§ Lord Denningasked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Answer of the Baroness Blatch on 23rd April (H.L. Deb., col. WA 4), whether the trustees of schools in the Diocese of Leicester were consulted before the order was proposed and were told of the opportunity to make a request for the usual proportion of three-fourteenths, as in the Diocese of Guildford, and whether they declined it.
§ Baroness BlatchThe extent to which the Diocese of Leicester consulted the trustees of the schools involved is a matter for the diocese. The Secretary of State, for his part, provided each individual body of trustees with a draft of the proposed order and invited representations on it.
Orders under Section 2 of the Education Act 1973 are made with a view to enabling the denomination concerned to participate more effectively in the statutory system of public education. The primary function of such orders, therefore, is to enable the assets representing discontinued denominational voluntary schools to be applied for the benefit of new and continuing voluntary schools of the same denomination. The Secretary of State is under no obligation to advise trustees as to whether or not provision for a Sunday school fund should be requested.