To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list those education authorities which provide sixth form education primarily through sixth form colleges. [33997]

The following list shows those local education authority areas where, in 1995/96, there were more full-time students in their first two years of post-compulsory education in sixth form colleges than in either state schools or other further education:

• Croydon
• Manchester
• Salford
• Solihull
• Stockport
• Tameside
• Waltham Forest.

In addition, there were almost as many such students in sixth-form colleges (46 per cent.) in the former area of Hampshire LEA. Within that authority in 1995/96, it is estimated that over 60 per cent. of such students in the area of what is now the City of Southampton Council were in sixth-form colleges, while about 30 per cent. were in other further education.