To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many teachers were employed in England in the last 10 years; and how many were made redundant in each of these years. [120011]

The following table shows the number of full-time equivalent teachers in the maintained schools sector in England in each of the years shown. Definitive information on teacher redundancies is not collected centrally.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what plans he has to allow graduates to teach in UK schools without (a) teacher training and (b) qualified teacher status. [121589]

Regulations to be made shortly under section 133 of the Education Act 2002 will define the circumstances under which staff without Qualified Teacher Status can undertake specified work in schools in England. These provisions have already been the subject of extensive consultation with teachers' employers, the teaching unions and other interested parties.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will define qualified teacher status and instructor status for people wishing to teach in schools in England and Wales. [121590]

The definition of a qualified teacher is set out in the Education (Teachers' Qualifications and Health Standards) (England) Regulations 1999. Instructors are teachers without QTS but with special qualifications or experience, or both, who can be employed when there are no suitably qualified teachers available.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many graduates were teaching in English schools without qualified teacher status in each year since 1997–98. [121591]

The table shows the number of new entrants to the Graduate Teacher Programme and the Overseas-Trained Teacher Programme in each academic year since 1997/98. The rising numbers reflect the growth and success of these programmes, which allow graduates to be employed as teachers in schools in England while working towards Qualified Teacher Status. Information on the qualifications held by other categories of unqualified teachers is not collected centrally.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what additional resources he has made available to local education authorities to prevent the loss of (a) teaching and (b) non-teaching staff as a result of this year's budget settlement to schools. [120968]

The funding of schools is a shared responsibility of central and local Government. In 2003–04, there have been a number of very significant pressures on LEA and school spending. Nationally, the additional resources provided for education more than match those pressures. However, changes to the distribution formula for Education Formula Spending, together with the ending of a substantial body of ring-fenced grants from my Department's Standards Fund, have meant that different LEAs and schools have received a wide range of year-on-year increases in overall support for education.The Department has taken steps through an additional grant of £28 million to ensure that all LEAs have at least a minimum increase of 3.2 per cent. per pupil, in addition to taking account of the effect of the Standards Fund and teachers' pension changes. We have also provided a special grant costing £11 million to 18 London LEAs to help them fund this year's increases in London weighting. In addition, LEAs and schools will be given the additional flexibility to use their devolved formula capital funding from the Department to support revenue expenditure. The decision to use a school's capital funding in this way will need to be made jointly by the school and its LEA, and should be taken only in those circumstances where failure to do so would lead to excessive instability within that school.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the average salary of a teacher in (a) Blackpool and (b) Lancashire was in (i) 1997 and (ii) 2003. [121348]

The table provides the average salary of full-time¹ regular qualified teachers in the maintained schools sector, as at March of each year shown. The figures shown for former Lancashire for 1999 and 2001 are based on the boundaries prior to local government reorganisation in April 1998. In April 1998, due to local government reorganisation, Lancashire split into three separate local education authorities, Lancashire, Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool. The figures shown for former Lancashire for 1999 and 2001 are based on the boundaries prior to local government reorganisation.