§ Mr. BoswellTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what progress has been made in(a) reaching agreement on outstanding liability on the Department to pay Individual Learning Account contributions to training providers and (b) making such payments. [46713]
§ John HealeyMy Department wrote to all registered learning providers on 31 January 2002 setting out future payment arrangements. Claims have been invited from providers for learning booked on the ILA centre system, but not confirmed by the closure of the Individual Learning Account programme on 23 November, with start dates between 1 September 2001 and 31 March 2002. Pay runs are now being made on a monthly cycle. Where we have complaints or other concerns, payments are withheld pending the outcome of validation checks and investigations.
Since the closure of the Individual Learning Account programme on 23 November: payments of £8.16 million have been made to 2,883 registered learning providers; and payments of £15.12 million to 223 learning providers have been withheld pending results of validation checks and investigations.
§ Mr. Andrew TurnerTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will list the ILA providers who were(a) deregistered because of failure to register between June and August 2001 and (b) deregistered (i) temporarily or (ii) permanently for non-compliance with the scheme's rules. [49879]
§ John Healey[holding answer 15 April 2002]: It is not appropriate to list individual learning account providers as the information requested is held as commercial in confidence. The number of providers who failed to re-register between June and August 2001 is 485. Prior to 156W the closure on 23 November 2001 47 providers had been suspended from the register of learning providers. None had been permanently removed from the register. From 23 November 2001, we have withheld payments from 239 providers, including 17 of those originally suspended, pending completion of validation checks and investigations into claims.