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12 Oct 2009 : Column 214W—continued
In February 2009, we published the figures for balances and deficits held by schools for the financial year 2007-08. Last month, the Department began receiving submissions from local authorities providing information for 2008-09. The Department is now in the process of confirming and clarifying this information and we expect to publish the figures for balances and deficits held by schools for the financial year 2008-09 in 2010.
Education: Hertfordshire
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much capital expenditure from the public purse there has been in the education sector in (a) Hemel Hempstead constituency and (b) Dacorum since 1997. [289423]
Mr. Coaker: The Department allocates much of its capital resources to local authority areas. Information by constituency or for Dacorum only is not held centrally. Support for capital investment in schools in Hertfordshire is shown in the table.
| Financial year | Schools (£ million) |
| (1) Includes Primary Capital Programme. Figures reflect capital allocations brought forward from 2010-11 to 2009-10 as part of the fiscal stimulus initiative. | |
In addition, Hertfordshire has a Building Schools for the Future wave 4 project with an indicative allocation of £134.5 million of conventional funding and £148.2 million of PFI credits.
Education: Internet
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what funding his Department has allocated for the provision of online learning grids; and through which bodies such funding is paid. [289599]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: The DCSF does not provide any dedicated funding to schools or local authorities that must be spent on the provision of online learning grids.
Education: Travelling People
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what guidance his Department and its agencies have provided for local authorities on the priority admission of children of Travellers to state schools. [290285]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: The School Admissions Code, which came into force on 10 February 2009, provides statutory guidance on the application and allocation of school places for all admission authorities in England.
Local authorities are required to maintain Fair Access Protocols to ensure that access to education is secured quickly for children who have no school place but for whom a place at a mainstream school or alternative provision is appropriate. Children of Travellers, who may have difficulty securing a school place, are covered in the Fair Access Protocols.
Educational Visits: Vetting
Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what guidance his Department provides on overseas exchange visits for children of school age, with particular reference to whether Criminal Records Bureau checks should be undertaken for (a) British families having contact with children and (b) overseas families who have contact with visiting British children. [292146]
Dawn Primarolo: Chapter 4 of the "Safeguarding Children and Safer Recruitment in Education" guidance, which came into force on 1 January 2007, sets out the Department's strong recommendation that volunteers who help regularly with activities associated with the school or further education college and are in unsupervised contact with children, including new host families who provide care for students from overseas, should be CRB checked.
Under the new vetting and barring scheme those who provide care and accommodation for children under 18 for reward or by arrangement made outside the family will be engaged in 'regulated activity', and this is made clear in interim guidance the Government are issuing today about the new scheme. This means that in a two parent family, both parents will have to register with the scheme. Further guidance about registration with the ISA, which begins in summer 2010, will be produced in due course. We cannot impose this requirement on host families in other countries who provide care for British children.
However schools should satisfy themselves that adequate safeguarding arrangements have been put in place to protect children.
Employment Tribunal Service
Justine Greening: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many times his Department and its predecessors have been taken to an employment tribunal in each of the last five years; what the reason cited in each case was; and in how many cases the tribunal found in favour of the (a) employee and (b) Department. [290535]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: The Department has defended one case in each of the financial years 2007-08 and 2008-09 in employment tribunal hearings. The tribunal found in favour of the Department and predecessor, the Department for Education and Skills, in both cases. Information for 2005-06 and 2006-07 financial years could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Further details on the above cases are suppressed on grounds of confidentiality.
GCSE
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what proportion of children obtained GCSEs at grade C or above in (a) English, (b) mathematics, (c) a modern language, (d) history, (e) physics, (f) chemistry and (g) biology in each year between 1997 and 2008; and if he will make a statement. [285459]
Mr. Coaker: The proportion of children who achieved a grade C or above in each of the specified subjects at key stage 4, from 1997 to 2008, are shown in the following table. The figures provided show the proportion of all pupils who achieved a grade C or above, regardless of how many pupils were entered for the GCSE in question.
The number of pupils sitting a modern language GCSE has fallen since languages ceased to be compulsory at KS4 in 2004. However, for those sitting a GCSE, the proportion achieving a grade C or above has risen from 48 per cent. in 1997 to 69 per cent. in 2008.
| Percentage | ||||||||||||
| Subject | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 |
| n/a = Not applicable. Notes: 1. Figures in recent years are for all pupils at the end of key stage 4, figures prior to 2005 are for all 15-year-old pupils. 2. 2005 figures are available for 15-year-olds as well as for pupils at the end of key stage 4. A comparison of the two has shown the change in coverage does not affect the result by more than one percentage point in any of the given subjects. | ||||||||||||
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