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2 Mar 2009 : Column 1336W—continued
English Language: Education
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills how many courses in English for speakers of other languages paid for from the public purse were (a) started and (b) completed in each of the last five years. [258545]
Mr. Simon: Table 1 shows participation and achievements in Learning and Skills Council (LSC) funded courses in English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) for 2004/05 to 2007/08. The data prior to 2004/05 are calculated on a slightly different basis to these figures and have not been provided.
| Table 1: Participation and achievements in LSC-funded courses in English for speakers of other languages (ESOL), 2004/05 to 2007/08 | ||
| Participation | Achievements | |
| Notes: 1. Volumes are rounded to the nearest 100. 2. Figures in this table are a count of the number of learners that participated at any point during the year. Learners undertaking more than one course are counted only once for each data collection. However, learners that are included in different data collections, whether that relates to different years or different funding streams will be counted more than once. 3. Final data for 2007/08 will be published in March 2009. Source: FE, Ufl, WBL and ASL Individualised Learning Records | ||
Higher Education: Admissions
Mr. Newmark: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills how many people resident in Braintree constituency were admitted to universities in England in each of the last five years. [260383]
Mr. Lammy: The latest available information is shown in the table. Figures for the 2008/09 academic year will be available in January 2010.
| Entrants( 1) from Braintree parliamentary constituenc y— English higher education institutions( 2) , a cademic years 2003/04 to 2007/08 | |
| Academic year | Entrants |
| (1) Covers entrants to all levels of HE courses. (2) Excludes the Open University due to inconsistencies in their coding of entrants over the time series. Note: Figures are based on a HESA standard registration population and have been rounded to the nearest five. Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). | |
Innovation
Adam Afriyie: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills which departments have published innovative procurement plans in the last 12 months. [258575]
Mr. Lammy [holding answer 25 February 2009]: When the ‘Innovation Nation’ White Paper was published in March 2008, we anticipated that Departments would produce their plans in that calendar year. This has not proved practicable, and we have now asked Departments to put their plans in place by the end of the financial year. I can confirm that most major spending Departments expect to have their innovation procurement plans in place by the end of March. DIUS is working closely with the Departments and with the Office for Government Commerce to ensure that the Departments’ plans achieve value for the buying Department while encouraging innovation in business, and to ensure that the effectiveness of the plans is appropriately monitored.
Research: British Antarctic Territory
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what the cost of maintaining the UK's four research stations in the British Antarctic Territory was in the last 12 months. [248002]
Mr. Lammy: The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) operates three research stations in the British Antarctic Territory. The cost of operating them in the last financial year 2007-08 was about £4 million. This excludes the cost of the science and monitoring work undertaken at these stations. The total BAS resource budget is £45 million per year.
Students: Loans
Mr. Vara: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what recent assessment he has made of the effect of the economic downturn on the provision of (a) career development loans and (b) professional development loans by UK banks to students. [258439]
Mr. Simon: Career development loans (CDLs) are a successful GB wide programme administered by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) to help individuals invest in their future by financing vocational learning of their choice. CDLs are commercial loans provided by three high street banks, for which the Government pays the interest while people study.
The LSC monitors and analyses lending trends on a continuing basis. The number of loans given so far this year is lower than forecast. The LSC believe that, in part, this reflects the banks’ concerns about the economic downturn.
However, as set out in January in “New Opportunities: Fair Chances for the Future”, the Government believe that loans can play a greater part in helping people gain the skills they need. Expanded and rebranded professional and career development loans (PCDLs), which will be available for courses starting in September 2009, will offer reduced headline interest rates and allow for loans up to £10,000. PCDLs will help more people seeking professional and technical qualifications get on the right track in their career, and help those who have been made redundant retrain.
Students: Voluntary Work
Mr. Brazier: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what Government (a) guidance and (b) funding initiatives are available to higher education institutions to support student volunteering. [259108]
Mr. Lammy: The Department, through the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), has provided significant funding to higher education institutions (HEIs) to support staff and student volunteering—£52 million up to 2008-09 under the HE Active Community Fund (HEACF) and the Teaching Quality Enhancement Fund. The funding has now been mainstreamed and the intention is that institutions will decide how they continue to support student/staff volunteering through their block grants.
From 2002 to 2006 at least 60,000 people benefited from HEACF volunteer projects. The funding was focussed on helping HEIs to develop and grow volunteering opportunities to build closer links with the community and to help students further develop their employability and generic skills. HEFCE provided HEIs with guidance in support of this funding stream.
The Higher Education Academy's Annual Volunteer Awards recognises the important contribution of volunteering undertaken by staff and students in institutions.
Train to Gain Programme: Darlington
Mr. Milburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills how many people living in Darlington constituency have participated in the Train to Gain programme in each of the last three years. [258259]
Mr. Simon: Table 1 shows the number of Train to Gain starts in the parliamentary constituency of Darlington, in each academic year from 2005/06 to 2007/08.
| Table 1: Train to Gain s tarts in 2005/06 to 2007/08 | ||
| Darlington constituency | All Train to Gain starts | |
| Notes: 1. Parliamentary constituency is based on learner’s home postcode. 2. Numbers for Leeds West have been rounded to the nearest 10. 3. Numbers for England have been rounded to the nearest 100. 4. Train to Gain was created in April 2006. Therefore, figures for 2005/06 only include the months of April to July 2006. Source: WBL ILR | ||
Train to Gain is the key service for supporting employers to invest in the future productivity and profitability of their businesses by investing in the skills of their employees. Train to Gain offers quality-assured, impartial advice from skills brokers, to help identify the business’ skills needs at all levels and make the right, informed choices.
Vocational Training
Mr. Newmark: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what schemes his Department has in place to assist with re-training people with more than five GCSEs. [258298]
Mr. Simon: The Department for Innovation, University and Skills assists people with more than five GCSEs wanting to re-train through the Train to Gain programme, apprenticeships and through further education provision. And all young people aged 19-25 are guaranteed fully funded training to achieve a level 3 qualification.
To meet the current and future demand for re-training as a result of the recession, flexibilities and additional funding have been introduced to give people the real help they need. Apprenticeships will be expanded by 35,000 places by 2009-10 funded by an additional £140 million. SMEs have priority for £350 million of Train to Gain funds to provide bite-size training in business critical areas, fully funded level 2 qualifications and subsidised level 3 qualifications, regardless of whether the employee already has a qualification at this level.
In addition, a joint package with DWP of £158 million has been made available for people who are currently facing redundancy or looking for work, and £83 million will provide high quality FE training places to around 75,000 people who have been out of work for six months or more.
Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
Bankruptcy
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many (a) bankruptcy orders and (b) individual voluntary agreements were issued in each year since 1996-97. [258120]
Mr. McFadden: The following table records the number of bankruptcy orders and individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs) in each financial year since 1996-97 in England and Wales.
| Financial year | Bankruptcy orders( 1) | IVAs( 1) |
| (1 )Not seasonally adjusted. (2) Insolvency data for the current financial year are only available up to December 2008. | ||
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many (a) bankruptcy orders and (b) individual voluntary agreements were recorded in (i) Winchester, (ii) Hampshire and (iii) England in each of the last three years. [258223]
Mr. McFadden: Table 1 shows the number of (a) bankruptcy orders and (b) individual voluntary arrangements recorded in (i) Winchester, (ii) Hampshire and (iii) England in each of the last three years. Regional figures are not yet available for 2008.
| Table 1 | ||||
| 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | ||
| Notes: 1. Classifying insolvent individuals into administrative geographies is done using the postcode that the person provides. 2. Inaccurate or missing postcodes mean that the numbers in the table will be subject to an element of missing data. Nationally, this proportion has been decreasing from about 12 per cent. in 2000 to less than 4 per cent. in 2007. 3. Figures for Hampshire include Isle of Wight. | ||||
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