Schools (Assisted Places) (Hansard, 20 March 1990)

§ Mr. Lang

At the beginning of the current school session there were 2,689 pupils receiving assistance under the assisted places scheme. Additional pupils will be admitted to assisted places throughout the 1989–90 session and I expect that the final total will be about 2,800. This is in line with our plans to increase the total number of pupils benefiting to about 3,000 by the 1991–92 school year. Eighteen new schools were admitted to the scheme in the current school session, which has widened significantly the choice of school available to parents seeking assistance from the scheme.

The scheme continues to concentrate assistance on lower-income families. In 1989–90 1,106 pupils (41 per cent. of those in the scheme) will be receiving full fee remission because they have a family income of £7,584 per annum or less. A further 179 pupils (7 per cent.) have family incomes between £7,585 and £8,500 per annum and 183 (7 per cent.) between £8,501 and £9,500.

For school session 1990–91 I propose to lay regulations before the House in due course providing for progressive parental contributions for one assisted pupil in relation to family income as follows:

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Part of relevant income to which the specified percentage applies	Parental contribution (percentage)
That part (if any) which exceeds £8,034 but does not exceed £8,735	9
That part (if any) which exceeds £8,735 but does not exceed £9,449	12
That part (if any) which exceeds £9,449 but does not exceed £10,865	15
That part (if any) which exceeds £10,865 but does not exceed £13,043	21
That part (if any) which exceeds £13,043 but does not exceed £15,885	24
That part (if any) which exceeds £15,885	33

The relevant income scale is open ended, but the remission can of course be given only where the parental contribution is less than the school tuition fee.