§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will take steps to increase the amount of money available to local education authorities to enable them to improve their current pay offer to teachers.
§ Sir Keith JosephNo, but the employers and teachers know that I stand ready to receive and consider salary structure proposals and, if I judge them negotiable, good for education, and affordable, to put them to my colleagues for their consideration. I cannot guarantee the outcome of any such consideration but in any event talks on salary structure broke down over three months ago when the teacher side refused to continue discussions.