§ Caroline FlintTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will announce changes to cash limits within his responsibility for 1997–98. [37146]
§ Dr. HowellsI announced on 23 February 1998,Official Report, columns 109–11, that the cash limit for Class IX, Vote 1 Department for Education and Employment: programmes and central services would be increased by £34,653,000 from £9,505,077,000 to £9,539,730,000. The cash limit will now be increased by a further £262,798,000. This is as a result of a virement of £267,200,000 from section B of the Vote, which is non-cash limited, to section A, which is cash limited, offset by a reduction in the cash limit on the Vote of £4,402,000.
The increase in the cash limit is necessary because, following the ending of demand-led funding in the further education sector at the end of academic year 1996–97, it was not possible to estimate, in time for the publication of the Department's Main Estimates in March 1997, the value of outstanding demand-led claims likely to be made by colleges during the 1997–98 financial year. The extent of outstanding super-demand-led claims relating to the final term of academic year 1996–97 was not known with accuracy until late 1997, at which point financial provision was contained within a previously agreed total.
The Further Education Funding Council claim cash-limited and non-cash limited payments separately. Since the Department asked the Funding Council to end the system of super-demand-led funding at the end of academic year 1996–97, the Funding Council decided to end the arrangement whereby each unit of funding contained a notional demand-led component. Accordingly, the Funding Council has made claims for entire funding units against section A of the Estimate rather than section B, whose use it has subsequently restricted to claiming for the cost of outstanding super-demand-led claims from colleges.
The effect is that Funding Council claims for expenditure from section A will exceed provision by 345W £267,200,000 while claims from section B will be correspondingly lower. The virement from section B to section A will enable the Department to meet Funding Council claims for expenditure within the overall level of funding provided to it.
The decrease in the cash limit of £4,402,000 will be used to offset an equivalent increase in the non-Voted DfEE/LACAP cash limit for local authority capital for school building projects. The DfEE/LACAP will increase from £72,107,000 to £76,509,000 as a result.
Pupils, full-time equivalent (FTE) teachers and pupil-teacher ratios in Education Authority schools Primary Secondary Special Year Number of pupils Number of teachers (FTE) Pupil-teacher ratio Number of pupils Number of teachers (FTE) Pupil-teacher ratio Number of pupils Number of teachers (FTE) Pupil-teacher ratio 19971 440,066 22,092.1 19.9 314,061 23,862.7 13.2 7,662 1,606.5 4.8 1996 441,215 22,459.8 19.6 315,912 24,205.9 13.1 7,646 1,578.6 4.8 1995 440,112 22,526.2 19.5 316,253 24,536.7 12.9 7,595 1,573.1 4.8 19942 437,964 22,471.2 19.5 314,779 24,478.1 12.9 8,712 1,925.4 4.5 1993 438,345 22,448.9 19.5 311,176 24,264.4 12.8 8,559 1,909.0 4.5 1992 438,914 22,724.0 19.3 302,986 23,984.3 12.6 8,456 1,950.6 4.3 1991 440,752 22,648.7 19.5 296,367 23,812.1 12.4 8,255 1,826.0 4.5 1990 440,534 22,629.0 19.5 293,501 23,979.6 12.2 8,302 1,838.9 4.5 1989 437,018 22,182.9 19.7 298,394 24,136.5 12.4 8,405 1,783.7 4.7 1988 432,707 21,319.7 20.3 311,500 24,559.6 12.7 8,939 1,795.8 5 1987 430,865 21,166.7 20.4 327,012 25,189.7 13 9,009 1,709.7 5.3 1 All 1997 figures provisional. The number of teachers in secondary schools includes estimates for 20 schools. 2 Up to and including 1994, pupils and teachers based in special units in mainstream schools were included in the special school figures.