§ Mr. David Huntasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many questionnaires, statistical inquiries or investigations have been carried out, either wholly or partly at public expense, on behalf of or by her Department or by any public bodies for which she is responsible in 1976, 1977 and 1978 to date, specifying their nature and purpose and their estimated total cost.
§ Mr. OakesMy Department now conducts about 30 basic annual statistical inquiries addressed to local education authorities and to independent schools and colleges in England and Wales—mainly for administrative and planning purposes—the results of most of which are summarised each year in "Statistics of Education", Volumes 1–5, published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office. Additionally, 14 ad hoc statistical inquiries have been reported by my Department to the survey control unit of the Central Statistical Office since 1st January 1976.
The cost of all these inquiries, of our inquiries addressed to libraries in the United Kingdom, and of all the supporting statistical services in my Department, was about £1,245,000 in 1976, £1,435,000 in 1977 and £360,000 to the end of March 1978. Corresponding statistics for universities in the United Kingdom, summarised in "Statistics of Education", Volume 6, are the responsibility of the University Grants Committee, and their cost was about £122,000 in 1976, £130,000 in 1977 and £35,000 to the end of March 1978.
The extraction of the details requested for each of these surveys would entail a disproportionate cost.