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Design

Alan Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills who the ministerial design champion for her Department is. [215646]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: I have responsibility for school buildings and as part of that brief I am the design champion for the Department for Education and Skills.

Education Funding

Ross Cranston: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much capital funding has been invested in (a) primary schools and (b) secondary schools in Dudley, North in each year since 1996–97; and if she will make a statement. [215788]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: Capital funding allocated to Dudley local education authority and to schools in each year since 1996–97 is detailed in the following table. Information is not held centrally on investment in (a) primary schools and (b) secondary schools in Dudley, North. Investment in primary schools and secondary schools is determined by the local authority in accordance with its asset management plan.

	£000
1996–97	2,972
1997–98	1,206
1998–99	36,108
1999–2000	6,764
2000–01	11,100
2001–02	33,425
2002–03	12,371
2003–04	13,415
2004–05	15,703

Note:
The years 1998–99 and 2001–02 include Private Finance Initiative allocations of £29,550,000 and £22,000,000 respectively.

Mr. Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what funding was allocated by the Higher Education Funding Council to institutions in each region of England in (a) 2003–04 and (b) 2004–05; and how much will be allocated to each region in 2005–06. [216377]

Dr. Howells: The information on recurrent funding for the 2003–04 and 2004–05 academic years is shown in the table. Funding for 2005–06 has not yet been allocated. This will be announced by the Funding Council in March and finalised before the start of the academic year. The details will be published on the HEFCE website www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs.
£

Region	2003–04	2004–05
Eastern	331,955,091	346,910,892
East Midlands	374,804,576	395,594,592
London	1,089,681,410	1,151,336,052
North East	255,911,200	274,637,443
North West	580,977,274	614,173,467
South East	761,680,303	802,284,781
South West	356,913,892	384,473,659
West Midlands	397,899,016	419,512,542
Yorkshire and Humberside	490,045,241	519,620,441

Source:
HEFCE recurrent grants final allocations 2003–04 and 2004–05. Higher education institutions may also receive funding for capital and for special initiatives from HEFCE.





 
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Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much funding from the New Deal for Schools has passed to schools in (a) Lancashire and (b) Chorley; and if she will list the schools which received funding. [215470]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: The information requested has been placed in the House Libraries.

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much central government education funding was allocated on average to each (a) three to 10-year-old and (b) 11 to 15-year-old in Lancashire in each year since 1997. [216054]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: Total funding includes funding via Education Formula Spending/Standard Spending Assessment and grants allocated at an LEA level. It excludes the pensions transfer to EPS and the Learning and Skills Council, and is in real terms. Education Formula Spending is part of the wider local government finance system and is supported by council tax as well as central government grant. The following table shows the per pupil figures for Lancashire.
Average funding per pupil (£)—Lancashire

	Real terms, excluding pensions transfer to EPS and LSC in 2003–04 and 2004–05
	Primary (3 to 10-year-olds)	Secondary (11 to 15-year-olds)
1997–98	2,240	3,120
1998–99	2,350	3,170
1999–2000	2,510	3,290
2000–01	2,750	3,560
2001–02	2,900	3,710
2002–03	2,950	3,790
2003–04	3,100	3,810
2004–05	3,220	4,010

Notes:
Price Base: Real terms at 2003–04 prices, based on GDP deflators as at 30 September 2004
Figures reflect relevant sub-blocks of education SSA/EFS settlements and exclude the pensions transfer to EPS and LSC.
Total funding also includes all revenue grants in DfES Departmental Expenditure Limits relevant to pupils aged 3–10 and 11–15 and exclude EMAs and grants not allocated at LEA level.
The pupil numbers used to convert £ million figures to £ per pupil are those underlying the SSA/EFS settlement calculations plus PLASC 3-year-old maintained pupils and estimated 3 to 4-year-olds funded through state support in maintained and other educational institutions where these are not included in the SSA pupil numbers.
Rounding: Figures are rounded to the nearest 10.
Status: 2003–04 and 2004–05 figures are provisional as some grants have not yet been finalised/audited.

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much was spent on teaching of (a) science, (b) history, (c) mathematics, (d) religious education and (e) physical education in Lancashire in each year since 1997. [216055]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: My Department does not collect this information.
 
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Ethnic Minorities

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment she has made of the extent to which her Department's policies are meeting the needs of ethnic minorities. [205720]

Derek Twigg: My Department is fully committed to equality and diversity and to meeting our obligations under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act. We recognise that through evaluating our policies and processes thoroughly, we go a long way to achieving this.

Like many public bodies, we have an obligation to publish a Race Equality Scheme every three years. This requires us to examine all our policies and functions to identify those that are most likely to impact adversely on black and minority ethnic people, prioritise their significance and develop action plans to address the problem. The Department updates its action plan within the scheme annually in the light of the latest evidence.

We are currently working on the Department's new scheme, to be published by the end of May 2005, in accordance with the statutory requirements. In doing so, each programme in the Department has assessed its functions and policies framed around the Department's five year strategy, for their contribution to race equality. A full Department-wide examination of our policies will continue to be made every three years and the results will be published and available on the Department's website.

In addition the Department is committed to the process of Race Impact Assessment, an example of which can be seen in our published assessments within the higher education sector.

EU Committees

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many times during the (a) Italian, (b) Irish and (c) Dutch presidency of the EU the Advisory Committee on vocational training met; when and where these meetings took place; what UK Government expert was present; and if she will make a statement. [216285]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: The EU Advisory Committee on Vocational Training (ACVT) met (a) once during the Italian presidency (26–27 November 2003), (b) once during the Irish presidency (23–24 June 2004), and (c) once during the Dutch presidency (25–26 November 2004). All of these meetings took place in Brussels. In each case an official from the DfES attended. Officials from the TUC and CBI represent the UK trade unions and employers. The ACVT is a tripartite committee of Government, employer and trade union representatives. It was set up by Council Decision 63/266/EEC dated 2 April 1963 which laid down general principles for implementing a common vocational training policy across the EU. This decision was superseded by Council Decision 2004/223/EC dated 26 February 2004 which laid down new rules to take account of enlargement of the EU. For further information, please refer to the series of Command Papers on prospects for the EU—Cm6174 (April 2004), Cm6310 (September 2004) and Cm6450 (February 2005), which cover the periods of the above presidencies and are available on the FCO website at: www.fco.gov.uk/commandpapers.
 
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