asked Her Majesty's Government:

What consideration they are giving to the representations made by Asylum Link Merseyside to the Department for Education and Skills about the restriction of access by refugees and asylum seekers to English for Speakers of Other Languages courses. [HL1920]

Documents submitted to the Home Office and forwarded to the Department for Education and Skills in November 2006 have been passed to officials leading the race equality impact assessment on the proposed changes. Information is being fed into that process and will be taken into account when the final report is published later in February.