To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is the average time taken between the first submission to his Department of an application by a local education authority relating to a school closure or reorganisation and final decision by Ministers, for the latest available period, and for such of the years from and including 1980 for which information is available.
Data are available only for the average time taken between the publication—as opposed to submission to the Department—of statutory proposals under sections 12, 13 and 15 of the Education Act 1980 and a final decision by the Secretary of State in each of the calendar years from 1986 to 1989, as follows:
| Year | Average time taken (months) |
| 1986 | 7·30 |
| 1987 | 7·35 |
| 1988 | 7·97 |
| 1989 | 6·64 |
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will update the table relating to school closures in the answer to the hon. Member for Blackburn, Official Report, 12 July, column 314, to give the latest available information in respect of 1990.
The information is in the following updated table:
Calendar Year
| Number of proposals decided
| Number of places to be taken out of use by proposals in column 2
| Number of proposals in column 2 approved
| Number of surplus places to be taken out of use as a result of approved proposals
|
(1)
| (2)
| (3)
| (4)
| (5)
|
| 1983 | 366 | 104,174 | 330 | 85,606 |
| 1984 | 292 | 85,862 | 270 | 77,590 |
| 1985 | 205 | 101,097 | 185 | 88,218 |
| 1986 | 172 | 81,663 | 147 | 62,828 |
| 1987 | 159 | 55,116 | 134 | 45,326 |
| 1988 | 145 | 64,256 | 116 | 27,170 |
| 1989 | 140 | 59,527 | 114 | 41,831 |
11990 | 107 | 28,558 | 94 | 28,043 |
1 1 January to 30 September 1990. | ||||