HC Deb 06 November 2002 vol 392 c400W
Mrs. Calton

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, how many letters were received in support of Option 5 from(a) constituents and (b) schools in the F40 authorities. [79440]

Mr. Leslie

I have been asked to reply.

The Government have received around 55,000 letters responding to the Formula Grant Review. The majority, around 53,000, are part of the campaign run by the F40 group of authorities, who have asked for a further option to be developed for education funding. However, we do not record the details of the senders of campaign letters as a matter of course. For this reason, and since very many of those 53,000 letters are multiple copies of the same letter sent by the same people to different Ministers, it is not possible to provide a more detailed analysis except at disproportionate cost.

We are currently taking decisions on the new system to replace SSAs. As we do so we are carefully considering the full range of evidence, pressures and points that have been put to us.