§ Mr. Moonmanasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what was the shortfall in local authorities spending on books and in-service training in the last year.
§ Mr. OakesRate support grant is a block grant, given in aid of local authority expenditure as a whole, and no part of it is earmarked for a particular service, or area of provision within a service. However, it is true to say that the Government make certain broad assumptions about expenditure levels on services for the purpose of determining total expenditure relevant for rate support grant. The provisional outturn for 1977–78 indicates that total local government expenditure was approximately 2.7 per cent. below the level assumed in the RSG 849W settlement for that year and expenditure on education was also about 2.7 per cent. below the settlement level. Within that overall total, local authorities spent some £37 million less on non-teaching cost in primary and secondary schools than had been assumed for the settlement, and there is evidence to show that economies particularly affected books, equipment and teaching materials. Expenditure on the salaries of teachers released for in-service training was some £13 million lower than had been assumed, although this shortfall is more or less balanced by the cost to local authorities of employing more than the anticipated number of teachers in the schools.