asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if she will make a statement on her Department's policy regarding the future role of the Workers' Educational Association.

I value the contribution the WEA makes as a voluntary body to adult education but share the hope expressed by my predecessor in November 1975 that its energies should be directed more towards the priority areas of education for the socially and culturally deprived; work in an industrial context; and education in the nature and functioning of our social and political system. The WEA has now responded to the invitation to review its role on these lines and, in the light of this, the future pattern of grant for the association is under consideration.