To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what estimate she has made of the funding gap between sixth-form colleges and school sixth-forms in each of the last three financial years.

The Department's main measure for what the funding gap between school sixth-forms and further education colleges is the difference in funding rates for an AS/A2 qualification. In 2002/03 the difference was 10.5 per cent.

For the academic year 2003/04, base funding rates per qualification increased by 3 per cent. for school sixth-forms and by 4.5 per cent. for further education colleges on a broadly comparable basis. In 2004/05, funding rates for colleges meeting their targets increased by 5 per cent., while those for school sixth forms rose by 4 per cent. We expect to see this trend continue in the 2005/06 academic year.

However, there is more to overall levels of funding than differences in funding rates and I acknowledge that there are other important differences between school and FE funding.