§ Mr. Mossasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Education (1) if he will state the figures of expenditure contained in paragraph 1 of his Department's Memorandum on the education Estimates in terms of a pound of constant value; and if he will include comparable expenditure in the last prewar year;
(2) if he will compare estimated expenditure for 1957–58 on primary and secondary schools only with expenditure in the years used in paragraph 1 of his Department's Memorandum, and with the last pre-war year, in terms of a pound of constant value.
18W
§ Sir E. BoyleSince there is no index suitably constructed to measure changes in the prices of the goods and services used in education, I cannot give the figures in terms of a pound of constant value. The Ministry's net expenditure in 1938–39 was £50,626,000. The following table shows the expenditure of local education authorities on primary and secondary schools in the selected years.
£000 1938–39 … 65,358 1944–45 … 72,290 1946–47 … 105,583 1948–49 … 131,301 1950–51 … 145,744 1952–53 … 188,976 1954–55 … 220,832 1955–56 … 239,282 1956–57(estimate) … 291,217* 1957–58(estimate) … 328,000* * Including employers' contributions under the Teachers (Superannuation) Acts which were not included in these figures in earlier years.