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12 Jul 2005 : Column 1016W—continued
Homework
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills pursuant to the answer of 30 June 2005, Official Report, column 1702W, on out-of-hours learning, if she will ask Ofsted to calculate the proportion of (a) secondary schools and (b) primary schools that set homework consistent with the guidance set out in her Department's publication, Homework: Guidance for Primary and Secondary Schools. [11785]
Jacqui Smith:
In their evaluation of the quality of teaching and how well pupils learn, Ofsted inspectors assess the effectiveness of a school's use of homework in reinforcing and extending what pupils have learnt at
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school. We have no plans to expand Ofsted's responsibilities in the monitoring of homework provision in schools.
Korean Studies
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many universities have Korean studies departments; and if she will make a statement. [11219]
Bill Rammell: The information is not held centrally, but the current course listings on the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) website www.ucas.com show that two institutions, the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London) and Sheffield University, offer courses in Korean either as a single subject or in combination with other subjects.
My hon. Friend will be aware that the Higher Education Funding Council for England has submitted their report on strategically important and vulnerable subjects.
Japanese, Chinese and other Far East languages and area studies were highlighted as part of this work. We are listening to what the sector think of the recommendations in the report and will be responding in the autumn.
Private Finance Initiative
Mr. Cameron: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what guidance her Department gives to local education authorities on the tendering of private finance initiative contracts under the Building Schools for the Future programme; and if she will place this guidance in the Library. [10773]
Jacqui Smith: A comprehensive suite of guidance documents for authorities benefiting from the transformational investment programme of Building Schools for the Future has been issued by both my Department and our delivery partners, Partnerships for Schools. In order to minimise procurement costs for local government, and to enable rapid project progress, Partnerships for Schools has in fact developed bespoke and standardised documentation for all aspects of procurement within the programme. The guidance specific to private finance initiative contracts can be found at:
www.p4s.org.uk/StandardDocuments.
I am of course happy to place copies of this guidance in the Library.
Pupil Referral Units
Mr. Cameron: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps she is taking to increase access to pupil referral units; what the latest figure is for the waiting time for referral in West Oxfordshire; and if she will make a statement on her policy on pupil referral units. [11447]
Jacqui Smith
[holding answer 11 July 2005]: It is for local authorities themselves to decide how best to meet the needs of pupils in their area who, for reasons of
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illness, exclusion or otherwise, are unable to attend mainstream schools. However, guidance issued to local authorities and schools in January 2005 about pupil referral units (PRUs) and alternative provision emphasised existing advice that education for this group of pupils must be of high standard and appropriate to their particular needs.
Local authorities use PRUs and a wide range of other educational provision to ensure this duty is adequately discharged. In 1997 there were 309 PRUs in England catering for 7,530 pupils compared to around 450 now catering for 14,470.
The Oxfordshire education authority's PRU and Integration Service (PRUIS) provides or arranges alternative educational provision for around 250 pupils, including pupils in West Oxfordshire, this academic year. Admissions to Oxfordshire PRUIS, including from West Oxfordshire, are handled by a committee which meets every six weeks. The time taken from a referral for a place at PRUIS depends on the particular needs of the individual pupil. However, the education for pupils who have been permanently excluded is usually arranged and implemented from the 16 day of exclusion.
School Admissions
Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what percentage of children were allocated their most preferred (a) primary and junior school and (b) secondary school in each English county in each of the last eight years. [11860]
Jacqui Smith: Information on pupils allocated their most preferred primary and secondary school is not collected centrally.
School Meals
Mr. Cameron: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills whether her Department has held discussions with the London borough of Greenwich on its participation in the recent Channel 4 series on school meals and ongoing school meals initiatives. [10772]
Jacqui Smith: DfES officials met with officials from Greenwich on 13 April 2005 to discuss what the borough has learned from working with Jamie Oliver and what it has since done to take forward work on healthy eating.
Mr. Michael Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many school children in Worcestershire (a) receive free school meals and (b) are eligible for free school meals, broken down by district. [11176]
Jacqui Smith:
The information requested is shown in the table.
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(40) Includes middle schools as deemed.
(41) Includes dually registered pupils and boarding pupils.
Note:
Totals may not appear to equal the sum of the component parts because numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10.
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will make a statement on the quality of hot school meals provided at Sacred Heart RC School, Chorley. [11650]
Jacqui Smith: The Department for Education and Skills does not collect information on the quality of individual schools' meals.
School Violence
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many school violence episodes have occurred in Southend, West constituency schools in each year since 1997. [9933]
Jacqui Smith: The information requested is not collected centrally.
Schools Adjudicator
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many school closures have been determined by the schools adjudicator in each of the last five years for which full annual figures are available. [10716]
Jacqui Smith: The numbers of proposals for mainstream school closures that were decided by the schools adjudicator between 2000 and 2004 are set out in the following table:
| Proposals approved | Proposals rejected | Total decisions | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 3 | 11 | 14 |
| 2001 | 13 | 1 | 14 |
| 2002 | 7 | 5 | 12 |
| 2003 | 18 | 12 | 30 |
| 2004 | 21 | 8 | 29 |
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The figures include cases in which schools have been closed to permit the establishment of a new school on the same site. The figures include decisions on maintained nursery school closures but exclude special school closure decisions.
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