HC Deb 14 December 1908 vol 198 cc1264-5
SIR PHILIP MAGNUS (London University)

I beg to ask the President of the Board of Education if he will state under what enactments, if any, the Board of Education are entitled to require the inspection by officers of the Board of secondary schools not receiving any Government grant.

THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION (Mr. RUNCIMAN,) Dewsbury

Under Section 9 of the Charitable Trust Act, 1853, the Board of Education, as successors of the Charity Commissioners under the Act of 1899, are authorised to examine and inquire by their inspectors into educational charities in England or Wales, and the nature and objects, administration, management, and results thereof; and under that section many endowed secondary schools not receiving grants from the Board of Education have been inspected. Whether or to what extent these powers are sufficient for all the purposes of a complete educational inspection of an endowed school on lines similar to those on which the inspection of secondary schools on the grant list is condacted, is a matter of interpretation, which has not been the subject of a judicial decision, and with regard to which, as the Board have recently been made aware, a serious difference of opinion has arisen in the last few months.