asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science why her proposals for the teachers' panel of the Burnham Committee do not include any representative of the Professional Association of Teachers.

In considering requests from bodies seeking representation of the teachers' panels of the Burnham Committees, my right hon. Friend, consistently with her predecessors, has had regard to three main factors. In addition to the size of membership of the body in question, the degree to which it represents a distinct category of teacher and its acceptability to associations already represented are highly relevant. Against this background she is not proposing that the Professional Association of Teachers should now be added to the teachers' panel of the primary and secondary committee.