Tax year | Number of income-contingent loan borrowers making repayments(34) |
|---|---|
| 2000–01 | 10.4 |
| 2001–02 (provisional)(35) | 33.2 |
| 2002–03 (Provisional)(35) | 114.1 |
(34) Data exclude those borrowers making voluntary or early repayments.
(35) Data are marked provisional to reflect the retrospective nature of the reporting of repayments through the Inland Revenue.
Source:
The Student Loans Company (SLC)
22 Jun 2004 : Column 1402W
Borrowers enter repayment status, i.e. are due to make repayments on their loans, in the April after graduating or otherwise leaving their course. No repayments are deducted from income-contingent borrowers with income below £10,000 per year. Borrowers with income-contingent loans can also make voluntary repayments, either in the form of pre-payments before they enter repayment status, or ad-hoc repayments to accelerate their repayments after entering repayment status. These repayments are made directly by the borrower to the SLC. The table shows the number of UK income-contingent loan borrowers who have entered repayment status by tax year. It excludes those who have made early or voluntary repayments.
Teacher Recruitment Managers
Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much funding has been allocated for the (a) recruitment, (b) training and (c) employment of teacher recruitment managers not employed directly by schools in each year since 1997; and how many full-time equivalent recruitment managers there were in each year. [178208]
Mr. Miliband: The table shows the available information since the creation of the recruitment managers scheme in 1998. Those local education authorities (LEAs) that employ recruitment managers receive an average annual grant from the Teacher Training Agency towards recruitment and employment costs. Any training for recruitment managers is funded by LEAs from within their own resources. Their effectiveness in this role has been recognised by Ofsted.
| Recruitment Managers | LEAs covered | Average grant per LEA(£) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004–05 | 97 | 107 | 50,000 |
| 2003–04 | 97 | 107 | 50,000 |
| 2002–03 | 86 | 105 | 50,000 |
| 2001–02 | 82 | 97 | 55,000 |
| 2000–01 | 67 | 80 | 55,000 |
| 1999–2000 | 52 | 61 | 55,000 |
| 1998–99 | 17 | 17 | 55,000 |
22 Jun 2004 : Column 1403W
Teacher Workload
Mr. Dawson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what arrangements he has made to fund teachers' planning, preparation and assessment time. [176555]
Mr. Miliband [holding answer 22 June 2004]: The Government, in common with the other signatories to the National Agreement, believe that much can be achieved through redeploying existing resources.
However, we recognise that some schools will require headroom in their budgets in order to meet the contractual change from September 2005. We shall decide later in the summer what kind of arrangements are needed to underpin the planning, preparation and assessment (PPA) reforms in the school funding system for 2005–06.
To that end, we are currently working with six LEAs and about a dozen schools in each of those LEAs to get a better understanding of their starting points, how they plan to deliver the reforms and to what extent this can be achieved through the redeployment of existing resources.
We will use the information produced in order to review the funding implications of the reforms.
Teachers (Pupil Abuse)
Mr. Simmonds: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many teachers were investigated for alleged abuse of pupils in each year since 1997; and how many were subsequently (a) prosecuted and (b) found guilty. [179424]
Mr. Miliband: The information requested is not available.
Teaching Posts (Greater London)
Tom Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many vacancies for teaching posts there are at schools in the Greater London area. [179033]
Mr. Miliband:
The latest vacancy information was published on 29 April in the School Workforce in England statistical first release (SFR09/2004), a copy of which has been placed in the House of Commons
22 Jun 2004 : Column 1404W
Library and can be accessed from the following URL: http://www.dfes.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000462/index.shtml
West Midlands in Europe
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will make a statement on the work of West Midlands in Europe. [179600]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: West Midlands in Europe is working assiduously to ensure that Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the West Midlands receive an equitable share of the EU Framework Programmes for Research and Development (2002–06)—pan Europe the programmes are worth the sum of €17.5 billion to HEIs.
Working Time Directive
Mr. Tynan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many employees in his Department have (a) signed a formal opt out from and (b) are exempt from the Working Time Directive; and how many employees in his Department have recorded hours, including any accruing on a flexitime basis, in excess of the maximum allowed under the Working Time Directive in the last month for which figures are available. [178364]
Mr. Charles Clarke: My Department is committed to reducing the number of employees who work in excess of the Working Time Directive maximum to an absolute minimum.
64 employees have signed a formal opt out from the Working Time Directive. No employees are exempt. The number of hours that each employee works per week is not kept centrally, therefore the number of hours in excess of the maximum allowed under the Working Time Directive could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
XL Clubs
Mr. Simmonds: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what discussions his Department has had with the Prince's Trust regarding XL clubs in schools. [179414]
Mr. Stephen Twigg: The Prince's Trust has had a number of meetings with various officials in the Department in recent months. Although XL clubs have been mentioned, none of the meetings have been held specifically to discuss this issue.