To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many young people in Easington constituency received (a) £30, (b) £20 and (c) £10 in education maintenance allowance in each of the last three years. (135861)

This is a matter for the Learning and Skills Council, who operate the education maintenance allowance (EMA) for the DfES and hold the information about take-up and payments made under the scheme. Mark Haysom, the Council’s Chief Executive, has written to my hon. Friend with the information requested and a copy of his reply has been placed in the House Library.

Letter from Mark Haysom, dated 15 May 2007:

I am writing in response to your recent Parliamentary Question that asked:

“How many young people in Easington constituency have received (a) £30, (b) £20 and (c) £10 in educational maintenance allowance in each of the last three years.”

Information on the number of young people who have applied, enrolled and received education maintenance allowance (EMA) is available at local authority level, but not at constituency level. EMA take-up is defined as young people who have received one or more EMA payments in the academic year.

The following table shows EMA take-up data split by payment band for Durham local authority area during each academic year since the scheme’s inception.

I hope this information is useful and addresses your question.