§ Mr. Maclennanasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what representations he has received from local authorities concerning the payment to teachers of the wage settlement for the 1985–86 financial year; what calculation he has made of the likely extra cost of the settlement in money terms to each region above that provided for in the 4.25 per cent. guideline advice given by his Department to councils for budgets; and whether he will compensate regional councils for the extra expenditure incurred.
§ Mr. AncramThe Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and a number of authorities have asked my right hon. and learned Friend to provide extra grant to help meet the costs of the teachers' pay settlement for 1985–86 and also to disregard authorities' extra expenditure on teachers' pay when calculating rate support grant penalties for that year. He told the convention when he met it on 18 April that he had made it clear to the convention's representatives before the authorities settled with the teachers' unions that they had to do so within the resources available to them and that no additional resources were available. He told them that it had been made clea to the local authority representatives that there would be no disregard. He therefore told the convention that he could not meet its requests.