Examination of Witnesses (Questions 218
- 219)
TUESDAY 14 DECEMBER 2004
DCMS, DFES, ODPM
Q218 Chairman: Good morning. I am
not quite sure what the collective noun for ministers is?
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: A gaggle!
Chairman: Whatever it is, you are it!
Thank you very much indeed for coming. We are going to get a lot
of value out of you, I hope. Could I make an apology right at
the beginning? I may have to leave before the end because of the
unfortunate coinciding of these sittings with the business on
the floor of the House. I want to be in the Chamber from the beginning
of the Mental Capacity Bill?
Q219 Ms Shipley: Ministers, the Audit
Commission, when it came in front of us—Minister for Education,
you are going to be particularly interested in this—gave
evidence—and, I am sure you will agree, the Audit Commission
is one of our most accurate repositories for this sort of information—that
the decision was taken by central government to devolve money
to schools to buy back school library services, and we were told
that there was a very uneven pattern of identified expenditure
on school library services in section 52 statements and that schools
are not buying back into school library services even though the
money was there devolved for them to do so. We know that you have
had this raised with you recently, because sitting behind you
are the Museums, Library and Archive Council and the Local Government
Association are putting on record that they have been raising
this with you a lot certainly in the last six months. What progress
have you made on it?
Mr Twigg: My understanding is
that the Audit Commission evidence was not quite right, and we
have had discussions with the Audit Commission since that the
evidence provided by section 52 returns does not necessarily provide
the basis for the conclusion that they then drew. I obviously
accept that the provision is not consistent across the country.
Part of the purpose of delegation is that those decisions are
made by schools at school level.
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