§ Baroness Blatchasked Her Majesty's Government:
How much each LEA in England is receiving, or will receive, from government sources in (a) 1998–99 and (b) 1999–2000 in aggregate revenue grants for school-related purposes, excluding revenue support g rant, specifying the amount received from each funding source; and whether such amounts are included in that authority's Local Schools Budget or Individual Schools Budget. [HL3689]
§ The Minister of State, Department for Education and Employment (Baroness Blackstone)Details of revenue grants for school-related purposes, excluding school revenue support grant, received by each local education authority in England for 1998–99 and 1999–2000 are given in tables that have been placed in the Library. For the Standards Fund the figures include the Government's contribution only. In general, expenditure supported by specific grants falls within an authority's Local Schools Budget (LSB) if it relates to primary or secondary education. Capital expenditure, however, is excluded from the LSB, as is recurrent expenditure on nursery school and non-school provision for under five's. Under the Financing of Maintained Schools Regulations 1999, specific grant-supported expenditure may be deducted by an LEA from its LSB in arriving at the amount to be delegated to schools through the Individual Schools Budget (ISB); authorities may, however, delegate specific grant funding via the ISB if this is compatible with the conditions attaching to the grant in question. Under the Local Management of School (LMS) legislation in force in 1998–99, delegation via the Aggregated Schools Budget was prohibited in the case of most specific grants, and capital expenditure fell within the General Schools Budget. The comparative table of local education authority expenditure published by the Department for Education and Employment on 24 June showed what percentage of each authority's Local Schools Budget is being delegated to schools in 1999–2000. For this purpose, delegated funding comprised the Individual Schools Budget, together with that part of the Standards Fund programme each authority is devolving to its schools.