HL Deb 22 October 2002 vol 639 cc92-3WA
Lord Greaves

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether, and, if so, when they intend to provide extra resources to local education authorities and further education colleges and other institutions in order to allow them to make extra provision for the teaching of English to speakers of other languages and for citizenship classes in order to meet the requirements of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill. [HL5920]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord Filkin)

An independent advisory group has been appointed to advise on the content and implementation of programmes of study for potential citizens to enable them to comply with the requirements of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill. Among other things, the group has been asked to advise on the levels of achievement necessary to comply with the proposed requirements. Until such time as the Government have received, and reached a decision on, the advisory group's proposals, and estimated what extra demand might be generated by them, it will not be possible to identify with any precision the resources which may be needed by local education authorities or further education colleges.