Mr. Tom Prizeman:

I refer to the question about the planning that went into the scanning of the documents. In 2010, the grants online system went live for 11 awarding authorities. At that stage, the student got a rough guide of what documentation was required and we found that, because we had used e-mail, the student did not return the documentation. Historically, many parents deal with the applications on behalf of students and, therefore, the decision was made that it would make the system straightforward to send out a pack to the student through which they would be asked for the documentation required and told in the appendix where to get it. It is a three to five-year project and we hope to get rid of much of the documentation by year five but it will take time to do that. We looked at the idea of students scanning in the documentation and it is something that will potentially happen in year two or three but a great deal depends on the quality of the photocopies coming in. Part of the job that has to be done is to darken or lighten the photocopies to make them legible. It is a good idea for the students to be able to send in their documentation by e-mail or a format like that but there are drawbacks relating to quality. It was looked at and it is being looked at.