§ COLONEL R. WILLIAMS (Dorsetshire, W.)To ask the President of the Board of Education whether he will consider the possibility of paying earlier in the school year both the payment on account and the final payment of the grants to secondary schools, in view of the financial difficulties often caused to the governing bodies of such schools by the fact that salaries and other expenses are increased in deference to the Board's requirements and have to be paid many months before the grants are received.
(Answered by Mr. Runciman.) The final payment of grants to secondary schools cannot be made until the claims have been received by the Board after the end of the school year on 31st July, and the observance of the conditions 736 upon which the grants are payable checked and the amounts of the grants calculated in the Board's office. If the conditions have been duly complied with, payment is made before the end of the financial year on 31st March, and in a very large number of cases at a much earlier date, but as all the claims come forward at the same time of the year the Board are unwilling to pledge themselves to payment in any case before the end of March. The instalments of grant are paid as soon as possible after the beginning of the financial year in April, when about two-thirds of the school year have been completed. They could not be paid at an earlier date without an additional charge upon the Exchequer during the year of change.