Government "Mistakes" To Blame For Schools Funding Crisis

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 17th Jul 2003

The Secretary of State for Education, Charles Clarke MP, has admitted that "mistakes were made" in his Department this year, leading to a serious shortfall in funding for many schools.

The admission, made following a statement to the House of Commons, prompted an intervention from Newbury's MP, David Rendel, who asked the Secretary of State how many of the Department's Ministers or officials have lost their jobs as a result of their "mistakes".

The answer was "none". Mr Rendel pointed out that MPs from all parties regularly asked this question of Government Departments in hearings of the Public Accounts Committee - Parliament's "value for money watchdog".

Commenting, Mr Rendel said:

"If mistakes of this kind were made in the private sector, heads would roll. The same standards should apply in the public sector, where we are talking about taxpayers' money and our local schools.

"Before the Council elections in May, the Government defiantly refused to admit the blame. The claimed it was either the fault of local councils or of the schools themselves. Now the Government have been forced to admit that the serious budget shortfalls were their fault all long. Nevertheless, councils have been left to pick up the pieces, and have been forced to increase Council Tax."

Note: The Hansard record of today's exchanges will be available tomorrow, and can be supplied on request.