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Correspondence
Sir Brian Mawhinney:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment when the right hon. Member for North-West Cambridgeshire can expect a reply to his letter of 25 September on behalf of his constituents, the governors of Brewster Avenue School. [57529]
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Mr. Mudie:
A letter was dispatched to the right hon. Member on 28 October.
Mr. Burns:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on when he expects to reach a decision on the appeal lodged by Broomfield Primary School, Broomfield, Chelmsford, concerning Essex LEA's direction on admissions to the school. [57769]
Mr. Charles Clarke:
Broomfield School has referred to the Secretary of State notices issued by Essex local education authority under section 431 of the Education Act 1996 directing the school to admit five children. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has made a decision on two of the five referrals. The other three referrals relate to children not due to start school until either January or April 1999. My right hon. Friend will be making a determination on those referrals when further consultation with Essex local education authority and local schools has been completed.
Mr. Maples:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment when he plans to provide a substantive reply to the question from the hon. Member for Stratford-on-Avon tabled on 7 October. [57992]
Mr. Oaten:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many times the ministerial group on disabled people has met since May 1997. [57639]
Ms Hodge:
The Ministerial Group on non-benefits issues affecting disabled people has met on three occasions. Its first meeting was in February 1998.
Mr. Maclean:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how much funding he currently estimates will be released through the abolition of the assisted places scheme in each year for which forecasts have been made. [57662]
Ms Estelle Morris:
Our latest estimate of savings against the previous Government's published expenditure plans is £22 million in the current financial year 1998-99, and £63 million in 1999-2000, with £82 million in 2000-01 and £101 million in 2001-02 assuming that the original baseline figure of £180 million for 1999-2000 is rolled forward. The estimates have been refined to take account of outturn figures for the last academic year 1997-98, and assume falling numbers of assisted place holders over the years in question while continuing the present arrangements for means-testing and fee-setting.
Mrs. May:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what advice has been issued by his Department to (a) local education authorities and
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(b) schools on the implications of the working time regulations for the employment of (i) teaching and (ii) non-teaching staff. [57705]
Ms Estelle Morris:
The Department has not issued advice, but the Department of Trade and Industry issued guidance to employers generally in August, and has conducted a public awareness campaign on the implications of the regulations.
Mr. Maclean:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what progress has been made towards meeting the Government's targets on class sizes. [57509]
Ms Estelle Morris:
I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry, South (Mr. Cunningham), on 29 October 1998, Official Report, column 231.
Mr. Maclean:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will provide a breakdown of the allocation of extra money to reduce class sizes. [57511]
Ms Estelle Morris:
The following table details the allocations so far made to both Local Education Authorities and Grant Maintained Schools, to deliver our pledge to cut infant class sizes. The respective sums of £22 million in revenue funding and over £45 million in capital funding will provide some 1,500 additional teachers and 600 extra classrooms to enable authorities and schools to make an early start in delivering the class sizes pledge.
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Cash Limits
Mr. Etherington: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what changes he plans to announce to cash limits and running cost limits within his responsibility for 1998-99. [58113]
Mr. Mudie: Subject to Parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimate, the cash limit for Class IX, Vote 1 (Department for Education and Employment: programmes and central services), Vote 3 (Employment Service), and Vote 4 (Office of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools in England), will be amended as follows:
| £ | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Class | Vote | Existing cash limit | Change | New cash limit |
| IX | 1 | 10,356,420,000 | 25,182,000 | 10,381,602,000 |
| IX | 3 | 1,739,859,000 | 9,999,000 | 1,749,858,000 |
| IX | 4 | 131,641,000 | -13,000,000 | 118,641,000 |
The cash limit for Class IX, Vote 1 (Department for Education and Employment: programmes and central services) will be increased by £25,182,000 from £10,356,420,000 to £10,381,602,000. This is the net effect of virements of £3,900,000 and £695,000 from non-cash limited sections of the Vote to sections A and B, £10,000,000 additional cover for capital loans in grant-maintained schools following the ESA95 classification changes, a transfer of £13,000,000 from OFSTED (Class IX, Vote 4) in connection with the Books for Schools Initiative, and a transfer of £13,000 from the Department of Health (Class XI, Vote 2) for the early years policy; offset by transfers of £1,350,000 to the Department of Culture, Media and Sports (Class X, Vote 1) for Dance and Drama under the interim funding scheme, of £201,000 to the Welsh Office (Class XIV, Vote 2) for the University for Industry, of £250,000 to the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions in respect of capital costs of Government Offices, and of £180,000 and £445,000 to the Scottish Office (Class XIII, Vote 3) in connection with educational qualifications and University for Industry respectively. We have also taken this opportunity to take up
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£264,657,000 (offset by the matching receipts from the EC) of the European Structural Funds end year flexibility announced by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury on 14 July 1998, Official Report, columns 131-36.
The cash limit for Class IX, Vote 3 (Employment Service) will be increased by £9,999,000 from £1,739,859,000 to £1,749,858,000. This increase results from the take up of £10,000,000 running costs end year flexibility, offset by an increase in appropriations in aid due to New Deal recoveries. The running costs limit on Vote 3 (within of the control total) has been increased by £19,500,000 from £758,173,000 to £777,673,000 as a result of the end-year flexibility take up and a virement of £9,500,000 from capital to pay for IT services now supplied by an external provider.
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