§ Mr. Pawseyasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science which 10 local authorities have the most surplus places in schools; and which local authorities have least such surplus places.
§ Mr. DunnThe information available to the Department does not enable reliable estimates to be made of the number of surplus school places in individual local education authorities.
§ Mr. Pawseyasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many surplus places he estimates currently exist in (a) secondary schools, (b) primary schools and (c) middle schools; and what is the estimated cost of maintaining those surplus places.
§ Mr. DunnIt was estimated last March, in the light of local education authorities' returns to the Department's Circular 2/81, that there were some half a million surplus places in secondary schools and some 1.3 million surplus places in primary schools in England, including surplus places in middle schools deemed to be secondary and primary respectively. It is not possible to estimate the cost of maintaining the surplus places because of wide variations in premises-related costs, and because of the difficulty of quantifying potential savings on other costs including teaching and administration. It is clear, however, that there can be substantial financial and educational benefits in many instances from removing surplus places from use.