§ Mr. Kinnockasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is his target, on a planning basis, for the overall reduction of surplus school places nationally for each year between the current year and 1986; and when he plans to achieve the total announced reduction of 1.2 million places.
§ Sir Keith JosephAs I announced in December, my revised plans for 1982–83 assume that 470,000 surplus places will have been taken out of use between 1975 and March 1983. My plans also assume that a further 160,000 places will be taken out of use by March 1984. I shall be reviewing targets beyond these in the light of local authorities' returns to circular 2/81.
§ Mr. Kinnockasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many local education authorities have so far provided him with their plans for reduction of surplus places in their local area.
§ Sir Keith JosephA total of 55 local education authorities have responded to circular 2/81 but about half 53W have not given full information about their plans for taking places out of use and others have not given adequate details about the number of surplus places in their schools.
§ Mr. Kinnockasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will publish his Department's expected reduction in surplus places for each local education authority.
§ Sir Keith JosephAs stated in circular 2/81, the Department expects that about 40 per cent. of those school places that are surplus nationally will be taken out of use. Because of the wide variety of local circumstances however, the Department has not made any estimates of the number of places that will be taken out of use by individual local education authorities. Some LEAs should be able to remove more than 40 per cent. of their surplus places. Others may not be able to achieve this figure.
§ Mr. Kinnockasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is his estimate of the mean cost per place of keeping open surplus places in schools.
§ Sir Keith JosephThe latest available estimate of the average cost of keeping open surplus temporary and permanent places in schools, based on local authorities' actual expenditure in 1980–81 is as follows:
£per annum* primary 78 secondary 137 * November 1981 prices.