To ask the Secretary of State for Education what was the funding allocation for the educational psychology service for each year since 1985.

The information requested is not held centrally. Each local education authority is responsible for securing educational psychology services in the light of local needs and priorities. Central Government, through the grants and education support and training programme, provide financial support to authorities to assist them with the costs of the initial training of educational psychologists. Funds to support LEA expenditure of £3·5 million on the training of educational psychologists have been allocated in 1993–94.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education what steps he is taking (a) to protect the educational psychology service and (b) to ensure a common standard service throughout the country; and if he will make a statement.

Each local education authority is responsible for securing educational psychology services in its area. The Education Bill contains power to enable authorities to provide support services, such as educational psychology, to all pupils with special educational needs, including those without statements.Under the Bill, all authorities in England and Wales will be placed under a duty to have regard to the provisions of a code of practice, issued by the Secretary of State, giving them practical guidance in discharging their duty towards children with special educational needs. One of the objectives of the code is to secure greater consistency in local education authority practice, to the benefit of children with SEN and their parents.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many educational psychologists were employed by each local education authority in each year since 1985.

Information on the number of educational psychologists employed by individual local education authorities is collected annually by the Department. However, pre-1992 returns were not compiled in a standard format and are not readily available for every year. Figures are shown in the table for 1985 and 1992.