§ Mr. HansonTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how much has been allocated to each local education authority to(a) improve school security and (b) meet the recommendations of the Government working party on school security. [1493]
§ Mr. Robin SquireThe Government have accepted all the recommendations of the working group on school security, including for provision of substantial additional funding to improve school security through the grants for education support and training—GEST—programme from 1997–98. The grant will be distributed according to the number of pupils and the number of schools in each authority. Local education authorities will be informed in December of their allocations for the coming financial year.
278WThis new specific grant will be in addition to the funding already available to local education authorities generally for capital and current spending on schools. That will continue to allow for expenditure on school security.