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Oversubscribed Schools

Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills pursuant to the oral answer of 8 July 2004, Official Report, column 1022, if he will publish the guidance and regulations which require schools wishing to expand to take account of (a) the local situation, (b) other schools in the area, (c) the adjudicator and (d) other factors. [185598]

 
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Mr. Miliband [holding answer 20 July 2004]: The current statutory guidance to decision-makers and those wishing to publish proposals is available on the Department's website and hard copies are sent to interested parties on request. In deciding proposals for the expansion of schools, School Organisation Committees and Adjudicators are required to consider a range of factors including relevant local issues, the impact on neighbouring schools and the effect on standards in the area, though there is a "strong presumption" in favour of popular and successful schools being able to expand.

The Five Year Strategy document announced plans for a new fast track process to enable popular and successful schools to expand more quickly. We will consult on amendments to regulations, procedures and guidance in September. We intend that the decision on proposals will continue to be for the School Organisation Committee (SOC) or, where they cannot agree unanimously, the schools adjudicator. Decision-makers will continue to decide proposals on their merits, taking into account all relevant factors. The current strong presumption that proposals should be approved will be reinforced in revised guidance.

Partnership for Schools

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will list the Board Members of Partnership for Schools indicating the other public sector appointments each member holds. [182506]

Mr. Miliband: The Board Members of Partnerships for Schools are all officials of the Department:

Stephen Crowne

Peter Stanton-Ife

Lorraine Chapman

The first two are also directors of Partnerships for Church of England Schools.

Post-16 Education (Stalybridge and Hyde)

James Purnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much will be spent per learner in Stalybridge and Hyde in (a) school sixth-forms and (b) further education colleges in 2004–05. [185364]

Alan Johnson: The Department does not collect information on the level of funding per pupil in school sixth-forms and further education colleges at the local level. Mark Haysom, the Learning and Skills Council's Chief Executive will write to the hon. Member with details of funding provided for (a) school sixth-forms and (b) further education colleges in 2004–05 in the local area covering Stalybridge and Hyde. A copy of his letter will be placed in the House Libraries.

James Purnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what plans he has to provide specific funding to help further education colleges in Stalybridge and Hyde refurbish and rebuild their estates. [185365]

Alan Johnson: All of the Department's post-16 learning and skills sector capital investment is allocated to the Learning and Skills Council (LSC). The Department does not provide a specific budget to the LSC for rebuilding and refurbishing property in further
 
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education colleges at either the local or regional levels. It is for the LSC to determine for itself the right level of capital investment in further education colleges. Mark Haysom, the Council's Chief Executive, will write to the hon. Member on this matter. A copy of his reply will be placed in the House Libraries.

Private Finance Initiatives

Mr. Wood: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what provision has been made to protect schools against the risk of financial failure on the part of a private finance initiative contractor. [185399]

Mr. Miliband: Most PFI deals involve stand-alone special purpose vehicles (SPVs) with other investors and contractors, plus bank financing. It is a usual feature of PFI projects that the banks have the opportunity to step in and find a new contractor in the event of insolvency and we would expect the banks to do this. The Department for Education and Skills is not party to schools PFI contracts; these are between the local authority and the relevant consortium. Officials are ready to assist and advise local authorities if this should prove necessary.

School Admissions

Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what estimate he has made of the cost to the education budget of (a) school admissions and appeals, (b) the School Adjudicator and (c) school admissions policy staff in his Department in the last year for which figures are available. [185242]

Mr. Miliband [holding answer 20 July 2004]: The Department does not collect data on expenditure by each local authority on the administration of school admissions and appeals. However, for the financial year 2004–05, LEA net planned budgets to cover this expenditure totals £46 million, or approximately £307,000 per local authority. This includes budgets for funding delegated to governing bodies of schools that are their own admission authority and administer the system themselves.

For the financial year 2003–04, outturn figures showed the total cost of the Schools Adjudicators and their support staff to be £637,572 and the total cost of school admissions policy staff to be £530,287.

School Meals

Mr. Edwards: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what encouragement is given to (a) local education authorities and (b) schools to source locally grown produce for school meals; and if he will make a statement. [185281]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: In 2003 the Department produced a purchasing guide for schools and LEAs that encourages them to source locally grown produce for school meals. In addition, there are case studies of good practice available on the Teachernet website at http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/.

Surplus Places Rule

Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills when the surplus places rule was abolished. [184632]

 
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Mr. Miliband: There has been no formal surplus places rule. In the past, local authorities bid for capital support for new pupil places in areas where there was pupil growth, to meet their statutory duty to provide sufficient school places. In assessing the bids, my Department took account of places in surrounding schools in coming to a view on how many additional places to support each year. However, capital funding for school buildings can come from a number of sources, including other capital programmes, authorities' own resources and agreements with developers.

From 2004–05, against a background of rising capital investment in school buildings, and in order to simplify the process for allocating resources on pupil places criteria, we have moved to making allocations by formulae.

In addition, from 2003–04 we have set up a dedicated capital stream and issued guidance that has a strong presumption in favour of expansion to enable successful and popular schools to expand.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Departmental Annual Report

Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many copies of his Department's annual report were printed in each year since 1997; how many were sold in each year; and what the (a) publication costs and (b) sales revenue were. [183883]

Gareth Thomas: DFID's first departmental report was produced in 1998.

Between 1998 and 2002 publication of DFID's departmental report was handled by The Stationery Office Limited (TSO). The cost of production was met by DFID. The cost of printing was met by TSO. TSO provided an agreed number of copies to DFID and retained revenue from sales.

The following table includes the number of copies supplied to DFID, the number of copies issued by TSO and the production costs met by DFID. The total number of reports produced is not available, nor is the revenue earned by TSO.

	Copies supplied to DFID	Copies issued by TSO	Cost of production met by DFID (£)
1998	1,500	605	33,672
1999	2,662	531	65,051
2000	3,842	509	98,000
2001	5,000	547	81,576
2002	3,500	531	61,235

From 2003 the arrangements with The Stationery Office Limited (TSO) were changed. DFID handled both the production and print of the report itself, providing the required number of copies to TSO. TSO retain the revenue of any copies sold. The report is also available to download, free of charge, from DFID's website.

This second table includes the number of copies produced, the additional number of copies issued by ISO, and the cost of printing and production met by DFID.
 
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	Copies produced by DFID	Copies issued by TSO	Cost of printing and production by DFID (£)
2003	3,000	440	76,480
2004	3,050	(3)351	45,000

⁽³⁾ To date.

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