Malcolm Moss (North East Cambridgeshire, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills

(1) with which partnership the School Food Trust is working on its plans for regional training kitchens for the school food workforce; how many such kitchens there will be; and by what date it is planned that the kitchens will be operational;

(2) what discussions (a) his Department and (b) the School Food Trust have had with private sector companies on the provision and equipment of the proposed regional training kitchens.

Parmjit Dhanda (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Education and Skills; Gloucester, Labour)

The School Food Trust (SFT) has been asked by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) to lead on the establishment of regional training centres in recognition of the fact that the full range of training offered is likely to be broader than cooking skills. The SFT's aim is to establish the first of these in spring 2007 with a national network operational by the end of March 2008.

A target for the number of RTCs has not been set. The final number will depend upon the number and quality of bids, and local needs.

The SFT has been working with partners to develop criteria against which to judge applications to become regional training centres. These partners include school cooks, head teachers, local authorities, private sector catering providers, FE colleges, the Learning and Skills Council, People 1st, the Training and Development Agency, the Food Standards Agency, Department of Health and DfES. Two stakeholder events were held in Birmingham in January.