§ Mr. Harry BarnesTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what assessment he makes when deciding whether to allow a school to opt out of local education authority control of the extent to which the school may be seeking to avoid the consequences of local education authority rationalisation programmes.
§ Mrs. RumboldMy right hon. Friend judges applications for a school to become grant maintained at the same time as he considers any parallel statutory proposals, for example, to close the school in question. In such circumstances, both proposals or sets of proposals will be considered on their merits and each will be evaluated against the other.