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Written Answers to Questions

Friday 9 February 1990

EDUCATION AND SCIENCE

Blue Coat School, Liverpool

Mr. Alton : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science (1) when he expects to make an announcement on the proposal to turn the Blue Coat school, Liverpool, into a four-term entry school ; (2) when he received the submission to alter the size of the Blue Coat school, Liverpool ; what was the last date for objection ; and what is the average length of time it takes to process an application.

Mr. Alan Howarth : My right hon. Friend will come to a decision on this proposal as quickly as is compatible with a full and careful consideration of all the issues involved.

My right hon. Friend received the governors' submission on 20 July 1989. The period of statutory objection to the proposals ended on 18 September 1989. The current average length of time for the consideration of statutory proposals is about six months.

Nursery Education

Mr. Allen : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will list the 10 authorities which have the highest number of children in nursery education.

Mr. Alan Howarth : In January 1989 the 10 local education authorities which had the highest percentage of children under five in nursery education were as follows :

                      |Number of children   |Per cent. of                               

                      |under five in nursery|estimated 3 and                            

                      |schools and classes  |4-year-old population                      

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hounslow              |3,786                |65                                         

Walsall               |4,148                |58                                         

Wolverhampton         |3,860                |58                                         

Newham                |4,086                |55                                         

Manchester            |7,154                |55                                         

Cleveland             |8,847                |54                                         

North Tyneside        |2,505                |53                                         

Salford               |3,140                |52                                         

South Tyneside        |1,986                |51                                         

Liverpool             |6,190                |49                                         

Teachers' Pay

Dr. Kim Howells : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether the remit he has given to the interim advisory committee regarding the total cost of recommendations on school teachers' pay and allowances has been reflected in the education components of standard spending assessments for 1990-91 ; if he will make a statement on the distribution of the relevant provision between (a) London and south-east England, (b) all other regions of England and (c) Wales ; what amount and proportion of relevant provision has been allocated to each of (a), (b) and (c) above ; and what percentage increase this represents in each case.

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Mr. Alan Howarth : Education standard spending for England for 1990- 91 allows in full for the remit given in September to the interim advisory committee, the English element of which was £563 million. Education standard spending, net of specific grants, is distributed between authorities on the basis of client numbers adjusted by factors which allow for local circumstances. These factors include an area cost adjustment which takes account of differential labour costs as between inner London, outer London, south-eastern counties and the rest of England. The area cost adjustment factors are set out in annex F of the Revenue Support Grant Distribution Report (England). The basis of the standard spending assessment in Wales is a matter for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales.

Schools (Local Management)

Mr. Fatchett : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will list those local education authorities whose schemes for local management of schools have been (a) approved, (b) rejected and (c) upon which no decision has been made.

Mrs. Rumbold : We have announced our approval decisions on all 97 local education authorities' LMS schemes which were submitted last autumn. The following local education authorities have either received formal approval for their schemes or are being consulted on modifications prior to approval for implementation in April 1990 : Avon

Barking and Dagenham

Barnet

Barnsley

Bedfordshire

Berkshire

Bexley

Birmingham

Bolton

Bradford

Brent

Bromley

Buckinghamshire

Bury

Calderdale

Cambridgeshire

Cheshire

Cleveland

Cornwall

Coventry

Cumbria

Derbyshire

Devon

Doncaster

Dorset

Dudley

Durham

Ealing

East Sussex

Enfield

Essex

Gateshead

Gloucestershire

Hampshire

Haringey

Harrow

Havering

Hillingdon

Hounslow

Humberside

Isle of Wight

Kent

Kingston

Kirklees

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Knowsley

Lancashire

Leeds

Lincolnshire

Liverpool

Manchester

Merton

Newcastle

Norfolk

North Tyneside

North Yorkshire

Northamptonshire

Northumberland

Nottinghamshire

Oldham

Oxfordshire

Redbridge

Richmond

Rochdale

Rotherham

Sandwell

Salford

Sefton

Sheffield

Shropshire

Solihull

Somerset

South Tyneside

Staffordshire

St. Helens

Stockport

Suffolk

Sunderland

Surrey

Sutton

Tameside

Trafford

Wakefield

Walsall

Waltham Forest

Warwickshire

West Sussex

Westminster

Wigan

Wiltshire

Wirral

Wolverhampton

LEAs whose schemes cannot be approved in their present form are Croydon, Hereford and Worcester, Hertfordshire, the Isles of Scilly, Leicestershire and Newham.

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