Assisted Places Scheme (Hansard, 26 February 1997)

§ 2. Mr. Hawkins
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will make a statement on her plans to expand the assisted places scheme. [16053]

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Employment (Mrs. Cheryl Gillan)
This morning, I announced further assisted place allocations to more than 200 independent schools, details of which have been placed in the Library. The 10,900 entry places that we are providing from this September will help double the opportunities for children through this excellent scheme.

§ Mr. Hawkins
I thank my hon. Friend for that answer. Will she confirm that excellent independent schools such as Arnold school have achieved consistently good results? I thank her for the announcement that 25 extra assisted places have been made available at that school. Will she confirm that there will be an opportunity—for which I have lobbied her and her colleagues—for assisted places at Elmslie school, another excellent independent school? 322 Is not it sad that the Labour party, which once believed in increasing opportunities for less well-off families, now believes only in providing opportunities for its own children? Is not it a case of, "We're all right Harriet, Jack and Tony, kick away the ladder?"

§ Mr. Sheerman
Hypocrite!

§ Madam Speaker
Order.

§ Mr. Sheerman
The hon. Gentleman is a hypocrite.

§ Madam Speaker
Order. I just heard the hon. Member for Huddersfield (Mr. Sheerman) twice call the hon. Member for Blackpool, South (Mr. Hawkins) a hypocrite. I ask him to withdraw that remark.

§ Mr. Sheerman
If that is unparliamentary language, I withdraw it unreservedly.

§ Mrs. Gillan
My hon. Friend is right. Labour believes in choice for itself but not for other parents. I am pleased to be able to tell him that Elmslie girls school is among the schools that are today being informed that their bids were successful. From September 1997, it will able to offer 20 assisted places, including five places to children aged eight to 11 and four to sixth formers.

§ Mr. Kilfoyle
Will the Minister confirm that to maintain an assisted place costs about twice as much as an equivalent place in the maintained sector, and that there is a huge deadweight cost in the scheme because it subsidises people who would otherwise pay for their children's private education? Will she further confirm that, by the Government's own standards, the scheme does not appeal to working-class children despite the protestations of Conservative Members? Will she conclude, as we have, that a far better and more cost-effective way to use Government expenditure would be to improve quality at key stage 1 rather than subsidising the few in independent schools?

§ Mrs. Gillan
The hon. Gentleman must be hallucinating if he thinks that I will agree with one word of that. More than 42 per cent. of assisted pupils come from families whose income is below the threshold for a free place, and more than 80 per cent. are from families that earn less than the national average household income. Independent schools are a vital part of the school system. Rather than peddling the old line of abolishing assisted places, which are good value for money, the hon. Gentleman should tell us what is his party's attitude to independent schools. Is it true, as he wrote in the magazine Prep School, that the Labour party will abolish charitable status for independent schools?