To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills how many people claiming incapacity benefit, severe disablement allowance or disabled living allowance have taken courses at further education colleges in each year since 1997; and how many courses were taken by those people. (156958)

The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) does not collect specific information on whether learners are claiming incapacity benefit, severe disablement allowance or disabled living allowance. The individualised learner record (ILR) does, however, include information on whether learners consider themselves to have a learning difficulty and/or disability. This is reported annually in a Statistical First Release (SFR) published by the LSC since 2002-03. The following table shows the number of starts in further education institutions who consider and have self-declared themselves to have a learning difficulty and/or disability.