§ Mr. DobbinTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on recent developments in establishing education action zones. [111662]
§ Ms Estelle MorrisI am pleased to say that all 48 of the second round shortlisted applications have now been approved, over half of which were led by schools. That means there are now 73 EAZs across England. There are further plans to establish up to 50 small zones within the Excellence in Cities programme, 12 of which are due to start in April 2000.