To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many young people offered places at either Oxford or Cambridge University in (a) 2006 and (b) 2007 were in care. (241734)

The information requested is not collected centrally by the Department.

Information on children looked after by local authorities is collected through the SSDA903 data collection. This collection includes information on children who are looked after, children who are adopted and children who were looked after and have left care. This information has been published in the Statistical First Release "Children Looked After in England (including adoption and care leavers) year ending 31 March 2008" (SFR 23/2008), which is available on the Department's website via the following link:

http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000810/index.shtml

Table G1 contains information on children aged 19 who were previously looked after aged 16 and gives details of their activity at aged 19 which includes numbers and percentages in higher education.