§ Mr. Grocottasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether she will advise the Council for National Academic Awards to send unabridged copies of its quinquennial reports to the directorates, the trades unions and the students' unions of the polytechnics concerned.
§ Mr. OakesCNAA is an autonomous body, and it is for the council to decide on the procedures for the dissemination of its reports. I understand that it is its practice to send an unabridged copy of its reports to the director or principal of the institution concerned, copying these at the same time to the maintaining local or national authority. The council strongly encourages the recipients to have the contents of such reports discussed widely within the institutions concerned, and attaches importance to the involvement of staff and student representatives in such discussions.
§ Mr. Grocottasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether she will advise the Council for National Academic Awards to make a practice of consulting student unions when it is conducting its quinquennial reviews.
§ Mr. OakesCNAA is an autonomous body and it is for the council to decide on procedures for the conduct of its quinquennial review. I am informed that it is its normal practice to involve student unions in these reviews.
Maintained schools including Nursery and Special—England October 1977 October 1978 (i) Pupils in attendance … … … … … … 7,878,191 7,729,484 (ii) Numbers taking dinners … … … … … … 4,855,422 5,096,433 As proportion of pupils in attendance … … … 61.7 per cent. 65.9 per cent. (iii) Numbers taking free dinners … … … … … 927,000 1,074,000 As proportion of pupils attendance … … … 11.8 per cent. 13.9 per cent. As proportion of numbers taking dinners … … 19.1 per cent. 21.1 per cent.