§ Mr. WillisTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what plans he has to raise the level of funding for Ofsted following its increased responsibilities in inspecting further education, introduced by the Learning and Skills Bill. [134102]
§ Ms Estelle MorrisThe overall settlement provided by the Spending Review 2000 for Ofsted is £163 million in 2001–02, an increase of £56 million. This takes account of Ofsted's additional responsibilities, namely inspecting further education, introduced by the Learning and Skills Act 2000 and the regulation of child care, introduced by the Care Standards Act 2000 Ofsted will decide how to allocate its overall settlement across all the areas for which it is responsible.