HC Deb 22 June 2000 vol 352 cc269-71W
Mr. Clappison

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list(a) the education authorities which did not accept Standards Fund grants available through the provision of matching funding in each of the last two years and (b) the amount of grant involved in each case; and how the undistributed funds were used. [126319]

Ms Estelle Morris

The tables show the sums initially surrendered for the main Standards Fund programme. We cannot separately identify where this was due to difficulty in finding match funding. Most authorities accepted allocations in full in both years. The requirement for authorities to contribute to the 2000–01 Standards Fund of over £1.6 billion supported expenditure was allowed for in the 5.4 per cent. increase in education Standard Spending Assessment for 2000–01. Surrendered sums are re-used in full for supporting education priorities, mainly within the Standards Fund programme.

77 requires a local authority, or the governing body of a maintained school, to obtain the Secretary of State's consent before disposing, or changing the use, of any school playing field. Local authorities are aware of the tough criteria against which their applications are considered and only put forward those applications they are confident will meet the criteria. The table shows the requested information.

Standards Fund
£
Local education authority Initial DfEE grant
2000–01 surrendered allocations
302 Barnet 1,972,471
370 Barnsley 183,866
820 Bedfordshire 365,107
867 Bracknell Forest 50,000
304 Brent 1,084,292
846 Brighton and Hove 114,685
305 Bromley 56,666
351 Bury 200,256
875 Cheshire 1,379,056
801 City of Bristol 473,857
909 Cumbria 469,808
841 Darlington 36,739
878 Devon 1,284,058
835 Dorset 79,418
332 Dudley 66,178
840 Durham 167,038
811 East Riding of Yorkshire 73,411
308 Enfield 200,610
916 Gloucestershire 163,112
850 Hampshire 303,731
207 Kensington and Chelsea 319,145

Standards Fund
£
Local education authority Initial DfEE grant
810 Kingston-upon-Hull 24,500
314 Kingston upon Thames 169,515
856 Leicester 424,956
855 Leicestershire 325,750
821 Luton 37,571
315 Merton 40,055
806 Middlesbrough 150,216
391 Newcastle upon Tyne 700,740
926 Norfolk 120,006
802 North Somerset 43,118
928 Northamptonshire 755,049
929 Northumberland 1,407,923
892 Nottingham City 78,910
891 Nottinghamshire 637,089
353 Oldham 100,000
874 Peterborough 270,035
879 Plymouth 127,434
870 Reading 85,832
807 Redcar and Cleveland 41,956
354 Rochdale 274,135
857 Rutland 201,567
333 Sandwell 1,252,750
343 Sefton 15,319
893 Shropshire 424,384
393 South Tyneside 36,740
342 St. Helens 303,158
356 Stockport 52,500
935 Suffolk 390,455
936 Surrey 245,527
880 Torbay 59,090
358 Trafford 128,804
937 Warwickshire 50,000
869 West Berkshire 250,000
359 Wigan 214,004
865 Wiltshire 145,555
872 Wokingham 95,000
816 York 6,790
Total 18,729,923

Standards Fund
£
Local education authority DfEE grant
1999–2000 surrendered allocations
Barnsley 6,000
Brent 476,538
Coventry 101,580
Devon 47,260
East Riding of Yorkshire 87,750
Greenwich 25,000
Hillingdon 48,450
Manchester 18,750
Newcastle 31,792
North Lincolnshire 18,705
North Somerset 32,831
Northumberland 19,689
Richmond on Thames 20,000
Salford 16,004
Solihull 10,000
Southampton 34,000
South Tyneside 9,000
Suffolk 374,665
Trafford 20,000
Wandsworth 14,644
Warrington 5,500
Total 1,418,156

Notes:

1. Adjustments to 2000–01 are continuing. Once complete, they will result in reductions to the total allocations initially surrendered.

2. Reasons given for the surrender by authorities include claim of difficulty with matching funding.