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Assisted Places Scheme

Volume 75: debated on Monday 11 March 1985

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asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science, pursuant to his reply to the hon. Member for Cambridgeshire, North-East (Mr. Pym) of 4 March, Official Report, column 377, about the assisted places scheme, if he will place in the Library the evidence upon which his reply was based.

The evidence can be succinctly stated: 40 per cent. of assisted pupils are from families whose relevant incomes (based on gross income) are below £6,000, and in all about 80 per cent. are from families whose relevant incomes are below £10,000.

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science, pursuant to his reply to the hon. Member for Cambridgeshire, North-East (Mr. Pym) on 4 March, Official Report, column 376, whether he will now give the number of schools participating in the assisted places scheme for which the requirement concerning the percentage of aided pupils entering the scheme who formerly attended maintained schools has been relaxed.

Twenty-two schools have been granted dispensation from the 60 per cent. rule for the current school year; 89 schools have received one or more such dispensation since the scheme began.

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what plans he has to decrease the proportion of pupils taking up an assisted place who do not attend a maintained school at the time of selection.