asked the Secretary of State for Scotland what steps he is taking to ensure adequate school accommodation in the Burgh of Clydebank.

Responsibility for ensuring adequate school accommodation rests primarily with the education authority. In its programme for the next three years Dunbartonshire has included three new schools and the replacement or extension of four others in Clydebank.

Is the noble Lady aware that the programme for the County of Dunbarton for 1964–65 represents a serious reduction on what the County needs? Is she aware that the education authority has demanded a far higher rate of building than the Department in Edinburgh is prepared to concede to it? Will she take into consideration the fact that the Development Department in Edinburgh is encouraging the new town of Cumbernauld and the burghs to expand and develop while, at the same time, the Education Department is cutting down the school building programme? Is she aware that this is leading, particularly in Clydebank, to a shortage of school accommodation which will remain for the next three years?

The authority was given a provisional allocation of £1·1 million for starts in 1964–65 last October. The authority has drawn up a realistic programme of school building and there will be final adjustments made in March.