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School Sport Facilities

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what funding her Department has made available for improvements to school sports facilities in (a) West Lancashire and (b) Lancashire in each year since 1997. [53320]

Jacqui Smith: Significant funding is being provided specifically to enhance PE and school sport facilities between 2001 and 2009. In total, £686 million of lottery funding is providing a step change in school sport facilities through the Space for Sport and Arts and Big Lottery's New Opportunities for PE and Sport programmes.

Local authorities and schools may supplement this with the formula capital funding that we provide to them. However, it is the responsibility of the schools and local authorities to determine how they allocate these funds to different projects, including enhancing school sports facilities, taking account of local needs and priorities.

Records are not held centrally that show how much of this funding is spent on school sports facilities, neither am I able to provide a breakdown for West Lancashire and Lancashire.

School Staff (Checks/Disputes)

Ms Keeble: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills whether the restrictions which apply to employment in schools of people convicted or cautioned for sex offences apply to employment in education units in (a) secure training centres and (b) young offender institutions. [44664]

Ruth Kelly: Anyone who is barred and included on List 99 on grounds of being unsuitable to work with children, including those barred automatically because of a conviction for a sexual offence against a child, and those included permanently on the Protection of Children Act List, is disqualified from working with
 
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children under section 35 of the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000. It is an offence under that Act for a disqualified person to apply for, offer to do, accept, or do any work with children in a wide range of settings including secure training centres and young offender institutions.

Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment she has made of the implications for independent investigations into allegations of cheating of resolutions between teachers and schools, in lieu of employment tribunal decisions, which include confidentiality agreements. [55873]

Jacqui Smith: The responsibility for undertaking investigations into allegations of cheating in public examinations lies with the awarding bodies.

The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA),as regulator of the awarding bodies, requires awarding bodies to investigate any instances of alleged malpractice and take such action as is necessary to maintain the integrity of the examination.

Schools Funding

Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what representations she has received from churches on proposed changes to the way capital funding is channelled to schools; and if she will make a statement. [55898]

Jacqui Smith: When considering options for changes to the way in which we pay capital grant to voluntary aided schools, we established a transition group which included representatives from local authorities, the churches and the voluntary aided sector generally. We have acted on the recommendations of that group in taking our current proposals forward. The churches have been fully supportive of the changes.

Schools White Paper

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will make a statement on the role of local education authorities under the provisions of the Schools White Paper. [41185]

 
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Jacqui Smith: The White Paper sets out an enhanced role for local authorities as commissioner rather than provider of services, and as champion of pupils and parents, responding appropriately to their needs. Local authorities will take a leadership role in relation to school organisation decisions and will have a duty to promote diversity, choice and the fulfilment by every child of their educational potential.

Science GCSEs

Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills pursuant to the answer of 27 February 2006 to Question 53160, on science GCSEs, what proportion of the timetable (a) biology, (b) chemistry and (c) physics are expected to take up when taught as separate subjects rather than as part of the double award science GCSE. [56688]

Jacqui Smith: Guidance from examining boards suggests around 10 per cent. of the timetable should be spent on studies leading to a single GCSE subject.

Sector Skills Councils

Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills which Sector Skills Councils are (a) fully compliant, (b) in the process of being compliant and (c) not compliant with their licence obligations as to the proportion of private sector funding they receive; and if she will make a statement on action she is taking to achieve such compliance. [56244]

Phil Hope: The Sector Skills Council (SSC) license does not contain any specific obligations or requirements around the level of employer sourced funding for SSCs. Consequently, there are no network level explicit targets for employer financial contributions for SSCs to be assessed against.

It should be stressed however that SSCs are encouraged to source funding from employers and other sources where appropriate, recognising that SSCs have been set up to be the voice of employers. The current level of Government sponsor funding for the network is a contribution to the core cost of an effective SSC so alternative funding sources need to be developed. In this context, the SSDA aims to facilitate employer income contributions where appropriate and there is the long term expectation that SSCs, as employer led organisations, will seek to develop additional funding sources.

Setting

John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many maintained schools (a) set and (b) group pupils in (i) English, (ii) mathematics, (iii) science, (iv) design and technology, (v) history and (vi) modern languages; and if she will make a statement. [53610]

Jacqui Smith: Ofsted through their school inspections in 2002/03 noted that in secondary schools: 51 per cent. of English; 86 per cent. of mathematics; 70 per cent. of science; 29 per cent. of history and 62 per cent. of modern foreign languages lessons were set by ability.
 
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Sex Education

Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills pursuant to the answer of 25 January 2006, Official Report, column 2210W, on sex and relationships education, if she will take steps to make the teacher's certificate in personal social and health education compulsory for all teachers expected to teach sex and relationships education. [53353]

Jacqui Smith: We are encouraging all teachers of sex and relationship education to undertake the teachers' certificate in Personal Social and Health Education (PSHE) and almost 5,000 teachers have undertaken the certificate since 2002. We have no plans to make the PSHE certificate a compulsory requirement for teachers of sex and relationship education.

Sign Language (Financial Support)

Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what financial support is available for parents of deaf children to be taught sign language. [54599]

Maria Eagle: The Department supports parents who wish to learn sign language through a public subsidy of sign language courses delivered through further education colleges. In 2004/05 the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), the body that plans and funds post-16 education and training in England, supported 21,491 learners on sign language courses, at a cost of more than £6.7 million. Although we can not specifically identify parents of deaf children separately among these learners we know the majority of them (90 per cent.) were not people with a learning difficulty and/or disability. Therefore, the vast majority of learners on sign language courses do not have a hearing impairment but are undertaking the course for a variety of other reasons which will commonly include being a parent or other relative of a hearing impaired person. We do not currently have comparable data available for 2005/06.

Throughout the prioritisation of funding for 2006/07 we have been clear that provision for learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities remains a priority and that the LSC has been explicit in its strategic planning guidance to ensure funding for non basic or level 2 employability skills, which accounts for the majority of adult funding available, should be prioritised for courses for learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities, as well as programmes for those that work with this group which include courses such as lip-reading, sign language and Braille.

There are also measures in place to ensure that learners with low incomes who are in receipt of means tested benefits will receive free tuition on publicly funded courses. For adult learners facing barriers to learning, Learner Support Funds (LSF) provides additional financial support to people undertaking learning.
 
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Where learners are not receiving a means tested benefit the provider may waive fees at their discretion and may make use of LSF in order to provide support. In 2004/05 we know that around half of learners undertaking sign language courses paid no fees either as a result of being on means tested benefits or due to the discretion of the provider.

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