To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what the total funding is for adult skills (a) in total and (b) per capita in (i) Birmingham, (ii) Newcastle, (iii) Wakefield, (iv) Manchester, (v) Leeds, (vi) Liverpool, (vii) Coventry, (viii) Bristol, (ix) Sheffield, (x) Bradford, (xi) Leicester and (xii) Nottingham in each of the next five years.

As set out in the grant letter to the chief executive of the Skills Funding Agency (SFA), which was published on 31 March 2011:

http://readingroom.lsc.gov.uk/SFA/VINCE_CABLE_ TO_GEOFF_RUSSELL_(Skills_Funding_Agency)_ 31_MARCH_2011.pdf total funding for the agency for 2011-12 financial year (FY) is £3,923 million. This letter states that the indicative budget for 2012-13 FY is £3,759 million. In ‘Investing in Skills for Sustainable Growth’, published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills on 16 November 2010, we stated the direction of travel through to 2014-15 FY. We will publish the Adult Skills Investment Statement for the 2012-13 FY later in the autumn.

The SFA allocates budgets to individual further education (FE) colleges and training organisations. Each college and training organisation is expected to use its single Adult Skills budget to support the delivery of apprenticeships, classroom-based learning and work-based learning to meet the needs of the learners and employers, who may be drawn from a wide geographic area. We are unable to state how much funding will be invested to support adult FE and skills provision in each city or local authority area nor can we state the per capita level of investment.