§ Mr. Ian BruceTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how much Dorset County Council spent on education relative to the Government's standard spending assessment level in 1997–98; and if he will revise the standard spending assessment to reflect this. [54499]
§ Ms Estelle MorrisDorset's financial returns indicate that it spent some £14.5 million (12.4 per cent.) above the level of its education SSA in 1997–98. We are reviewing the education SSA formula to make it fairer for 1999–2000, but it would be wrong to use individual LEA patterns of spending directly in the formula, since they are not independent of local authority policies.