§ Mr. Pikeasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what has been the total expenditure by each local education authority on nursery education in each of the years since 1979; and what proportion this forms of their total education expenditure.
§ Sir Keith JosephThe information in the form requested is not available. Local education authorities in England provide nursery education in(a) nursery schools and in (b) nursery classes in primary schools. Returns are made by each local education authority showing separately their expenditure on nursery schools. However, the returns from authorities do not show separately expenditure on nursery classes in primary schools, which is estimated to be over 70 per cent. of the total.