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15 Nov 2007 : Column 427W—continued
| Projections of snapshot numbers participating in education and work-based learning | |||
| Academic age | |||
| 16 | 17 | 18 | |
The estimated proportion of 17-year-olds expected to participate in 2020 is 100 per cent.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what estimates he has made of the number of attendance orders which would be issued as a consequence of the raising of the education leaving age to (a) 17 and (b) 18 in each year from 2012 to 2016; and if he will make a statement. [163825]
Jim Knight: On 5 November we published a document setting out how our proposals to raise the participation age have developed since the consultation, and which aspects require legislation. This explains that enforcement action will be a last resort, but if a young person is not participating once suitable learning provision has been identified for them and appropriate support provided, the local authority will be able to issue an attendance notice, specifying precisely the provision the young person must attend and where and when they must do this. We estimate that very few young people will reach the stage of being issued with an attendance notice, as the focus of the policy will be on ensuring that there is an engaging and worthwhile learning programme for every young person and the right support, including financial support, to help them stay in learning and succeed. The estimates and projections in the initial regulatory impact assessment (which has been placed in the Library of the House) are being revised to reflect developments in the policy before being published in the impact assessment that will accompany the Education and Skills Bill.
Mr. Laws:
To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what assessment has been made of the likely economic costs to (a) individuals and (b) businesses of raising the education leaving age to 18 in
relation to (i) foregone employment income and (ii) additional staff costs; and if he will make a statement. [163826]
Jim Knight: No individual will have to give up employment they already have as a result of our plans to raise the participation age to 18 from 2013. The first young people to be affected are currently in Year 6, so will have time to prepare. 16 and 17-year-olds cannot currently work more than 40 hours a week, and we do not propose to change this. An estimate of foregone productivity costs will be included in the impact assessment which will be published with the Education and Skills Bill.
Individuals will not incur additional staff costs. Some businesses may incur additional staffing costs if they choose to employ 18-year-olds, to whom they must pay a higher National Minimum Wage, rather than 16 and 17-year-olds. The estimates in the initial regulatory impact assessment published alongside the Green Paper (which was placed in the Library of the House) are being revised to reflect developments in the policy and will be published in an impact assessment alongside the Education and Skills Bill.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what assumptions underlie his estimate of a £10 million cost of annual enforcement in relation to raising the education leaving age to 18; and if he will make a statement. [163827]
Jim Knight: An initial regulatory impact assessment was published alongside the “Raising Expectations: staying in education and training post-16” Green Paper in March. This included estimated costs of £6.7 million to local authorities of enforcing the duty. This was based on the enforcement system set out in the Green Paper and the assumption that it would be used as a very last resort, with the focus of the policy on ensuring that there is an engaging and worthwhile learning programme available for every young person, along with the right support for them to access it successfully. As we said in the Green Paper, we will continue to make sure local authorities are properly resourced to deliver the new requirements.
The Green Paper proposed that one option for enforcing attendance orders would be for an individual, on breach of the terms of such an order to be liable to prosecution. Court costs of £2.5 million and legal aid costs of between £0.25-0.7 million were therefore included in the initial RIA to reflect this. The estimates in the initial RIA are being revised to reflect developments in the policy before being published in an impact assessment alongside the Education and Skills Bill.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how he calculated the estimated additional annual costs to local authorities of implementing the plans to raise the education leaving age to 18; if he will break down the estimated costs by (a) registration system, (b) support and guidance to students and (c) enforcement; and if he will make a statement. [163828]
Jim Knight:
An initial regulatory impact assessment was published alongside the “Raising Expectations: staying in education and training post-16” Green Paper in March, and copies were place in the Library of the
House. The estimated additional annual costs to local authorities were based on additional resources needed to track and contact young people not participating, provide help and support to address issues and re-engage in learning, and ultimately enforce the duty, through the system of attendance notices described in the Green Paper. No additional costs were forecast for registration, based on maintaining the Connexions Caseload Information System. An estimated cost of £50 million for additional tracking and support was included, and an estimated cost to local authorities of £6.7 million for enforcement (with other enforcement costs being incurred elsewhere). As we said in the Green Paper, we will make sure the local authorities are properly resourced to deliver the new requirements. The estimates in the initial regulatory impact assessment are being revised to reflect developments in the policy before being published in an impact assessment alongside the Education and Skills Bill.
School Leaving: Colchester
Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what estimate he has made of the number of places which will be required at educational establishments in Colchester constituency to cater for those between 16 and 18 years old if the school leaving age is to be raised to 18 years. [163742]
Jim Knight: The Department has not made detailed projections at a local level. Demographic changes will vary between local areas, of course, as will the nature of demand from young people, and local authorities will need to use their own projections to plan accordingly.
The proposed legislation is for the education and training leaving age, not the school leaving age, to be raised to 18 years. We estimate that most of the additional places required will be in FE colleges, not in schools.
School Meals
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what assessment he has made of the price elasticity of demand for school lunches; and if he will make a statement. [163770]
Jim Knight: The Secretary of State has not made such an assessment. Responsibility for setting the price of a school lunch rests with the local authority or, where the budget has been delegated, the school.
Schools: Admissions
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what proportion of surplus places there were in (a) primary, (b) middle (where appropriate) and (c) upper schools in the last period for which figures are available. [164464]
Jim Knight: The latest published data are for January 2006 where there were:
(a) 513,738 surplus primary places (including middle deemed primary) representing almost 12 per cent. of total capacity
(b) 244,111 surplus secondary places (including middle deemed secondary) representing around 7 per cent. of total capacity.
We do not collate separate figures for middle schools. They are deemed to be either primary or secondary schools.
The January 2007 surplus places data will be published later this year.
Schools: Construction
Mr. Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what plans he has to introduce standards of sustainability for new school buildings. [164043]
Jim Knight: We have adapted the Building Research Establishment’s Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) for schools and since 2005 it has been our requirement that major school building projects achieve a minimum BREEAM rating of ‘very good’. To complement this requirement we are planning to introduce new standards for carbon emissions attributable to energy used within new school buildings.
The Department is also funding demonstration schemes that will achieve a BREEAM rating of ‘excellent’ and we have commissioned a study to investigate the potential implications of raising the target to ‘excellent’. The outcomes of these initiatives work will inform future policy.
Schools: Crimes of Violence
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many assaults there were on adults in schools in (a) 2004-05 and (b) 2006-07 which led to exclusions, broken down by (i) category of assault and (ii) local education authority; and if he will make a statement. [164441]
Jim Knight: Information on the number of permanent and fixed-period exclusions due to assault against an adult, broken down by local education authority, and covering the academic year 2004-05 has been placed in the House Of Commons Library.
Data are not collected centrally on the category of assault.
Data for 2006-07 will be available in June 2008.
Schools: Finance
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the area cost adjustment factor is for schools in each local authority in England; what (a) assumptions and (b) data were used to determine these figures; and if he will make a statement. [163822]
Jim Knight:
Under the spend plus methodology for distribution of Dedicated Schools Grant, there is no single set of area cost adjustment factors for schools by local authority in England. The level of Dedicated Schools Grant per pupil for each local authority will depend on the level of their spending on schools in 2005-06, which was closely related to the formula for Schools Formula Spending Share (FSS) for that year. The Schools FSS formula contained the area cost adjustment factors set out as follows in column 1. We have in 2006-07 and 2007-08 distributed funding for a
number of ministerial priorities including the greater personalisation of learning, more practical learning options for 14-16 pupils, work force reform and the increased entitlement to early years provision from 33 to 38 weeks, all of which used the ACA factors set out below in column 2. Funding for the ministerial priorities in the school funding settlement for 2008-09 to 2010-11, which I announced to the House on 12 November also used the ACA factors in column 2.
| Column 1 | Column 2 | |
| Local authority | 2005-06 ACA | 2006-11 ACA |
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