asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what estimate she has made of the number of pupils who will be in maintained schools in (a) the Inner London Education Authority area and (b) each of the outer London boroughs for the years 1980 and 1986, respectively; and how these figures compare with the present totals.

The number of pupils in maintained nursery, primary and secondary schools in the ILEA area and in each of the outer London boroughs at January 1976, the latest year for which figures are available, was as follows:

Local Education Authority and No. of Pupils in Maintained Nursery, Primary and Secondary Schools at January 1976*
ILEA	395,847
Barking	29,091
Barnet	47,210
Bexley	39,964
Brent	44,250
Bromley	48,562
Croydon	57,818
Ealing	47,923
Enfield	46,304
Haringey	39,140
Harrow	32,252
Havering	47,106
Hillingdon	41,026
Hounslow	35,416
Kingston-upon-Thames	20,703
Merton	27,068
Newham	43,231
Redbridge	36,344
Richmond-upon-Thames	20,444
Sutton	26,336
Waltham Forest	38,562
*Part-time pupils under the age of 5 counted as 0·5 of a full-time pupil.

Due to internal migration and other local factors reliable projections of the numbers of pupils who will be in maintained schools in individual local education authority areas in 1980 and 1986 can only be made in the light of detailed local knowledge which is not collated by my Department.The number of pupils in maintained schools in England and Wales as a whole is projected to decline by about 4 per cent. between 1976 and 1980 and by about 17 per cent. between 1976 and 1986.