§ Mr. HancockTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what progress has been made by each local education authority in developing strategies to improve accessibility for disabled pupils; and if she will make a statement. [76002]
§ Mr. Stephen TwiggThis information is not collected centrally. The statutory duty on local education authorities to improve accessibility for disabled pupils came into effect from 1 September 2002 and requires them to publish their strategies on 1 April 2003. OfSTED will be monitoring the implementation of this new duty, including the quality of local education authorities' accessibility strategies.
The School Access Initiative was established in 1996 to help local education authorities improve the accessibility of their schools to disabled pupils. Over £174 million has been made available since that date, including some £70m in 2002–03. A further £300m will be available during 2003–04 to 2005–06.