§ Mr. MORGAN JONESasked the President of the Board of Education whether he is aware that in London and elsewhere authorities are approaching or have already reached the financial limits imposed by the Board on the provision of allowances for maintenance, namely, 9s. per head of the elementary school population as regards pupils in secondary schools and 1s. per head of the elementary school population as regards pupils in elementary schools; and whether the Board proposes to enforce these restrictions if the effect is to hinder the development of schemes of advanced education on the lines proposed by the Hadow Committee for the education of children up to the age of 15 where the parents are unable to keep such children at school after attaining the age of 14?
§ Lord E. PERCYSo far as maintenance allowances for higher education are concerned, no authority except Bradford, whose expenditure exceeds the 9s. limit by a few pence, has reached or is approaching that limit. As regards maintenance allowances for pupils attending elementary schools, I may remind the hon. Member that the shilling limit relates only to the expenditure on which grant is payable at the special rate of 50 per cent. and that expenditure in excess of that limit attracts grant at the rate of 20 per cent. The limit does not apply to London, which receives 50 per cent. of all its expenditure. I have no reason at present for thinking that the limit operates to hinder the development of schemes of advanced education on the lines proposed by the Hadow Committee.