To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what funding the Government has provided for the translation and production of Braille editions of books in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. (293055)

I have been asked to reply.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) has provided the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) with £200,000 per year for each of the past five years, to support them in their production of Braille materials.

The Department of Trade and Industry (now Business, Innovation and Skills) brought together publishers and the RNIB to increase the amount of content available in accessible formats (Braille, large print and synthetic audio). This directly led to an ongoing pilot project which also addresses the need for accessible versions to be available close to publication dates of the normal print version.

The Dolphin Inclusive Consortium won an open tender to trial different formats of curriculum materials for blind and visually impaired pupils. The pilot will run during the 2009-10 school year then report back to DCSF. Staffing at the Consortium includes a part-time secondee from RNIB.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what estimate his Department has made of the percentage of books published in the UK which were (a) available in Braille and (b) produced as audio books in the last period for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement. (293056)

I have been asked to reply.

The Government do not keep records of the number of books available in other formats.

We are aware that the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) claim that less than 5 per cent. of books are available in accessible formats. However, e-books with the potential to use text-to-speech promises to radically change this situation. The Publishers' Association is working to resolve licensing issues that are frustrating use of this technology after some authors' agents complained that publishers do not own the rights to the new format.