§ Mr. Skinnerasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is the total Government grant made available to Derby county council for educational purposes; and whether he will make additional moneys available for new school buildings and provisions of inside toilets.
§ Dr. BoysonThe Government pay rate support grant in support of local authority expenditure as a whole: no part is earmarked for education or other services. School building programme allocations are not grants, but are authorisation for raising loans to finance the capital expenditure involved. Building allocations have had to be reduced to curtail public expenditure; Derbyshire education authority's school building allocation for 1979–80 has been reduced by £90,000 to £2,693,000. I understand that the authority had programmed work on 24 toilet improvements in 1979£80; it is for the Derbyshire authority to decide how many of these projects will be included in its revised programme.