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17 Mar 2009 : Column 1049W—continued
Faith Schools: Finance
Paul Holmes:
To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much religious
bodies have spent in capital expenditure on voluntary aided schools of a religious character in each of the last five financial years; and how much such bodies have received from public funds as a contribution to such expenditure (a) up to and (b) over 90 per cent. of the total expenditure. [263010]
Jim Knight: The information set out in the table shows the amount of grant payable to the governing bodies of those voluntary aided schools with a religious character. Although most capital expenditure at voluntary aided schools requires a 10 per cent. contribution from their governing bodies, we do not have information relating to any other contributions made either by governing bodies or from any other source.
| £000 | ||
| Amount paid up to 90 per cent. | Amount paid 90-100 per cent. | |
Foreign Languages: GCE A-level
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many pupils achieved an A level in a foreign language in each of the last 10 years. [247487]
Jim Knight: The information is provided in the table.
| Number of A-level passes in modern foreign languages by 16-18 year-olds in all schools, 1999 to 2008 | ||||||||||
| Subject | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 |
| Note: Figures are derived from the Achievement and Attainment Tables data. 'Other Modern Languages' include Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Dutch, Gujarati, Italian, Japanese, Panjabi, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish and Urdu | ||||||||||
General Certificate of Secondary Education
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what proportion of schools had less than 30 per cent. of pupils obtaining five A* to C GCSEs including English and mathematics in 2008, broken down by index of multiple deprivation decile. [258958]
Jim Knight: The information requested is shown in the table:
Ofqual
John Penrose: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families on what dates he or his Departmental officials have met (a) Ministers and officials of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, (b) members of the Risk and Regulation Advisory Council and (c) members of the Better Regulation Executive to assess the regulatory impact of the new qualifications regulator Ofqual; what data were considered on each occasion; and what conclusions were reached. [263795]
Jim Knight: Departmental officials met with members of the Better Regulation Executive to discuss the regulatory impact of the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill, of which the provisions establishing Ofqual are a part, on 29 September 2008. The Better Regulation Executive saw a draft of the impact assessment for the Bill on 18 December 2008. The Bill itself, including the final version of the impact assessment, received Cabinet clearance in the normal way. There is no requirement to refer impact assessments to the Risk and Regulation Advisory Council. The impact assessment was published immediately after the publication of the Bill.
John Penrose: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families on what dates his Department (a) consulted and (b) obtained information from awarding bodies to inform the impact assessment on Ofqual; and what representations were received from those bodies. [263885]
Jim Knight: The Department consulted widely on the proposals to establish a new regulator in December 2007 (“Confidence in Standards: Regulating and developing qualifications and assessment”, DCSF/DIUS, Cm 7281). The consultation ended on 10 March 2008 and replies were received from a large number of awarding bodies, among others. A report summarising the outcome of that consultation exercise was published in June 2008 (“Confidence in Standards: Regulating and developing qualifications and assessment—Next steps”). Respondents were given a further opportunity to comment on the detail of Ofqual’s enforcement powers in October 2008, and, again, a number of awarding bodies responded. My officials have had regular discussions with awarding bodies about a wide range of issues around the set-up of Ofqual and the Bill.
Parents: Training
James Brokenshire: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what training programmes are offered by the National Academy for Parenting Practitioners (NAPP); and how many people have undertaken training courses run by or on behalf of NAPP. [263949]
Beverley Hughes: The National Academy for Parenting Practitioners are offering training in a range of evidence-based training programmes, post training support for those delivering evidence-based training programmes and training in new QCF level 3 modular courses for practitioners unable to access the evidence-based training programme.
To date, the academy have trained 842 practitioners in evidence-based programmes, and 316 practitioners have been trained on modular training courses. The academy are on course to train 3,400 practitioners in evidence-based parenting programmes by the end of March 2010.
From April to December 2009, the academy will be offering a range of evidence-based training programmes including: Families and Schools Together (FAST); Family Links; Incredible Years; Mellow Parenting; Parenting Positively; Strengthening Families 10-14 (UK); Strengthening Families, Strengthening Communities; and Triple P. However, the offer will be responsive to local demand and the academy has some flexibility to expand the range of programmes on offer.
Primary Education: Sutton
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what information his Department will require from the London Borough of Sutton to assess its need for emergency capital and revenue funding to meet an increase in demand for primary school places from 2009-10; and if he will make a statement. [262125]
Jim Knight: The Department does not require additional information from Sutton but is awaiting the latest school census data to establish the latest trends in pupil numbers for all local authorities.
At the beginning of the three-year spending review period 2008-09 to 2010-11, the Department allocated devolved capital funding to Sutton and other local authorities for the whole period, on the basis of forecasts local authorities supplied to the Department. All basic need resources designated for additional pupil places are allocated at the beginning of the period so that authorities can plan ahead and the Department does not hold back additional funding to meet unexpected changes in demand. Where an increase in demand does arise, local authorities are expected to use their other capital allocations to help meet any shortfall.
We do not hold contingency revenue funding for additional primary school places. The organisation of a local authority’s schools is for the authority to manage within the revenue and capital funding provided.
School revenue funding to local authorities is based on actual pupil numbers recorded in the January school
census. For 2009-10, a local authority’s funding will be based on pupil numbers from January 2009. As a result, increases in pupil numbers up to that point, will be reflected in the authority’s funding. If pupil numbers in a local authority’s schools increase by more than 2.5 per cent. between January and the start of the academic year in the September following, the authority automatically receives additional funding for each pupil above the 2.5 per cent. threshold.
The Department is working on means of taking account of projected demographic change in capital allocations for the year 2011-12 onwards.
Private Education: Greater London
Mr. Hands: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families with reference to the answer of 11 October 2007, Official Report, column 688W, on private education: Greater London, what the equivalent figures are for 2008. [263413]
Jim Knight [holding answer 13 March 2009]: The requested information is shown in the table:
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