HC Deb 28 April 2003 vol 404 cc159-60W
Mr. Beggs

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much of the £1.4 billion recently awarded to primary schools in Northern Ireland was allocated to(a) each board, (b) the Council for Curriculum Examinations and Assessment, (c) the Catholic Council of Maintained Schools, (d) the RTU and (e) elsewhere; and whether each Education and Library Board retains the same percentage of allocated funds for administration costs. [109115]

Jane Kennedy

The Department of Education's 2003–04 resource budget for school-related expenditure amounts to some £1,485 million, of which £992.8 million has to date been allocated to the Education and Library Boards for recurrent costs. The specific information requested is as follows:

(a) Allocations to individual Boards, and the amounts allocated by Boards in respect of primary schools:

£ million
Schools Of which:

Primary schools

BELB 171.887 59.765
NEELB 211.669 76.692
SEELB 194.588 77.839
SELB 226.899 86.807
WELB 187.769 72.038
Total 992.812 373.141

Resource allocation to CCEA: £11.672 million

Resource allocation to CCMS: £2.384 million

Resource allocation for RTU: £2.331 million (included in BELB allocation at (a) above).

Elsewhere: some £478 million, not all yet allocated.

The percentage of Education and Library Board recurrent budgets which relates to Headquarters Administration varies across individual Boards, principally because of the incidence of five-Board and lead Board services provided by individual Boards. The overall percentage of Department of Education funded Board budgets expended on HQ Administration costs has dropped in each of the last four financial years. Excluding provision for five-Board and lead Board services, the latest available information is as follows (percentage of recurrent budget spent on Headquarters Administration):

Percentage
Financial year 2002–03
BELB 2.42
NEELB 2.11
SEELB 1.79
SELB 1.78
WELB 1.97
Total 2.0