§ Mrs. Anne TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for Education what is his present estimate of the number of surplus places in primary schools in total and in each local education authority area.
§ Mr. Robin SquireThe latest figures available on a comprehensive basis were collected by the Department through a detailed survey of local education authorities in 1991. For figures derived from that survey, I refer the hon. Member for Warwickshire, North (Mr. O'Brien) on 31 January 1994,Official Report, columns 517–21. The total number of surplus places in primary schools in 1991 according to our survey was 639,696.
Surplus places figures for 1994 will be available later this year once we have completed our analysis of the first information returns made by LEAs and the Funding Agency for Schools in accordance with the requirements of regulations made under section 21 of the Education Act 1993.