§ Mr. Stan Crowtherasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if she will make a statement about the results of a survey carried out by her Department of discretionary awards for students in higher and futher education made by local education authorities in England and Wales.
§ Mr. OakesThe survey covered the academic years 1975–76 to 1977–78, during which public expenditure was subject to considerable restraint. Although not all the returns have been received, provisional604W figures are now available, and they lead to the following conclusions:
- (i) Authorities have made about 2,000 fewer new full-value discretionary awards under Section 2 of the Education Act 1962 in the academic year 1977–78 than in 1975–76.
- (ii) Although there are substantial differences between individual authorities, overall the number of these discretionary awards held has remained constant at just over 49,000 over the period 1975–76 to 1977–78. If, over this period, authorities had increased the total number of such awards to keep pace with the increase in the population of 18- and 19-year-olds, about 5,000 more awards would have been current in 1977–78 than the local education authorities estimate will be the case.
- (iii) The average value of these awards has increased by less than the increase in the value of mandatory awards.
- (iv) It is estimated that, to maintain the 1975–76 position taking account of (ii) and (iii) above, increased expenditure of some £6 million would have been required in 1977–78—i.e., an increase of about 12 per cent.
The implications of these conclusions for the financial provision in future years will need careful examination.
Discussions on the report are now being arranged between my Department and the local authority associations. It is intended that a full report will be published when returns are complete, and copies will be placed in the Library.