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14 Jun 2010 : Column 306W—continued
Education
Academies and Free Schools
Ed Balls: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what procedures he plans to use to evaluate potential sponsors of (a) academy schools and (b) free schools. [1209]
Mr Gibb: I am currently considering a range of options to ensure that sponsors of academies and those involved in free schools have the capacity and capability to support the provision of high quality education for their pupils.
British Educational Communications and Technology Agency
Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what his most recent estimate is of the savings to the public purse arising from the closure of BECTA. [1411]
Mr Gibb [holding answer 8 June 2010]: We expect that the closure of BECTA will save £10 million in 2010-11 after all costs have been met, and that savings in subsequent years will be in the order of £65 million per year.
Building Schools for the Future Programme
Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Education (1) what representations he has received from Birmingham city council on the prospects for the Building Schools for the Future programme in Birmingham since his appointment; [1066]
(2) what discussions he has had with Birmingham city council on the applicability to the city of Birmingham of the £100 million funding envelope applied to the most recent invitations to bid under the Building Schools for the Future programme; [1178]
(3) with reference to the oral answer of 8 March 2010, Official Report, columns 16-17, on Building Schools for the Future, what plans he has for funding of the projects for the (a) 30 schools being redeveloped or planned for redevelopment and (b) other schools in Birmingham planned to be included in future phases of the Building Schools for the Future programme. [1253]
Mr Gibb: The Secretary of State has not received any representation or held any discussions with Birmingham city council on the prospects for the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme in Birmingham; or the applicability to the city of Birmingham of the £100 million funding envelope.
The Department has not taken any decisions on BSF. Any future roll-out decisions will be announced in due course.
Education Maintenance Allowance
John Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what plans he has for the future of education maintenance allowance payments. [871] [Official Report, 6 July 2010, Vol. 513, c. 2MC.]
Mr Gibb [holding answer 7 June 2010]: The Government are committed to retaining the education maintenance allowance (EMA). The budget for 2010-11 is £564 million, enabling young people aged 16 to 19 in England who meet residency criteria and have a bank account to receive EMA payments if their household income is under £30,801 (based on evidence from the last full financial year).
Free Schools
Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education whether he plans to provide support to parents and groups to transfer to the status of free schools (a) existing state schools and (b) schools planned for closure; and if he will make a statement. [212]
Mr Gibb [holding answer 2 June 2010]: We have yet to take decisions about whether to do so and, if so, what level of support will be provided to free schools. We will make this information available in due course.
Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will ensure that capital and revenue funding for free schools will not be taken from local education authorities' (a) current and (b) future budgets; and if he will make a statement. [252]
Mr Gibb: We have yet to take decisions on the funding for free schools. We will make this information available in due course.
GCSE
Kelvin Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will ensure that all schools and GCSE candidates receive GCSE results for the examinations in 2010 in hard copy. [914]
Mr Gibb: It is for individual examination awarding bodies and schools to organise timely and appropriate communication of the results of public examinations, taking into account the needs of their recipients.
Primary Education: Admissions
Mr Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many and what proportion of children of primary school age in each local education authority attend a school other than that of their parents' first choice. [2209]
Mr Gibb: The information requested in respect of primary schools is not collected centrally.
Pupil Premium
Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what criteria he plans to use to disburse the pupil premium to (a) local education authorities and (b) individual schools. [684]
Mr Gibb: The Government published the document "The Coalition: our programme for government" on 20 May 2010, which set out our intention for a pupil premium to support disadvantaged children. The pupil premium will target extra funding specifically at deprived pupils to enable them to receive the support they need to reach their potential. We will publish our proposals with details of how we plan to distribute the pupil premium in due course.
Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency
Ed Balls: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what estimate he has made of the (a) cost and (b) savings to the Exchequer arising from the abolition of the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency in (i) 2010-11, (ii) 2011-12 and (iii) 2012-13. [1199]
Mr Gibb [holding answer 7 June 2010]: QCDA's budget for 2010-11 is £128 million. From that we expect to generate savings of at least £8 million in this financial year. We are now working with QCDA to plan its orderly winding down including estimates of costs and further savings to the Exchequer in this and subsequent years. The extent of these will depend upon decisions as to the future of each of QCDA's functions.
School Leaving
Mr Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what plans he has for the level of the compulsory participation age in relation to education and training in (a) 2013 and (b) 2015; and if he will make a statement. [95]
Mr Gibb: We have set out in "The Coalition: our programme for government" our plans for education policy over the coming months and years. We are currently developing plans for specific policy areas. We will be able to give further details in due course.
Schools: Admissions
Ed Balls: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what his policy is on the application of the Schools Admissions Code to (a) maintained and (b) academy schools. [1208]
Mr Gibb: All maintained schools must act in accordance with the School Admissions Code.
The Government have been clear that all new academies will have an inclusive admissions policy. For existing academies and maintained schools, this means having clear admission arrangements; giving priority to children in care; not adopting any new selection by ability; being able to adopt any lawful admission criteria, such as by sibling, distance or catchment, if oversubscribed (ie more applications than available places). Those schools adopting academy status will be able to retain their existing admission arrangements, which should already be compliant with the code.
Schools: Standards
Michael Fallon: To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will reduce the number of school policies that each school is required to adopt. [1468]
Mr Gibb [holding answer 8 June 2010]: This Government are strongly committed to freeing all schools from unnecessary bureaucracy so that they can focus on their core purpose of raising standards for all children.
We will shortly be outlining a package of measures to reduce the bureaucratic load on schools, including a substantial reduction in the number of policies schools are required to produce.
Sixth Form Education: Disadvantaged
Kelvin Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education (1) what proportion of pupils aged 16 to 18 years in sixth form colleges and school sixth forms were from highly deprived backgrounds in (a) 2007-08 and (b) 2008-09; [915]
(2) what proportion of pupils aged 16 to 18 years in further education colleges were from highly deprived backgrounds in (a) 2007-08 and (b) 2008-09. [917]
Mr Gibb: The information requested is shown in the following table. Eligibility for free school meals in the final year of compulsory schooling has been used as the indicator of deprivation. The denominators are all those 16 to 18-year-olds(1) studying in school sixth forms, sixth form colleges, or FE colleges for whom information was available on their free school meals status at age 15 (i.e. those who had been in maintained schools at age 15).
| Percentage of 16 to 18-year-old students known to be eligible for free school meals at age 15 | |||
| School sixth forms | Sixth form colleges | FE Colleges | |
| Percentage | |||
(1) Based on academic age-the age of the young person at the beginning of the academic year, 31 August.
Sure Start Programme
Mr Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will undertake public consultation before any change is made to the priorities of the Sure Start programme. [204]
Sarah Teather [holding answer 7 June 2010]: The coalition document published on 20 May states that the Government will take Sure Start back to its original purpose of early intervention, increase its focus on the neediest families, and better involve organisations with a track record of supporting families; investigate ways of ensuring that providers are paid in part by the results they achieve; and refocus funding from Sure Start peripatetic outreach services, and from the Department of Health budget, to pay for 4,200 extra Sure Start health visitors. In implementing these priorities for Sure Start Children's Centres, the Government will follow their normal protocols, including public consultation where appropriate.
International Development
Central America: Storms
Lindsay Roy: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assessment his Department has made of the effects of tropical storm Agatha in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. [2076]
Mr Andrew Mitchell: The Department for International Development (DFID) made an assessment of conditions on the ground caused by tropical storm Agatha in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, through consultations with the Red Cross, other aid agencies in Central America and Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) colleagues. Our assessment was that Guatemala suffered the most damage and loss of life. The storm affected some of the country's poorest rural indigenous communities. We found that 5,000 families in Guatemala were in need of immediate humanitarian assistance and made a rapid allocation of £100,000 to the Guatemalan Red Cross relief appeal.
Departmental Ministerial Policy Advisers
Helen Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many special advisers (a) he and (b) each other Minister in his Department (i) has appointed and (ii) plans to appoint. [308]
Mr Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many (a) political appointments and (b) other personal appointments he has made since his appointment; and at what estimated annual cost to the public purse. [367]
Mr Andrew Mitchell: I refer the hon. Members to the written ministerial statement made by the Prime Minister on 10 June 2010, Official Report, column 32WS.
Departmental Mobile Phones
Mr Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development which Ministers in his Department have been issued with (a) a BlackBerry, (b) an iPhone, (c) another make of mobile telephone and (d) a personal digital assistant supplied by the Department. [1426]
Mr Andrew Mitchell: The Minister of State and the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Department for International Development (DFID) have each been issued with a BlackBerry.
Departmental Official Cars
Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what the (a) make, (b) model and (c) place of manufacture is of the car allocated for the use of each Minister in his Department. [1485]
Mr Andrew Mitchell: The Department for International Development (DFID) inherited three cars allocated to its Ministers: one Toyota Prius T Spirit and two Toyota Prius T3. All three cars were manufactured in Japan.
These arrangements are changing following the publication of the new Ministerial Code which contains changes that affect ministerial entitlement to travel by Government car. The code states that "the number of Ministers with allocated cars and drivers will be kept to a minimum, taking into account security and other relevant considerations. Other Ministers will be entitled to use cars from the Government Car Service Pool as needed".
Cabinet Office has provided clarification on how the code should be interpreted. The expectation is that Ministers not in the Cabinet will use the pool service and that Cabinet Ministers who have an allocated car will wish to consider how that car might be utilised by other Ministers within the Department before calls are made on the Government Car Service Pool.
The Department for Transport and its Government Car and Despatch Agency are working with Departments to effect the transition to the new arrangements.
Departmental Translation Services
Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what (a) documents and (b) other information for which (i) his Department and (ii) its associated public bodies are responsible are published or provided in the UK in languages other than English; for what reason each such publication is required to be made available in a language or languages other than English; and what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of the translation work so incurred in the latest period for which figures are available. [1773]
Mr Andrew Mitchell: Information about the Department for International Development (DFID) and our activities in individual countries has in the past occasionally been made available in local languages to the UK public on the DFID website and through events with diaspora communities. It is not possible to disaggregate the costs of translating these documents without incurring disproportionate costs.
The Government are committed to making information on aid spending transparent to citizens in both the UK and recipient countries. As part of the new UKaid Transparency Guarantee, we will publish detailed information about all new DFID projects and programmes on our website. Information will be published in English and with summary information in major local languages in a way that is accessible to citizens in the countries in which we work.
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