To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills

(1) if she will make a statement on reducing the funding gap between school sixth forms and further education colleges in Cambridge;

(2) what the reasons are for the funding gap between school sixth forms and further education colleges in Cambridge; and if she will make a statement.

The Department does not have information on what the funding gap is between school sixth forms and further education colleges in Cambridge specifically.

However, we have brought up funding levels for further education (FE) as we said we would, without penalising schools. The Learning and Skills Council's (LSC) funding rates per course in FE have been rising faster than school sixth forms and the gap has narrowed.

Our policy has been to raise the level of funding for colleges, as and when we are able to secure the resources to do so.

The current funding gap between school sixth forms and further education colleges is a direct consequence of the 1992 Further and Higher Education Act and the removal of the incorporated FE sector funding systems from local authority control. This resulted in a divergence from local authority systems which has resulted in funding level differences. These differences were made more apparent when all post-16 funding became the responsibility of the LSC in 2001.