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6 Mar 2007 : Column 1892W—continued
Departments: Equal Opportunities
Joan Ruddock: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills whether his Department has (a) a gender strategy and (b) a gender equality action plan in place. [125060]
Mr. Dhanda [holding answer 2 March 2007]: The Department for Education and Skills is taking steps to integrate gender equality into all its policies and programmes in line with the gender duty, and is committed to eliminating unfair discrimination on the grounds of gender.
We have already started to engage with our policy and programme colleagues and partners by jointly hosting awareness seminars on the gender duty led by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) and a:gender, the civil service wide network for transsexual people.
The gender equality scheme, which has to be published by the end of April 2007, will combine a DfES narrative on our overall planning as an employer and sector leader, alongside policy and programme action plans. Those policies and programmes will have the gender duty in mind when promoting gender equality and ensuring there is no discrimination. The gender equality scheme will then be reviewed every three years as a whole. The action plans will be reviewed on an annual basis.
Departments: Freedom of Information
Mr. Wills: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what estimate he has made of the cost to his Department of monitoring the time spent processing requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for the purposes of the proposed fees regulations. [121724]
Mr. Dhanda: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer given on by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs, my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Redcar (Vera Baird).
Education: Finance
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills pursuant to his written statement of 20 February 2007, Official Report, column 22WS, on the winter supplementary estimate 2006-07, whether he plans to make a statement on the spring supplementary estimate 2006-07. [123865]
Alan Johnson: I refer the hon. Member to the written statement issued on 20 February, Official Report, column 22WS.
English Language
Mrs. Ellman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps he is taking to ensure that those with limited English language skills who are claiming tax credit will be supported in making an application for free remission under proposed new arrangements for English as a second or other language provision. [124624]
Phil Hope: All those applying for an English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) course will be eligible for full fee remission if they are in receipt of jobseekers allowance or an income related benefit including working tax credit.
They will be supported in their applications by their local college or training provider. The local learning and skills council will be able to provide details of local provision.
A race equality impact assessment is currently being conducted that considers further the impact of proposed changes to eligibility for ESOL courses and this will be published shortly.
Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what projections he has made of the percentage of students who will receive full fee remission for English for Speakers of Other Languages courses following the introduction of new arrangements in August 2007. [124432]
Phil Hope [holding answer 1 March 2007]: Under the new arrangements, all those applying for an English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) course will be eligible for full fee remission if they are in receipt of jobseekers’ allowance or an income related benefit including working tax credit.
It is not possible to accurately project the percentages of students who will receive full fee remission for ESOL as this information has not previously been collected.
A race equality impact assessment is currently being conducted that considers further the impact of proposed changes to eligibility for ESOL courses and this will be published shortly.
Educational Attainment
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what proportion of people aged 19 achieved (a) level 2 by (i) the age of 16 and (ii) the age of 19 and (b) level 3 by the age of 19 in each year since 1997. [124835]
Jim Knight: Figures reporting attainment by age 19 are only available on the current basis of measurement, using matched administrative data, from 2004 onwards. The latest Statistical First Release (SFR) on attainment by age 19 was published in February 2007 (SFR 06/2007).
Table 1 shows the proportion of people aged 19 that have achieved level 2 by 16, level 2 by 19, and level 3 by 19 each year since 2004.
| Table 1 | |||
| Percentage | |||
| 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | |
| (1) Level 2 by 16 for those aged 19 in 2004, 2005 and 2006. E.g. 52.2 per cent. of those aged 19 in 2006 had reached level 2 by age 16—in academic year 2002/03. | |||
These figures for 16-year-olds differ from other published figures on the attainment of pupils aged 15 in schools and colleges (SFR 01/2007) because different denominators are used, there are differences in qualifications counted and matching means the numerators are not quite the same.
Table 2 shows the proportion of pupils aged 15 in schools and colleges achieving a level 2 each year since 1997.
| Table 2 | |
| Proportion (percentage) | |
Free School Meals
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills whether it is his policy that people in receipt of working tax credit do not qualify for free school meals for their children; and if he will make a statement. [125082]
Mr. Dhanda: The Government's working tax credit provides additional financial support to all ‘working families’ that have low incomes. We believe that free school meals should be available to ‘non-working’ families, who we consider are most in need of this additional help.
Children whose parents are in receipt of the following are entitled to receive free school meals:
income support;
income based job seekers allowance;
support under part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999;
child tax credit provided they are not entitled to working tax credit and have an annual income (as assessed by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) that as of 6 April 2007 does not exceed £14,495;
the guarantee element of state pension credit.
Children who receive income support or income based jobseekers allowance in their own right are also eligible to receive free school meals.
General Certificate of Secondary Education
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many and what proportion of pupils gained (a) no GCSEs at grades A*-C, (b) one GCSE at grades A*-C, (c) two GCSEs at grades A*-C, (d) three GCSEs at grades A*-C and (e) four GCSEs at grades A*-C in each local authority in 2006. [123058]
Jim Knight: The information requested has been placed in the House of Commons Library.
Higher Education: EC Action
Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will publish his Department’s submission to the German EU Presidency on the creation of a compendium of good practice for higher education, as cited in Prospects for the EU in 2007, Cm 7024. [123517]
Bill Rammell: The Department has not made a submission to the German EU presidency on the creation of a compendium of good practice for higher education. I myself made the proposal for such a compendium during the Finnish presidency, at the Education Council on 14 November 2006, and the suggestion received support from a large number of other member states. A copy of the UK position paper on higher education reform, which includes a proposal to develop a compendium of good practice in modernising universities, follows this answer. This paper was tabled at the November Education Council.
UK Position Paper: Higher Education Reform 14 November 2006
The UK welcomes the efforts the Commission and Presidency have made to take forward the EU’s Higher Education (HE) reform agenda. The UK believes that the discussion in the Education Council on 14 November will provide critical momentum in the follow up to Heads of State and Government discussions at the Hampton Court summit and at the June European Council this year. The latter called for “a follow up to the Commission’s communication on the challenges ahead for universities and encourage the Member States to promote excellence and foster modernisation, restructuring and innovation in the higher education sector”.
The Commission’s Communication on Modernising Universities highlights the challenges facing the European HE sector, whilst stressing that it is primarily for Member States and HE institutions to carry out reform. It is now for us, as Member States, to ensure that concrete reforms are taken forward to modernise our Higher Education systems. The approaches taken by different Member States will necessarily be predicated on varying national needs, systems and approaches to HE. However, it is clear that there are also many commonalities and therefore scope for Member States to share best practice and work together to discuss possible approaches.
At the EU level, we need to work together to identify and disseminate good practice, for example on governance, funding and business/industry links. Good work is already underway in the peer learning clusters set up under the Education and Training 2010 work programme. The Member States involved in the Higher Education cluster have already started this process; peer learning activities in the UK and in Norway have demonstrated the value that European co-operation can add to Member States’ own efforts.
The UK is keen to ensure that all Member States are able to consider and learn from other countries’ experiences of Higher Education reform, thus making the most of the opportunities made available by the Open Method of Co-ordination.
In this context, the Council could provide a forum for sharing experiences and good practice, including those identified through the peer learning activities. To this end a compendium of good practice in modernising universities could be compiled, based on Member States’ own experiences and possibly on experiences from elsewhere. This could be a useful aid to decision making and a lasting resource to help support Member States’ ongoing reforms. The Council, with the support of the Commission, could set itself the challenge of developing such a compendium by the end of 2007.
Higher Education: Sunderland
Mr. Kemp: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many and what percentage of children in (a) Houghton and Washington, East constituency and (b) Sunderland city council area progressed to higher education in each year since 1997. [122788]
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 their 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 Houghton and Washington, East, and the comparable figure for England, are shown in the table. HEFCE have not produced participation rates beyond 2000.
The total number of entrants from Houghton and Washington, East for each year since 1997/98 are given in the table:
| English domiciled entrants aged 18 to undergraduate courses at all UK Higher Education Institutions | ||||
| Total | Of which: | |||
| English domiciled | Sunderland local authority area | Houghton and Washington, East constituency | Unknown local authority area | |
| Notes: Figures are on a DfES snapshot basis and are rounded to the nearest 5. Excludes the Open University. Unknown LA area covers English domiciled students who did not provide a valid postcode, from which local authority area and constituency are derived. Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). | ||||
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