MR. HERBERT ROBERTS (Denbighshire, W.)To ask the First Lord of the Treasury, seeing that a number of voluntary schools in England and Wales are in debt, will he state whether it is intended that the deficits in the accounts of these schools shall be considered as liabilities to be transferred, under a provision in the Schedule in the Education Bill, to the local education authorities; if so, will such liabilities be chargeable to the local education authorities as from 30th June of this year, or as from the appointed day or later date to be fixed by the Board of Education under Clause 20 of the Education Bill.
505 (Answered by Mr. A. J. Balfour.) It is not proposed by the Bill that voluntary schools should be transferred to local education authorities. Board schools, on the other hand, are so transferred, and accordingly those schools and not voluntary schools are dealt within the Schedule referred to. The local education authority will be responsible for the cost of the maintenance of voluntary schools after the appointed day, but they will have nothing to do with any deficit on the accounts of those schools existing on that day, or with any expenses incurred by the managers before that day.