BOARDING SCHOOL ALLOWANCE

HL Deb 07 October 1976 vol 374 c1647WA

Lord VAIZEY

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they can supply, for the most recent convenient year, a table of the number of boarding pupils assisted by Government Departments at different categories of school in England and Wales, as in Table 26 of the First Volume of the First Report of the Public Schools Commission.

Lord PEART

Information in the form requested is not available and could not be obtained without disproportionate cost. Approximate numbers of children for whom boarding school allowance was claimed for the autumn term 1975 are as follows:—

Diplomatic Service	1,850
Home Civil Service and Overseas Aid Personnel	1,900
Armed Forces	22,000
	25,750

Of these children it is estimated that some 3,000 were in schools maintained by local education authorities, 4,000 in direct grant schools and the remainder in independent schools.