§ Mr. Fairbairnasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what was the central Government expenditure and local government expenditure on primary and secondary education in Scotland in the last available year; how many pupils were enrolled; and what is the cost of running the Department of Education in Scotland.
§ Mr. William RossExpenditure by local authorities in 1973–74 on school education—primary, secondary, special and nursery—was £254.8 million. Within this total it is estimated that the figures for primary and secondary education were £108.8 million and £137 million respectively. Central Government assistance towards education and other services is provided to local authorities through the rate support grant; but it is not possible to attribute particular amounts of this grant to individual services or parts of services.
In January 1974 there were 634,677 primary and 370,864 secondary pupils in local authority schools.
Information about direct grants in connection with schools education, the administration costs of the Scottish Education Department and rate support grants in 1975–76 will be found at pages X–13, 364W XIII–51 and XVII–5 of the Supply Estimates (HC210 of Session 1974–75).