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Primary School Class Sizes

Mr. Home Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what are the average, maximum and minimum class sizes in primary 1 to primary 7 in each local education authority area in Scotland. [594]

Mr. Wilson: The information requested is as follows.

2 Jun 1997 : Column: 67

Class size average, minimum and maximum for P1-P3 by Education Authority, 1995 Publicly funded primary schools Single and 2 stage classes (2 stage classes are included with the lower stage)

	P1			P2			P3
Education authority	Average	Minimum	Maximum	Average	Minimum	Maximum	Average	Minimum	Maximum
Aberdeen City	25.6	16	33	25.6	16	33	26.5	20	33
Aberdeenshire	23.7	8	32	24.7	5	32	24.4	8	33
Angus	22.7	4	32	25.0	9	32	26.0	8	35
Argyll and Bute	21.4	7	32	24.7	14	33	23.5	11	33
Scottish Borders	23.6	16	34	25.5	2	32	23.8	5	32
Clackmannanshire	25.3	14	33	25.7	17	33	26.9	21	32
Dumfries and Galloway	23.7	12	33	25.3	16	33	24.5	15	33
Dundee City	25.5	10	33	25.9	20	33	26.56	10	33
East Ayrshire	23.7	10	33	25.9	17	33	25.9	16	33
East Dunbartonshire	24.6	16	33	27.2	19	33	26.6	18	33
East Lothian	24.1	8	32	25.4	3	32	25.8	18	31
East Renfrewshire	25.8	18	33	28.6	17	33	27.7	16	33
Edinburgh, City of	26.2	14	33	26.7	10	33	27.6	17	33
Falkirk	25.8	16	33	26.0	3	33	27.1	19	33
Fife	24.3	14	32	25.4	16	33	26.2	11	33
Glasgow, City of	23.9	5	33	24.8	6	34	25.1	5	33
Highland	22.1	1	33	23.2	3	33	22.8	1	32
Inverclyde	25.9	17	33	25.0	16	33	24.4	1	33
Midlothian	24.1	11	33	24.9	6	32	26.0	15	33
Moray	23.7	11	33	24.8	15	32	26.0	16	33
North Ayrshire	24.4	12	33	24.5	16	33	26.3	16	33
North Lanarkshire	23.3	6	33	24.4	6	33	25.0	14	33
Orkney Islands	19.8	8	29	23.4	16	28	19.7	12	27
Perth and Kinross	24.0	9	34	25.1	13	33	25.7	16	33
Renfrewshire	25.3	18	34	26.2	14	34	25.5	13	33
Shetland Islands	18.1	11	29	20.0	8	26	19.6	9	31
South Ayrshire	24.7	12	33	25.6	16	33	26.4	17	33
South Lanarkshire	24.2	10	33	25.7	15	33	25.7	10	33
Stirling	23.3	11	33	24.0	7	33	25.0	11	33
West Dunbartonshire	25.3	16	33	25.2	16	32	25.8	19	34
West Lothian	23.0	5	33	25.8	14	33	25.5	6	33
Western Isles	14.9	2	24	23.3	17	28	18.6	4	31

2 Jun 1997 : Column: 69

2 Jun 1997 : Column: 69

2 Jun 1997 : Column: 70

Class size average, minimum and maximum for P4-P7 Education Authority, 1995 Publicly funded primary schools Single and 2 stage classes (2 stage classes are included with the lower stage)

	P4			P5			P6			P7
Education authority	Average	Minimum	Maximum	Average	Minimum	Maximum	Average	Minimum	Maximum	Average	Minimum	Maximum
Aberdeen City	26.9	18	33	26.6	18	33	26.0	15	33	26.6	13	33
Aberdeenshire	25.6	10	33	26.2	15	33	24.9	7	33	26.4	17	33
Angus	26.2	6	33	26.4	6	33	23.6	1	34	28.6	21	33
Argyll and Bute	24.0	8	33	25.1	19	34	22.4	10	33	24.7	9	33
Scottish Borders	23.3	4	33	24.2	4	33	24.5	3	32	23.4	4	32
Clackmannanshire	28.3	18	33	26.0	20	33	25.3	17	33	25.5	18	33
Dumfries and Galloway	25.5	14	33	26.1	13	33	24.7	13	33	27.5	15	33
Dundee City	26.5	14	33	26.4	8	33	26.7	13	34	27.3	18	34
East Ayrshire	26.0	17	33	25.3	13	33	25.2	14	33	26.0	11	33
East Dunbartonshire	26.7	17	33	27.3	20	33	26.9	16	33	27.5	17	33
East Lothian	26.0	9	33	26.8	20	33	26.1	14	33	26.6	20	33
East Renfrewshire	27.5	18	33	26.3	12	33	27.3	12	33	28.7	16	33
Edinburgh, City of	27.7	14	33	27.5	17	33	26.4	15	33	25.4	15	33
Falkirk	26.8	17	33	26.0	10	33	25.9	18	33	26.0	12	33
Fife	25.9	6	33	25.8	10	33	25.4	5	33	26.2	13	33
Glasgow, City of	25.3	5	33	24.9	11	33	24.8	9	33	24.4	13	33
Highland	23.4	1	33	23.4	1	33	22.2	1	34	25.5	1	34
Inverclyde	25.8	20	34	24.7	13	33	24.7	18	32	25.6	15	33
Midlothian	25.4	17	33	27.1	21	33	26.6	15	33	27.1	19	33
Moray	25.7	10	32	25.8	16	32	24.9	17	33	25.5	17	33
North Ayrshire	26.0	18	33	25.9	16	33	25.8	15	33	25.9	9	33
North Lanarkshire	25.1	7	33	24.7	7	33	25.2	8	33	25.3	10	33
Orkney Islands	23.1	15	29	20.6	1	27	21.2	12	30	21.6	11	33
Perth and Kinross	25.9	13	34	24.6	17	33	24.3	13	32	24.2	12	33
Renfrewshire	26.7	18	33	27.2	15	33	26.7	17	33	27.3	1	33
Shetland Islands	20.5	16	29	19.9	13	29	19.0	10	27	19.8	11	29
South Ayrshire	26.6	16	33	26.8	10	33	25.6	11	33	26.8	12	33
South Lanarkshire	25.4	7	33	26.2	12	33	25.2	12	33	26.8	16	34
Stirling	25.1	14	33	24.2	7	32	24.0	8	33	26.3	14	33
West Dunbartonshire	26.4	21	33	26.3	16	34	25.0	17	31	26.3	18	33
West Lothian	26.5	12	33	25.9	10	33	25.5	10	33	25.7	13	33
Western Isles	18.4	2	31	22.9	19	29	18.6	1	31	22.0	4	32

2 Jun 1997 : Column: 69

2 Jun 1997 : Column: 71

NHS Treatment Costs

Mr. Forth: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what is the average cost of NHS treatment per patient in Scotland. [650]

Mr. Galbraith: The average cost of acute hospital treatment per patient in the Scottish Health Service in 1996-97 was £850 for an inpatient and day case and £150 for an outpatient.

Education Costs

Mr Forth: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what is the average annual cost of educating (a) a primary pupil and (b) a secondary pupil in Scotland. [646]

Mr. Wilson: Current expenditure per pupil in local authority schools in Scotland in the financial year 1994-95, the latest year for which information is currently available, was £1,797 in the primary sector and £2,874 in the secondary sector.

Feu System

Mr. Canavan: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what plans he has to (a) reform or (b) abolish the feu system. [1065]

Mr. McLeish: The Scottish Law Commission is reviewing this area as part of its Fifth Programme. Once the Commission has reported we will be considering the best way of taking forward the Government's commitment to abolishing the feudal system in the light of that report.

Skye Bridge

Mr. David Stewart: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what was the price paid by the Scottish Office to Mr. Tom Farmer in respect of Eileian Ban in connection with the construction of the Skye bridge. [1202]

Mr. Chisholm: It is normal practice for The Scottish Office to release the purchase price of land acquired for road construction schemes. In this case, however, at the vendor's request, it was agreed that the purchase price of Eilean Ban would not be divulged by the Scottish Office to a third party without the prior consent of the vendor.

Arable Area Payments

Mr. Tipping: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what was the (a) maximum, (b) minimum and (c) average payment made under the arable area payments scheme in 1996-97. [1722]

Mr. Chisholm: Payments which have been made to farmers in Scotland under the 1996 arable area payments scheme area as follows:

(a) Maximum: £414,321 ¹
(b) Minimum £71 ¹
(c) Average £15,389 ^1
1 All figures are to the nearest pound.

2 Jun 1997 : Column: 72

EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT

Ministerial Offices

Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment on what sites other than Sanctuary Buildings the Department plans to build a designated Ministerial Office. [772]

Dr. Howells: The Department has no plans to build any further designated Ministerial Offices.

Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment when work on building the Seventh Ministerial office in Sanctuary Buildings began; and when it was completed. [774]

Dr. Howells: During the Election period the Department took the opportunity to improve Ministerial accommodation in Sanctuary Buildings. Amongst the changes undertaken was the creation of a new Ministerial office to replace one of the existing six offices.

Work to create the seventh Minister's office began immediately following the Election on 2 May and was completed on 5 May.

Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what was the cost of building the seventh Ministerial office in Sanctuary Buildings. [773]

Dr. Howells: £11,086

Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what estimate he has made of the cost of building a designated Ministerial office at the Department's Moorfoot site. [775]

Dr. Howells: £6,600.

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