Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is the current number of places available at horticultural and agricultural training colleges in England; how that number compares to (1) five, (2) 10, and (3) 20 years ago; what level of funding is currently provided to these colleges and how that compares with (a) five, (b) 10, and (c) 20 years ago.

Some specialist agriculture and horticulture training institutions are independent specialist colleges, while others are campuses or facilities within larger institutions.

The table below shows the number of students and the amount of total programme funding at the independent, specialist institutions in published 16 to 19 funding data.

Independent specialist agricultural and horticultural or land-based colleges

Note: Equivalent data is not available for academic year 2006/07.

The student and funding data in the table is not comparable between years because changes in structure (for example, college mergers) have reduced the number of independent specialist institutions of this type.

Using the programme cost weighting element of the 16-19 funding formula as a proxy for the total number of students receiving relevant education, the highest “specialist” programme cost weighting is for land-based subjects studied in specialist provision. Programme cost weighting recognises that this provision costs significantly more to deliver because of the need for specialist facilities, equipment, land, livestock, machinery and smaller teaching groups. Students can attract this both in the independent specialist colleges covered in the table above and in specialist campuses or facilities within larger institutions. The table below shows how many students received this programme cost weighting, although not all students at specialist colleges will necessarily be studying subjects which attract this programme cost weighting.

Note: Equivalent data is not available for the academic year 2006/07.