§ 3. Miss Anne Begg (Aberdeen, South)If he will make a statement on the Government's strategy to improve literacy and numeracy in Scottish schools. [76307]
§ The Secretary of State for Scotland (Mr. Donald Dewar)The Government have a comprehensive strategy for improving literacy and numeracy. That includes the early intervention programme for which £60 million is being provided, family literacy schemes supported by £15 million over three years, and £7.8 million of additional resources made available this year alone to allow every school in Scotland to buy books for its library. Those initiatives are being underpinned by action to improve teaching standards and by setting targets for raising attainment in literacy and numeracy.
From 1 July, that will be a matter for the Scottish Parliament.
§ Miss BeggI thank my right hon. Friend for that answer. As a former English teacher, I know all too well the importance of early intervention schemes. As a secondary schoolteacher, I certainly found that it was often too late to help youngsters who could not read or write at age 11. Will my right hon. Friend break down those figures and tell the House how much is likely to be spent in Aberdeen—which obviously is my concern—in pursuing that valuable policy over the next few years?
§ Mr. DewarI can tell my hon. Friend that, of the £7.8 million for school books during this financial year, about £272,000 will go to schools in the Aberdeen city council area. To take her point a little more broadly, in the first two years of the early intervention programme, Aberdeen city council received more than £226,000 of Government funding, and in the three years to 2001–02 it will receive more than £455,000 annually; so, over that five-year period of the early intervention scheme, the programme for Aberdeen will amount to £1,820,000. That is part of a pattern, which will mean that, by the end of the comprehensive spending review period, for every family in Scotland about £14,000 will have been spent on health and education.
§ Sir Robert Smith (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine)We welcome the focus on the problems of literacy and numeracy. Given that almost £10 million have disappeared from school education in the north-east of Scotland—in Aberdeen city, Aberdeenshire and Moray—the figures cited by the Secretary of State will go some way towards repairing the damage. However, when people think about their children's education, they consider the overall education. Does the Secretary of State accept that considerable damage has been done by the past two years of cuts?
§ Mr. DewarNo doubt that is something that the hon. Gentleman will want to discuss with his local authority. I may soon have an opportunity of doing so myself. I expect that the hon. Gentleman will want to welcome—although, strangely, he forgot to do so—the 4.7 per cent. 144 increase in the settlement for local government in the coming year. It is the best for seven years, and it is part of an increasing programme which, step by step, will build up to the better standards to which I referred in my earlier answer.
§ Mr. Michael Connarty (Falkirk, East)Does the Secretary of State not find it fantastic that Opposition Members do not seem to look seriously at the Government's spending, and do not seem to have spoken to their local authorities? I have a table supplied by my local authority, which shows that Falkirk is getting £187,000 in early intervention funding, and a total of £2,600,000 extra for nine projects that will develop literacy, numeracy and education. Next year, the figure will be £2 million, followed by a further £1.8 million. Does my right hon. Friend find, as I do, that, whenever he speaks to local authority members, they tell him that local authorities are awash with money and the schemes are making a real difference to the literacy, numeracy and educational opportunities of the people of Scotland?
§ Mr. DewarI certainly believe that anyone who listens to the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and looks at the settlement for the coming year will recognise that the rather mean and penny-pinching approach of Opposition Members, who will always find something about which to carp and criticise, is totally unjustified. If hon. Members examine the education budget—the figures are well known to the House—and the increase in cash terms from 1997–98 to the end of the comprehensive spending review, they will see that, in the last year of that period, we will be spending £1 billion more on education than we were spending in the first year of this Labour Government. That is exactly the upward curve that people expect and want, and for which they voted in the past and, I expect, will vote again.
§ Mr. Oliver Letwin (West Dorset)In the light of that answer, will the Secretary of State tell us whether the total decrease of £219 million so far in real terms in the education budget is part of his comprehensive strategy to improve literacy, or merely an oversight?
§ Mr. DewarThat is a bitter attack on the spending plans of the Conservative Government. We said before the election and during the election campaign that, for the first two years of our period in office, we would hold to the overall spending plans that we inherited from the hon. Gentleman's friends. That is what we did, and we never made any secret of it. Within that total, we reallocated in favour of schools and health—for schools, more than £100 million. We said that, after that two years, we would start building. We are now building, with substantial increases in real terms in health and education, and moving towards totals such as those that I mentioned earlier.
It does not matter to what extent the hon. Gentleman dances on the head of a pin—he will find it a very uncomfortable experience electorally. No matter how determinedly he does it, he is simply trying to misrepresent the situation.