(2) how much funding the (a) business sector and (b) voluntary sector is expected to commit to the Every Child a Reader programme in each financial year until 2010-11;
(3) how much has been set aside for the Every Child a Reader programme in each of the years covered by his Department's Comprehensive Spending Review settlement announced in the Chancellor of the Exchequer's 2007 Budget;
(4) how much has been spent on the Every Child a Reader programme in each financial year since its inception.
Contributions from business-led charitable funders to the three year Every Child a Reader pilot are approximately £1.25 million in 2005-06, £1.85 million in 2006-07 and £2.35 million in 2007-08. The 2007 pre-Budget report announced that the ECAR programme would be rolled out nationally from 2008-09, benefiting 30,000 children a year by 2010-11. We are in discussions about the funding of the national roll-out and no decisions have yet been taken.
Taking into account the Department’s contribution to ECAR, a total of £10 million has been spent on the pilot since its inception in 2005-06. Broken down by financial year, this equates to approximately £1.5 million in 2005-06, £4 million in 2006-07 and £4.5 million in 2007-08.
In addition, over the three years of the ECAR pilot 2005-08, the KPMG Foundation has contributed administrative costs at £500,000 and the Department has funded the Institute of Education £1.2 million to support the national and local training infrastructure.