§ Mr. Litterickasked the Secretary of State for Defence (1) how many children of serving commissioned officers, non-commissioned officers and other ranks, respectively, are currently receiving Exchequer assistance to finance their education in private preparatory schools and in public schools, respectively; and what is the total annual cost to the Exchequer of this;
(2) what is his Department's policy on the provision of educational facilities for the children of serving offices, non-commissioned officers and other ranks, respectively, and whether the value of these fringe benefits are wage related or status related;
(3) what financial assistance is made available by his Department for the education in the United Kingdom of the children of commissioned officers, non-commissioned officers and other ranks, respectively, who are on overseas service;
(4) if he will publish in the Official Report figures showing the value, net of tax, of the financial assistance available from the Exchequer to serving commissioned officers, non-commissioned officers and other ranks for the education of their children in private schools, as a proportion of the salary currently being paid to each military rank, respectively.
§ Mr. JuddMy Department's policy on the provision of education facilities is concerned with helping Service parents to do what they think is best for their 301W children in the special circumstances of Service life. It does not differentiate between officers and Service men or between service at home and overseas.
Basically, the choice for parents lies between the continuity implicit in education at a boarding school, and the risk of discontinuity which is posed by keeping the family together when the Service parent is subject to frequent postings.
With minor exceptions the policy offers all ranks serving on regular commissions or engagements the following options:
- (a) Keeping their children with them and sending them as circumstances dictate to a local education authority day school in the United Kingdom, a school run overseas by the Service Children's Education Authority (SCEA) or, where no SCEA school is available, a local civilian school approved by SCEA;
- (b) leaving their children at a single address in the United Kingdom—usually with relatives, for whom they may claim day school allowance—so as to enable the children to maintain continuity in the school or schools run by the local education authority;
- (c) sending their children to a boarding school, usually in the United Kingdom, and claiming assistance towards the cost of the fees by way of boarding school allowance.
The rates of day and boarding school allowance are common to all ranks and are neither wage nor rank related. Day school allowance is currently £145 a year. Current rates of boarding school allowance are £807 each for the first and second child at a boarding school, £960 for the third and £999 for all children after the third at boarding school. Where the parent is serving overseas the allowance is non-taxable; for parents in the United Kingdom the allowance is loaded for tax to produce the appropriate net sum.
All the boarding school allowance rates are maxima. In no case can an individual receive more than the school fee payable for a single child or the aggregate of the fees payable where there is more than one child at boarding school. Where a parent receives a grant from a local authority or other source this is deducted from the fee or fees before the boarding school allowance is assessed.
302WBoarding school allowances are currently in issue in all three Services for some 16,000 children of officers and some 5,800 children of Service men at an estimated gross annual cost in 1975–76 of £21.25 million at current rates. About £6 million of this is recoverable in tax, leaving about £15.25 million as a direct charge to the Exchequer.
Under any flat-rate system of allowances there is a natural tendency for payments to represent a bigger proportion of salaries at low rank levels than at high rank levels. However, the relationship is distorted by such factors as parental choice of school and grants from other sources. For these reasons I could not break the figures down as my hon. Friend proposes, nor would such a breakdown be particularly meaningful.
§ Mr. Litterickasked the Secretary of State for Defence how many residential schools are now extant in the United Kingdom for the exclusive use of the children of serving members of Her Majesty's Forces; how many children are currently attending the schools; and what is the annual cost of maintaining them.
§ Mr. JuddThere are no residential schools in the United Kingdom maintained from Ministry of Defence funds for the exclusive use of the children of serving members of Her Majesty's Forces.