HC Deb 23 March 1995 vol 257 cc356-7W
Mr. Don Foster

To ask the Secretary of State for Education what was the cost of the Dearing review of the national curriculum. [15593]

Mr. Forth

The estimated total cost of the Dearing review of the national curriculum is £4.7 million, comprising:

  1. i. £755,000 for the interim and final Dearing reports on the national curriculum;
  2. ii. £528,000 for work on slimming down the curriculum by the School Curriculum and Assessment Authority and its advisory groups, excluding SCAA internal staff costs;
  3. iii. £2 million for the consultation on the revised curriculum proposals, including the cost of publishing and distributing the consultation documents and a report on the outcome of consultation;
  4. iv. £1.4 million for publication and distribution of the final subject documents in January 1995, excluding staff costs.

Mr. Don Foster

To ask the Secretary of State for Education what was the total cost of the work on the national curriculum before the Dearing review. [15592]

Mr. Forth

Central Government expenditure on the national curriculum between 1988 and 1993 was an estimated £469 million. Some £350 million of this was in the form of grants for education support and training to support expenditure by local education authorities and schools mainly on books, equipment and training. The £469 million also includes the full grants to the former National Curriculum Council and the School Examinations and Assessment Council, and thus includes some expenditure on the curriculum and assessment which was not directly concerned with the national curriculum.