My honourable friend the Minister of State (Bill Rammell) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

The UK has a continuing obligation under the United Nations charter to promote the well-being of the inhabitants of its overseas territories, and we are committed under the White Paper Partnership for Progress and Prosperity—Britain and the Overseas Territories to ensuring their social and economic development. I am therefore pleased to tell Parliament that in response to representations about students from our overseas territories, the Department for Education and Skills will be making changes to our Education (Fees and Awards) Regulations and to the Student Fees (Qualifying Courses and Persons) Regulations from the 2007-08 academic year to allow these students to pay home fees, and not the higher overseas fee rate. This policy change will also apply to students from the overseas territories of Denmark, France and the Netherlands.

Annexe A—The specified territories to which the change will apply are:

British Overseas Territories

Anguilla

Bermuda

British Antarctic Territory

British Indian Ocean Territory

British Virgin Islands

Cayman Islands

Falkland Islands

Montserrat

Pitcairn Islands

South Georgia & the South Sandwich Isles

St Helena & its dependencies

Turks & Caicos Islands

Overseas Territories of Other EU Member States

Greenland & Faeroe Isles (Denmark)

Netherlands Antilles (Bonaire, Curacao, Saba, St Eustatius and St Marten) and Aruba (Netherlands)

French Possessions

New Caledonia

French Polynesia

Wallis and Futuna

Mayotte

St Pierre et Miquelon

French Southern and Antarctic Territories