§ Lord Bleaseasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will publish in the Official Report the per capita expenditure on the school library 591WA service (books, periodicals, reports, etc.) for (a) primary, and (b) secondary schools in each of the five Education and Library Board Areas in Northern Ireland for the periods 1979–80, 1980–81, 1981–82 and 1982–83; and whether they will indicate the real, as opposed to the cash, value increase/decrease in each of the areas since 1979–80 compared with 1982–83; and
Whether they will publish in the Official Report the average per capita expenditure on books in (a) primary, and (b) secondary schools in (i) Northern Ireland, (ii) England and Wales and (iii) Scotland, for the periods 1979–80, 1980–81 and 1981–82.
The Earl of GowrieThe school library service in Northern Ireland is an integral part of the public library service provided by the education and library boards. Separate expenditure figures for the schools service are not readily available. I will therefore write to the noble Lord.
It is not possible to provide comparable figures for expenditure on books in schools in each part of the United Kingdom because each education service has its own accounting arrangements. In some cases expenditure on the school library service is aggregated with expenditure on school text books and may include expenditure on other related materials.