§ 35. Lawrie QuinnTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what recent assessment she has made of the levels of basic skills among adults. [907]
§ John HealeyThe latest wide-scale assessment of the level of basic skills among adults was carried out in 1996 as part of the international Adult Literacy Survey. This296W found that around 20 per cent. of adults in Great Britain performed at the lowest of five levels of literacy skill. Lord Moser drew upon this in his report, "A Fresh Start", to estimate that up to seven million adults have difficulties with literacy and perhaps more with numeracy.
The Government launched their strategy for improving adult literacy and numeracy skills on 1 March this year. As part of our strategy we intend to collect better information on the scale of basic skills need, including through pathfinder projects already established in the nine English regions and through a national survey.