§ Sir Hugh Rossiasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science why he departed from the basis previously used for the contraction of Catholic teacher training announced in his Department's press release of 24 January 1977.
§ Mr. BrookeAs I stated in reply to my hon. Friend on 18 November 1983—[Vol. 48, c.618]—contraction in the public sector in 1977 was planned on the basis that the existing balance between maintained and voluntary colleges and between the two denominations should not be substantially changed by the process of reorganisation.
Although the provisional proposals for the Catholic colleges published in the Department's press release of 24 January 1977 suggested that their share of the total places might match the proportion previously held by them, the Roman Catholic share of the target eventually established for 1981 was slightly below that proportion. As I stated in my earlier reply, the question of balance between the various providing bodies was again kept in mind throughout the more recent reorganisation of teacher training.