HC Deb 20 March 1990 vol 169 c585W
Mr. Worthington

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how much money would not have been spent on Scottish education if regional councils had kept to Government guidelines in each of the years since 1979–80.

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton

[holding answer 19 March 1990]: The guidelines which the Government issued to local authorities for the greater part of this period were in respect of their total expenditure. Spending decisions on individual services, such as education, are as they always have been entirely a matter for local authorities themselves.