Lord Adonis: My Lords, rising to make my own maiden speech at the start of this debate enables me to extend real empathy, and not just mere sympathy, to the noble Lord, Lord De Mauley, whose maiden speech we look forward to later. I begin by thanking Members from all parts of the House for the incredibly friendly welcome that I have received during the past week. Perhaps I may make special mention of my...
Lord Adonis: rose to move, That the draft regulations laid before the House on 2 March be approved [11th Report from the Joint Committee, Session 2004–05].
Lord Adonis: My Lords, in moving the draft Restriction on the Preparation of Adoption Reports Regulations 2005, I shall speak also to the draft Suitability of Adopters Regulations 2005, laid on 2 March. As an education Minister, perhaps I may, first, add my tributes to those already paid to Emily Blatch in the House over the past two days. She was a formidable performer in the House and had a great...
Lord Adonis: My Lords, I am extremely grateful to the noble Earl and the noble Baroness for their warm welcome for the regulations and for the many points that they raised. I will write to them on many of the detailed points, so that I can give full particulars, rather than attempting to address them now when, in some cases, I do not have the full details to hand. The big issue that the noble Earl raised...
Lord Adonis: My Lords, I beg to move the second Motion standing in my name on the Order Paper. Moved, That the draft regulations laid before the House on 2 March be approved [11th Report from the Joint Committee, Session 2004–05].—(Lord Adonis.)
Lord Adonis: The Ofsted report of 16 May identifies 55 London schools as "failing", these figures refer to the number of schools requiring special measures in August 2004. None of these schools were specialist sports colleges or sports academies. Despite the raising of the bar on standards, the number of London schools which can be classified as "failing" has since fallen sharply, from 55 to 39. The...
Lord Adonis: The information required to answer this Question is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. However, this information will be collected centrally from 2006.
Lord Adonis: This Government give great priority to the physical and recreational needs of our children as a fundamental part of their education and development. Building and renewing secondary school sports facilities are included in the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme. Central government capital funding for school buildings in 2005–06 is over £5.1 billion, including over £2 billion...
Lord Adonis: Most secondary schools in England will receive capital investment through the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme. Within the 39 local authorities in waves one to three of BSF, approximately 525 primary and secondary schools have had funding committed from the Big Lottery Fund for physical education and sports facilities. Not all of these schools will receive BSF funding as the...
Lord Adonis: To reinvigorate competitive school sport further, the Prime Minister announced, on 14 December 2004, that new competition managers would be added to school sport partnerships. From September 2005 there will be 17 in place, 45 by September 2006 and 90 by September 2007. Subject to the next Spending Review in 2006 the eventual ambition is to have one manager per school sport partnership by...
Lord Adonis: The Government's ambition is to offer all children, by 2010, at least four hours of sport every week, which will comprise at least two hours of high quality PE and sport at school and, in addition, the opportunity for at least a further two to three hours beyond the school day. This will be delivered by a range of school, community and club providers. The national PE, school sport and club...
Lord Adonis: The 2003–04 PE, school sport and club links survey did not collect these data and they could be provided only at disproportionate cost. This information will be collected from 2006.
Lord Adonis: To be awarded qualified teacher status, all trainee teachers must: demonstrate that they understand their responsibilities under the special educational needs (SEN) code of practice; know how to seek advice from specialists on less common types of SEN; and be able to differentiate their teaching to meet the individual needs of pupils, including those with SEN. These requirements are further...
Lord Adonis: The latest figures are shown in the table. Students from overseas( 1 ) at UK higher education institutions 2003–04 Postgraduate Undergraduate Medicine and dentistry 3,310 3,175 Subjects allied to medicine 4,560 10,255 Biological sciences 5,220 5,920 Veterinary science 170 290 Agriculture and related subjects 1,025 705 Physical sciences 4,685 2,895 ...
Lord Adonis: The latest information, showing the complete list of subject groups studied by students from these countries, is shown in the table. Postgraduate and undergraduate students from overseas at UK higher education institutions 2003–04 Students from: China Hong Kong Taiwan PG UG PG UG PG UG Subject group: Medicine and dentistry 105 15 120 140 55...
Lord Adonis: Capital expenditure by the department to the end of the 2004–05 financial year on the 17 open academies was £341 million.
Lord Adonis: My Lords, we are satisfied with the way that the Director of Fair Access to higher education is fulfilling his remit. The access plans that he has approved will provide over £300 million to encourage higher education applications from lower income groups. Unlike full-timers, fees for part-timers have been and will continue to be unregulated. However, we are pleased to note that part-time...
Lord Adonis: My Lords, we do not accept that we discriminate against part-time students. In fact, the regime for part-time students has significantly improved since 1997, as the noble Baroness will know. In 1997, when we came into office, there was no national scheme of support whatever for part-time students and poorer part-time students. We have systematically changed that; five years ago we introduced...
Lord Adonis: My Lords, it is fair to compare the position with the one that applied then because we are subject to great public spending pressures and we must weigh those in all the decisions that we take. As Universities UK, the body that represents all universities, says in its briefing for this Question, it is essential that the Government acknowledge the large and diverse nature of the part-time...
Lord Adonis: My Lords, I am sorry that the reply to my noble friend has not been as early as it should have been. I will see that that is rectified. The creation of the Open University is one of the proudest achievements of past Labour governments, and we would do nothing to damage its future. Indeed, the Open University has flourished since 1997, with about a third more students in those eight years....