§ Mr. Ernie Rossasked the Secretary of State for Scotland how many further representations he has received on the Consultative Paper on assisted places since his reply to the hon. Member for Dundee West on 27 October; if he will name them; and how many have expressed opposition to the scheme.
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§ Mr. Alexander FletcherNone.
§ Mr. Ernie Rossasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list the schools which are to take part in the assisted places scheme and the number of places to be allocated at each school.
§ Mr. Alexander FletcherFor the list of schools with which my right hon. Friend would be prepared to enter into agreements, subject to the approval by Parliament of his proposals as a whole, I would refer the hon. Member to the reply given to my hon. Friend the Member for Argyll (Mr. MacKay) on 27 November. It is not proposed to allocate fixed numbers of places to schools but to set cash limits to the amount of fee remission my right hon. Friend is prepared to reimburse; the number of assisted pupils at any particular school will thus be determined by the cash limit and the family incomes of the successful applicants.—[Vol. 994, c.187–89.]
§ Mr. Ernie Rossasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will publish details of the incomes scale that will qualify for assistance under the assisted places scheme.
§ Mr. Alexander FletcherDetails of the parental income scale will be laid before Parliament very shortly.
§ Mr. Ernie Rossasked the Secretary of State for Scotland to how many schools in Scotland he made representations regarding participation in the assisted places scheme; how many have been selected to take part in the scheme; and what criteria he used in selecting the schools participating in the scheme.
§ Mr. Alexander FletcherAll the Scottish grant-aided secondary and independent schools have been kept informed of the proposals and were invited to apply for participation. Forty-one schools have been provisionally accepted.
The main consideration's kept in view, apart from the general standards of the schools, were the desirability of keeping a balance between boys and girls and of achieving the best practicable geographical distribution of places.