§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science, further to his reply to the hon. Member for Norfolk, North,Official Report, 30 October, c. 451, if he will consider taking the necessary steps to ensure that in future the annual returns made by the local authorities identify the different categories of people, for instance teachers and administrators, employed by their education departments.
§ Dr. BoysonInformation on teaching staff employed by local education authorities is identified in the Department's annual returns and published, for example, in Statistics of Education, volume 4 1977 teachers and DES statistical bulletin 2/79 "Teachers in Service September 1978".
A special survey of the different categories of non-teaching staff was carried out in 1977 with the agreement of the local authority associations and a summary of the results relating to primary and secondary schools is published in DES statistical bulletin 1/79 "Non Teaching Costs in Schools", which is available in the Library. For the present at least my right hon. and learned Friend is not proposing that authorities should be required to submit such data annually.
It might be helpful to add that, as indicated in an answer on 14 November to my hon. Friend the Member for Dart-ford (Mr. Dunn)—[Vol. 973, c. 1327–28] —my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Environment has invited the local authority associations to discuss the publication by individual authorities of data regarding their performance.