§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will list the cutbacks that have been made in his Department's collection of statistics since May 1979; and whether further cuts are now being proposed.
§ Mr. Mark CarlisleSince May 1979 there has been some rationalisation in the collection of basic educational data and it has been the policy to keep specific data collection to the minimum. Following the review described in the White Paper, "Government Statistical Services"—Cmnd. 8236—further measures, as outlined in part 2 of that paper, are being taken by my Department.