HC Deb 23 April 1991 vol 189 cc889-91
6. Mr. Lofthouse

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science when he last met representatives of local education authorities to discuss the funding of further education.

Mr. Kenneth Clarke

Funding issues are discussed in many of the meetings which I and my ministerial colleagues have with representatives of local education authorities.

Mr. Lofthouse

What proposals does the Secretary of State have for the expansion of post-16 education during the next two years? Surely he must agree that there should be some local democratic accountability in this crucial sector.

Mr. Clarke

We aim to continue the rapid expansion of education and training opportunities for 16 to 18-year-olds and my recent announcement about giving further education colleges and sixth-form colleges the same status that the polytechnics have used so successfully in higher education during the past two or three years was aimed at that. Extra resources are already going into that sector. The standard spending assessments for education authorities this year are up by 16 per cent. and inflation will be much lower than that in the forthcoming year. The hon. Gentleman's own excellent Wakefield district college had £2 million invested in it last year.

Mr. Waller

Does my right hon. and learned Friend agree that the removal of polytechnics from local education authorities has been a great success, setting them free to develop and enabling many more students to attend a degree-type course? Does he further agree that to give higher and further education colleges the same kind of freedom would enable them to develop likewise and to be a similar success in future?

Mr. Clarke

I agree with my hon. Friend that giving independent status to polytechnics has proved to be an unmitigated success and they have made a major contribution to expanding the numbers in higher education during recent years. It is on that model that the principals of further education colleges and sixth-form colleges that I have met universally welcomed my proposals. They see the same opportunities for themselves providing a much broader range of opportunities for more young people both of an academic and vocational kind.

Mr. Fatchett

There will be widespread support for the Secretary of State's acknowledgement of the value of further education. Against that background, why are the Government cutting so substantially resources for youth training, much of which goes on in further education colleges, and why has virtually every Conservative local education authority cut its further education budgets? Why did the Secretary of State not pay one official visit to a further education college before he made his statement on 21 March about the future funding of such colleges?

Mr. Clarke

It is entirely for local authorities to decide how they use the increased resources that we make available to them, but it cannot be true that widespread cuts are being made in further education when the financial allocations to local authorities have increased by 16 per cent. compared with last year, in a year when inflation is likely to be 5 per cent.—a real growth of more than 10 per cent. If such cuts are being made, there is a substantial switch of resources by some strange local authorities into other things. Our policy is to give higher priority to further education. I do not think that the Opposition will oppose our policy. Further education is now getting more attention and encouragement than it has ever received in the past.

Mrs. Margaret Ewing

In the light of the recent announcement that consideration is being given to ensuring that there is one separate funding body for all the post-school education system in Scotland, what discussions has the Secretary of State had with his Scottish counterpart, given that that most surely has implications for his Department as well as for Scottish local authorities?

Mr. Clarke

With respect, it does not. I always tell Scottish National party Members that Scotland has a totally devolved system of government and I have no responsibilities for education there apart from those for higher education. I made my announcements in England after discussions with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland. The construction of funding councils for Scotland is a matter for him and he will take his decisions in the light of Scottish circumstances.

Mr. John Marshall

Does my right hon. and learned Friend agree that the polytechnics would get the scheme parity that they deserve if they were called universities?

Mr. Clarke

I am anxiously considering a number of matters relating to the present status of polytechnics and universities. At this stage, I can say only that I will take my hon. Friend's opinion very much into account, as I always do.