Written question asked by John Bercow (Conservative) on Monday, 7 November 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 9 November 2005. It was answered by Maria Eagle (Labour) on Wednesday, 16 November 2005 on behalf of the Department for Education and Skills.

Public Service Agreements

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills when she will assess progress on the public service agreement target to reduce the proportion of young people not in education, employment or training by two percentage points by 2010.

Answer: The statistics used to measure the target to reduce the proportion of young people not in education, employment and training (NEET) are published annually by the Department for Education and Skills. Provisional data for the end of 2004 was published in June 2005 when it was estimated that 194,000 16 to 18-year-olds were NEET, 10 per cent. of the 16 to 18-year-old population. The first opportunity to assess the progress made since then will be when statistics for the end of 2005 are available. These are due to be published in June 2006.

Secondary information