HC Deb 23 March 1999 vol 328 cc195-6W
Mr. Maclean

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many individual learning accounts have been created to date; and at what cost. [76436]

Mr. Mudie

To date, around 3,000 individual learning accounts have been opened, through 15 development projects led by TECs. The DfEE contributed £816,000 to these projects; this funding was used to test out a range of processes, systems and marketing approaches to help inform the final framework. The National Framework will be launched in 2000, from which time Individual Learning Accounts will be widely available.

Mr. Willis

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what plans he has to limit the amounts(a) individuals and their families and (b) employers can invest in individual learning accounts free of tax; and if he will make a statement. [77884]

Mr. Mudie

There are no plans to limit the amount an individual and/or their family can contribute to the individual's individual learning account (ILA), although the incentives will be available only on the first £500 spent on eligible courses in any one year.

There are no plans to limit the tax-free contributions that employers can invest in their employees' ILAs provided that the employers contribute to the ILAs of their lowest paid employees on similar terms and the contribution can only be used to pay for eligible learning.

Mr. Willis

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment which financial institution will handle individual learning accounts; and what will be the administration fee for each separate account. [77883]

Mr. Mudie

The national framework for individual learning accounts is still under development. It will be ready for launch in April 2000. We hope that a range of financial institutions will be involved in the provision of accounts. At this stage it is too early to say which financial institutions will be involved or how administration arrangements will work—currently our discussions are commercial in confidence. We plan to publish detailed arrangements for the national framework later this year.