§ Mr. OatenTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will make it her policy to award teachers in the FE and college sector pay awards equal to those teaching in secondary schools. [53122]
§ Margaret HodgeIt is for each college to agree annual pay rises and conditions of employment with its staff in the context of the overall resources available to them. We are, however, aware of the funding gap between schools and FE and have pledged to bring up levels of funding and allow upwards convergence over time as resources allow.
We are investing significant funding in the FE sector. In 2001–02, £527 million extra was planned for FE—a 12 per cent. real terms increase, with a further 3 per cent. increase this year. By 2003–04, annual funding for FE will have increased by £1.4 billion compared with 1997–98, a real terms increase of 20 per cent. The substantial additional investment we are making in the sector should help colleges and the trade unions reach agreement on appropriate salary increase this year.
We are also investing more than £311 million in the teaching pay initiative during the period 2001–04 to allow colleges, including sixth form colleges, to reward high quality teaching. This is separate to any general pay rise a teacher may receive.