HC Deb 03 May 1956 vol 552 cc569-71
9. Mr. McKay

asked the Minister of Education if he is aware of the discontent with his decision to curtail the opportunities for free education in Northumberland County, in that scholars who have passed the examination tests and have obtained free places in the public grammar schools, and who then choose to go to a denominational or other direct grant school, are now, at his instructions having to pay fees where, before his intervention, they were accommodated by the county education committee, free of cost to the parents; what is the saving to the Exchequer from this intervention in Northumberland County; and if he will reconsider allowing the Northumberland County discretion as in the past.

Mr. Vosper

My right hon. Friend was concerned to correct a misunderstanding of his Regulations and not to curtail educational opportunities with a view to reducing expenditure. There is no need for education authorities to assist parents to meet the cost of fee-paying places at direct grant schools since such assistance is already available from the governors in the form of reduced fees. Authorities have power to offer free places at independent and direct grant schools to supplement the places available in maintained schools, and my right hon. Friend is discussing with the Northumberland authority whether more places are needed for this purpose.

Mr. McKay

Is it true that this problem indicates that people who want to have their children educated in denominational schools are being penalised as compared with the parents of other children, and could not that be avoided by some means or other?

Mr. Vosper

That is a much wider question. The position in Northumberland Is now in line with the practice prevailing among other education authorities throughout the country.

10. Mr. McKay

asked the Minister of Education whether he is aware that the income test scale for the children who have obtained scholarships in the public grammar schools but have chosen a direct-grant school, denominational or otherwise, is such that parents are having to pay fees in the two- and three-children family group when they are well below the Income Tax basis; whether he will abolish the income test scale altogether in such circumstances; or, if not, whether he will either refrain from applying it to parents below the Income Tax basis to the extent of £25, or else only apply it when the standard of family income has reached the level where at least some Income Tax is being levied.

Mr. Vosper

My right hon. Friend goes not regard the existing arrangements for assisting the parents of fee-paying pupils at direct grant schools as unsuitable, and he sees no reason to alter them in the way suggested.

Mr. McKay

Is the Minister aware that, when these scales were fixed—as I understand, about: 1950—the basic figure for the one-child family was based exactly on the average industrial wage then obtaining, which was £7 10s. 0d.? Is he aware that since then the cost of living has gone up by one-third? Surely, the fact that it has gone up by one-third since the scale was fixed indicates a reason for the necessity to reconsider the scale now? Will he go into that matter?

Mr. Vosper

The Question I am asked here is whether we will relate the scales to the Income Tax level, but that, I think, would be an unreasonable suggestion. I will do as the hon. Gentleman suggests, however, and look at the scales in their present form.