Written question asked by Nick Gibb (Conservative) on Tuesday, 13 April 1999, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 21 April 1999. It was answered by Baroness Primarolo (Labour) on Wednesday, 21 April 1999 on behalf of the Treasury.

Treasury

Question: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will define the expression poor literacy skills, used in paragraph 1.12 of the Red Book; and if he will provide comparable figures for (a) 1995, (b) 1996, (c) 1997 and (d) 1998. - Inc figs.

Answer: Mr. Gibb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will define the expression "poor literacy skills", used in paragraph 1.12 of the Red Book; and if he will provide comparable figures for (a) 1995, (b) 1996, (c) 1997 and (d) 1998. [80850] Dawn Primarolo: Over 1994-95, twelve countries took part in an International Adult Literacy Survey. The ranges of scores achieved by representative samples of each population aged 16 to 65 were grouped into five proficiency levels, of which level 1 indicated people with very poor literacy skills. Within the UK sample, 21.8 per cent. achieved only level 1 in prose literacy, which was defined as the knowledge and skills needed to understand and use information from printed texts, whereas the proportion of the German sample at this level was 14.4 per cent. There are no comparable figures for later years.

Secondary information