§ Mr. Peter AinsworthTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment, pursuant to his answer to the right hon. Member for Penrith and The Border (Mr. Maclean) of 22 January 2001,Official Report, columns 439–40W, on school playing fields, what the basis is for his estimate of the number of school playing fields sold in England in every month between 1979 and 1997. [147774]
§ Jacqui Smith[holding answer 29 January 2001]: Public concern about the loss of school playing fields led directly to the introduction in October 1998 of section 77 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998. Before section 77 was introduced, only grant-maintained schools were required to seek consent from the Secretary of State before selling land, including areas of their playing fields. Local authorities and other schools that owned their own playing fields were free to sell without restriction. It is estimated that an average of 40 playing fields a month were sold in this way before October 1998. This estimate is based on the number of playing field disposals at grant-maintained schools between April 1996, when the previous Government further encouraged the disposal of playing fields by relaxing the Local Authority Capital Finance Regulations which governed the use of sale proceeds, and 1 October 1998, when section 77 took effect. During this 30-month period, some 64 grant-maintained schools were given approval to dispose of areas of playing field, which is an average of over two a month. Using the proportion of grant-maintained schools at that time compared with the number of other schools, we estimate the total number of playing field disposals each month to have been around 40. These estimates are in line with answers given previously by the Minister of State, Home Office, my hon. Friend the Member for Norwich, South (Mr. Clarke), when he was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at this Department.