HL Deb 21 February 1980 vol 405 cc992-3WA
Baroness DAVID

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What was the forecast breakdown of relevant expenditure assumed for the 1980–81 Rate Support Grant Settlement in England and Wales for the following heads of educational expenditure:

  1. (1) Non-advanced further education;
  2. (2) Advanced further education;
  3. (3) Adult education;
  4. (4) Pre-school education;
  5. (5) Primary education;
  6. (6) Secondary education.
and how this compares, with the actual expenditure under each of the above heads, for each of the years 1979–80, 1978–79, 1977–78, 1976–77 and 1975–76.

The MINISTER of STATE, DEPARTMENT of EDUCATION and SCIENCE (Baroness Young)

The 1980–81 Rate Support Grant Settlement provides for Exchequer grant to be paid on total expenditure by local authorities in England and Wales of £15,737 million (at November 1979 prices), including some £6,500 million assumed expenditure on

£million All figures at November 1979 prices
1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 (provisional actual) 1980–81 (assumed)
Further education (i) 1,145 1,133 1,093 1,118 1,145
Nursery Schools 29 37 32 27 37
Primary Schools (ii) 1,932 1,950 1,935 1,960 (iii)4,388
Secondary Schools 2,265 2,335 2,379 2,445
TOTAL (iv) 6,361 6,482 6,381 6,524 6,536
Notes:
(i) Advanced and non-advanced further education. Also includes expenditure on adult education and discretionary awards.
(ii) Includes expenditure in nursery as well as primary school classes.
(iii) No specific assumption has been made about the breakdown between primary and secondary schools.
(iv) Includes other education expenditure not shown in the table. Expenditure on school meals and milk has been excluded throughout.
(v) No estimate is yet available for the outturn of local authority expenditure in 1979–80.

The breakdown for 1980–81 is necessarily tentative since local authorities are free to decide their own priorities between and within services in the light of local needs and conditions.