§ Miss McIntoshTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will fully reimburse colleges which have honoured courses applied for before the deadline for students with individual learning awards. [25282]
§ John HealeyI am now able to confirm that initial payments to the majority of providers who submitted claims up to 21 November was made on 20 December. This will help a significant number of providers meet immediate cash flow needs and, I hope, settle some of the concerns they may have had. We are continuing to work944W on validating the claims made after 21 November and on the mechanism for dealing with learning booked on the ILA system up to 23 November. Once we are satisfied that eligible learning has taken place in accordance with the rules of the programme, we will then be able to make arrangements for future payment to providers.
Learning that was not booked onto the ILA system before the programme was closed on 23 November will not be eligible for a discount.