§ Mr. Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a statement on the increased volume of underspending on education support grants 1988–89 shown in Class XII Vote 1; and what changes have been made for 1989–90 and 1990–91.
§ Mr. Alan HowarthThe size of each year's Vote for education support grants (ESGs) depends not on the overall total for that year's ESG programme, but rather on the amount of grant still to be paid in respect of previous years' ESG programmes as well as the amount expected to be paid within the financial year on the current year's programme. The size of the underspend on a given year's Vote will reflect both the success of local education authorities in submitting grant claims promptly, and the size of successive ESG programmes. To increase the proportion of grant paid during the financial year in which the expenditure is incurred, authorites will from this year on be invited to submit, before the end of the financial year in question, a claim for expenditure incurred during the last quarter, 50 per cent. of which may be paid before the year end.
§ Mr. Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will publish a list of those local education authorities which, in respect of education support grant claims for 1988–89(a) have claimed significantly less than the maximum allocated amount for that year or (b) have not yet made either final claims for all quarters of 1987–88 or a provisional end-of-year claim, showing for each of (a) and (b) the amount underspent or apparently unclaimed.
§ Mr. Alan HowarthIt is for individual local education authorities to determine whether they wish to claim all the education support grant (ESG) allocated to them. Among the 90 authorities in England who have to date submitted final claims for the 1988–89 programme, the average rate of claim is over 90 per cent. of expenditure approved. But 15 of those authorities have claimed grant on less than 85 per cent. of expenditure approved. The details are:
702W
Amount of approved expenditure not spent LEA £ Barnet 132,138 Enfield 268,731 Haringey 156,627 Newham 160,300 Birmingham 417,246 Walsall 152,365 Sefton 241,707
LEA £ Tameside 146,750 Wigan 286,400 South Tyneside 257,770 Berkshire 394,718 Buckinghamshire 299,131 Devon 427,668 Kent 591,877 Lincolnshire 235,627 In addition, seven local education authorities have not yet submitted a final claim. They are:
Amount of approved expenditure on which grant has not yet been claimed Local education authorities £ Merton 97,459 Waltham Forest 175,655 Leeds 392,800 Hertfordshire 765,707 Norfolk 367,590 Northamptonshire 999,860 Oxfordshire 384,519 All authorities have now submitted final claims for 1987–88.