Did you mean esa?
Mr Kenneth Baker: That is an absurd statement, and the hon. Gentleman knows it. One has to add to the cost of the national curriculum not only the £65 million in the Education Reform Bill, but the ESG money of £75 million, the local training grants for teachers of £60 million or £70 million and also, on the basis that he uses, the cost of running primary and secondary schools. The trouble with the hon....
Mr Chris Patten: ...as considerable as some people occasionally suggest or would like them to be. Within the statutory powers given to us by the House we can spend only a ½ per cent. of the total LEA budget through ESG. That amounts to about £53 million a year. There is not all that much elbow room in that amount when one takes account of the programmes to which we are already committed. The £20 million...
Mr Chris Patten: ...pupils remaining on the premises at midday, but some may wish to make additional provision. That will be their choice in the light of the staffing of their schools. Authorities will be able to use ESG money for the supervision of pupils in nursery schools if they think it right to do so. If they decide to offer separate contracts, there is no reason why those contracts should be treated...
Mr Clement Freud: ...the Minister said that the money came from sums additional to our existing plans for educational spending. I accept that the Government will pay for some of the supervision under the formula for ESG, but I do not accept that that means that £40 million should be clawed back from the £1·25 billion, because, as I understand it, that is the total to be spent and includes the LEA element....
Mr Chris Patten: ...hon. Gentleman will accept that. The hon. Gentleman also referred to the education support grant. I am afraid that, unusually, he was slightly selective in his quotation. One of the purposes of ESG when it was introduced was to help LEAs to respond swiftly to new demands on the education service".—[Official Report, 14 November 1983; Vol. 48, c. 630.] That is what the Secretary of State...
Mr Bob Dunn: I listened carefully to the hon. Member for Cambridgeshire, North-East. I was not persuaded by his argument that net expenditure by authorities on projects supported by ESGs should be disregarded when targets are calculated. However, his speech was thoughtful and I shall consider it again and derive from it what I can.
Mr Bob Dunn: ...intended to provide general financial support for any part of a local education authority's expenditure. As the House knows, that is the purpose of the block grant. Expenditure in support of which ESGs can be paid is deliberately limited to a small proportion of total local authority expenditure. The purpose of the grants is to encourage the redeployment of expenditure at the margin in...
Mr Bob Dunn: ...of education support grant for particular activities or parts of the education service. I welcome this opportunity to describe the Government's achievements and policies in connection with the ESG. However, it would be unfair if I did not comment in general on the effect of the two new clauses before the House and the two that are to follow. They would mean, if enacted, that 80 per cent....
Mr Bob Dunn: ...of grant paid will depend on the level of grant awarded for each activity. But even if expenditure were supported to its limits and grant was paid at 70 per cent., the amount of grant paid through ESGs would have been only about £32 million in 1983–4. In 1983–84, specific grants paid to local authorities for various purposes totalled approximately £2·4 billion. Education accounts...
Mr Chris Price: ...is all right and that there is nothing to worry about. It is important to put that on the record, because if we have ministerial statements of that sort, there is no point going through the ESG(E) cycle each year to determine the quality and standard of education. All hon. Members believe that we should have good standards of education. Ministers have put those standards in jeopardy in...
Mr Neil Macfarlane: .... Some hon. Members referred to the report on the effects on education services in England of local authority expenditure policies in 1980–81. The draft of the document was sent to the ESGE at the end of last week for its comments and at the same time, consistent with the undertaking given by my right hon. and learned Friend, copies were made available to the Select Committee on...
