To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what estimates have been made of the cost of early retirement of head teachers during 1988–89 and 1989–90; and if he will make a statement.

The Government's expenditure plans for 1988–89, set out in Cm. 288, provide for spending of £80 million on the costs of premature retirement compensation in the schools sector. The costs of early retirement of head teachers cannot be separately identified within this sum. Detailed plans for 1989–90 have yet to be settled.