§ Mr. Ancramasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what response, if any, he has received from Lothian region to the request, in the recently published consultative paper on parental choice in education, that education committees should voluntarily at the moment relax their transfer schemes to allow children to attend schools of their parents' choice where places are available.
§ Mr. Alexander FletcherNone. My Department has also written to Lothian regional council to ask that it should have regard to the principles underlying the consultative paper and should adopt a less restrictive policy in relation to parental choice of school; but no substantive reply has yet been received.