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21 Apr 2008 : Column 1614W—continued

Further Education: VAT

Stephen Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills how much VAT has been recovered from further education colleges following VAT inspection of the use of zero-rated buildings in each year since 1997. [198459]

Jane Kennedy: I have been asked to reply.

HM Revenue and Customs does not collect data on the amount of VAT collected on individual goods and services.

Higher Education

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills how many full-time undergraduates applied to universities from each parental (a) socio-economic group and (b) income quintile in the last three years for which figures are available. [196560]

Bill Rammell: The latest available information from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) is shown in the table. Information on applicants to full-time undergraduate courses by parental income quintile is not available.

21 Apr 2008 : Column 1615W

21 Apr 2008 : Column 1616W

Number of English domiciled applicants to full-time undergraduate courses by National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification (NS-SEC)—Years of entry 2005 to 2007
	NS-SEC group	2005		2006		2007
		Number	Percentage of known	Number	Percentage of known	Number	Percentage of known
1	Higher managerial and professional occupations	59,189	21.0	56,970	21.8	60,438	21.7
2	Lower managerial and professional occupations	88,153	31.3	81,037	31.1	85,708	30.8
3	Intermediate occupations	42,927	15.2	37,797	14.5	39,770	14.3
4	Small employers and own account workers	20,116	7.1	19,488	7.5	21,024	7.5
5	Lower supervisory and technical occupations	13,078	4.6	12,151	4.7	12,735	4.6
6	Semi-routine occupations	41,841	14.9	37,746	14.5	41,763	15.0
7	Routine occupations	16,347	5.8	15,682	6.0	17,133	6.2
	Total known	281,651	100.0	260,871	100.0	278,571	100.0
	Unknown(1)	87,150	—	97,196	—	101,506	—
	Total	368,801	—	358,067	—	380,077	—
	Number of known in groups 1-3	190,269	67.6	175,804	67.4	185,916	66.7
	Number of known in groups 4-7	91,382	32.4	85,067	32.6	92,655	33.3
(1) The proportion of applicants from unknown NS-SEC has increased from 23.6 per cent. in 2005 to 26.7 per cent. in 2007. Source: Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS).

Overall, for all students from England, the UCAS figures show that, compared to 2006, applicants to full-time undergraduate courses who had been accepted for entry in 2007, rose by 6.1 per cent. to 307,000, the highest ever. Latest figures for students applying for entry in 2008, show that applicants from England are up by 7.1 per cent. compared to 2007.

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills how many and what proportion of students applying for full-time science undergraduate courses in (a) the most recent UCAS round and (b) the previous 10 years were from each socio-economic background. [196661]

Bill Rammell: The latest available information from Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) is shown in the table. Figures for years earlier than 2002 have not been given because in this year the National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification (NS-SEC) was first introduced. It replaced the Social Class (SC) classification, and the two classifications cannot be directly compared. Also in 2002, a new subject classification was introduced which is not comparable with the classification used in earlier years.

Number and proportion of English domiciled applicants to full-time science( 1 ) undergraduate courses by National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification (NS-SEC) years of entry 2002 to 2007
	2002		2003		2004		2005		2006		2007
NS-SEC group( 2)	Number	% of known	Number	% of known	Number	% of known	Number	% of known	Number	% of known	Number	% of known
1	22,525	24.2	22,499	24.0	22,577	23.8	22,602	22.9	22,256	23.9	22,954	23.6
2	27,072	29.1	27,727	29.6	28,436	30.0	29,315	29.7	27,330	29.4	28,296	29.0
3	14,293	15.4	13,993	14.9	14,342	15.1	14,963	15.2	13,639	14.7	13,881	14.2
4	6,546	7.0	6,525	7.0	6,429	6.8	6,762	6.9	6,560	7.0	7,143	7.3
5	4,432	4.8	4,842	5.2	4,588	4.8	4,751	4.8	4,454	4.8	4,690	4.8
6	12,688	13.6	13,105	14.0	13,260	14.0	14,807	15.0	13,549	14.6	14,813	15.2
7	5,440	5.8	5,110	5.4	5,132	5.4	5,408	5.5	5,309	5.7	5,650	5.8
Total known	92,996	100.0	93,801	100.0	94,764	100.0	98,608	100.0	93,097	100.0	97,427	100.0
Unknown(3)	16,814	—	19,610	—	19,256	—	26,190	—	29,147	—	29,857	—
Total	109,810	—	113,411	—	114,060	—	124,798	—	122,244	—	127,284	—
Groups 1 to 3	63,890	68.7	64,219	68.5	65,355	69.0	66,880	67.8	63,225	67.9	65,131	66.9
Groups 4 to 7	29,106	31.3	29,582	31.5	29,409	31.0	31,728	32.2	29,872	32.1	32,296	33.1
(1) Science undergraduate courses cover the following subject groups: Medicine and Dentistry; subjects allied to Medicine; Biological sciences; Veterinary science, Agriculture and related subjects; Physical sciences; Mathematical and Computer Science; Engineering; Technologies; Architecture, Building and Planning; and Combined Sciences. (2) Definitions of each of the NS-SEC groups are (1) Higher managerial and professional occupations; (2) Lower managerial and professional occupations; (3) Intermediate occupations; (4) Small employers and own account workers; (5) Lower supervisory and technical occupations;(6) Semi-routine occupations and (7) Routine occupations. (3) The proportion of applicants from unknown NS-SEC has increased from 15.3 per cent. in 2002 to 23.5 per cent. in 2007. Source: Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS).

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