To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families if he will break down the public cost of raising the education leaving age to 18 years by main subheading. (154715)

I refer the hon. Member to the reply given on 17 July 2007, Official Report, column 303W, in which the estimated costs of raising the participation age are set out by main category. The estimated costs of raising the participation age are also set out in the Regulatory Impact Assessment published alongside the Green Paper on 22 March. This can be accessed at:

http://www.dfes.gov.uk/consultations/downloadableDocs/RIA%20[FINAL]%20word%20version.pdf

To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what his policy is on phasing the raising of the education leaving age to 18; and if he will make a statement. (154758)

We said in the Green Paper “Rising Expectations: staying in education and training post-16”, published in March, that we propose to introduce a new requirement for young people to participate in education or training post-16 in a phased way, moving first to a requirement to participate until age 17, before subsequently requiring participation until 18. We judge that the best moment to raise the participation age to 17 would be 2013, and we would then propose to raise the participate age to 18 in 2015.