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14 Dec 2006 : Column 1380W—continued


14 Dec 2006 : Column 1381W

Departmental Expenditure

Mr. Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much was spent by his
14 Dec 2006 : Column 1382W
Department on television advertisements in the last year for which figures are available. [104436]

Mr. Dhanda: The Department's total spend on TV advertising in the last year was as follows:

TV spend DFES, 1 December 2005 to 30 November 2006
Job No. Job Name Dates Cost (£)

269689

Student finance 05/06—MTV promo incl. production

1-31 January 2006

25,299.58

269036

Teenage pregnancy 05/06

2 January 2006 to 26 March 2006

400,000.00

275091

Student finance 06/07

4 September 2006 to 1 October 2006

1,654,365.00

276330

Adult basic skills 06/07

4 September 2006 to 1 October 2006

1,434,056.75

276330

Adult basic skills 06/07—interactive TV

4 September 2006 to 1 October 2006

78,722.00

275091

Student finance 06/07 EMAP and RSVP TV

16-29 November 2006

57,500.00

275248

Teenage pregnancy 06/07

27-30 November 2006

72,620.00

Total

3,697,263.75


All figures are exclusive of VAT.

Education: Darlington

Mr. Milburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what approvals his Department has given for capital expenditure on (a) schools and nurseries and (b) colleges in Darlington since 1997. [108169]

Jim Knight: Funding is distributed by the Department in terms of allocations rather than specific approvals, and detailed records of expenditure are held at local authority level, including projects funded from income not provided by the Department. Records of allocations to Darlington for schools, which include nursery classes in primary schools, are detailed in the following table:

£ million

1997-98

0.7

1998-99

0.9

1999-2000

2.0

2000-01

4.0

2001-02

4.9

2002-03

5.3

2003-04

45.0

2004-05

4.2

2005-06

4.5

2006-07

25.0

2007-08

4.4


Allocations include £34.9 million for a PFI scheme in 2003-04, and £20.8 million for Targeted Capital Fund Schemes in 2006-07, those for 2007-08 are provisional. Additional allocations for children’s centres in Darlington, including nursery provision, are set out in the following table. No allocation has as yet been made for 2007-08.

£ million

1997-98

0.0

1998-99

0.00

1999-2000

0.0

2000-01

0.0

2001-02

0.00

2002-03

0.06

2003-04

0.16

2004-05

0.37

2005-06

0.37

2006-07

0.63

2007-08


Since 1997, both colleges in Darlington have had capital projects approved by and partly funded by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC). Darlington College’s campus relocation project was approved in December 2003. Approved costs amounted to £32.7 million of which £13.08 million was funded by the LSC.

Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College had a west wing extension approved in October 2000 at a total cost of £2.6 million. This project was partially completed incurring a cost of £0.54 million, including grant paid of £0.19 million. This has since been incorporated into a west wing revised project, approved in August 2003 and completed in 2004. Approved costs were £4.99 million of which £1.5 million was funded by the LSC.

Employer Training Pilots

Mr. Boris Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the total cost has been of the employer training pilots; how many level two qualifications have been awarded under the pilots; and what proportion of those qualifications were awarded to those in care. [108659]

Phil Hope [holding answer 12 December 2006]: The total cost of the employer training pilots was £350 million. 159,889 learners achieved a Level 2 qualification through the pilots.

35,587 Level 2 qualifications were awarded to those working in the care sector, contributing 26 per cent. of the total. The majority of these qualifications, 33,988, were for a NVQ Level 2 in Care.


14 Dec 2006 : Column 1383W

Financial Hardship

John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment he has made of the effect of financial hardship among children and young people upon (a) educational achievement, (b) participation in extra curricular activities and (c) exclusion from school. [105340]

Jim Knight: DfES national attainment statistics indicate that there is a strong relationship between financial hardship and educational achievement. We have less clear evidence on the specific effect of financial hardship on participation in extra curricular activities and on exclusions.

(a) Educational achievement

National key stage assessment results show a relationship between being a child from a family with low income and lower attainment.

(b) Participation in extra curricular activities

DfES commissioned research on the cost of schooling(3) found that family income influenced the average spend on schooling (this included spending on school trips, music lessons).

There is also some evidence reported in the DfES commissioned Young People’s Social Attitudes survey(4), that income is significantly associated with participation in leisure activities.

(c) Exclusion from school

The Department has not commissioned any research which explores the impact of financial hardship on exclusions from school. However, statistics comparing the 2002/03 permanent exclusion rate of pupils eligible for free schools meals (FSM), as a proxy for deprivation show that, in general, schools with high permanent exclusion rates tended to have high percentages of pupils’ eligible for free school meals(5).


14 Dec 2006 : Column 1384W

Foundation Degrees

Stephen Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills from which organisations he has received representations since the publication of the Further Education and Training Bill on the granting to further education institutions of the power to award foundation degrees. [109661]

Bill Rammell: At the present time, my Department has received representations on the proposals in Clause 19 of the Further Education and Training Bill from Universities UK, the Coalition of Modern Universities, the Association of Colleges, and the National Union of Students. The current consultation period runs until 12 January 2007, and we expect to receive further responses in the intervening time. We have made clear our ongoing commitment to working with partners in both the further and higher education sectors to make the proposals function effectively.

Dr. Iddon: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what estimate he has made of the number of further education colleges which have the expertise and infrastructure to offer foundation degree courses. [109732]

Bill Rammell: There are 275 further education colleges currently offering Foundation Degrees, or 283 including those in the Channel Islands and certain other specialist colleges such as the Britannia Royal Naval College. Of these, we expect that only a very small number, mostly from the mixed economy group of colleges which currently provide 14 per cent. of all Foundation Degree provision, will wish to apply for Foundation Degree Awarding Powers.

Free School Meals

Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many pupils received free school dinners in Eastbourne constituency in each year since 1996. [105104]

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

Information at parliamentary constituency level is not available prior to 1997.


14 Dec 2006 : Column 1385W

14 Dec 2006 : Column 1386W
Maintained primary and secondary schools( 1) : School meal arrangements 1997-2006 position in January each year—Eastbourne parliamentary constituency
Maintained primary schools
Number on roll( 1,2) Number of pupils taking free school meals( 3) Percentage taking free school meals Number of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals Percentage known to be eligible for free school meals

1997

6,791

1,039

15.3

1,464

21.6

1998

6,948

1,065

15.3

1,445

20.8

1999

7,030

959

13.6

1,256

17.9

2000

7,122

981

13.8

1,290

18.1

2001

7,061

957

13.6

1,268

18.0

2002

7,113

897

12.6

1,166

16.4

2003

7,205

917

12.7

1,201

16.7

2004

7,052

885

12.5

1,124

15.9

2005

7,012

837

11.9

1,099

15.7

2006

7,001

834

11.9

1,002

14.3


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