§ Mr. Peter Bruinvelsasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what would be the cost at current prices, in both capital and revenue terms, if a place in nursery education were to be provided in September 1985 for every child aged three and four years old; and what is his estimate of the cost if that were done for September 1988.
§ Mr. Dunn[pursuant to his reply, 15 February 1985, c. 298–99]: It is possible to estimate only to a very approximate order of magnitude, for the reasons given in my reply to the hon. Member for Cynon Valley (Mrs. Clwyd) on 6 December 1984 at column 94; but the building, costs, which would in practice have to be phased over a number of years, would probably be of the order, in aggregate, of £300 million to £400 million; the initial cost of training the extra teaching and nursery staff, which would also have to be phased, would probably be of the order of £100 million to £150 million (the level of continuing costs of training would depend on wastage rates); and the eventual annual recurrent cost (excluding training) would probably be of the order of £300 million to £350 million.