HC Deb 15 November 2001 vol 374 c857W
Mr. Bercow

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the cost is in 2001–02 of the learning mentors and learning support units. [14105]

Mr. Timms

We have allocated just over £100 million to support learning mentors and learning support units in Excellence in Cities and Excellence Clusters this financial year. An additional £21 million has been allocated for learning support units outside the areas covered by Excellence in Cities and Excellence Clusters. Schools are free to use their other sources of funding to pay for additional learning mentors and learning support units.

Mr. Bercow

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the cost is in 2001–02 of her Department's support for the national mentoring network. [14084]

Mr. Ivan Lewis

My Department's general financial support to the national mentoring network in 2001–02 is £600,000. This funding is used to promote and develop high quality volunteer mentoring programmes to help young people. In addition the Department is providing the national mentoring network with £30,000 a year for two years specifically to co-ordinate the membership of Excellence in Cities Learning Mentors and to develop relevant networks and activities for them.