§ Mr. McTaggartasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will publish the number of assisted places awarded at each participating school in Glasgow and Strathclyde; how many places were awarded in each case to fee-paying pupils; and what was the total cost of the provision of such places since the inception of the scheme.
§ Mr. Alexander Fletcher:The number of assisted places awarded at each participating school in the session 1981–82 was announced in reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Argyll (Mr. MacKay) on 13 November 1981.—[Vol. 12, c. 127–28.] Full information is not yet available for the session 1982-83, but the returns received from schools so far show that there are 506 assisted pupils attending schools in Strathclyde, of which 425 attend schools in Glasgow. A total of 301 of the pupils in Strathclyde schools attended a fee-paying school immediately before taking up an assisted place; the corresponding figure for Glasgow schools is 254. These totals include pupils admitted to assisted places in 1981–82 as well as those admitted in the current session 1982–83.
The allocations of fee remission grant to participating schools for the session 1981–82 were given in reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Argyll on 30 March 1981.—[Vol. 2, c. 39.] Information is not yet available on schools' final expenditure for that session. The allocations for 1982-83 were given in reply to my hon. Friend to Member for Fife, East (Mr. Herderson) on 29 April 1982.—[Vol. 22, c. 349"50.]