§ Mr. LOUGHasked what is the total number of inspectors of the Board of all kinds at present; what is the average cost, including salary and travelling expenses, of each inspector; what number of the local education authorities created in 1902 have appointed a staff of inspectors of their own; and whether, in the interest of economy and to prevent overlapping, he will consider the advisability of making a large diminution in the number of inspectors employed by the Board?
§ Mr. RUNCIMANThe number of inspectors of all kinds now in the service of the Board is 367; the expenditure for the last year for which accounts have been completed averages £592 for each inspector, and this sum includes an average expenditure of £116 upon travelling and incidental expenses. In the year 1908, which is the most recent year for which the information has been collected, forty-six local education authorities, out of the total of 299 authorities under Part III. of the Act, employed a staff of inspectors of their own, of whom a large number (if not the majority) were not fresh appointments in 1902, but were continued on from their previous service under School Boards. The inquiry of my right hon. Friend as to the overlapping of the functions of these officers with those of the inspectors of the Board presumably relates principally to the staff assigned to the inspection of Elementary Schools. Since 1902 the Board have made a large diminution in the number of their inspectors so employed. I do not suppose that this reduction could be carried further in view of the numerous and responsible duties with which His Majesty's Inspectors are charged. The functions of the two bodies of inspectors are in many respects different, and where they overlap the inconvenience which might result therefrom is, I believe, usually avoided by the good understanding which exists between them. I am, however, considering whether it would be possible for the Board to propose in certain places some redistribution of their own staff, and some readjustment of its duties, based upon more definite arrangements for cooperation between the officers of the local and the central authorities respectively.