HC Deb 19 November 2001 vol 375 cc52-3W
Mr. Damian Green

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how many people with political affiliations sit on learning and skills councils, broken down by major political party; [14572]

(2) what proportion of members on learning and skills councils have known political affiliations. [14575]

Margaret Hodge

[holding answer 13 November 2001]: Appointments to the LSC and its local arms have been made through fair and open competition, in accordance with guidance issued by the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments (OCPA). We have sought to attract applications from individuals with a wide range of appropriate experience, regardless of any political affiliation they may have.

We wrote to all English MPs last year, asking them to encourage suitable candidates to apply. The great majority of applicants for LSC membership and of those appointed as members decided that they had not been politically active within the last five years.

145 (21 per cent.) of the 689 people who have been appointed and remain as members of the Learning and Skills Council declared political activity. These figures exclude Executive Directors of local Learning and Skills Councils as they were not required to declare political activity when applying for these posts.

A breakdown by political party follows:

Appointed (Percentage1)
Total number appointed to the LSC: 689
Conservative 21 (3.0)
Labour 111 (16.1)
Liberal Democrat 10 (1.5)
Other 3 (0.4)
Total 145 (21.0)
1 Figure in brackets is the percentage of the total number of appointees