§ Mr. Hicksasked the Prime Minister if she will list the Government Departments which have schemes for assistance with the costs of secondary education for the children of public servants; if she will list the schemes and the conditions which apply in each case; and if she will give figures for the number of children assisted under each scheme and the cost to public funds, respectively (a) in the latest available year, (b) five years ago and (c) 10 years ago.
§ The Prime MinisterThe assistance provided with the costs of secondary education for the children of public servants is mainly in the form of boarding school allowances.
In the case of home civil servants and members of Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service such assistance is available only to staff who serve overseas and is designed to enable 971W the children of such staff to have the benefit of a United Kingdom education while their parents are abroad. Detailed rules for home civil servants, applicable to staff in all home departments, are set out in paragraphs 7701 to 7734 of the Civil Service Pay and Conditions of Service Code. Detailed rules for the Diplomatic Service are contained in section 35 of "Diplomatic Service Regulations". Copies of both these documents are available in the Library of the House.
In the case of members of the armed forces, boarding school allowances are designed to provide continuity of education for their children by enabling them to attend the same school throughout each education step wherever their parents happen to be posted at a particular time. The basic relevant conditions are set out in paragraphs 2796 to 2799 of "Queen's Regulations for the Royal Air Force", of which there is a copy in the Library of the House.
Estimates of numbers of children and the costs to public funds for 1984–85 are as follows. Figures for the earlier years are not available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Armed Forces Diplomatic Service Home Civil Service Number of children 18,700 *1,430 *580 Total cost £71 million £6.5 million £1.5 million * Includes children at primary school stage.