§ 17. Mr. Franksasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what percentage of local education authorities have put services ancillary to teaching out to tender; how many private tenders were accepted; and what savings have resulted for each of the past two years.
§ Mr. Chris PattenInformation in the form requested is not collected centrally, but most, if not all, local education authorities contract out some of their services. A notable example of this is home-to-school transport. Two other services where large savings have been achieved by some local education authorities by going out to tender are school meals and school cleaning.
§ Mr. FranksWill my hon. Friend please consider extending the services which are contracted out and give every encouragement to those local authorities which should be doing so and are not?
§ Mr. PattenI accept what my hon. Friend has said. The Audit Commission, for example, has estimated that there is scope for saving about £50 million on cleaning services in schools.