To ask the Minister for Employment and Learning how many places will be funded by his Department for Essential Skills at foundation level and level one for the 2008-2009 academic year, and how this compares with provision for 2006-2007 and 2007-2008.

The number of Essential Skills enrolments at Entry Levels 1, 2 and 3 and at Level 1 funded by my Department in 2006/07 and 2007/08 are as follows:

2006/07:15,343

2007/08:14,444

Source: Essential Skills enrolment return.

Note: Figures are correct as at 29th February 2008, but are provisional and, therefore, subject to change.

Information for 2008/09 is not available in the format requested, because Further Education Colleges' enrolment targets for Essential Skills are not broken down by the different Levels of Essential Skills. Also, Essential Skills provision is available within other DEL programmes, such as Training for Success, Jobskills and New Deal, but is demand led according to the identified needs of participants on these programmes. Therefore, information on places and enrolments by different levels is only available retrospectively.

However, the Department has increased the budget for Essential Skills provision in FE colleges from £5m in 2007/08 to £6.6m in 2008/09, to help to meet challenging PSA targets in this area. This should lead to increased Essential Skills enrolments in 2008/09.