HC Deb 13 February 1998 vol 306 c441W
Mrs. Browning

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will publish the criteria for the New Deal money being awarded to schools where his Department prioritise the bids. [27825]

Mr. Byers

In the first round of the New Deal for Schools the criteria that were used to decide which applications would be successful were the contribution of the proposed projects to improvements in educational standards, their urgency, and their soundness and cost-effectiveness.

In the second phase of NDS, local education authorities (LEAs) and the Funding Agency for Schools (FAS) have been asked to prioritise all their applications into four objective categories which relate to building condition. In deciding allocations to schools, we shall follow these priorities, also taking account of the nature of the work proposed, the overall cost, and the outcomes which would be secured, including in particular higher educational standards, and value for money.