Clause 23 - Condition that may be required to be imposed by English funding bodies
Higher Education Bill
4:15 pm
Mr Alan Johnson (Minister of State (Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education), Department for Education and Skills; Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle, Labour)
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for mentioning the issue. To set the record straight: numbers have not fallen, as the Liberal Democrats claimed at one time, but there has been a tiny 1 per cent. increase in participation for social class VI. There has been no change either way: youngsters from poorer backgrounds have not been put off and there has certainly been no push to attract them to higher education. The result has been neutral.