§ Baroness Davidasked Her Majesty's Government:
In how many of the 150 colleges examined for performance by the Audit Commission were unit costs taken into consideration; and where they were taken into consideration, whether they will provide a list of those colleges and their unit costs.
§ The Earl of SwintonEach team of auditors will have taken carefully into account guidance such as the Audit Commission'sHandbook of Economy, Efficiency and Effectiveness and the Guide to the Measurement of Resource Efficiency from the former audit inspectorate, to which I referred in an earlier reply. Both documents draw attention to the need to study the levels of expenditure from which unit costs would be calculated, as well as other useful measures of average class size, average student hours, average 526WA lecturer hours and staff/student ratios, which may be more readily available in colleges. Additionally, attention is drawn to the different circumstances prevailing within and between colleges which need to be taken into account when comparing costs. There is no central record of approaches used by auditors in individual studies.