§ Mr. Rookerasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a statement detailing any reduction or abolition in the collection or publication of statistics or reports by his Department since May 1979, indicating if such information is available from any other source; and what financial savings have been made by any such changes.
§ Mr. Mark Carlisle:Since May 1979 there has been some rationalisation of the collection of basic educational data, and at the same time it has been policy to keep special data collections to a minimum. It is estimated that there has been some £20,000 saving in departmental expenditure as a consequence of the changes. A review of the statistical service provided by my Department has 89W recently been completed: decisions on the recommendations will be taken over the next few months.