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Further Education and Training Bill [HL]

On administrative costs, the same letter sets the budget for 2007-08 at £219 million. I have to say to my noble friend Lady Morris that I am not quite sure where she gets her figures from, but I think that I am correct in saying that the administrative cost was something like £233 million in 2004-05 and £280 million in 2005-06. We do not know the figure for this year, but I guess that it will be back to about £235 million. In the letter from the Secretary of State of the day, the figure for the next year—in October, somewhat before Second Reading—was £219 million and something. My concern was not about costs. Of course, one welcomes being able to administer a non-departmental public body for less money rather than more. My concern was about the resources: if the staff is reduced drastically, you are reducing the only resource that the non-departmental public body has.