§ Mr. CarringtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Education what is the latest estimate she has of the amount of money being tied up in maintaining surplus school places; and what steps she is taking to reduce the number of surplus places.
§ Mr. Robin SquireWe estimate the direct costs of maintaining current surplus places— not all of which is in practice removable—as being some £240 million. We announced in June our intention to set targets for those authorities with particularly high levels of removable capacity.