HC Deb 24 January 1995 vol 253 cc133-5
10. Mr. Jim Cunningham

To ask the Secretary of State for Education what measures she proposes to take to prevent the misuse of public funds in the further education sector.

Mr. Boswell

The chief executive of the Further Education Funding Council for England is responsible for ensuring that public funds are used for the purposes for which they were given. He has a duty to ensure that institutions have proper arrangements for financial management and accounting. The council has also implemented a range of measures to prevent the misuse of public funds.

Mr. Cunningham

Does the Minister accept that there is substantial evidence of abuse by further education colleges, primarily because the regulations governing those colleges are extremely weak? Will the Secretary of State undertake to review those procedures?

Mr. Boswell

I am surprised at that because the Further Education Funding Council has introduced a range of measures. These are enshrined in the initial Further and Higher Education Act 1992, the instruments of governance of the colleges, the financial memoranda between the various colleges and the council and other audit controls which are imposed, and strengthened by the fact that the principal of the college is himself or herself the accounting officer for the purpose and has an important statutory role. If the hon. Gentleman has any specific evidence of malpractice or financial irregularity, I hope that he will draw it to the attention of the funding council. I have none.

Mr. Jacques Arnold

Will my hon. Friend also examine the good use of funds in the further education sector, in particular the brand new facilities at North West Kent college, which were inaugurated by the Duke of Kent in Gravesend this morning?

Mr. Boswell

I am delighted to congratulate my hon. Friend on that further advance in the further education sector. We are providing an additional 4 per cent. of funding for that sector in the coming year. We are making big demands on it and it is rising to the occasion.

Mr. Beggs

What advice is given to further and higher education authorities to prevent fraud gangs from masquerading as students and getting away with millions by faking student identities to obtain grants?

Mr. Boswell

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for raising the question, although it is more germane to higher education. We and the higher education institutions and local education authorities have been concerned for some time about organised student frauds. The hon. Gentleman may have seen press reports on that matter only this morning and I hope he will have noticed that we have made available from Department for Education funds the sum of £120,000 for better computerised matching of similar, apparently similar or fraudulent entries in our determination to stamp out the problem.

Mr. Bryan Davies

In place of all this ministerial complacency, is it not time that Ministers addressed themselves to the declining morale of the further education sector? Have not Government centralising policies, such as using crude holdback to dictate the outcome of local disputes, reducing local accountability and marginalising the role of staff and students on governing bodies, given rise to the widespread anxiety that further education could join the slippery slope of other public institutions into the quango state?

Mr. Boswell

The hon. Gentleman's technique on these occasions is, "If in doubt, say that there is something wrong with morale." I do not know how many further education colleges he has visited recently. I have had exhaustive discussions with many people and staff, as well as at principal level. I find morale generally to be high and the readiness of governing bodies to involve their academic and profession staff on a professional basis in the activities of college is to be welcomed. I do not accept the picture he has painted, nor do the students whose numbers are increasing in accordance with the target of a 25 per cent. expansion in that sector over the next three years.

Mr. John Marshall

Does my hon. Friend agree that the chief use of funds in further education is to provide more places? Does he agree that the increased number of places under this Government should be a source of congratulation rather than subject to niggling criticism of the kind that we have heard all afternoon?

Mr. Boswell

We are not complacent about the record. The safeguards for accountability are in place, and we are determined that the nation should make the best possible investment from the additional funds that we are making available to further education.

11. Mr. Campbell-Savours

To ask the Secretary of State for Education what proposals she has for securing an end to the dispute in the further education colleges sector.

Mr. Boswell

The dispute about further education lecturers' contracts is for the employers and the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education to resolve. The Government have no plans to intervene.

Mr. Campbell-Savours

Is the Minister aware of the immense damage being done throughout the country by the failure of college management to negotiate on the future of further education? Will he join me in appealing to the governing body of West Cumbria college in Workington to meet all the staff in an open forum, to seek a resolution to the difficulties?

Mr. Boswell

I hope that the hon. Gentleman does not expect me to comment on an individual case, unless he thinks that it would be better if Ministers were to run college industrial relations policies. I naturally hope that discussions between staff and governors will always take place, locally and nationally. Although we have no plans to intervene in this case, I understand that the national negotiating bodies are again considering their position. We would like those matters to be resolved, but the basis of progress must be professionalism and efficiency in the delivery of further education.