§ Mr. Allan StewartTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland whether he will announce the allocations of grant in aid for recurrent expenditure to the grant-aided colleges in Scotland; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. LangI am pleased to announce that the Secretary of State has made the following offers of grant in aid for recurrent expenditure to the 17 grant-aided colleges for the financial year 1990–91. The offers, which are conditional on parliamentary approval of the supply estimates, are as follows:
876W
Offer 1990–91 £ million Central Institutions Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art 3.844 Dundee Institute of Technology 7.273 Edinburgh College of Art 3.973 Glasgow College of Technology 12.588 Glasgow School of Art 3.557 Napier Polytechnic of Edinburgh 18.441 Paisley College of Technology 10.661 Queen Margaret College 4.603
Offer 1990–91 £ million Queen's College, Glasgow 3.183 Robert Gordon's Institute of Technology 11.953 Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama 2.468 Scottish College of Textiles 2.403 Colleges of Education Craigie College of Education 1.555 Jordanhill College of Education 10.534 Moray House College of Education 7.906 Northern College of Education 6.337 St. Andrew's College of Education 3.803 Comparisons of these grants in aid against those made in 1989–90 need to take account of the shift of public funding towards fees and other factors. The offers are designed to ensure that no college will receive an increase of less than 3 per cent. or more than 13 per cent over the initial allocations made in 1989–90. Because the colleges will also benefit from substantial savings as a result of higher rates relief for charities, this should allow expenditure to increase by at least 5 per cent. in 1990–91, and for most colleges by substantially more.
Excluding the effect of the shift of funding to fees. which will be neutral in terms of public expenditure, but bringing into account the savings that will accrue to the colleges from changes in rates relief for charities, the overall level of public funding for the colleges will be some 11 per cent. higher than in 1989–90. I am pleased that we have been able to provide such an increase in funding, which should enable the colleges to further expand student intakes, notably for pre-service courses of teacher training.