To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is his Department's estimate of (a) the average and (b) the maximum amount payable from the access funds; and whether any such estimates were taken into account when calculating the amount of money allocated to the funds.

The amount payable to individual students will be at the discretion of the higher and further education institutions which will be administering the access funds from this autumn. It is not therefore possible to make estimates of the sort requested. The overall provision for the funds reflects the Government's judgment of what is affordable and appropriate to meet the funds' objectives.