asked the Secretary of State for Scotland what are the values of the subsidies to the educational budgets of Tayside and Scotland on (a) the school meals service, (b) school transport and (c) school milk; and what percentage of the total educational budgets these subsidies represent in each case.

Rate support grant is paid in aid of local authority services generally and is not hypothecated to individual services. The Government do not pay a direct subsidy towards the costs incurred by education authorities on school meals, school transport and school milk; in the case of school milk my Department transmits to authorities an EEC subsidy estimated for 1979–80 at £1·5 million. The following table shows the estimates of expenditure on these services within total relevant expenditure assumed in the rate support grant settlement for 1979–80: