§ Mr. Marksasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether provision is made in rate support grant or other grants to local education authorities to deal with the particular problem of falling school rolls.
§ Sir Keith JosephThe total allowed for local authority current expenditure on education within the annual rate support grant settlement each year takes account of the fact that local education athorities are not able to reduce their expenditure on schools education as fast as the pupil numbers decline. The distribution of block grant takes account of the differences in the rate of decline of pupil numbers in different authorities. Allocation of capital expenditure take account of the need for capital spending to assist in the removal of surplus school places.