HC Deb 15 July 1996 vol 281 cc397-9W
Mr. Madden

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will list those local education authorities that pay education maintenance allowance, indicating the amount currently paid by each; and if she will list the practice of each authority as to when the allowance is paid. [36779]

Mr. Robin Squire

The following local education authorities in England and Wales informed the Department that they had paid educational maintenance allowances in 1994–95 as in the table.

Educational maintenance allowances paid by local education authorities
England and Wales 1: academic year 1994–95
Number of EMAs Total expenditure on EMAs
Corporation of London 1 518
Greenwich 431 82,050
Hackney 57 23,020
Hammersmith and Fulham 219 114,780
Islington 99 19,800
Kensington and Chelsea 505 256,270
Lambeth 801 341,632
Lewisham 388 139,882
Southwark 1 500
Tower Hamlets 439 133,100
Wandsworth 269 126,743
City of Westminster 239 96,600
Barking and Dagenham 129 52,358
Bexley 3 1,440
Bromley 256 129,046
Croydon 55 24,515
Enfield 267 125,819
Havering 32 16,902
Hounslow 131 62,972
Merton 47 20,550
Newham 65 14,100
Redbridge 52 21,619
Waltham Forest 703 246,287
Birmingham 457 110,505
Coventry 220 33,487
Walsall 174 81,457
Knowsley 326 80,984
Liverpool 1,724 545,618
St. Helens 69 32,778
Sefton 321 72,414
Wirral 460 153,554
Bury 9 2,800
Manchester 133 19,883
Oldham 124 58,156
Tamside 23 7,620
Wigan 170 80,835
Doncaster 128 43,647
Rotherham 166 92,949
Sheffield 121 11,838
Calderdale 337 65,963
Kirklees 435 293,717
Leeds 773 445,805
Wakefield 64 11,196
Gateshead 185 117,225
Newcastle upon Tyne 406 278,837
North Tyneside 90 24,435
South Tyneside 28 20,440
Sunderland 161 73,265
Clwyd 124 8,820
Dyfed 417 106,797
Gwent 704 404,279
Gwynedd 88 22,440
Mid-Glamorgan 857 243,726
Powys 79 24,024
South Glamorgan 360 72,000
West Glamorgan 67 19,890
Avon 514 163,668
Bedfordshire 93 21,340
Berkshire 188 127,260
Buckinghamshire 273 142,950
Cambridgeshire 910 111,936
Cheshire 614 298,821
Cleveland 66 31,417
Cornwall 402 130,328
Cumbria 226 79,976
Derbyshire 380 135,919
Devon 1,164 576,973
Dorset 1,232 288,254
Educational maintenance allowances paid by local education authorities
England and Wales 1: academic year 1994–95
Number of EMAs Total expenditure on EMAs
Durham 1,185 548,639
East Sussex 214 89,637
Essex 396 232,832
Gloucestershire 112 48,290
Hampshire 15 8,426
Hereford and Worcester 907 345,422
Hertfordshire 215 93,027
Humberside 304 177,723
Kent 686 149,138
Lancashire 65S 368,309
Lincolnshire 124 36,770
Norfolk 17 1,290
Northamptonshire 316 147,399
Nottinghamshire 728 429,077
Shropshire 161 77,220
Somerset 74 23,530
Staffordshire 203 82,833
Suffolk 127 50,996
Surrey 824 197,868
West Sussex 229 92,427
Wiltshire 1,577 392,238
Total all Leas2 34,554 12,191,668

Source:

F503G.

Notes:

1 Made by Local Education Authorities in England and Wales to students normally domiciled in their area.

2 National totals have been grossed to compensate for incomplete returns.

This information is derived from returns made by local education authorities to the Department; the fact that there is no entry for some LEAs does not necessarily mean that they paid no allowances. We have no information about the practice of authorities in making these allowances, which are discretionary awards. It is for individual LEAs to decide whether to pay education maintenance allowances and they are responsible for setting the conditions under which such allowances are paid, the level at which they are paid and the timing of payments.

Mr. Madden

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what assessment she has made of the(a) gross and (b) net expenditure cost of the introduction nationally of a means-tested education maintenance allowance; how such an allowance would be paid; to whom it would be paid; and if such allowances are taxable. [36776]

Mr. Squire

No such assessment has been made by the Department.