§ Mr. Maxwell-Hyslopasked the Prime Minister whether she will now update the information given in her letter of 22 July to the hon. Member for Tiverton as to central Government finance for books, equipment and other costs incurred in introducing the general certificate of secondary education in the county of Devon, to be paid before the end of the present financial year, and broken down as between payments by the Department of Education and the Manpower Services Commission, and similar information for the following financial year.
§ The Prime MinisterIn my letter of 22 July I set out the expenditure ceiling, £277,500, for the GCSE for which education support grant (ESG) is available in this financial year to Devon local authority. That figure remains unchanged. Devon's allocation of grant from the MSC, for scientific and technological equipment, is £95,100 in this financial year.
354WMy letter of 22 July also set out the expenditure ceiling, £197,000, for which ESG is available to Devon in the financial year 1987–88. That figure too remains unchanged. There are no plans to repeat the MSC grant scheme. However, for that financial year the Government's plans for local authority expenditure provide for specific expenditure onGCSE non-teaching costs of about £100 million, including the further phase of ESG, within total planned expenditure of £12,850 million, an increase of 18.8 per cent. in cash on plans for the current year. This should enable all authorities, including Devon, to ensure that their schools are able to meet the demands of the new examination courses.