§ Mr. BennettTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what would have been the impact per authority in 1993–94 if the weight of the additional educational needs index in distributing primary and secondary standard spending assessments had been reduced by(a) 0.5 per cent., (b) 1 per cent., (c) 5 per cent. and (d) 10 per cent.; and what implications this would have for the area cost adjustment.
§ Mr. Baldry[holding answer 7 June 1993]: I have placed in the Library a table which shows the effects on each authority's education standard spending assessment for 1993–94 of reducing the weight on the additional educational needs index within the primary and secondary elements by (a) 0.5 per cent., (b) 1 per cent., (c) 5 per cent. and (d) 10 per cent. The area cost adjustment factors are applied after the results of applying the additional educational needs index.
§ Mr. BennettTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what would be the impact on each authority's standard spending assessment of reducing the weight of the ethnicity factor within the additional educational needs index to(a) 20 per cent., (b) 10 per cent. and (c) 2 per cent.; and what are the reasons for including the ethnicity factor within the additional educational needs index.
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§ Mr. Baldry[holding answer 7 June 1993]: The ethnicity factor has a weight of one within the additional educational needs index compared with 1.5 for the other two factors. I have placed in the Library today a table which shows the education standard spending assessment element for all authorities incorporating a reduction in the weight on ethnicity from 1 to (a) 0.2, (b) 0.1 and (c) 0.02. Ethnicity—or, more precisely, the country of origin of child or of the head of the household—is used to reflect the additional costs associated with educating children for whom English is not their first language.