§ MR. GEORGE LAMBERTI beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether he can state the intentions of the Government with regard to imposing upon the local rates the whole cost of administering the Education Bill.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI am not in a position to answer the hon. Gentleman's Question, and I fear I shall hardly be in a position to answer it tomorrow before taking the Education Bill. I am sorry that this should be so, for I am aware that I led the House confidently to expect, as I had myself confidently expected, that I should be in a position to make a statement before the discussion on the Bill was resumed. Although I have been disappointed in this, I hope it will not cause any inconvenience, because Clause 1 is not affected one way or the other by any proposal that we may have to make with regard to the financial aspect of the question.
§ MR. GEORGE LAMBERTI beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury if he will state the effect of the Education Bill upon endowments now applied to elementary education; if these endowments will be diverted; and, if so, to what purpose.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI hope the hon. Gentleman will take the general answer I gave on Thursday†, as dealing with this particular question. I am afraid it would not be convenient to go into details.
§ MR. GEORGE LAMBERTMay I remind the right hon. Gentleman that I asked the same Question a fortnight ago.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURWe will answer it when we reach that part of the Bill on which the Question can be properly dealt with.
† See Page 515.
§ MR. GEORGE LAMBERTHow can the Question be debated if the Committee has not the information beforehand?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURIt is an entirely new and not a convenient practice to deal with the details of a Bill by Question and answer. If we have any proposal to make to the House we will put it on paper.
§ MR. GEORGE LAMBERTMy Question does not deal with the proposals of the Government, but the intentions of the Bill.
§ MR. ERNEST GRAYI beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether, assuming that local education authorities become responsible for the maintenance of voluntary schools under the provisions of the Education Bill now before Parliament, the grants of the Board of Education which accrue before the date on which such responsibility is undertaken will be paid to the managers of the schools in full, or whether such portion only of the grants will be paid as is necessary to discharge outstanding liabilities on the current account of the school at that date.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI think I answered this Question on May 8, when I said the local education authority would not be liable for any expenditure incurred previous to the date of their becoming responsible for the maintenance of the school. The grants from the Board of Education which accrued subsequent to that date would be paid to the Local Education Authority. Those which had accrued to that date would be paid to the managers.
§ MR. ERNEST GRAYThe right hon. Gentleman has missed the point of the Question. It is whether the grant will be paid in full, or only to the extent necessary to discharge outstanding liabilities.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI am afraid I can add nothing to my answer. If I have misapprehended the purport of the Question, perhaps the hon. Member will communicate with me.