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27 Apr 2009 : Column 1067W—continued
Awarding Body data on GCSE examination entries are analysed by the Department for Children, Schools and Families as part of the School and College Achievement and Attainment Tables publication. However, this work only covers qualifications entered for by 16 to 18-year-olds. Therefore, we do not have information readily available on adults being entered for GCSE English language and GCSE English literature examinations.
A GCSE may not necessarily be the most appropriate learning outcome for many learners and colleges have been encouraged to advise learners to study the most relevant qualification to them. Many learners who may previously have undertaken a GCSE in English now have their language needs picked up through embedded learning in other courses.
Over the past few years, the Government have prioritised investment in adult skills towards those courses that best provide individuals with the skills to enter into sustained employment and progress into further learning. This strategy has paid dividends with record levels of adults participating in Skills for Life (numeracy and literacy), full level 2 and full level 3 qualifications.
Higher Education: Birmingham
Mr. Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what percentage of school leavers resident in (a) Birmingham Hall Green constituency and (b) Birmingham entered higher education in each of the last 10 years. [270036]
Mr. Lammy: The Government do not collect data on the number of school leavers who do not go on to higher education who are resident in a particular area, so it is not possible to calculate the percentage of school leavers for Hall Green constituency and Birmingham local authority who do go on to higher education.
The number of 18-year-old undergraduate entrants from Hall Green constituency and Birmingham local authority are shown as an alternative in the following table.
| 18-year- old undergraduate entrants( 1) from Hall Green Constituency( 2) and Birmingham local authority,( 2) UK higher education institutions( 3) | ||
| 18-year- old entrants | ||
| Academic year | Hall Green | Birmingham |
| (1) Covers entrants studying both full-time and part-time courses. (2) Parliamentary constituency and local authority are defined by full and valid home postcodes, returned by the student to HESA. (3) Excludes the open university due to inconsistencies in their coding of entrants across the time series. Notes: Figures are based on a snapshot as at 1 December and are rounded to the nearest five. Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). | ||
Petrol Alternatives
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills how much his Department and its predecessors have spent on the (a) research and (b) development of alternative fuel technologies for motor vehicles in each of the last five years. [256949]
Mr. Lammy: The Research Councils and the Technology Strategy Board, funded through the Department's Science and Research, and Innovation Budgets respectively, support a portfolio of research into alternative fuel technologies for motor vehicles.
The Research Councils' expenditure on relevant research is as follows:
| £000 | ||
| Biofuel | Hydrogen and other vectors | |
In addition, Research Councils funded the following relevant related research:
| £000 | ||
| Fuel cells | Biomass | |
The Technology Strategy Board was established in July 2007 and at that stage inherited DTI's support for collaborative R and D projects.
Since April 2004, when the Collaborative R and D programme was established in DTI, 18 projects have been supported where the main focus is alternative fuel technologies for motor vehicles (specifically on biofuels, hybrid drive systems and fuel cells). The total cost of the projects (which did not start until early 2005) was £41 million with the public sector providing £19 million grant funding. Of this, the grant funding provided to date is approximately as follows:
| TSB alternative fuel technology projects (£000) | |
The Technology Strategy Board also launched in September 2007 a £100 million Low Carbon Vehicles Innovation Platform bringing together funding from the Technology Strategy Board, Department for Transport, Engineering and Physical Science Research Council, and the Regional Development Agencies Advantage West Midlands and One North East. The Innovation Platform has recently launched competitions to support the development of low carbon vehicles, including a £10 million demonstration programme to put at least 100 ultra low carbon vehicles on the roads in the UK by the end of 2009.
Students: Finance
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills how many people expecting to start higher education in 2009 have registered for financial support with Student Finance England; and how many such students had registered by the same time last year. [270335]
Mr. Lammy: Figures obtained from the Student Loans Company show that by 21 April 2009, 125,000 applications had been registered from people expecting to start higher education in academic year 2009/10. At the equivalent point last year the figure was 75,000: however the registration process opened earlier this year on 9 February, compared with 8 March last year.
Students: Loans
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills how many and what proportion of former students owing money to the Student Loans Company are making use of the five-year repayment holiday. [270337]
Mr. Lammy: Certain graduates will be eligible for a repayment holiday from April 2012.
Graduates will be eligible to take a repayment holiday if they started a higher education course in 2008/09 or later, are taking out their first student loan and are due to enter repayment for the first time in April 2012 or later.
Jim Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills how many graduates were repaying tuition fee loans at nine per cent. above the £15,000 earnings threshold in (a) 2006-07, (b) 2007-08 and (c) 2008-09. [270914]
Mr. Lammy: Tuition fee loans were introduced in academic year 2006/07 for new students. Borrowers become liable to repay their loans from the April after they graduate or otherwise leave their course, if their annual income is above £15,000. Borrowers earning less than £15,000 are not required to make repayments. A student who took out a tuition fee loan in the first year they were available and who completes a typical three-year course will therefore become liable to begin repaying from April 2010, if their income is above the repayment threshold.
The Statistical First Release—Student Loans for Higher Education in England, Financial Year 2007-08 (Provisional) is available from the Student Loans Company website at:
This shows less than 100 students repaying fee loans at the end of 2006-07 and 200 at the end of 2007-08. Figures for 2008-09 will be published in July 2009.
Train to Gain Programme
Paul Rowen: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills whether a portion of the additional funding for Train to Gain announced in the pre-Budget report will be used to fund university student grants. [247679]
Mr. Simon [holding answer 15 January 2009]: Train to Gain is the Government's flagship service to employers to improve the skills for their employees and the productivity of their business.
Train to Gain is a growing programme and we plan to invest £925 million through Train to Gain in 2009-10. By 2010-11, we will be investing over £1 billion through Train to Gain.
The pre-Budget report announced that small and medium sized enterprises will be the focus of the £350 million planned growth in Train to Gain funding over the next two years to help them get the training they need. The 2009-10 grant letter to the Learning and Skills Council sets out the budget for Train to Gain. There is no expectation that any Train to Gain funding will be diverted to fund university student grants.
Health
Abortion
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the Answer of 26 March 2009, Official Report, columns 667-68W, on abortion, on what date and at what time the abortion statistics for 2008 will be published; when they will be uploaded to his Department’s website; and if he will make a statement. [271440]
Dawn Primarolo: The Statistical Bulletin “Abortion Statistics, England and Wales: 2008” will be published on 21 May 2009 at 9.30 am on the Department’s website
A copy will be placed in the Library.
Chlamydia: Screening
Anne Milton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health for what reasons reports are not made to the National Chlamydia Screening Programme of chlamydia tests carried out in genito-urinary medicine clinics. [270089]
Dawn Primarolo: Chlamydia screening data from genito-urinary medicine (GUM) clinics are part of a clinic aggregate return (KC60) and is not currently available by primary care trust (PCT) of the patients or age of patient.
The Department and the Health Protection Agency are implementing a new sexually transmitted infection data set for GUM, which will replace the KC60. This will provide data on numbers tested for chlamydia (under 25) in GUM services by PCT of residence. We expect full national roll-out later this year.
The National Chlamydia Screening Programme was set up to target asymptomatic individuals under the age of 25, who were not usually presenting for chlamydia testing. Information on the number of people screened is collected by PCT of residence and data are assigned to each individual PCT.
For the first year of the vital signs indicator (2007-08), relating to chlamydia, the emphasis was on counting and increasing all community testing. Once testing is sufficiently embedded within the community, we will then use all community data along with GUM tests to monitor progress towards reducing chlamydia prevalence in each PCT.
Coeliac Disease
Gordon Banks: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many people were diagnosed with coeliac disease at the latest date for which figures are available; [271335]
(2) what the average period between referral from a diagnosis with coeliac disease and assessment by a dietician was in the latest period for which figures are available; [271336]
(3) how many patients with coeliac disease had an annual review undertaken in the (a) secondary care and (b) primary care sectors in the last 12 months. [271495]
Ann Keen: The information requested is not collected.
Gordon Banks: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much the NHS spent on prescriptions for gluten-free products in (a) 2006, (b) 2007 and (c) 2008. [271337]
Dawn Primarolo: The net ingredient cost (NIC) of gluten-free products prescription items written in the United Kingdom and dispensed in the community in England, by calendar year, as defined in the British National Formulary (BNF), is given as follows.
| NIC of gluten-free prescriptions dispensed in England, 2006-08 | |
| £000 | |
| Source: Prescription Cost Analysis | |
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