Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans the Government has to improve adult literacy and numeracy.

We provide full funding for adult learners in England to secure English and mathematics qualifications from entry level to level 2.

To raise standards of adult literacy and numeracy, we are reforming English and mathematics Functional Skills qualifications, which are accessed primarily by adults. This will ensure that these qualifications are more rigorous and better recognised by employers.

Through the Flexible Learning Fund, we are investing over £11 million to design and test ways of delivering learning to adults with low or intermediate skills more flexibly.

We are also establishing 21 Centres for Excellence across the country, with at least one in every region of England, to improve the quality of mathematics teaching and basic mathematics knowledge and skills in post-16 institutions. The programme will spread best practice across the country through mathematics networks, which will benefit adult learners.