§ Mr. MudieTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what the target number for opening was and how many people have opened, individual learning accounts in(a) 1990 to 2000 and (b) 2000 to date. [148871]
§ Mr. WicksWe have exceeded our interim target of opening 500,000 individual learning accounts by March 2001. From April 1999 to September 2000, prior to the launch of the national framework of individual learning accounts, training and enterprise councils (TECs) opened 202,654 accounts. From June 2000 until the end of January 2001, under the national framework, the individual learning account centre has opened a further 420,225 accounts. This means that 622,879 people in England have opened an individual learning account. We are on target to meet our commitment of 1 million people with an individual learning account by 2002.