§ MR. W. E. M. TOMLINSON (Preston)I beg to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education whether he will consider the possibility of making some quarterly payment on account of the annual Parliamentary grant due to public elementary schools?
§ THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THR COUNCIL (Mr. A. H. D. ACLAND, York, W.R., Rotherham)The difficulty in making any payments on account of the annual grants is that, it cannot be known till after the annual inspection has been held and the forms for the year filled up by the local managers whether the conditions requisite for the grant have been fulfilled. If an advance payment were made and it turned out at the end of the year that no grant had been due, the State would lose the amount of the advance. I should add that the annual grant is in this way on a different footing from the fee grant, which is earned by the mere fact of the school remaining recognised, and of which instalments can, therefore, be paid.