Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much his Department spent on training in each of the last three financial years.

This Government has taken a series of steps to save taxpayers' money and improve overall quality of the training provision.

Civil Service Learning was established in April 2011 in response to a wide ranging review of the delivery of training across the Civil Service. The new model is delivering better value out of its investment in training, reducing duplication in procurement and making greater use of the external market to provide the training which the Civil Service requires.

The figures below illustrate the spending on the category 'training' over the past six years, to illustrate the efficiencies we have achieved. The dip in spending in 2011-12 was a consequence of the transition from the old regime to Civil Service Learning.

2008-09: £2,080,738
2009-10: £2,309,137
2010-11: £1,312,688
2011-12: £377,521
2012-13: £767,549
2013-14: £667,618

I would also observe that my Department has reduced total staffing costs from £218 million a year in 2009-10 to £95 million in 2013-14.