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12 Oct 2006 : Column 824W—continued
Information Sharing
17. Mr. Robathan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment he has made of the need for an information-sharing index for children. [92876]
Beverley Hughes: The 2003 Laming inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbie identified the urgent need for better sharing of information between children’s services, and every inquiry into a child’s death before that has also done so. Since Lord Laming reported, substantial consultation with local service managers, practitioners and the public, supported by evidence from local authority Trailblazer projects, has identified the benefits that arise from introducing an information-sharing index in terms of safeguarding children more effectively and efficiently. Three independent research reports during 2004 supported the business case and have informed index design.
A-levels
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many pupils sat A-levels in mathematics or sciences in the 2005-06 academic year. [92864]
Jim Knight: Information on the number of pupils sitting A-levels in mathematics and the sciences this summer is not yet available. Provisional figures will be published on 19 October.
Departmental Expenditure
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much was spent by his Department on food and alcohol for its staff working out of office in each year since 2001-02. [91924]
Mr. Dhanda: DfES staff may claim a range of subsistence allowances when they are working away from their duty station on departmental business.
Day subsistence helps with the extra costs that they may pay, for instance, for meals because they are unfamiliar with the area visited.
Overnight subsistence is an allowance intended to cover the extra costs involved in spending nights away
from home on official business. The place visited must be beyond reasonable daily travelling distance and so may be claimed if staff have to travel the night before they start work, or if they cannot reasonably expect to get home the same night as they finish work.
Travel and subsistence is claimed and authorised online via the Department’s integrated financial information system and is recorded under the general heading of subsistence.
All expenditure is made in accordance with published departmental guidance on financial procedures and propriety, based on principles set out in “Government Accounting”.
Disabled Students' Allowance
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how many postgraduate students claimed the disabled students' allowance in each of the last five years; [91684]
(2) how many (a) part-time and (b) full-time students claimed the disabled students' allowance in each of the last five years. [91685]
Bill Rammell: The number of student support scheme students in England and Wales in receipt of disabled students’ allowance between 2001-02 and 2005-06 is given in the table:
| Academic year | 2001/02 | 2002/03 | 2003/04( 1) | 2004/05 | 2005/06( 2) |
| (1) Due to a change in reporting arrangements, data are not centrally available for 2003/04. (2) Provisional. (3) Numbers rounded to the nearest 10 students. Source: DfES F503G survey of Local Authorities, Student Loans Company (SLC) | |||||
Music Tuition
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what percentage of schools in England have offered tuition in a musical instrument (a) with a charge and (b) free of charge in each year since 1997; and if he will make a statement; [93176]
(2) what percentage of school pupils have had access to tuition in a musical instrument at school (a) free of charge and (b) with a charge in each year since 1997; and if he will make a statement. [93185]
Jim Knight: The Department does not collect data on charging on a school or pupil basis. The 2005 survey of local authority music services (http://www.dfes.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/RR700.pdf) contains information regarding the charging policies of local authority music services.
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) in which musical instruments tuition is offered in all schools in England; and if he will make a statement; [93177]
(2) what percentage of children have had access to tuition at school in (a) piano, (b) guitar, (c) wind instruments, (d) percussion instruments and (e) brass instruments in each year since 1997; and if he will make a statement. [93234]
Jim Knight: The information requested is not collected by the Department. The two surveys of local authority music services from 2002 and 2005 (available from: www.dfes.gov.uk/research/programmeofresearch/index.cfm) suggest that a wide range of instruments are taught and that this range has increased since 2002. At key stage 2 the percentage of children learning a musical instrument has risen from 7 per cent. to 13 per cent. since 2002.
By 2008 we expect to have made significant progress towards our aim that every child at key stage 2 who wants to should have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument. Over the 2006-07 and 2007-08 financial years we are:
investing £2 million in a national musical instrument fund;
investing £2 million in a national strategy for workforce training and development;
allocating £26 million to support music in primary schools.
This is in addition to the £60 million allocated per year to local authority music services since 1999.
Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what financial contribution was made by private companies to the provision of music tuition in schools in each year since 1997; [93180]
(2) what role the private sector has in the musical education curriculum in schools. [93181]
Jim Knight: Effective delivery of music education and tuition at a local level can be enhanced considerably through partnerships between a range of providers, including those in the private sector. It is up to schools and local authorities to decide the exact nature of these partnerships.
National Music Week
Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what financial contribution was made by private companies to the activities taking place in schools during national music week; [93179]
(2) what criteria were used to select the 10 artists to be featured in the my music project in schools during national music week; [93182]
(3) how the opportunity to participate in the my music project in schools during national music week was advertised to recording artists and music companies. [93183]
Jim Knight: National music week, including the my music project in schools, is being run by the British Phonographic Industry and the Entertainment Retailers Association.
They are responsible for all the publicity and logistics for the week including the choosing of artists. Through the music manifesto, the Department made a contribution to supporting the educational element of national music week.
School Leavers
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what percentage of school leavers went on to higher education in each constituency in each of the last five years. [92494]
Bill Rammell: The information requested has been placed in the House Libraries.
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what percentage of school leavers in Hornsey and Wood Green went on to (a) higher education, (b) university and (c) further vocational education in each of the last five years. [92495]
Bill Rammell:
The latest available figures on participation in higher education by constituency were
published by the Higher Education funding Council for England in January 2005 in “Young Participation in England”, which is available from the website at http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/hefce/2005/05_03/ This report shows participation rates for young people who enter higher education aged 18 or 19, disaggregated by constituency, for the years 1997 to 2000. The figures for Hornsey and Wood Green, and the comparable figure for England, are shown in the table. HEFCE has not produced participation rates beyond 2000.
The total number of entrants from Hornsey and Wood Green for each year since 2001-02 are given in the table:
| Entrants to undergraduate courses from Hornsey and Wood Green | ||||
| 2001/02 | 2002/03 | 2003/04 | 2004/05 | |
| Note: Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 5, so components may not sum to totals. Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). | ||||
The Department uses the higher education initial participation rate (HEIPR) to assess progress on increasing first-time participation of English students aged 18-30 in higher education towards 50 per cent.: the latest provisional figure for 2004-05 is 42 per cent. The HEIPR is not calculated at constituency level.
Figures on participation in further education by young people are not available for parliamentary constituencies. Figures are available by local education authority but not for individual inner London LEAs.
Social Services
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children have been (a) abused and (b) killed while under the care of or after the engagement of the duty of care of the social services in each year since 2001. [91576]
Mr. Dhanda: Information on the number of children abused or killed while under the care of social services (that is, children who are “looked after” by their local authority for the purposes of the Children Act 1989) is not collected centrally.
However, information on the number of looked-after children who die each year and the official causes of death is collected and shown in table 1. This information has been collected by the Department since 2003. All numbers stated are rounded.
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