House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 24 Jan 2008 (pt 0011)

24 Jan 2008 : Column 2165W—continued

Education: Prisons

Mr. Hurd: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what steps the Government have taken to improve the quality of prison education since 2001. [176005]

Mr. Lammy: I have been asked to reply.

The transfer of responsibility for offender learning from the Home Office in 2001, to the Department for Education and Skills, now the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, brought the offender learning agenda within mainstream learning and skills arrangements. This led to the introduction of heads of learning and skills, a new senior role within each prison responsible for co-ordinating delivery. Offender learning is inspected by Ofsted (and its predecessors) to the same standards as mainstream education, with published reports since 2002.

Between August 2005 and August 2006, the Learning and Skills Council completed the introduction of a new offender learning and skills service. This service is designed to integrate delivery both inside and outside prisons, as well as ensuring the quality is consistent with that available in the outside community.

The new delivery arrangements are governed by the policy framework set out in the ‘Reducing Re-Offending
24 Jan 2008 : Column 2166W
Through Skills and Employment’ Next Steps document, published jointly by the then Department for Education and Skills, the Home Office, and the Department for Work and Pensions in December 2006. Many of the further changes set out in the Next Steps document are now being piloted in our two test bed regions, the West Midlands and east of England,

Geronimo Communications

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families pursuant to the answer of 16 January 2008, Official Report, column 1272W, on Geronimo Communications, what information his Department holds on any payments made by Geronimo Communications other than to departmental bank accounts; and if he will make a statement. [181123]

Kevin Brennan: DCSF has three departmental bank accounts, an HM Paymaster General bank account and two commercial bank accounts. All payments received by DCSF are credited to one of these three bank accounts. There are no records of any payments being received from Geronimo Communications and credited to any of these accounts.

Nursery Schools: Greater London

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many free nursery places have been provided in London in each of the last 10 years. [180604]

Beverley Hughes: Information about the part-time equivalent number of free early education places filled by three and four-year-olds in London is shown in the table.

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24 Jan 2008 : Column 2168W

Part-time equivalent number of free early education places^{( 1,2,3)} filled by three and four-year-olds in London—position in January each year
	3-year-olds			4-year-olds
	Maintained nursery and primary schools^{( 4)}	Other maintained and private, voluntary and independent providers	Total 3-year-olds	Maintained nursery and primary schools^{( 4)}	Other maintained and private, voluntary and independent providers	Total 4-year-olds
1998	42,300	n/a	42,300	n/a	n/a	⁽⁶⁾85,000
1999	44,900	n/a	44,900	n/a	n/a	⁽⁶⁾87,500
2000	46,500	⁽⁷⁾12,100	58,600	n/a	n/a	⁽⁶⁾87,000
2001	46,700	⁽⁷⁾20,800	67,500	n/a	n/a	⁽⁶⁾87,800
2002	46,900	⁽⁷⁾32,700	79,600	78,100	⁽⁸⁾13,500	89,600
2003	47,400	⁽⁷⁾29,400	76,800	75,000	⁽⁸⁾14,300	89,300
2004	46,700	⁽⁹⁾28,000	75,300	74,000	⁽¹⁰⁾14,000	88,000
2005	46,600	⁽⁹⁾30,100	76,700	73,600	⁽¹⁰⁾13,000	86,600
2006	47,700	⁽⁹⁾32,300	80,000	73,500	⁽¹⁰⁾13,400	86,800
2007	48,800	⁽⁹⁾34,800	83,600	74,200	⁽¹⁰⁾14,000	88,200
n/a = not available. ⁽¹⁾ A place is equal to five or more sessions and can be filled by more than one child. ⁽²⁾ Figures are rounded to the nearest 100 if they exceed 1,000 and to the nearest 10 otherwise. ⁽³⁾ Prior to 2002, information on early education places taken up by four-year-olds was derived from returns made by local authorities as part of the Nursery Education Grant (NEG) data collection exercise. These data do not differentiate between the maintained and private, voluntary and independent sectors. ⁽⁴⁾ Headcount of children aged three at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Annual Schools’ Census. ⁽⁵⁾ Headcount of children aged four at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Annual Schools’ Census. ⁽⁶⁾ Part-time equivalent number of children aged four at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Nursery Education Grant data collection exercise. ⁽⁷⁾ Part-time equivalent number of children aged three at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Nursery Education Grant data collection exercise. ^(8.) Part-time equivalent number of children aged four at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Early Years Census supplementary data collection exercise and the Annual Schools’ Census. ⁽⁹⁾ Part-time equivalent number of children aged three at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Early Years Census and the Annual Schools’ Census. ⁽¹⁰⁾ Part-time equivalent number of children aged four at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the Early Years Census and the Annual Schools’ Census.

The latest figures on early education places for three and four-year-olds in England were published in Statistical First Release (SFR) 19/2007 “Provision for children under five years of age in England: January 2007”, available on my Department’s website

www.dfes.gov.uk/rsgateway/

Primary Education

Mr. Chaytor: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many year 1 pupils there were in schools in England in each of the last five years. [179310]

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

Nursery, primary, secondary and special schools^{( 1, 2, 3)} : Number (headcount) of pupils in national curriculum year group 1^{( 4)} . Position in January each year 2003 to 2007: England
	Nursery	Primary^{( 1)}	Secondary^{( 1, 2)}	Special^{( 3)}	Total^{( 1, 2, 3)}
2003⁽⁵⁾	0	580,620	40	3,640	584,300
2004	30	568,050	30	3,340	571,440
2005	10	563,970	160	2,960	567,100
2006	10	544,110	210	3,010	547,340
2007	10	533,200	270	2,830	536,320
⁽¹⁾ Includes middle schools as deemed. ⁽²⁾ Includes maintained secondary schools, city technology colleges and academies. ⁽³⁾ Includes maintained and non maintained special schools. Excludes general hospital schools. ⁽⁴⁾ Excludes dually registered pupils. ⁽⁵⁾ Figure provided for secondary schools in 2003 excludes anomalous national curriculum year group data reported by one school. Note: Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10.

Special Educational Needs: Greater Manchester

Mark Hunter: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much was spent on children with (a) special educational needs and (b) dyslexia in (i) Cheadle constituency and (ii) Stockport metropolitan borough council area in each of the last five years. [180073]

Kevin Brennan [holding answer 21 January 2008]: The information requested is submitted to the Department according to local authority areas, rather than districts within an area. Cheadle is a district of Stockport Local authority. The information for Stockport LA about the amount spent on children with special educational needs is as follows:

Budgeted net expenditure on the provision of education for children with special educational needs by Stockport local authority: 2003-04 to 2007-08
	£
2003-04	14,181,000
2004-05	17,038,000
2005-06	20,558,000
2008-07	20,963,000
2007-08	20,941,000

The Department does not collect separate figures on how much was spent on children with dyslexia.

Culture, Media and Sport

Archaeology

Mr. Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what plans he has for the long-term future of the Portable Antiquities Scheme; and if he will make a statement. [180100]

Margaret Hodge: The Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) is funded by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) and so any decisions on its future funding will be taken by the MLA. In recognition of the importance of the scheme, I am very pleased to be able to confirm that the MLA has announced that it intends to maintain current levels of support for the PAS in 2008-09. The MLA will consider options for future funding of the PAS in the context of its priorities for museum collections and public participation.

The PAS is of national importance and the MLA is committed to seeing it thrive and evolve. The MLA will continue to work with the British Museum and other stakeholders to build on the scheme’s success in advancing archaeological knowledge—for finders, museums and, most importantly, the wider public.

Arts: Peterborough

Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will place in Library all correspondence between his Department and the East of England Development Agency on funding of arts projects in Peterborough in the last 12 months. [181132]

Margaret Hodge [holding answer 22 January 2008]: My Department has no record of any such correspondence.

24 Jan 2008 : Column 2169W

Capita

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much was paid by his Department to Capita Group plc and its subsidiaries in each financial year since 2000; which contracts were awarded by his Department to Capita Group plc in each year from 2000-01 to the most recent available date; what the cost was of each contract; what penalties for default were imposed in contract provisions; what the length was of each contract; whether the contract was advertised; how many companies applied for the contract; how many were short-listed; what criteria were used for choosing a company; what provision was made for renewal without re-tender in each case; and if he will make a statement. [180703]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The information that is currently held is listed as follows. Some of the records are not available or are held centrally by other Government Departments.

Q uestion :

How much was paid to Capita Group and its subsidiaries in each financial year since 2000?

Answer :

	£
2000-01	69,350
2001-02	95,139
2002-03	7,862
2003-04	9,854
2004-05	7,540
2005-06	102,855
2006-07	428,464
2007-08	470,913

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