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Office of Fair Access

Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what plans he has to issue his final guidance to the director of the Office of Fair Access. [197847]

Dr. Howells: The Secretary of State's letter of guidance to the Director of Fair Access, Sir Martin Harris, was placed in the House of Commons Library on 25 October.

Physical Education

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the average amount of time allocated for physical activity in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools is; and if he will make a statement. [196505]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: This information is not collected in the format requested. However, data on the amount of time 5 to 16-year-olds from school sport partnership schools spend on high quality physical education (PE) and school sport is collected through the annual PE, School Sport and Club Links survey. The results of the 2003–04 survey, in which 6,500 schools took part, were published on 29 April and copies were placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
 
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The 2003–04 survey found that, on average, primary schools within a school sport partnership devote 96 minutes curriculum time each week to PE, and that secondary schools, on average, devote 110 minutes per week.

In addition, the survey found that, overall, 62 per cent. of pupils in schools within a school sport partnership were spending at least two hours in a typical week on high quality PE and school sport. 44 per cent. received this entirely within curriculum time.

Playing Fields

Mr. Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills whether, under new guidance restricting the sale of school playing fields, 100 per cent. of the proceeds from such land sales must be spent in the local community; and what definition of local community he uses in such guidance. [197268]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: The new Guidance restricting the sale of school playing fields sets out the criteria against which applications for consent to dispose, or change the use, of school playing fields are assessed. The three main criteria are:

schools' needs: that playing field provision and curriculum requirements at the school making the disposal, and at other schools in the local area, are met;

Community use: that community use of a school's playing fields is taken into account, with alternative facilities made available if necessary; and

finance: that any sale proceeds must be used to improve outdoor sports provision wherever possible, so that local authorities will have to provide first class outdoor facilities for schools before introducing new indoor sports or other educational buildings;

There is no requirement to use proceeds from the sale of school land to provide local community facilities. We encourage all schools, wherever possible, to open up on site facilities to help them become the centre of the communities that they serve.

Pre-School Learning

Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what guidelines he issues to pre-school settings to ensure that pupils are ready to be taught in English in year R; [199162]

(2) what proportion of pupils in each local education authority are not able to be taught in English in year R. [199163]

Margaret Hodge: All providers in receipt of Government funding to deliver early education are under a statutory obligation to deliver the Foundation Stage Curriculum—the first stage of the National Curriculum. The Foundation Stage is a distinct phase of education, to meet the needs of children aged from three to the end of the reception year in primary schools. There will be children in Foundation Stage settings who will have a home language other than English. Practitioners plan to meet the needs of all children, including those from diverse linguistic backgrounds. The curriculum states that learning opportunities should be planned to help children develop their English by, for example, providing a range of opportunities for children to engage in speaking and listening activities in English with peers and adults.
 
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Information on the proportion of children not able to be taught in English in the reception year is not collected centrally.

Prison Education

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills who has responsibility for providing the (a) funding and (b) management of diplomas and higher education courses for prisoners. [198041]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: The information requested is as follows:

(a) Policy responsibility for the learning of offenders in prisons rests with the Department for Education and Skills, working closely with Prison and Probation Services. My Department provides funding to the Prison Service in support of the range of learning needs.

Since 2002, we have provided £728,000, working with the Prisoners' Education Trust to support undergraduate students on Open University courses and
 
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to support the introduction of new "Openings" courses, which provide access to HE courses for those without suitable prior qualifications. Other charitable bodies such as the Franklin Trust, also support some distance learning and higher education.

(b) The management of particular programmes within prison is the responsibility of establishments themselves. Almost all prisons now have a Head of Learning and Skills to lead and manage the service. Provision is provided according to a needs analysis which takes into account factors such as the individual's needs, the priorities of the prison and labour market needs.

Pupil Exclusions

Tom Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many young people have been excluded by each local education authority in Greater London in each of the last three years. [198884]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: The information requested is shown in the table.
Maintained primary and secondary schools⁽¹²⁵⁾and special schools⁽¹²⁶⁾: number of permanent exclusions, Academic years 2000/01, 2001/02 and 2002/03, each local education authority in London

	2000/01 3		2001/02		2002/03
	Number of permanent exclusions	Percentage of the school population(128)	Number of permanent exclusions	Percentage of the school population(128)	Number of permanent exclusions	Percentage of the school population(128)
London	1,448	0.14	1,456	0.14	1,473	0.14
Inner London	538	0.15	489	0.13	465	0.13
Camden	34	0.15	28	0.12	33	0.15
City of London	0	0.00	0	0.00	0	0.00
Hackney	34	0.13	33	0.12	27	0.10
Hammersmith and Fulham	40	0.24	37	0.22	32	0.19
Haringey	30	0.09	32	0.09	32	0.10
Islington	19	0.08	12	0.05	18	0.08
Kensington and Chelsea	17	0.16	13	0.12	16	0.15
Lambeth	41	0.15	38	0.14	33	0.12
Lewisham	83	0.24	66	0.19	44	0.13
Newham	36	0.07	50	0.10	64	0.13
Southwark	63	0.18	50	0.14	47	0.13
Tower Hamlets	46	0.13	38	0.10	43	0.12
Wandsworth	66	0.23	65	0.23	41	0.15
Westminster	29	0.16	27	0.14	35	0.18
Outer London	910	0.13	967	0.14	1,008	0.14
Barking and Dagenham	19	0.06	24	0.08	30	0.10
Barnet	55	0.11	54	0.11	50	0.11
Bexley	79	0.20	60	0.15	71	0.18
Brent	49	0.13	38	0.10	54	0.14
Bromley	61	0.13	85	0.18	80	0.17
Croydon	118	0.24	145	0.29	124	0.25
Ealing	33	0.08	64	0.15	56	0.13
Enfield	72	0.15	72	0.15	56	0.12
Greenwich	39	0.11	51	0.14	46	0.13
Harrow	68	0.23	68	0.24	68	0.24
Havering	32	0.09	45	0.12	35	0.09
Hillingdon	65	0.16	43	0.10	50	0.12
Hounslow	48	0.13	59	0.16	77	0.21
Kingston upon Thames	8	0.04	3	0.01	5	0.02
Merton	32	0.14	23	0.10	39	0.17
Redbridge	28	0.06	32	0.07	65	0.15
Richmond upon Thames	31	0.15	31	0.16	49	0.25
Sutton	24	0.08	35	0.12	14	0.04
Waltham Forest	49	0.14	35	0.10	39	0.11

⁽¹²⁵⁾ Includes middle schools as deemed.
⁽¹²⁶⁾ Includes Maintained and Non-Maintained Special Schools.
⁽¹²⁷⁾ Permanent exclusions for 2000/01 are estimated as a number of local education authorities did not confirm the data for their schools.
⁽¹²⁸⁾ The number of permanent exclusions expressed as a percentage of the number (headcount) pupils in Primary, Secondary and Special schools, excluding dually registered pupils in special schools.
Source:
Annual Schools' Census.





 
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Mr. Gill: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many pupils have been expelled from (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in Leicester in each year since 1997. [198658]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: The information requested is shown in the table.
Maintained primary and secondary schools⁽¹²⁹⁾: number of permanent exclusions, academic years 1997/1998 to 2002/2003, Leicester local education authority

	Primary		Secondary
	Number of permanent exclusions	Percentage of the school population(130)	Number of permanent exclusions	Percentage of the school population(130)
1997/98	18	0.06	80	0.44
1998/99	15	0.05	52	0.29
1999/2000	22	0.07	77	0.43
2000/01	30	0.10	80	0.44
2001/02	20	0.07	87	0.48
2002/03	19	0.07	59	0.32

⁽¹²⁹⁾ Includes middle schools as deemed.
⁽¹³⁰⁾ The number of permanent exclusions expressed as a percentage of the number (headcount) of pupils in primary and secondary schools, excluding dually registered pupils.
Source:
Annual Schools' Census




 
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