§ Mr. Ernie Rossasked the Secretary of State for Defertce (1) what has been the total amount of money spent in allowances to his Department's personnel and certain ranks of the armed forces posted overseas to have their children educated privately in each year since 1981 in (a) Scotland and (b) in England and Wales;
(2) what financial assistance his Department offered to Ministry of Defence personnel or various ranks of the armed forces posted overseas to have their children educated as boarders in private schools in the United Kingdom; and if he will publish a table showing since 1984 (a) the schools involved and the area of the education authority they are located in, (b) the amount of money involved at each school and (c) the number of pupils involved for Scotland, England and Wales.
§ Mr. FreemanBoarding school allowance is available to service parents, regardless of rank, to assist them in providing continuity of education for their children in spite of their own liability to posting moves both at home and overseas. The allowance is currently being paid in respect of about 21,500 service children, attending several hundred schools throughout the United Kingdom; information in the form requested could therefore not be provided without disproportionate effort. It is estimated that about one fifth of the children concerned are attending schools run by local education authorities rather than independent schools.
The overall cost of the allowance in each year since 1981 was as follows:
£ million (final outturn) 1981–82 60.00 1982–83 66.30 1983–84 76.50 1984–85 78.00 1985–86 85.00 Over the same period a similar allowance has also been paid to a small number of MOD officials serving overseas. Expenditure in each year has been approximately £0.5 million.