asked the President of the Board of Education the addi- tional expenditure involved in the programmes submitted to him by the local education authorities for each of the years 1930–31, 1931–32 and 1932–33; the total number of education authorities to whom this estimate refers; how much of this expenditure has been sanctioned by him; and if the expenditure for the two latter years includes the cost involved in the proposed raising of the school age, apart from the provision of maintenance allowances?

Two hundred and eighteen local education authorities have submitted programmes which include estimates of the expenditure to be incurred on elementary education for the three years 1930–33, as follow:

Increases contemplated in the programmes—
1930–31 over 1929–30.	1931–32 over 1930–31.	1932–33 over 1931–32.
£	£	£
2,444,751	2,931,205	2,334,229

The question of sanctioning this expenditure arises as and when individual proposals are submitted for approval, and it is too early yet to say how nearly the estimates even for 1930–31 will be realised. Generally speaking, the programmes for the last two years are drawn so as to make provision for the proposed raising of the school leaving age.