HL Deb 19 April 1995 vol 563 c49WA
Baroness David

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Why the Department for Education has ceased to collect separate statistics of school expenditure on text books and library books from local education authorities.

Lord Lucas

Since 1992–93, in England and Wales, data has been collected on a combined basis for expenditure on books and equipment. The previous split between books and equipment had become increasingly arbitrary, and not all local authorities' returns gave separate figures for the two. With increasing delegation of budgets, schools did not always separate their expenditure on books from that relating to the growing use of computers, tapes, videos and other non-printed matter.