HC Deb 20 July 2001 vol 372 cc775-6W
Mr. Boswell

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what plans she has to relate teaching pay initiative moneys in further education to performance indicators. [5684]

Margaret Hodge

Colleges receive a Teaching Pay Initiative allocation in proportion to their main funding allocation from the Learning and Skills Council and the Higher Education Funding Council for England. We will explore with the Learning and Skills Council and college representative bodies whether it would be right to refine the arrangements from 2002–03 for distributing funding above these minimum annual allocations, to recognise the different retention and achievement rates at different colleges while having regard to the prior attainment of their students.

Mrs. May

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills when her Department will next publish figures for(a) teacher vacancies and (b) admission appeals. [5821]

Mr. Timms

Provisional January 2002 figures from the annual survey of teacher vacancies in England are due to be published in April 2002.

Provisional admission appeals figures for maintained primary and secondary schools in England 2000–01 are due to be published in June 2002.

Mr. Laws

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many teachers in England have applied for performance-related pay; how many of these received such a payment; what percentage of eligible teachers this constitutes; and if she will make a statement. [5826]

Mr. Timms

Just over 200,000 teachers applied for the performance threshold in the first round. This was equivalent to about 80 per cent. of eligible teachers. Applications were assessed by headteachers or, for teachers employed directly by LEAs, heads of service. Heads' assessments were verified by external assessors. Assessor visits to schools and LEAs have recently been completed. The Department is still analysing the results and it is too early to be precise. But it seems clear that well over 150,000 teachers have passed the threshold.