§ Mr. SpearingTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment, pursuant to the oral statement by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Employment of 28 January,Official Report, columns 191–92, concerning the reduction of the number of surplus places in maintained schools (a) what was the reduction in numbers over the last 10 years and (b) what is the arithmetical basis used to calculate future reductions. [14089]
§ Mr. Robin SquireInformation on a comparable basis on the number of surplus places was collected for the first time in 1994. Between January 1994 and January 1996, there was a reduction of just under 201,000 in the number of surplus places in maintained schools. A reduction of about half in the level of surplus places over the past 10 years is derived from the comparison with estimated figures recorded in Audit Commission reports in the mid-1980s and early 1990s. We do not seek to calculate future reductions precisely. The annual surplus place return asks authorities to provide projections of future pupil numbers—four years hence in the case of primary, and seven years in the case of secondary—and to comment on expected changes, both additions and reductions, to the capacity of schools. On the basis of that broad indication of the likely future position, we consult authorities which will apparently continue to have high levels of surplus about the extent to which any of that surplus is in practice removable.