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21 Jun 2006 : Column 2002W—continued

Schooling (Peterborough)

Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what percentage of secondary school aged children who normally reside in (a) Peterborough constituency and (b) Peterborough city council area were educated outside the state sector in each year since 1997. [77916]

Jim Knight: We are unable to provide residency based figures for children educated outside of the state sector as the Department does not collect this type of information for independent schools or home educated children.

The numbers of secondary age⁽¹⁾ pupils attending independent schools⁽²⁾ in Peterborough has been provided in the following table.

	Peterborough parliamentary constituency	Peterborough local authority
1997(1)	0	n/a
1998(1)	124	n/a
1999	127	127
2000	124	124
2001	114	114
2002	133	133
2003	143	143
2004	167	167
2005	176	176
2006(2)	146	146
n/a = not available. (1) Figures for Peterborough local authority are available after local government re-organisation in April 1998. (2) Provisional. Source: Schools; Census

⁽¹⁾ Pupils aged 11 to 15 at start of the academic year (as at 31 August in previous year).

⁽²⁾ Does not include independent special schools.

21 Jun 2006 : Column 2003W

Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the average (a) primary and (b) secondary school class size was in (i) Peterborough constituency, (ii) Peterborough city council area and (iii) England in each year since 1997. [77925]

21 Jun 2006 : Column 2004W

Jim Knight: The information requested is shown in the table.

Maintained primary and secondary schools( 1) : average class size( 2) 1997-2006( 3)
	Peterborough parliamentary constituency		Peterborough local authority area( 4)		England
Position in January each year	Primary	Secondary	Primary	Secondary	Primary	Secondary
1997	28.6	20.5	—	—	27.5	21.7
1998	28.9	20.3	—	—	27.7	21.7
1999	28.8	20.7	28.3	20.8	27.5	21.9
2000	27.4	20.8	27.0	20.9	27.1	22.0
2001	27.5	20.6	27.0	20.9	26.7	22.0
2002	27.3	20.4	27.1	21.0	26.3	21.9
2003	27.4	21.1	27.0	21.2	26.3	21.9
2004	27.7	20.8	27.3	21.3	26.2	21.8
2005	27.5	20.6	27.0	21.1	26.2	21.7
2006(3)	27.6	20.1	27.2	20.7	26.3	21.5
(1) Includes middle schools as deemed. (2) Classes taught by one teacher during a single selected period on the Census day in January. (3) Provisional. (4) Peterborough local authority was formed in April 1998 as part of local government reorganisation.

Schools

Mr. Peter Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many small schools in England were amalgamated in the last three years for which figures are available. [78880]

Jim Knight: We have been informed that 238 small primary schools, and 10 small secondary schools, have been amalgamated since January 2003. Amalgamation means either the closure of two or more schools and the establishment of one new school; or the closure of one school and the expansion of another to accommodate displaced pupils. The Department regards a small primary school as a school that has 200 pupils or less and a small secondary school as one that has 600 pupils or less.

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills when he expects head teachers to receive the direct payments to their schools announced in the 2006 Budget. [78501]

Jim Knight: Additional funding for schools of £220 million in 2006-07, rising to £365 million in 2007-08, was announced in the 2006 Budget, to support personalised learning at key stages 1-4. The funding will be paid to schools in September as an addition to their Schools Standards Grant. An interactive calculator is available on the Teachernet website to enable schools to calculate their share of this new grant.

Student Finance

Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many individuals had been in arrears for (a) less than one month, (b) less than three months, (c) less than six months and (d) more than six months to the Student Loans Company at the end of each financial year from 1997-98 to 2005-06; and if he will make a statement. [75319]

Bill Rammell: There are two loan schemes for higher education Students. Income-contingent loans were introduced in 1998: prior to that support was delivered through the mortgage-style loan scheme.

Most income-contingent loan repayments are collected by employers through the tax system and current policy ensures that deductions keep pace with earnings so borrowers do not become overdue on their accounts.

There are currently 592,500 borrowers with publicly-owned mortgage style loans issued before 1998. The following table shows UK borrowers by length of arrears⁽¹⁾ at the end of financial years 2004-05 and 2005-06.

	Financial year
	2004-05	2005-06
In arrears, no repayment schedule(1)	52,900	59,900
Less than one month in arrears	2,600	2,200
From one month to less than three months in arrears	6,600	5,300
From three months to less than six months in arrears	4,900	3,600
Six months or more in arrears	53,600	43,600
(1) Borrowers in arrears with no repayment schedule include those with a very small balance remaining, and those subject to litigation. In both cases the borrower is required to repay the whole amount outstanding. Source: Student Loans Company

⁽¹⁾ Borrowers with loans in more than one category are counted in each relevant category.

21 Jun 2006 : Column 2005W

This level of detail is not available for earlier years. Note that figures exclude borrowers who are deferring repayment because their income is currently below the repayment threshold, but who have arrears outstanding from the past.

Supply Teachers

Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much was spent on supply
21 Jun 2006 : Column 2006W
teaching staff in schools in each of the past three years, broken down by (a) region and (b) local education authority. [78563]

Jim Knight: The information requested is given in the following tables:

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