§ Mr. BerminghamTo ask the Secretary of State for Education how many nursery units and nursery schools have been granted capital funding in each of the last five years; and what was the total amount of funds granted to nursery units and nursery schools in capital allocation in each of the last five years.
§ Mr. Robin SquireNursery education does not represent a separate category in the distribution of annual capital guidelines to local education authorities. Authorities' plans for spending on nursery classes and schools are taken into account in the formula calculation of the ACG category covering improvement and replacement work. Capital spending at all county and controlled schools is entirely the responsibility of LEAs.
For voluntary aided and special agreement schools the governors are responsible for building work and may claim grant of up to 85 per cent. on their expenditure. The table sets out the number of new nursery units approved for funding since 1989–90, together with projected allocations for total governors' expenditure:
Voluntary aided and special agreement schools Year Number of new units Governors' Expenditure (£000) 11989–90 5 898 11990–91 5 913 1991–92 13 1,109 1992–93 13 1,089 1993–94 19 1,202 21994–95 10 1,023 1 Projects flowing from statutory proposals approved after the annual capital announcement were not recorded separately and may be omitted from the 1989–90 and 1990–91 statistics. 2 To date. Figures are not available for funding work within existing aided school nurseries.
The allocation of capital grants to grant-maintained schools is now the responsibility of the Funding Agency for Schools. I have asked the chairman of the Funding Agency to reply to the hon. Member.