I admire the vigour with which my hon. Friend the Member for Haltem-price (Mr. Wall) has pursued this case over the years. I sympathise very much with his concern for Beverley Grammar School. It has an incredibly long history and it has had excellent results. I confirm straight away that as it is a voluntary-aided school, only the governors may make proposals to change the character of the school. If they do not choose to do so, the school will remain as it is.

The position is—as it has always been in respect of grammar schools—that there is selection. There will continue to be selection. It is right that there is no one method of selection laid down from on high. Selection varies from one part of the country to the other.

It is not necessary to have what I assume my hon. Friend means when he talks about the 11-plus. One does not necessarily have to have that form of selection. It would be fair to point out that the schools of the local authority are held in high regard as, I believe, my hon. Friend acknowledges. It is possible that their success in offering a full range of courses for all shades of ability has had something to do with the fall in the number of people seeking and finding admission to Beverley Grammar School.

It has clearly been my right hon. Friend's policy that parents must have the right to choose, and in this case to choose education at Beverley Grammar School. My hon. Friend has summarised the long and rather tangled history. I shall not cover all the ground again which he covered, except to recap briefly. After my right hon. Friend's latest approval this summer of a comprehensive reorganisation proposal for schools at Beverley and nearby Cottingham, the authority was reminded that it did not remove the right of parents to choose a selective school, such as Beverley Grammar School, if it was suitable for their children and if places were available.

This was done because it had been brought to my right hon. Friend's notice by my hon. Friend and others that the authority had been refusing admission to selection tests to boys living outside the immediate vicinity of the school. The authority was warned that an unreasonable refusal to admit boys to the school could result in a direction under Section 68 of the 1944 Act being given by my right hon. Friend to the authority.

Towards the end of the summer holiday a number of parents complained on these grounds, and other parents whose sons had sat the selection test but failed complained about the conduct of the tests themselves which the authority was responsible for running. My right hon. Friend invited the East Riding Education Authority to give its observations on these complaints and took professional advice on the conduct of the tests. It was in the light of this and of the evidence before her that she concluded that the authority had acted unreasonably. She directed the authority to rerun the tests, to admit to further tests all candidates normally resident in the authority's area whose parents expressed or might express a wish to attend the Beverley Grammar School, and to spread out the tests over a period so as to avoid excessive fatigue in the candidates.

Following the issue of the direction on 24th October, the authority was sent a further explanatory letter enclosing the names and addresses of parents who had appealed to my right hon. Friend so that the authority could notify them of arrangements for further tests. It was pointed out that others might apply for admission to the tests as a result of learning of the direction, and that it was my right hon. Friend's intention that all who did apply within a reasonable period should be allowed to take these further tests.

The authority wrote on 5th November in response to the direction, claiming that the original tests were not unfairly administered and offering new information which again was carefully considered with the benefit of professional advice. In the light of this, my right hon. Friend concluded that there were no grounds for modifying the direction which had been issued.

While the authority's letter was under consideration my hon. Friend, as he will recall, wrote several times bringing to my right hon. Friend's attention further information about the conduct of intelligence tests and about the manner in which the authority was proposing to implement the direction. My officers wrote to the authority on 14th December, after considering the matter very carefully, because I think there were a number of important points to look at, and my officers reiterated the requirements of the direction and reminded the authority that it was not open to it to refuse entry to the tests to any boy solely on the ground that his parents had not previously asked for him to be tested. The letter did not ask the authority to write individually to parents other than those whose addresses had already been forwarded. Nor did it suggest that the tests should be invigilated by one of Her Majesty's inspectors, for reasons to which I will come later.

My hon. Friend has asked a number of reasonable questions. I hope that I have answered one or two of them about the future of the grammar school as a whole. On his further specific points I would say this. First of all, on the question of when the tests can be taken, my hon. Friend asked that they should be taken as soon as possible. At the present stage I must leave this to the authority. My right hon. Friend has made her wishes very clear and it is now for the authority to implement them as soon as possible. The authority has to be allowed adequate time to receive applications for the tests and to make arrangements for them.

In view of the questions raised since the issue of the direction by the authority, by the school governors and by my hon. Friend, and of the requirement that tests be spread over a period, the authority could not have been expected to complete the further tests in time for an additional intake for the school for January, but I should expect the authority to run the tests early in the new year and I can assure my hon. Friend that I am watching the situation very closely.

On the question whether adequate notice was given to parents of their rights, I feel that in the light of the widespread publicity that my right hon. Friend's direction has received in the local and national Press, and, I understand, on local radio, and the publication by local head teachers of resolutions concerning the actions of the authority and of my right hon. Friend, notice of the new tests can hardly have been missed by any parent who is really interested in securing a place at the school. In other words, I feel that it has been well publicised and I should be surprised if there were parents who were not aware of what was happening, and I am sure that this debate will add further publicity.

The authority's failure to do as my hon. Friend has suggested could not be regarded as unreasonable, and my right hon. Friend therefore feels that she would not be justified in giving a further direction in this matter. It has been suggested that she might appoint one of Her Majesty's inspectors to invigilate these further tests. I must emphasise that the local education authority is entirely responsible under the articles of government of the school, which of course are approved by my right hon. Friend, for deciding which candidates are qualified for admission to the school by reason of ability. My right hon. Friend therefore has no power to intervene in the supervision of the tests unless they have been or are clearly going to be improperly administered.

But these are in fact standard tests administered by a standard method and their invigilation as such has never been in question. In practical terms, moreover, invigilation by one of Her Majesty's inspectors would not achieve the result that my hon. Friend desires. He referred earlier to the loss of public confidence in the area, and we feel that the substitution of one of Her Majesty's inspectors for the authority's invigilator could only lower confidence in the authority still further. If the running of the tests leads my right hon. Friend to conclude that the authority has acted unreasonably, she will, of course, consider what appropriate action she should take, but she cannot deduce from the results of the earlier tests that the new tests will be improperly run.

I can assure my hon. Friend that we shall watch this matter closely, but I should like to conclude by saying that we have to remember that education is designed fundamentally as a local authority service. Powers of direction exist under the 1944 Act, but I am sure that my hon. Friend will recognise that they are powers to be taken up only in exceptional circumstances, and we should be reluctant to extend them still further. They are essentially powers to be taken after careful consideration and as a last resort. However, again I assure my hon. Friend that we shall continue to keep a close watch in this matter. I hope that all will go well and that the Beverley Grammar School will continue to serve the community as notably as it has for so many years.