§ Mr. ChopeTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills when she expects the East Manchester Education Action Zone accounts for the year ended 31 March 2001 to be published. [27684]
§ Mr. TimmsI expect the annual accounts for all statutory education action zones to be published by the end of April 2002. This reflects the Comptroller and Auditor General's intention to certify individual EAZ accounts with a clear audit opinion by 31 March 2002.
§ Mr. ChopeTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills which education action zones have not published their accounts for(a) the year ended 31 March 2000 and (b) the year ended 31 March 2001. [27685]
§ Mr. TimmsFor the year ended 31 March 2000, the accounts of eight education action zones have not yet been published. These are Plymouth, Sunderland, East Cleveland, Dudley, Weston, Birmingham Aston Nechells, Hackney and Camborne, Redruth and Pool.
None of the accounts for year ended 31 March 2001 have been published.
§ Mr. ChopeTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what time limits are set down for the production of accounts by education action zones. [27686]
§ Mr. TimmsThe Schools Standards and Framework Act 1988 requires all education action zones to submit accounts to the Comptroller and Auditor General by 31 August following the end of the financial year to which they relate.
§ Mr. ChopeTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what reasons underlie the length of time taken to publish the East Manchester Education Action Zone accounts for the year ended 31 March 2000; and if she will make a statement. [27725]
449W
§ Mr. Timms[holding answer 16 January 2002]: In their first year of operation some zones had difficulty in submitting auditable sets of annual accounts; East Manchester was one such zone. As a result the National Audit Office had to undertake considerable additional work on East Manchester EAZ accounts, including agreeing a significant number of amendments before these could be published on 9 January 2002.