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Office for Fair Access

Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what consultations he is carrying out regarding the appointment of an independent person or panel responsible for reviewing the decisions of the Office for Fair Access on appeal by the universities; who will appoint the independent person or panel; whether there is a requirement of political neutrality on the part of the independent person or panel; and what his timetable is for the creation of such a body. [194196]

Dr. Howells: A consultation document was issued earlier this month to interested parties, including Universities UK, on how the review procedure might work in practice. The Secretary of State will make the appointment, in accordance with the principles set out in the Code of Practice for Ministerial Appointments to Public Bodies, as set out the regulations recently approved by Parliament. The usual requirements concerning political activity will apply. The Secretary of State expects to make an appointment before the Director of Fair Access makes his first formal decisions.

Part-time Students

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many and what percentage of undergraduate students at higher education institutions in England are part-time students. [194774]

Dr. Howells: The latest available figures are shown in the table.
 
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Undergraduate students⁽⁶⁾ at English HE institutions 2002/03

	Number	Percentage
Full-time	893,900	67
Part-time	434,700	33
Total	1,328,600	100

⁽⁶⁾ Covers students normally domiciled in the UK, and those from overseas. Includes students at the Open University.
Source:
Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what estimate he has made of the income that higher education institutions will receive from employer contributions to undergraduate part-time student fees in 2006–07. [194775]

Dr. Howells: Part-time fees are unregulated; higher education institutions set the fee level for their part-time courses. The income that institutions receive will depend on the level of fees they set and the take-up of places. Data on the income received by institutions from employer contributions specifically are not available centrally.

SATs

Mr. Dhanda: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what representations he has received in the past 12 months about the effectiveness of SATs. [195612]

Mr. Miliband: 265 representations have been received in the past 12 months about the national curriculum tests. Of these, 32 were about the content and format of the tests; 60 about the effects of testing; 27 seeking the abolition of testing; and 146 about the administration and marking of the tests. Of these 146, 83 related to Key Stage 3 English and 26 to Key Stage 2 English.

Schools (Bury)

Mr. Chaytor: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much was spent per pupil in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in Bury in each of the last 10 years; what his estimate is for each of the next two years; and if he will make a statement. [195406]

Mr. Miliband: The information requested for the years 1993–94 to 2002–03 is given in the table. The Department is currently collecting the information for 2003–04. The information for 2004–05 is not due to be collected until October 2005.
School based expenditure⁽⁷⁾ per pupil⁽⁸⁾ in primary and secondary schools in Bury in each of the last 10 years 3, 4 £

Year 3, 4	Primary education(11)	Pre-primary and primary education5, 6	Secondary education
1993–94	(13)—	1,440	2,000
1994–95	(13)—	1,480	2,040
1995–96	(13)—	1,520	2,080
1996–97	(13)—	1,570	2,150
1997–98(14)	(13)—	1,490	2,160
1998–99(15)	(13)—	1,640	2,330
1999–2000	1,780	1,800	2,500
2000–01	2,010	2,040	2,650
2001–02	2,180	2,220	2,810
2002–03	2,220	(13)—	2,900

⁽⁷⁾ School-based expenditure includes only expenditure incurred directly by the schools. This includes the pay of teachers and school-based support staff, school premises costs, books and equipment, and certain other supplies and services, less any capital items funded from recurrent spending and income from sales, fees and charges and rents and rates. This excludes the central cost of support services such as home to school transport, local authority administration and the financing of capital expenditure.
⁽⁸⁾ Pupil numbers include only those pupils attending maintained establishments within each sector and are drawn from the DfES Annual Schools Census adjusted to be on a financial year basis.
⁽⁹⁾ 1999–2000 saw a change in data source when the data collection moved from the RO1 form collected by the ODPM to the Section 52 form from the DfES. 2002–03 saw a further break in the time series following the introduction of Consistent Financial Reporting (CFR) and the associated restructuring of the outturn tables. The figures in italics indicate the change in sources. In 2002–03 school based expenditure is taken from Section 52 Outturn Table A line 51 net current expenditure (NCE). For 2001–02 and earlier years the expenditure is calculated as lines 1 to 12 less lines 29, 30, 35 and 37. This differs from the old Net Institutional Expenditure (NIE) calculation only in the treatment of meals and milk which is no longer excluded and no adjustments for balances are now made. This is taken from Section 52 Outturn Table 3 for 1999–00 to 2001–02 and from the RO1 form previously.
⁽¹⁰⁾ The 2002–03 calculation is broadly similar to the calculation in previous years. However, 2001–02 and earlier years includes all premature retirement compensation (PRC) and Crombie payments, mandatory PRC payments and other indirect employee expenses, while in 2002–03 only the schools element of these categories is included. In 2001–02 this accounted for approximately £70 per pupil of the England total, while the schools element of these categories accounted for approximately £50 per pupil of the England total in 2002–03. Also, for some LEAs, expenditure that had previously been attributed to the school sectors was reported within the LEA part of the form in 2002–03 and would therefore be excluded, though this is not quantifiable from existing sources.
⁽¹¹⁾ Expenditure was not distinguished between the pre-primary and primary sectors until the inception of Section 52 for financial year 1999–2000.
⁽¹²⁾ School-based expenditure in nursery schools was not recorded in 2002–03.
⁽¹³⁾ Not available.
⁽¹⁴⁾ Spending in 1997–98 reflects the transfer of monies from local government to central Government for the nursery vouchers scheme. These were returned to local government from 1998–99.
⁽¹⁵⁾ The 1999–2000 figures reflect the return of GM schools to local authority maintenance.
Notes:
1. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10.
2. Data is as reported by the LEA in cash terms.




 
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Student Fees/Finance

Tom Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what review is taking place of the cost of student fees for students from Commonwealth countries who wish to study here; and if he will make a statement; [193488]

(2) what plans his Department has to bring the cost of student fees for students from Commonwealth countries wishing to study here into line with the fees students from a member state of the European Union pay; and if he will make a statement. [193492]

Dr. Howells: We have no plans to bring the cost of fees paid by students from Commonwealth countries into line with the fees paid by students from a member state of the European Union. The Government offer scholarships to Commonwealth students through the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan and the Shared Scholarship Scheme.
 
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Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what discussions he has had with Student Finance Direct with regard to the delayed payment of student loans; and if he will make a statement; [193778]

(2) what information he has received concerning delays in education authorities assessing entitlement to student grants and payment of fees. [193779]

Dr. Howells: Some 800,000 applications for student finance had been received by 18 October, 521,000 of which were received on or before 2 July 2004 (which is the published deadline for new applications).

All applicants who submitted a fully and properly completed application form on or before 2 July should receive, shortly after their university or college confirms their attendance, either a fully-assessed loan payment or an interim payment (under our contingency arrangements for continuing students). Some 13,000 interim payments have been made to date and these students will receive full assessments and a further loan payment (if appropriate) within a few weeks. A further 700 interim payments are scheduled for release once confirmation of the relevant students' attendance is received from the appropriate institutions.

Over 279,000 applications have been received since the deadline passed, of which fewer than 89,000 applications are still being processed. As is the case every year, a significant number of students have applied well after the published deadlines (over 94,000 applications have been received since early September). Local authorities and the Student Loans Company have never been able to guarantee payment at the start of term to late applicants. The Student Loans Company has paid out over 549,000 loans to date, with a further 80,000 fully approved and scheduled for payment as soon as the students' attendance is confirmed by their institution.

There has been some local variation in the speed with which some individual local education authorities have been able to process applications, but the Department and the SLC have worked closely with the LEAs affected to ensure that students are not disadvantaged. The vast majority of LEAs are now processing late applications within a maximum of six weeks, which is the normal service standard set by the Department. As in previous years, the Department has written to higher education institutions asking them to be supportive of students who do not have loans in place at the start of term.

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