§ MR. T. SNAPE (Lancashire, S.E., Heywood)I beg to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education whether he is aware that Mr. J. H. Rawlins applied last July to the managers of the Marylebone Western National School to inspect their last report and statements of receipts and expenditure, under Article 89 of the Code; that, in consequence of the delays interposed by the managers, the Department wrote to them on 10th October, and again on 8th November, ordering them to produce the whole of the original report; and that Mr. Rawlins wrote to the Department on 5th February that he had not yet been shown the copy of the statement of receipts and expenditure; and, whether, seeing that the production of these documents under Article 89 of the Code is a condition of the payment of annual grants, he will mark his sense of the conduct of the managers by withdrawing the whole or a portion of the grant, in accordance with article No. 92 of the Code; or, if not, what steps he will take to secure the prompt observance of this article of the Code?
§ THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL (Mr. A. H. D. ACLAND, York, W.R.,) RotherhamThe statements in the first paragraph of the hon. Member's question, are substantially correct. It is a condition of annual grants that school managers must submit the report and accounts to inspection, and permit copies or extracts to be 161 made from them. The managers of the school finally showed Mr. Rawlins the complete report on the 5th January, but still withheld the accounts. On the 19th of February, however, they informed the Department that they would submit the accounts to him whenever he liked to call.