To ask the Secretary of State for International Development whether he has any plans to introduce voucher schemes to access education in any of his Department's programmes up to 2015.

DFID is interested in all programmes or schemes which increase the number of boys and girls gaining access to basic education and are cost-effective for the UK taxpayer. Where the barriers to education (particularly for girls) are financial we will help to find a way to overcome them including, for example, through voucher schemes or stipend programmes targeted at girls. These schemes put purchasing power in the hands of the poor. DFID is currently assessing the use of voucher schemes in India and Pakistan.

For example, DFID's support to the Punjab Education Foundation delivers quality education to one million children through its Foundation Assisted Schools as well as Voucher Programmes. The Voucher Programme, designed specially to support out of school children, is being expanded to all 36 districts of Punjab and will support 300,000 children in the next three years.