HC Deb 04 March 1997 vol 291 cc555-6W
Mr. Gordon Prentice

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many students residing in Lancashire receive their education under the assisted places scheme in schools(a) located in each of the district council areas of Lancashire and (b) in other local education authority areas; and if she will list those areas. [18387]

Mrs. Gillan

Information about the district council area or the local education authority area from which assisted pupils originate is not collected centrally.

Mrs. Dunwoody

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many successful applicants there were under the assisted places scheme in(a) Crewe and Nantwich and (b) Cheshire indicating the total value of the payments made in the last three years for which figures are available. [18642]

Mrs. Gillan

No schools in the Crewe and Nantwich constituency were successful in joining the assisted places scheme. Abbey Gate college, Chester and the Grange school, Northwich joined the scheme in September 1996 and Beech Hall preparatory school, Macclesfield has been successful in its bid for participation from September 1997. Four other schools in Cheshire—King's school, Chester; King's school, Macclesfield; Mount Carmel school; and Queen's school, Chester—were already participating before 1996.

The total amount spent on the scheme at the existing four participating schools in Cheshire in the academic years 1993–94 to 1995–96, the latest year for which information is complete, is given in the following table:

Assisted places scheme: Cheshire schools
Academic Year 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96
Pupils £000s Pupils £000s Pupils £000s
King's School, Chester 95 220 89 212 87 234
King's School, Macclesfield 173 553 179 619 193 670
Mount Carmel School 25 74 30 94 35 109

Assisted places scheme: Cheshire schools
Academic Year 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96
Pupils £000s Pupils £000s Pupils £000s
Queen's School, Chester 63 135 58 136 58 152
Total 972 1,061 1,165
Information is not collected centrally on the place of residence of assisted pupils. Participating schools generally draw from a wide catchment area.