§ Mr. MaddenTo ask the Secretary of State for Education (1) what is the purpose of her visit in March to Bradford city technology college; and if she will make a statement;
(2) if she will visit local authority schools when she visits Bradford in March;
(3) how many invitations to visit maintained schools in Bradford she has received since her appointment from (a) the hon. Member for Bradford, West and (b) Bradford local education authority; and what has been her response to those invitations;
518W(4) how many of (a) her predecessors, (b) Ministers from her Department and (c) other Ministers have visited Bradford city technology college since it opened.
Mr. Robin SquiresMy right hon. Friend will be visiting Dixons city technology college in Bradford on 1 March. She likes to visit schools when time permits and this will be her first visit to a CTC. A programme for the day has yet to be settled but my right hon. Friend very much looks forward to visiting local authority schools if this can be arranged.
Between July and November last year, my right hon. Friend received three invitations from the hon. Member and three from the local authority to visit schools in Bradford. Other pressures ruled out an early visit to Bradford and many other parts of the country. My right hon. Friend did, however, meet the hon. Member and representatives of Bradford local education authority on 26 September in London and my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Worcestershire (Mr. Forth) made a full day's vi sit to local authority schools in Bradford in November 1993.
Dixons city technology college opened in September 1990 and has been visited by two previous Secretaries of State for Education, including for the occasion of Ihe official opening. It has also been visited by my right hon. Friend the Member for Enfield, North (Mr. Eggar).