§ MR. YOXALL (Nottingham, W.)To ask the Secretary to the Board of Education whether the grant payable to local education authorities in respect of the training of pupil teachers, which 307 was due on 31st July, 1906, has been paid to the local education authority for Derbyshire; if so, at what date it was paid; and whether the local authority is unable to distribute this grant pending the receipt of particulars from the Board.
(Answered by Mr. McKenna.) Claims for grant for 1905–6 were received from the local education authority during the period from the 3rd October, 1906, to 14th January, 1907. Payments to the authority to the amount of £2,386 5s. have been made on various dates from 5th February to 24th July last. Grants to the amount of about £240 are still under consideration, and can probably be paid shortly. Delay in the payment of grants has been caused by the correspondence which has been necessary on many items incorrectly entered in the forms of claim, and on not infrequent cases of failure to comply with the regulations. With regard to the last part of the Question, the local education authority has been informed, whenever part or all of the grant has been withheld, of the name of the pupil teacher on whom disallowance or deduction has been made and of the reasons for it. On the 2nd instant the authority forwarded a list of pupil teachers on whom grant was claimed for 1905–6, and asked that the grant paid on each might be entered. As considerable clerical work is involved in comparing the authority's list with those in the office, and in preparing and checking the information required, the matter has not yet been dealt with.