§ Mr. Christopher Priceasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will now publish the education grant-related expenditure assessments of local authorities in England.
§ Sir Keith JosephFor the reasons I gave in my letter of 27 January to the hon. Member, a copy of which has been placed in the Library, the Government have concluded that the service components of the grant-related expenditure assessments in England for 1983–84 should not be published until a little later in the year.
§ Mr. Christopher Priceasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will publish his Department's best estimate of the likely outturn of capital expenditure by local authorities on education projects in 1982–83.
§ Sir Keith JosephThe forecast in the autumn of net outturn for education capital expenditure in 1982–83—after allowing for capital receipts—was £317 million, compared with an allocation of £309 million. Following the Government's initiative aimed at encouraging local authorities to spend more capital on education to use some of the substantial underspend forecast for that year on other services, the Department has so far approved additional allocation of £35 million.
§ Mr. Christopher Priceasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether his Department has, on an authority-by-authority basis, compared education total spending in 1982–83 with education grant-related expenditure assessments for the same year.
251W
§ Sir Keith JosephInformation about local authorities' expenditure on education in 1982–83 will not be available until much later in the year. It is therefore not possible to make the comparison for which the hon. Member has asked.