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21 Jun 2005 : Column 980W—continued

Departmental Objectives/Staffing

Mr. Allen: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what plans she has to involve hon. Members in delivering the objectives of her Department. [2858]

Ms Harman: The objectives of my Department are set out in the document Making a Difference Taking Forward Our Priorities", copies of which were placed in the Libraries of both Houses. In the development of these proposals we have consulted hon. Members by issuing consultation papers, holding meetings and engaging in debates. We intend to continue to do so.

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what the expected change is in full-time equivalent staff resulting from merging the electoral law divisions in the Department for Constitutional Affairs and Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. [5571]

Ms Harman: There are no plans in the immediate future to change the number of full-time equivalent staff working on electoral law as a result of the recent machinery of Government changes.

Judicial Appointments

Mr. Amess: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what her policy is on the minimum legal qualifications necessary for a judicial appointment. [5926]

Ms Harman: The eligibility requirements for judicial appointments are set down in statute. They vary according to the judicial office concerned, but in general they provide that before being considered for judicial appointment, an individual must have possessed specified rights of audience before the courts for a specified length of time. The Lord Chancellor announced on 5 March this year that he would review the statutory eligibility requirements as a part of his programme of work aimed at increasing the diversity of the judiciary. That review is currently under way, and the Lord Chancellor will announce his decision shortly. It should be noted that the statutory qualifications are the minimum required to enable an individual to apply for judicial appointment: those who do apply are assessed against a detailed competence framework for the post concerned, and appointments are made solely on merit.
 
21 Jun 2005 : Column 981W
 

Rape Trials

Vera Baird: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs (1) if she will ensure that an Appeal Court judge who hears a rape appeal undergoes training in serious sexual offences; [1588]

(2) whether Court of Appeal (criminal division) judges (a) undergo continuation training on sexual offences and (b) receive further training on sexual offences after attending the serious sexual offences course on first appointment to the High Court; [1582]
 
21 Jun 2005 : Column 982W
 

(3) if she will ensure that a Court of Appeal judge who may hear a rape appeal but has not been on the serious sexual offences course is obliged to attend such a course; [1589]

(4) whether judges who were promoted from the High Court to the Court of Appeal prior to the introduction of the serious sexual offences course for High Court judges are given similar training before being allowed to hear rape appeals. [1587]

Ms Harman: Rape appeals will invariably be heard by an Appeal Court which will include at least one and usually two judges who have been on the serious sexual offences seminar.
 
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EDUCATION AND SKILLS

Adult Education

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what action she is taking to improve the provision of adult education. [5933]

Phil Hope: The Government's Skills Strategy, 21st Century Skills: Realising Our Potential" (July 2003) and Skills: Getting on in business, getting on at work" (March 2005) set out our plans for increasing and improving opportunities for adults to develop their skills. Adult education services are benefiting from our well-received Success for All programme. This is a long-term initiative to develop quality, demand-led provision, in which the Department is investing £118 million this year. For example, students benefit from the excellent teaching and learning resources produced through Success for All and managers can develop their leadership and management skills through the Government-funded Centre for Excellence in Leadership.

A-levels

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what recent discussions she has had with the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority on the (a) future and (b) rigour of A levels. [4913]

Jacqui Smith: None. Our proposals for further strengthening A levels are set out in our White Paper, 14–19 Education and Skills, published on 23 February 2005. The Secretary of State wrote to the QCA on 29 March with details of the role it should play in driving these reforms forward.

Basic Skills

Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many adults are without (a) level 3 and (b) basic skills, broken down by (i) local education authority and (ii) Government office region. [6292]

Phil Hope: The following table shows both the number and proportion of working adults ¹ who lack a NVQ level 3 or equivalent qualification. The results are based on the 2003–04 local labour force survey which sampled around 390,000 people from March 2003 to February 2004 throughout the United Kingdom. Figures are presented at Country and Government office region level in the first instance, and then local education authorities ordered alphabetically:

¹ Working age adults defined here as males aged 16–64 and females aged 16–59.

	Adults without a level 3 or higher
Country	Number (Thousand)	Percentage
England	17,059	56
Wales	1,027	59
Scotland	1,614	52
Northern Ireland	615	60
Government Office Region
North East	922	60
North West	2,370	58
Yorkshire and Humberside	1,759	58
East Midlands	1,487	58
West Midlands	1,925	60
East of England	1,932	59
London	2,530	53
South East	2,558	52
South West	1,576	54
Local Education Authority
Aberdeen City	62	47
Aberdeenshire	72	50
Angus	33	52
Argyll and Bute	26	50
Barking and Dagenham	70	71
Barnet	98	47
Barnsley	87	65
Bath and North East Somerset	47	45
Bedfordshire	130	54
Bexley	84	63
Birmingham	363	61
Blackburn	51	62
Blackpool	56	69
Blaenau Gwent	31	76
Bolton	88	55
Bournemouth	53	55
Bracknell Forest	37	52
Bradford	177	62
Brent	103	60
Bridgend	46	59
Brighton and Hove	70	43
Bristol	116	48
Bromley	96	53
Buckinghamshire	141	48
Bury	60	54
Caerphilly	69	67
Calderdale	69	58
Cambridgeshire	179	51
Camden	61	44
Cardiff	92	48
Carmarthenshire	61	61
Ceredigion	24	50
Cheshire	209	51
City of London	n/a	n/a
Clackmannanshire	17	58
Conwy	38	62
Cornwall	164	55
Coventry	108	58
Croydon	122	57
Cumbria	167	58
Darlington	34	59
Denbighshire	32	59
Derby	76	56
Derbyshire	270	60
Devon	212	52
Doncaster	113	66
Dorset	123	55
Dudley	112	61
Dumfries and Galloway	48	57
Dundee City	43	51
Durham	183	61
Ealing	99	48
East Ayrshire	43	59
East Dunbartonshire	27	40
East Lothian	28	50
East Renfrewshire	20	35
East Riding of Yorkshire	104	55
East Sussex	157	57
Edinburgh, City of	115	39
Eilean Siar	8	54
Enfield	108	62
Essex	507	64
Falkirk	49	54
Fife	112	52
Flintshire	53	57
Gateshead	71	61
Glasgow City	202	55
Gloucestershire	181	53
Greater Peterborough	62	63
Greenwich	79	57
Gwynedd	38	54
Hackney	82	60
Halton	48	66
Hammersmith and Fulham	53	43
Hampshire	384	51
Haringey	82	55
Harrow	68	50
Hartlepool	35	66
Havering	91	67
Hereford	60	58
Hertfordshire	316	50
Highland	65	53
Hillingdon	85	54
Hounslow	79	57
Inverclyde	27	53
Isle of Anglesey	23	58
Isle of Wight	43	59
Islington	62	52
Kensington and Chelsea	51	43
Kent	457	57
Kingston upon Hull	103	70
Kingston upon Thames	37	37
Kirklees	139	58
Knowsley	65	72
Lambeth	90	51
Lancashire	376	55
Leeds	232	52
Leicester	113	65
Leicestershire	212	55
Lewisham	87	53
Lincolnshire	223	58
Liverpool	181	67
Luton	71	62
Manchester	141	56
Medway Towns	102	65
Merthyr Tydfil	24	70
Merton	56	44
Middlesbrough	51	63
Midlothian	28	56
Milton Keynes	83	59
Monmouthshire	25	49
Moray	30	59
Neath Port Talbot	52	65
Newcastle upon Tyne	86	53
Newham	106	68
Newport	51	62
Norfolk	287	61
North Ayrshire	46	56
North East Lincolnshire	65	71
North Lanarkshire	117	58
North Lincolnshire	55	60
North Somerset	60	53
North Tyneside	64	56
North Yorkshire	164	49
Northamptonshire	228	58
Northumberland	108	58
Nottingham	100	59
Nottinghamshire	256	56
Oldham	86	65
Orkney Islands	6	52
Oxfordshire	180	47
Pembrokeshire	39	58
Perth and Kinross	37	47
Plymouth	87	59
Poole	47	57
Portsmouth	69	58
Powys	45	61
Reading	47	50
Redbridge	93	60
Redcar and Cleveland	54	65
Renfrewshire	53	50
Rhondda Cynon Taff	90	65
Richmond upon Thames	45	38
Rochdale	81	64
Rotherham	96	63
Royal Windsor/Maidenhead	38	45
Rutland	10	48
Salford	78	60
Sandwell	118	70
Scottish Borders, The	35	55
Sefton	93	57
Sheffield	177	56
Shetland Islands	7	52
Shropshire	93	56
Slough	49	64
Solihull	62	52
Somerset	163	56
South Ayrshire	35	54
South Gloucestershire	76	50
South Lanarkshire	107	57
South Tyneside	56	62
Southampton	77	55
Southend	62	64
Southwark	85	53
St. Helens	65	60
Staffordshire	293	59
Stirling	24	44
Stockport	93	54
Stockton on Tees	65	59
Stoke-on-Trent	102	70
Suffolk	252	64
Sunderland	114	67
Surrey	307	47
Sutton	64	56
Swansea	72	54
Swindon	66	58
Tameside	87	66
Telford and Wrekin	63	62
The Vale of Glamorgan	38	53
Thurrock	66	72
Torbay	44	61
Torfaen	36	65
Tower Hamlets	77	58
Trafford	61	48
Wakefield	126	65
Walsall	99	66
Waltham Forest	82	60
Wandsworth	73	39
Warrington	65	55
Warwickshire	176	56
West Berkshire	45	49
West Dunbartonshire	33	58
West Lothian	59	55
West Sussex	232	53
Westminster, City of	64	48
Wigan	115	61
Wiltshire	136	52
Wirral	103	56
Wokingham	40	41
Wolverhampton	91	65
Worcestershire	187	57
Wrexham	51	64
York	53	47

n/a = Sample size too small to provide a reliable figure.





 
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In October 2003 the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) published 'The Skills for Life Survey: A national needs and impact survey of literacy, numeracy and ICT skills'. The survey assessed the literacy, numeracy and ICT skills of around 8000 adults aged 16 and above in England. The findings for the nine government office regions are shown in the following tables. The assessment levels correspond to the new literacy and numeracy core curriculum and National Standards: Level 1 is broadly equivalent to a lower grade GCSE (grade D-G) and Level 2 to a higher grade GCSE (A*-C).

Overall around 16 per cent. of adults had literacy skills below Level 1: this varied between 21 per cent. in the north-east and 12 per cent. in the south-east. Likewise, 47 per cent. of adults had numeracy skills below Level 1 and this varied between 55 per cent. in the north-east and 40 per cent. in the south-east.
Literacy level by government office region Percentage

		Region
	Total	North East	London	Yorks & Humber	West Midlands
Base: All respondents with literacy scores	(7874)	(881)	(862)	(883)	(857)
Entry level 1 or below	3	4	5	4	4
Entry level 2	2	3	2	2	2
Entry level 3	11	14	13	13	11
Level 1	40	41	34	42	42
Level 2 or above	44	37	46	39	41

Percentage

	Region
	North West	East Midlands	South West	East of England	South East
Base: All respondents with literacy scores	(880)	(761)	(879)	(749)	(1122)
Entry level 1 or below	4	3	2	2	2
Entry level 2	2	2	3	1	1
Entry level 3	12	10	9	9	8
Level 1	42	41	40	40	37
Level 2 or above	41	43	46	47	51

Numeracy level by Government office region Percentage

		Region
	Total	North East	Yorks & Humber	North West	East Midlands
Base: All respondents with numeracy scores	(8040)	(898)	(923)	(895)	(785)
Entry level 1 or below	5	6	6	6	6
Entry level 2	16	22	17	19	16
Entry level 3	25	27	28	24	27
Level 1	28	24	28	28	27
Level 2 or above	25	21	21	23	23

Percentage

	Region
	South West	London	West Midlands	East of England	South East
Base: All respondents with numeracy scores	(889)	(881)	(865)	(766)	(1138)
Entry level 1 or below	5	6	6	4	4
Entry level 2	16	17	16	13	12
Entry level 3	28	25	25	25	24
Level 1	29	26	29	28	27
Level 2 or above	23	25	24	30	32

 
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Due to the survey sample size it is not possible to provide survey findings for the level of skills by local education authorities. However, the Department is currently working with Exeter university to generate a range of local level estimates (based on modelling techniques) to inform local planning and delivery in this key policy area. To date, estimates have been produced for Local Learning and Skills Councils (LLSCs), Districts and Wards. These estimates can be accessed on the Department's website at:

www.dfes.gov.uk/readwriteplus_skillsforlifesurvey/

A copy of the survey report is in the House of Commons Library and on the DfES website:

www.dfes.gov.uk

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