To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the announcement on 27 June on the creation of six new state school cadet units, what discussions he had with the Department for Education and Skills on this matter. (81777)

The list of candidate schools for the pilot Combined Cadet Force expansion scheme has been developed with the full assistance of officials at the Department for Education and Skills as outlined to the house on 27 April 2006, Official Report, column 1267.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the announcement on 27 June on the creation of six new state school cadet units, how much of the funding will come from the private sector. (81778)

The pilot scheme will receive initial funding of £800,000 in 2007-08 to establish the six new units. None of this funding will come from the private sector.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what recent estimate he has made of the number of people who are willing to support and take part in state school cadet schemes. (81779)

As a Ministry of Defence sponsored voluntary youth organisation that does not advertise it is extremely difficult to assess the number of individuals willing to support the combined cadet force scheme. Identification of suitable volunteers to operate a combined cadet force contingent is the responsibility of the school's head teacher. To date the Department is aware of nine state schools that have expressed an interest in forming combined cadet force contingents and have sufficient volunteers to support the contingents. This is in addition to the volunteers supporting the 52 state schools CCF already established.