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Teachers
Mr. Gauke: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will make a statement on the effects on costs of introducing a new pay structure for the upper pay spine for teachers. [50966]
Jacqui Smith:
As a result of the January 2004 Pay Agreement the potential annual spend of £700 million on upper pay spine costs is reduced to a more manageable £400 million per annum in the steady state. We now have a clear framework for rewarding our best and most experienced teachers and the first Excellent Teacher Scheme appointments will be made in September.
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Mr. Gauke: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what estimate she has made of the amount of time spent on administrative tasks by teachers; and what steps she has taken to reduce (a) the number of and (b) the time spent on such tasks. [50967]
Jacqui Smith: The independent study into teacher workload conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2001 identified that two-thirds of a teacher's time was spent on activities other than teaching. Following proposals made by the School Teachers' Review Body and extensive consultation, the National Agreement on Raising Standards and Tackling Workload was signed in January 2003 by Government, employers and the majority of school workforce unions. The agreement contained a series of phased changes to teachers' contracts including, from September 2003, that teachers would no longer be routinely required to perform administrative or clerical tasks.
In order to assess the amount of time spent on such tasks by teachers, the Department uses the Office for Manpower Economics (OME) Teachers' Workload Diary Survey. This survey provides independently collected data on the hours and working patterns of some 2,000 randomly selected teachers in schools in the maintained sector. The survey asks teachers to record the type and duration of activities undertaken in one week in March. Surveys have been carried out in 1994, 1996, 2000, 2003, 2004 and 2005. Estimates from the survey data of the average amount of time spent by teachers in schools each week on various categories of activity, including administrative and clerical tasks, are shown below for each year the survey has been run:
| Admin and clerical tasks | ||
|---|---|---|
| Primary | Secondary | |
| 1994 | 6.8 | 4.5 |
| 1996 | 7.8 | 4.4 |
| 2000 | 7.0 | 4.6 |
| 2003 | 6.9 | 4.4 |
| 2004 | 7.1 | 4.1 |
| 2005 | 5.9 | 3.8 |
Undergraduates
Mr. Vaizey: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many undergraduates the Government expects to study in the 2006/07 academic year; and if she will make a statement. [49996]
Bill Rammell: The number of full-time and part-time UK domiciled undergraduates studying at English Higher Education institutions and Further Education colleges in the 2006/07 academic year is projected to be 1,400,000 1 . This represents a planned increase of nearly 20,000 (1.5 per cent.) on the projected figure for 2005/06. Projections of HE student numbers are issued each year in the Department's Annual Report and a revised projection will be available on publication of the 2006 report.
TRADE AND INDUSTRY
Community Renewables Initiative
Colin Challen: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what consultations his Department has undertaken on the Community Renewables Initiative. [50678]
Malcolm Wicks: The DTI along with other partner organisations commissioned a report into the need for the type of advice service provided by the CRI. This report was circulated to members of the CRI and is now being used to inform ongoing discussions into the future of the CRI.
Colin Challen: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether the Community Renewables Initiative will receive financial support after 31 March. [50704]
Malcolm Wicks [holding answer 13 February 2006]: Discussions are still ongoing between DTI and other Government Departments and it s not possible to give an answer at this time. We recognise the difficulty this uncertainty is causing but we hope to make a decision shortly.
Company Directors (Personal Liability)
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will seek to introduce legislation under which company directors would be held personally liable for publishing dishonest financial statements. [51507]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Clause 387 of the Company Law Reform Bill re-enacts the provisions in section 233 of the Companies Act 1985 which provide for the criminal liability of directors for annual accounts that do not comply with the requirements of the Act and, where applicable, of Article 4 of EC Regulation No 1606/2002 on the application of international accounting standards.
Clause 434 of the Bill re-enacts the provisions of section 245B of the 1985 Act which enable the court, if it finds that accounts do not comply with the Act's requirements (or, where applicable, Article 4's requirements) to order that any reasonable expenses incurred by the company in connection with the preparation of revised accounts be borne by the directors who were party to the approval of the defective accounts.
Company Law
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will seek to introduce legislation under which companies would be required to publish their tax computation. [50020]
Alun Michael: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has no plans to require companies to publish their tax computations. Tax computations are a matter for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs.
There are many disclosure requirements under the Companies Act 1985 (which will be re-enacted in regulations to be made under the Company Law Reform Bill) and under accounting standards relating to
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tax that are required to be included in the accounts. As brief examples of the disclosure requirements, (by no means exhaustive), companies are required to report the following under UK GAAP:
Any special circumstances that affect the overall tax charge or credit for the period, or that may affect those of future periods, should be disclosed by way of note to the profit and loss account and their individual effects quantified
Deferred tax disclosures, including a reconciliation of the current tax charge or credit on ordinary activities for the period reported in the profit and loss account to the current tax charge that would result from applying a relevant standard rate of tax to the profit on ordinary activities before tax.
Companies reporting under International Accounting Standards need to include (among other things):
Consultancy Services
Mr. Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much his Department spent on outside consultancy services in each year since 2001. [50634]
Alan Johnson: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 5 December 2005, Official Report, column 1005W, to the hon. Member for Cheltenham (Martin Horwood)
Departmental Consultants
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what external consultants and advisers have been engaged by his Department on the proposals to consolidate the number of consumer bodies; and how much in fees has been paid to these external consultants and advisers for this exercise. [51197]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The Department of Trade and Industry has appointed KPMG LLP to undertake analysis on the proposals to strengthen and streamline consumer advocacy. The project fee is currently commercially sensitive information and the Department is unable to release this figure.
Parliamentary Questions
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many ordinary written parliamentary questions tabled for answer by him in the last 12 months have been answered (a) within 14 days, (b) between 14 and 28 days, (c) between 28 days and two months and (d) in excess of two months after the date of tabling; and if he will make a statement. [49896]
Alan Johnson:
Departments aim to ensure that Members receive a substantive response to their Named Day question on the named day and endeavour to answer Ordinary Written questions within a working week of being tabled. Unfortunately, this is not always possible but this Department makes every effort to achieve these time scales.
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