21. Mr. Wileyasked the Minister of Education what steps he is taking to provide that information and statistics relating to education shall be brought more up to date.
§ Sir D. EcclesI have reorganised the statistical services of my Department in order to extend the range and improve the presentation of educational statistics and to speed them up. The recent publication Statistics of Education Part I contained new information and the series relating to schools and teachers were available three months earlier than usual. Part II will be published next month and an improvement in the timing of these and other publications will be possible as the revision of the statistical system is completed.
Mr. WileyI appreciate what has been done, especially in the presentation of the statistics, but will the Minister continue to exercise pressure to see that this time-lag is reduced? At present the usefulness of these figures is not as effective as it should be because of the delay in presenting them to the public and the House.
§ Sir D. EcclesI am aware of this difficulty, and I will do my best to clear it up.