Fifth Standing Committee on Delegated Legislation
Tuesday 11 May 1999
[Mr. George Stevenson in the Chair]
Education (Budget Statements and Supplementary Provisions) Regulations 1999
4.30 pm
Mrs. Theresa May (Maidenhead): I beg to move.
That the Committee has considered the Education (Budget
Statements and Supplementary Provisions) Regulations 1999
(S.I. 1999, No. 486).
It is a pleasure to serve on a Committee under your
chairmanship, Mr. Stevenson. I believe that it is the first
time that I have done so.
The regulations are the result of provisions in the
School Standards and Framework Act 1988 that require
local education authorities before the start of the financial
year to prepare a budget statement and to make the
information in that budget statement available to certain
parties. The Act provides for the Secretary of State to
introduce regulations to specify to whom and how that
budget statement should be made available. Although the
requirement is reiterated in regulation 8, the Act provides
that a copy of the budget statement should be sent to
the governing body and head teacher of every school in
the local education authority area. The regulations specify
that the budget statement shall be supplied to the
Secretary of State in certain forms and that a copy should
be made available at the offices of the local education
authority so that parents and others who wish to refer to
it can do so.
I have no problem with the concept of ensuring that
information in available to parents, teachers and
governors about what local authorities are doing with their
education budget, how much of the overall education
budget is being spent on schools and how much is being
delegated to schools to use as they wish. It is necessary
to make information available to parents and others, and
accountability is important so that parents, teachers and
governors can see what local education authorities are
doing.
However, I am worried about the proposals described
in the regulations. Accountability is aided by clarity and
simplification. It is important for parents, teachers and
governors to know how much their council spends on
local schools. The regulations specify that there should be
four parts to such budget statements, which take up
21 pages of tables and notes. Even those 21 pages do not
specify everything that someone must know to interpret
the figures. For example, in 1.2.1.1, on page 6, under the
heading "Notes to part 1" and the sub-heading "Strategic
Management" , in relation to a particular row of the table,
the regulations state:
"Enter here all planned expenditure deducted in accordance with
paragraph 25 except sub-paragraph (k) and paragraphs 27, 32 and
37 of Schedule 1 and any other expenditure falling within paragraph
25(e) to (g) of that Schedule."
Mr. Phil Willis (Harrogate and Knaresborough):
Quite simple.
Mrs. May: I am glad that the hon. Gentleman thinks
that it is quite simple. I look forward to his explaining
exactly what it means.
When I look through all 21 pages of notes and tables,
I could not find any references to paragraph 25,
sub-paragraph (k), paragraphs 27, 32 and 37 of schedule 1
or paragraphs (25)(e) to (g) of that schedule. Presumably,
therefore, anyone who wants to understand what that row
of the table means must read not only the notes to the
tables but further documents.
The impression is given that, although the intention is
claimed to be ensuring that parents and others have access
to information about what the local education authority is
doing in budgetary terms, there is a danger that the
regulations are so complicated that they will obscure the
truth about spending on schools.
People must be able to see what their LEA is spending
on schools, and parents, governors and teachers in
particular need a clear statement of expenditure. Some
people will wish to look at detailed figures and they
should be available, but I hope that the Government will
ask LEAs to consider making such a simplified statement
on expenditure available to parents, governors and
teachers.
Simplified statements would set out the amount of
money allocated to the LEA in the standard spending
assessment for education the amount that the authority
has chosen to put into its education budget for schools
and the amount spent at school level. In other words, it is
not the amount held back by the LEA but the amount that
schools get in their hands to spend on the education of
children in the classroom. It is important that those
simple, clear figures are available so that the LEA is
accountable and can be questioned by parents and others
on the budget that it has set and on what it is doing in
regard to schools.
The information required by the regulations should also
be given to schools and to those involved in education in
good time. Although the 1998 Act provides that that
should occur prior to the start of the financial year, look
as I may, I find no reference in the regulations to a final
date for setting out the information to those who require
it. Obviously, schools also need that information as soon
as possible so that they can consider what is to be
provided in part 4 of the budget statement, under
schedule 4. They would then be able to examine their
position relative to the authority as a whole.
Before the start of this financial year, some schools
found that their LEA was unable to set indicative budgets
until a late stage because the Government had not decided
how much money was to be allocated to LEAs,
particularly in regard to the standards fund. The fund is
one of the items on the form of part 1 of a budget
statement as set out in schedule 1. Information needs to
be made available as soon as possible to schools, so that
they can make planning and strategic decisions about their
budgets for the following year, but also to those in the
locality about the decisions taken by the LEA. It does not
need to be complicated information that appears to
obscure the truth on what is happening on spending in
schools. Too much money is held at the centre by the
Government and is not being passed down to LEAs and
schools. In their turn, too many LEAs are not passing
down money to schools.
While I agree with the concept of making that
information available to parents, governors and teachers,
I hope that the Government will ensure that it is provided
in a readily accessible and simple form for those people
who do not want to go into the intricate detail set out in
the 21 pages of tables and notes before us. People could
then see immediately what the Government think the LEA
should spend, how much it is spending on schools and
how much is being passed to the schools themselves. I
fear that the regulations are too complicated and that the
Government need to look again at ensuring clear
information is available to those who are interested.
4.39 pm
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Employment (Mr. Charles Clarke): I share the hon. Lady's pleasure at being under you
chairmanship, Mr. Stevenson.
I am glad that the hon. Member for Maidenhead
(Mrs. May) has no problem with the concept of ensuring
transparency and accountability by making information
available about every school and every local education
authority in the country. It is a shame that the previous
Government, who had no problem with the concept, did
not put it into practice, which is what we are trying to do.
The hon. Lady asked to whom the information will be
made available. That is set out clearly in regulations 5
and 8. Regulation 5 provides that a copy should go to the
Secretary of State, and that a copy is made available for
"parents and other persons at all reasonable times and without
charge at each education office of the authority."
Regulation 8 provides that the authority
"shall furnish the governing body and head teacher of each school
maintained by them with a copy of Parts 1, 2 and 3 of the budget
statement".
That is a substantial coverage. The information will be
widely available.
The hon. Lady also asked when the information would
be made available. Regulation 7(1) states categorically
that
"a budget statement shall be published before the beginning of
the financial year to which it relates."
That will normally be before March 31, which is the end
of the previous financial year. That is in good time. The
hon. Lady spoke also about the need for the LEA to make
information, including about the standards fund, available
to schools during March or well before then. Those points
were well made, and the Government will take steps to
ensure that that happens. The regulations make it
absolutely clear that a budget statement will be published
before the beginning of the financial year to which it
relates. That is clear and unequivocal, as required by the
Act and as would be required by anyone with an interest
in what is happening.
The hon. Lady then asked a series of questions about
the clarity of the information. Before responding I shall
make a general comment. In preparing the format and
content of the statements, the Department was advised by
a technical working group comprising representatives of
LEAs, the grant-maintained sector, the Funding Agency
for Schools, the Audit Commission, the Chartered
Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy and various
other interested organisations. Many of those expert
bodies are deeply committed, in practice and in theory, to
making such information available clearly and
transparently.
On page 10 of the regulations, in schedule 2, we have
printed what I hope the hon. Lady will concede is a simple
form. For each LEA, and for every school in the area, it
sets out the amount of money available to that school,
the formula budget, the national special educational needs
budget and the budget share per school and per pupil.
From that straightforward form, anyone can see how
much money is available for each school, how that
compares with other schools in the locality and whether
the budgets are fair.
I understand what the hon. Lady said about long notes
on schedules it is a perfectly legitimate debating point
but we want to allow information on LEAs to be
comparable. We also want the information to be computer
compatible, so that we can analyse it. It is therefore
important to specify the precise form of the data to be
rendered by the LEA and the schools.
If the specification for collating that information was
not clear, the hon. Lady would be the first to
complain rightly so that it could be susceptible to
misinterpretation. That is why we established the
technical working group; we wanted to ensure that
the information would be comparable. The charge that
the information is not clear is refuted by reference to the
table in schedule 2 to the regulations; and the charge that
the appendices are complicated is refuted by the fact that
we want to ensure that the information is comparable
between all LEAs. If we do not specify detail and
precision, many people might try to present data in ways
that would hide what was going on. Our intention is to
ensure that the information is transparent and available.
Regulation 4 sets out the three key items of information
that we will require to be published. Part 1 of the budget
statement will be the authority's planned expenditure for
the financial year, in which all the data to which the hon.
Lady referred will be published so that everyone can be
sure about the state of affairs. It will show what is going
on in detail, how much money has been held back and
how much has gone to schools. It is fair to say that this
will be the first time that such quality of information will
be published, and I am glad that we can honour the
concept for which the hon. Lady is looking by doing it.
Part 2 will be the planned expenditure for each school,
so the information that the hon. Lady is looking for will
be present. Part 3 is the authority's allocation formula. I
acknowledge to the hon. Lady, whose numeracy is
excellent, unlike that of some of her hon. Friends, that
some of the issues around the allocation formula are
complicated as authorities work out on exactly which
basis they allocate money to which schools. We think that
it is important, and I hope that the hon. Lady agrees, that
information on the criteria and co-efficients of the
allocation between schools should be in the public domain
so that people can understand the situation. That is why
we asked for that to be specified. We could have
simplified matters by leaving out part 3 altogether. It is a
complicated piece of information; perhaps she would have
preferred it to have not been in the public domain, but it
is pretty important that it is, like all the other
information present.
I was delighted that the hon. Lady had no problem with
the concepts of transparency and accountability, and that
the Government have been able to introduce in the
regulations the practicality of that concept. Every
interested person every governor, head teacher, parent
and citizen can know what is being spent on local
schools and can draw appropriate conclusions. That is yet
another indication of our commitment to open government
in a way that ensures that all information is available to
those who are interested. I hope that, when it comes to it,
the hon. Lady will give her support to the regulations,
which put that principle into practice.
4.47 pm
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