§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Prime Minister whether she will publish in the Official Report a table showing the cost to Her Majesty's Government of (a) educating the children of servants of the Crown at boarding schools and (b) financing places in boarding schools for the children of other persons; and if, in each case, she will set out the parental contributions at various income levels compared with the parental contribution to be demanded of those whose children win a place in an institution of higher learning.
§ The Prime MinisterThe total cost of the various Government boarding allowance schemes for public servants was about £83 million in 1983–84. Such allowances are paid only in appropriately limited circumstances and are not related to income. The only other Government expenditure on boarding fees arises under the aided pupils scheme for music and ballet schools and amounted to some £400,000 in 1983–84. Parental contributions may by required under that scheme, but details of the scale for 1985–86 have yet to be determined. Details of the 1985–86 parental income scale for student grants were set out in the reply of my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Science to the question by my hon. Friend the Member for Ealing, North (Mr. Greenway) on 14 November 1984 at columns238–39.