To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much of the £1.4 billion recently awarded to primary schools in Northern Ireland was allocated to (a) each board, (b) the Council for Curriculum Examinations and Assessment, (c) the Catholic Council of Maintained Schools, (d) the RTU and (e) elsewhere; and whether each Education and Library Board retains the same percentage of allocated funds for administration costs. [109115]
The Department of Education's 2003–04 resource budget for school-related expenditure amounts to some £1,485 million, of which £992.8 million has to date been allocated to the Education and Library Boards for recurrent costs. The specific information requested is as follows:(a) Allocations to individual Boards, and the amounts allocated by Boards in respect of primary schools:
| £ million | ||
| Schools | Of which:Primary schools | |
| BELB | 171.887 | 59.765 |
| NEELB | 211.669 | 76.692 |
| SEELB | 194.588 | 77.839 |
| SELB | 226.899 | 86.807 |
| WELB | 187.769 | 72.038 |
| Total | 992.812 | 373.141 |
(a) above).
Elsewhere: some £478 million, not all yet allocated.
The percentage of Education and Library Board recurrent budgets which relates to Headquarters Administration varies across individual Boards, principally because of the incidence of five-Board and lead Board services provided by individual Boards. The overall percentage of Department of Education funded Board budgets expended on HQ Administration costs has dropped in each of the last four financial years.
Excluding provision for five-Board and lead Board services, the latest available information is as follows (percentage of recurrent budget spent on Headquarters Administration):
Percentage
| |
Financial year 2002–03
| |
| BELB | 2.42 |
| NEELB | 2.11 |
| SEELB | 1.79 |
| SELB | 1.78 |
| WELB | 1.97 |
| Total | 2.0 |