To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what steps he is taking to assist further education colleges with their capital programmes.

Ministers commissioned Sir Andrew Foster to carry out a review in January and the report was published on 1 April. My Department and the LSC have accepted all of his recommendations in full.

In response to those recommendations the new acting Chief Executive of the LSC immediately appointed external teams to review the financial data and work with individual colleges to ensure the information held is a sound basis for making future decisions. The LSC is consulting with the sector on the approach to prioritising schemes to help meet Sir Andrew's recommendation to develop a "needs-based" approach. Following the Budget announcement of the additional £300 million of capital funding—this work is needed to allow the most urgent projects to be approved as soon as possible.