§ Mr. ChurchillTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what has been the cumulative total of his Department's expenditure since May 1979 to date over and above the expenditure level prevailing in May 1979.
Calendar year (1) Number of proposals decided (2) Number of places to be taken out of use by proposals in column 2 (3) Number of proposals in column 2 approved (4) Number of surplus places to be taken out of use as a result of approved proposals (5) 1983 366 104,174 330 85,606 1984 292 85,862 270 77,590 1985 205 101,097 185 88,218 1986 172 81,663 147 62,828 1987 159 55,116 134 45,326 1988 145 64,256 116 27,170 The Government's national targets for the removal of surplus places cannot be directly compared with the figures in column 5 since the former also include places taken out of use as a result of the rationalisation of split sites, mothballed classrooms and the removal of temporary accommodation. In 1987–88 a total of 124,000 places were taken out of use against the national target of 139,000.