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10 Feb 2005 : Column 1808W—continued

Queen's Flight

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) on how many occasions her Department's Ministers used the Queen's flight in each of the past five years; [213703]

(2) how much money her Department has spent on chartering aircraft in each of the past five years. [213713]

Derek Twigg: The publicly available Cabinet Office guidance, Travel by Ministers", makes clear that special flights may be authorised when a scheduled service is not available, or when it is essential to travel by air, but the requirements of official or Parliamentary business or security considerations or urgency preclude the journey being made by a scheduled service.

Neither the Queen's flight service nor private charter flights have been used by any Ministers in the Department for Education and Skills, and its predecessor, for domestic travel in the past five years.

In respect of overseas travel by Ministers, since 1999 the Government have published an annual list of all visits overseas undertaken by Cabinet Ministers costing £500 or more during each financial year. The list published in 1999 covers the period 2 May 1997 to 31 March 1999. Where RAF/Private Charter aircraft are used this is shown in the list. The Government have also published on an annual basis the cost of all Ministers' visits overseas. Copies of the lists are available in the Libraries of the House. Information for 2004–05 will be published in due course.

All Ministerial travel is undertaken in accordance with the rules set out in the Ministerial Code and Travel by Ministers, copies of which are available in the Libraries of the House.

School Fires

Tom Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many fires there were in schools in England in each of the last three years; and how many she estimates were caused by arson. [215170]

Derek Twigg: Because the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) has overall policy lead for fire safety and arson reduction across Government Departments, it is ODPM rather than this Department that compiles statistics on fires in schools.

The latest set of figures we have on school fires from ODPM cover the three years 2001–02 to 2003–04. The data for 2002–03 do not include estimates for the short periods of industrial action and the figures for 2003–04 are provisional. For England the details are:

		Most likely cause
	Total	Accidental	Deliberate
2001–02	1,418	602	816
2002–03	1.294	562	733
2003–04	1,288	535	753

 
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Student Finance

Mr. Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much Student Loan Company expenditure there has been on (a) grants, (b) income contingent loans, (c) tuition fees, (d) hardship and access to learning, (e) fee waiver and (f) opportunity bursaries in each year since 1999–2000 at (i) Northumbria and (ii) Newcastle universities. [215013]

 
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Dr. Howells: Data on Student Loan Company (SLC) expenditure paid to students at Northumbria university and the university of Newcastle upon Tyne in respect of grants, income-contingent loan cash outlay, tuition fees and hardship loans for academic years1999/00 to 2004/05 (provisional) are shown in the following table.
SLC expenditure on grants1, 2, income-contingent loan cash outlay⁽⁵⁵⁾, tuition fees⁽⁵⁶⁾, and hardship loans⁽⁵⁶⁾paid to students studying at Northumbria university and the university of Newcastle upon Tyne⁽⁵⁷⁾—;Academic years 1999/00 to 2004/05(provisional) £000

	1999/00	2000/01	2001/02	2002/03	2003/04	2004/05(58)
Northumbria:
Grants	456	728	955	1,049	671	2,922
Loans	17,558	24,169	25,360	27,255	31,812	33,225
Fees	3,087	3,995	4,661	4,939	4,986	5,058
Hardship loans(59)	120	120	122	124	106	n/a
Total(60)	21,220	29,011	31,097	33,368	37,575	41,205
Newcastle:
Grants	62	102	206	243	196	1,891
Loans	13,322	20,392	24,083	26,492	31,842	33,364
Fees	1,727	2,471	3,236	3,431	3,612	3,494
Hardship loans(59)	46	71	101	68	54	n/a
Total(60)	15,156	23,037	27,627	30,233	35,704	38,749

n/a = Not applicable
⁽⁵⁴⁾Up to and including academic year 2003/04, data on grant expenditure for student support scheme students relates to additional allowances/grants available to eligible students for extra help depending on their circumstances, e.g. students with disabilities, students with dependents, single parent students, those incurring certain travel costs, and those who have recently left care. In addition, data for 2004/05 include expenditure on the Higher Education grant which was introduced for new students in 2004/05 to help cover the cost of participating in Higher Education.
⁽⁵⁵⁾Students domiciled in England and Wales.
⁽⁵⁶⁾Students domiciled in England, Wales and the EU.
⁽⁵⁷⁾Data also includes planned expenditure.
⁽⁵⁸⁾Provisional (as at 4 February 2005).
⁽⁵⁹⁾Hardship loans have been discontinued in 2004/05 following the introduction of the Higher Education Grant.
⁽⁶⁰⁾Totals may not add due to rounding.

The rise in SLC Grant expenditure in 2004/05 is due partly to the introduction of the Higher Education Grant which was introduced for new students in 2004/05 to help cover the cost of participating in Higher Education. It is also due to a change in accounting arrangements whereby prior to 2004/05, local education authorities were responsible for paying certain grants and allowances. In 2004/05, the SLC are responsible for paying all grants and allowances hence the increase in the SLC expenditure.

Hardship/Access to learning fund expenditure, fee waivers and opportunity bursaries are paid by HEFCE. Data on these expenditures are shown in the following table.
Hardship/Access to learning fund allocations, fee waivers and opportunity bursaries allocations: Northumbria university and the university of Newcastle upon Tyne—Academic years 1999/00 to 2004/05 £000

	1999/00	2000/01	2001/02	2002/03	2003/04	2004/05
Northumbria:
Hardship/access to learning fund	1,010	746	799	943	1,004	659
Fee waivers	n/a	52	47	48	58	12
Opportunity bursaries(61)	n/a	n/a	111	200	294	154
Total(62)	1,010	797	957	1,191	1,357	824
Newcastle:
Hardship/access to learning fund	492	616	597	545	484	407
Fee waivers	n/a	2	7	12	14	5
Opportunity bursaries(61)	n/a	n/a	66	82	163	80
Total(62)	492	617	670	639	661	491

n/a = Not applicable
⁽⁶¹⁾There were no opportunity bursaries for new students in 2004/05 as the bursaries were replaced by the Higher Education Grants introduced for new students in 2004/05. Figures for 2004/05 relate to continuing bursary instalments only.
⁽⁶²⁾Totals may not add due to rounding.




 
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Schools' Income

Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what information she collects on the income of individual schools. [215773]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: Ministers decided in 2002 that the Department should collect detailed information on income and expenditure in individual schools so that schools can compare themselves against other similar schools. The Consistent Financial Reporting (CFR) framework regulations came into force on 1 April 2003. The approved headings for the income fields are set out as follows. The Department has just finished collecting the second year's income data and loaded it onto the new benchmarking website www.teachernet.gov.uk/schoolfinance along with some contextual information about the schools. The
 
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website allows schools to identify similar schools, based on the contextual information, in order to compare income and expenditure.

Income Data

101 (Funds delegated by the local education authority)

102 (Funding for sixth form students)

103 (Special educational needs funding)

104 (Funding for minority ethnic pupils)

105 (Standards Fund)

106 (Other Government grants)

107 (Other grants)

108 (Income from facilities and services)

109 (Income from catering)

110 (Receipts from supply teacher insurance claims)

111 (Receipts from other insurance claims)

112 (Income from contributions to visits etc)

113 (Donations and/or private funds)

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