Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
5 Mar 2009 : Column 1815Wcontinued
To prevent debts falling into the hands of vulture funds in the first place, we have supported the World Banks debt reduction facility. This facility helps countries buy back their commercial debts at a vastly reduced price, cancelling debt outright and preventing it being enforced before a court. More than $9 billion of poor countries debts have already been cancelled in this way. Following improvements to the facility, DFID has recently
committed more fundsup to £10 millionto future commercial debt buy-back operations.
To help countries defend themselves in existing cases, we have supported the establishment of an African legal support facility to which DFID will contribute £5 million. We believe this will help ensure countries have access to high quality legal advice and expertise, which can be valuable in reducing the impact of litigation. For example, in the case of Zambia, where DFID helped to pay its legal fees when it was targeted by a vulture fund, the court reduced Zambias liability by around $40 million.
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what (a) responsibility and (b) powers local authorities will have over academies as a result of the dissolution of the Learning and Skills Council and the devolution of powers over 16-19 education to local authorities. [259093]
Jim Knight: Subject to the passage of the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill, local authorities will take on the responsibility for securing sufficient provision for all 16 to 19-year-olds in their area. In fulfilling the proposed duties in the Bill, they will commission places from all types of providers, including academies, to meet the needs of the young people in their areas. Local authorities will not gain any new powers or responsibilities over academies.
An Academy Trust, through their funding agreement is responsible for determining the number of places they will provide to their local communities in consultation with their local authority. Under current arrangements the Secretary of State already has the power to amend that number of places, for instance on the basis of local need. Under the proposals in the Bill, the only change is that the Secretary of State will have the power to ask the YPLA to exercise these and other academy-related functions, on his behalf, as set out in clause 74.
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many pupils in each year group with (a) statemented and (b) non-statemented special educational needs attended academies in each year since 2003. [258347]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The requested information is provided in the tables:
2006 | 2007 | 2008 | |||||||
Number of pupils | Pupils with s tatements of SEN | Pupils with SEN without statements | Number of pupils | Pupils with s tatements of SEN | Pupils with SEN without statements | Number of pupils | Pupils with s tatements of SEN | Pupils with SEN without statements | |
(1) Less than 5. Notes: 1. Excludes dually registered pupils. 2. These figures do not include Academies that opened after January 2008. 3. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10. Source: School Census |
Next Section | Index | Home Page |