§ Ms WalleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment he has made of the implications of the decision to prioritise some groups of adult learners in recreational adult education. [146316]
§ Mr. Ivan LewisThere has been no decision to prioritise some groups of learners in recreational adult education. We gave a commitment in the Skills Strategy White Paper to safeguard the availability of lifelong learning courses by agreeing with the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) an overall indicative budget for non qualification provision provided through local education authorities (LEAs), family and neighbourhood learning. This we have done. The figure for 2004–05 is £207.4 million compared with £206 million in 2003–04. This follows a period when the Government significantly increased the budget for this type of learning from £145 million in 2000–01, and £183 million in 2002–03. In November 2002, 662,000 adults were on predominantly non vocational and non qualification courses run through LEAs.