§ Mr. Ashdownasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will provide a detailed breakdown, using the latest available figures, of the numbers of children at privately financed schools whose parents are in receipt of Government subsidies as dependants of members of the armed services and of the sum paid from public moneys to provide these subsidies.
§ Mr. StanleyAt the start of the 1982–83 school year the number of children at boarding schools whose parents were in receipt of boarding school allowance as members of the armed forces was 21,308. This figure includes an estimated 4,000 children at boarding schools maintained by local education authorities. Expenditure on boarding school allowance in 1982–83 was £66.4 million. It is not possible without disproportionate effort to say exactly how much of this amount related to children attending privately financed schools.