§ Mr. CartwrightTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he will give details of the spending by local education authorities on information technology equipment over and above that spent by individual schools out of capitation allowances broken down by local education authority for each of the last five years for which information is available.
§ Mr. DunnThe information requested is not available. Local authorities are required to submit returns of their total expenditure on educational equipment, but they are not required to break it down into types. Nor are they required to indicate how much came out of or was spent above the capitation sums allowed to schools. For 1988–89, the Government have approved expenditure of £19 million on "IT in Schools" for support through education support grants. All LEAs have received an allocation but no returns for actual expenditure are yet available. £8.5 million of this sum is available nationally for the purchase of microcomputer systems.