Mr Kirkwood sits on the Commons Commission the all-party committee of senior MPs that decided not to renew Ms Filkin’s

Mr Kirkwood sits on the Commons Commission, the all-party committee of senior MPs that decided not to renew Ms Filkin’s contract last year.Alda Barry, the registrar of members’ interests, has written to Mr Kirkwood, saying he need take no further action. Ms Barry wrote: “You had a registrable interest which you did not declare at the appropriate time but you remedied the omission in November 1990. In these circumstances, nothing further can be, or needs to be, done.”. The biggest headache is reforming student finance.

A much-vaunted review, due early this year, has been delayed because of wrangling between ministers over the way ahead. Education The biggest headache is reforming student finance. The Department for Education and Skills wanted to bring back grants for all students to cover accommodation costs but that was ruled too costly by the Treasury. Downing Street fears about the reaction of middle England counted against the introduction of a graduate tax.Means-tested grants to help students from poorer homes – the target group ministers want to attract to universities – may be the answer, together with bringing the rest of the country into line with Scotland where paying tuition fees is delayed until the student is earning.If student finance is the biggest headache this year, Mr Blair’s in-tray will also be full of reports about modernising the teaching profession. Estelle Morris, the Education Secretary, has talked of giving a bigger role to classroom assistants so that teachers have more time for marking and preparation. The aim is to make the profession more attractive to recruits, thus solving staffing shortages.

She has convinced teachers’ unions of her sincerity but needs money from the comprehensive spending review this summer to put her words into action.Richard Garner, Education EditorHome affairsOvercrowded jails, disaffected police officers, queues of asylum-seekers and the public’s growing fear of street violence are high on the Government’s list of headaches.Despite the efforts of David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, to reassure people that the crime rate is falling in England and Wales, many citizens remain nervous.Yesterday’s Home Office report on the rising number of street robberies of mobile phones will have done nothing to dispel misconceptions that youth crime is worsening.Discontented police officers add to the impression that all is not well. Next month, the Police Federation will decide whether to accept or reject a package of measures on pay and conditions which already include a number of concessions extracted from a back-pedalling Mr Blunkett. Record amounts of money have gone into the NHS, with health authorities receiving average funding increases of 9.9 per cent this year. The healthcare system has a lot of ground to make up after ranking 18th in a league table compiled by the World Health Organisation.This spring, when waiting lists of more than 12 months are due to be eliminated, Alan Milburn, the Health secretary, will claim a milestone has been reached, but the public will take a lot of convincing. More than a million patients remain on hospital waiting lists, and there is a large amount of public distrust after last year’s expos?f how some hospitals fiddled their figures.To increase capacity for treatment, Mr Milburn dismantled some of the ideological constraints on how the NHS works. At least 100,000 operations will be provided by private hospitals, and patients will travel abroad if treatment delays are too long in Britain.