§ Mr. DrewTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on the measures he proposes to take to speed up the processing of individual learning accounts. [136181]
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§ Mr. Wicks[holding answer 2 November 2000]: Individuals receive application packs within seven working days from their first inquiry. They will also receive their Individual Learning Account within seven days of their completed application form being received at the Individual Learning Centre. 200,000 Individual Learning Accounts have been opened by the Individual Learning Account Centre since June. 80 per cent. of these people were sent applications and their accounts within two days.
As the Individual Learning Account Centre became fully operational at the same time as peak enrolment we have introduced a one-off measure to help people whose account did not arrive before they started their course. These special arrangements have been put in place with learning providers to enable those individuals to benefit from a discount. These arrangements apply to people who started their learning by 6 October.