§ Mr. Freudasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science how much of the 1975–76 allocation towards nursery education was not taken up; and if he will list the authorities who were offered finance and did not accept it.
§ Miss Joan LestorI refer the hon. Member to my right hon. Friend's reply of 27th October to my hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton, North-East (Mrs. Short). Somerset has since relinquished its allocation in full. The relinquished sums, which are not grants, but authorisations for capital expenditure, total £3.6 million, of which £1 million has been reallocated to other authorities which requested additions.
§ Mr. Freudasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is his estimate of ongoing costs to local education authorities per £100,000 of grant towards nursery education.
§ Miss Joan LestorThere is no specific grant from my Department to local education authorities for nursery education. Forecast expenditure by local education authorities on nursery education is taken into account in determining their aggregate expenditure relevant to rate support grant.
§ Mr. Freudasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will list the number of nursery school places in the public sector over the last two years; and if he will estimate how many full-time equivalent places will be lost according to local education authority plans submitted for the coming year.
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§ Miss Joan LestorIn January 1975 there were 38,575 whole-day and 100,253 part-day pupils occupying 88,701 full-time equivalent places in maintained nursery schools and nursery classes in maintained primary schools in England. The corresponding figures for January 1974 were 37,148, 86,443 and 80,369 respectively. My Department has not to date been notified by local education authorities of decisions on their part to reduce the number of places.
§ Mr. Freudasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is now his projection of the number of nursery places required in England and Wales; and what percentage of these places will be planned in respect of full-time children.
§ Miss Joan LestorMy Department's Circular 2/73 gave estimates of additional places that would be required to provide education in 1982 for 15 per cent. of 3 and 4-year-olds full-time and for 35 per cent. of 3-year-olds and 75 per cent. of 4-year-olds part-time. On current population projections the total number of full-time equivalent places that would be needed for that objective, including those already in existence, would be 510,000, of which some 35 per cent. would need to be occupied by children attending full time.
§ Mr. Freudasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a statement on the position of nursery education in his Department's list of priorities.
§ Miss Joan LestorI refer the hon. Member to my right hon. Friend's reply of 14th October to my hon. Friend the Member for Cannock (Mr. Roberts).—[Vol. 897, c. 1116.]