§ 17. Mr. Tilneyasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will take steps by legislation or otherwise to ensure that local education authorities consider letters from his department.
§ Mr. CroslandNo, Sir.
§ Mr. TilneyIn view of the importance of the Minister's views and his change of attitude about the three-tier system of comprehensive education, may I ask him whether he is aware that the Socialist chairman of the Liverpool Education Authority deliberately suppressed letters from his Ministry? Is this not another example of the split personality of the party opposite?
§ Mr. CroslandI am aware of nothing of the sort. It would be wrong and foolish of me to try to instruct local education authorities how they should deal with correspondence coming from my Department. They are quite capable of making that decision for themselves. As for the letters to which the hon. Member has referred, these were not formal letters addressed to the authority but informal letters from one of my officers to an officer in the authority, and I have no complaint of any kind about the way in which the authority chose, in its own wisdom, to deal with those letters.