Asked by: Lord Agnew of Oulton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the total expenditure by local-authority-maintained schools and academies in England on agency supply teachers in the financial years (1) 2023–24, and (2) 2024–25.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Supply teachers perform a valuable role and the department is grateful for their important contribution to schools across the country.
Schools and local authorities are responsible for the recruitment of their supply teachers.
In the 2023/24 financial year, local authority-maintained schools spent approximately £522 million on agency supply teaching staff. In the 2023/24 academic year, academies spent approximately £898 million on agency supply teaching staff (financial returns data for academies is aligned with academic years). There is no data available for the 2024/25 academic or financial years. This data is from published school financial returns. Note that the two figures cannot be added together directly, due to the different time periods covered and the risk of double counting spend for maintained schools who convert to academy status.
Asked by: Lord Agnew of Oulton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Smith of Malvern on 15 May (HL6980), whether they will place in the Library of the House (1) the data collection template, and (2) the data from the voluntary local authority data collection exercise on home-to-school transport.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The voluntary local authority data collection exercise closed in mid-March. We will place the data collection template in the Libraries of both Houses. Once analysis of the returns is complete, we will consider whether the information is of suitable quality to make available taking account of response rates for this voluntary survey.
Asked by: Lord Agnew of Oulton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Smith of Malvern on 4 April (HL5949), and in the light of the launch of the voluntary local authority data collection on home-to-school transport on 3 February, (1) what number of pupils receive publicly funded home-to-school transport in each local authority; (2) what proportion of home-to-school transport spending is attributable to taxi or private hire vehicle usage; and (3) which local authorities offer parental mileage allowances or direct payment schemes in place of council-arranged transport.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The voluntary local authority data collection exercise closed in mid-March. The department is currently analysing the data and plans to share findings with local authorities later in the year.
Asked by: Lord Agnew of Oulton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the percentage of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities whose free school transport was provided via single-occupancy vehicles in 2023–24.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Local authorities are responsible for arranging free home to school travel for eligible children. The department collects data on the total amount each local authority spends, broken down by phase of education and by two broad categories of eligibility – travel agreed for reasons of the child’s special educational needs or disability (SEND) and for reasons other than SEND. This is attached and available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/la-and-school-expenditure#subjectTabs-createTable.
To date, the department has not collected data on the number of pupils receiving free home to school travel or on the travel arrangements local authorities make. We therefore do not hold the specific information requested.
In February 2025, the department launched a voluntary data collection, seeking more detailed information from local authorities.
Asked by: Lord Agnew of Oulton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the number of children in England who have been granted free school transport solely because of a parent's disability in each of the past three financial years, under the discretionary powers granted to local authorities by section 508C of the Education Act 1996.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Local authorities are responsible for arranging free home to school travel for eligible children. The department collects data on the total amount each local authority spends, broken down by phase of education and by two broad categories of eligibility – travel agreed for reasons of the child’s special educational needs or disability (SEND) and for reasons other than SEND. This is attached and available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/la-and-school-expenditure#subjectTabs-createTable.
To date, the department has not collected data on the number of pupils receiving free home to school travel or on the travel arrangements local authorities make. We therefore do not hold the specific information requested.
In February 2025, the department launched a voluntary data collection, seeking more detailed information from local authorities.
Asked by: Lord Agnew of Oulton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the total expenditure on taxis for school transport in England in the 2023–24 financial year, broken down by local authority; and what was the highest per-mile rate paid for taxi journeys compared to the lowest per-mile rate.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Local authorities are responsible for arranging free home to school travel for eligible children. The department collects data on the total amount each local authority spends, broken down by phase of education and by two broad categories of eligibility – travel agreed for reasons of the child’s special educational needs or disability (SEND) and for reasons other than SEND. This is attached and available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/la-and-school-expenditure#subjectTabs-createTable.
To date, the department has not collected data on the number of pupils receiving free home to school travel or on the travel arrangements local authorities make. We therefore do not hold the specific information requested.
In February 2025, the department launched a voluntary data collection, seeking more detailed information from local authorities.
Asked by: Lord Agnew of Oulton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the proportion of school transport budgets in England that has been spent on children attending out-of-area schools due to a lack of local provision in each of the past three financial years.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Local authorities are responsible for arranging free home to school travel for eligible children. The department collects data on the total amount each local authority spends, broken down by phase of education and by two broad categories of eligibility – travel agreed for reasons of the child’s special educational needs or disability (SEND) and for reasons other than SEND. This is attached and available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/la-and-school-expenditure#subjectTabs-createTable.
To date, the department has not collected data on the number of pupils receiving free home to school travel or on the travel arrangements local authorities make. We therefore do not hold the specific information requested.
In February 2025, the department launched a voluntary data collection, seeking more detailed information from local authorities.
Asked by: Lord Agnew of Oulton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, with reference to the Grants Statistics Bulletin 2022 to 2023, updated 11 October 2024, why the Department for Education’s total grant expenditure recorded in its Annual Report and Accounts for 2022–23, differs from the £77.9 billion reported; what the total value of this discrepancy is; and whether this missing expenditure is accounted for elsewhere in government spending records.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The policy funding note outlines resource and capital expenditure to support the department’s objectives, including both grant funding and non-reported expenditures (for example, contract spend and grant-in-aid). The policy funding note was published in section 5 of the ‘Department for Education consolidated annual report and accounts 2023’, which can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64b6978861adff001301b284/Department_for_Education_Consolidated_annual_report_and_accounts_2023.pdf.
The data in the ‘Grants Statistics Bulletin 2022 to 2023’ has also been prepared on a resource expenditure basis, using the source data in ‘DfE consolidated annual report and accounts 2023’, section 5. Further adjustments were then made to meet the reporting requirements for the Government Grants Information System (GGIS). GGIS is the source of the data published in the ‘Grants Statistics Bulletin 2022/23’.
Reporting Source | 2022-23 Financial Year | GGIS Completion Rate |
| £ billion | % |
Policy Funding Note, DfE 2022-23 Annual Report and Accounts | £81.6 |
|
Adjustments for grant-in-aid; contracts; and other expenditure identified as goods and/or services in support of grant policy funding outcomes | (£2.5) |
|
Total adjusted grant expenditure | £79.1 | 100% |
Grant Scheme level reporting included in the Grants Statistics Bulletin 2022 to 2023 | £77.9 | 98% |
|
|
|
Difference in reported value | (£3.7) |
|
The total value of grant expenditure consistent with the definition of the ‘Grants Statistics Bulletin 2022 to 2023’ is £79.1 billion.
However, as set out in section 8 of the ‘Grants Statistics Bulletin 2022 to 2023’, ‘Departmental statements about the data in this report’, the total value of expenditure within the bulletin is £77.9 billon. This represents 98% of the department’s total grant expenditure. Section 8 of the bulletin can be found in full here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/government-grants-statistics-2022-to-2023/grants-statistics-bulletin-2022-to-2023#departmental-statements-about-the-data-in-this-report.
The 98% completion rate reflects the disproportionate use of resources that would be required to further augment the remaining 2% of expenditure with the additional level of supplementary information required for entry on the GGIS, and therefore inclusion in the ‘Grants Statistics Bulletin 2022 to 2023’.
The department confirms that there is no missing and/or unaccounted for expenditure. The difference between the ‘Department for Education consolidated annual report and accounts’ and the value included in the ‘Grants Statistics Bulletin 2022 to 2023’ is the basis of preparation for these two publications.
Asked by: Lord Agnew of Oulton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the DFE Government Major Projects Portfolio Data March 2024, published on 16 January, what assessment they have made of the expected monetised benefits of the Early Years Childcare Reform Programme, given its reported whole life cost of £15.1 billion; why these benefits are currently recorded as "£0 million"; and by what date they expect to finalise and publish a full benefits realisation plan.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The data published on 16 January 2025 reflects the status and delivery stage of the early years and childcare programme, as of 31 March 2024. Since then, central estimates for the financial benefits of extending early years education and childcare entitlements were published in April 2024 by the National Audit Office. These estimates indicate, as of March 2024, a benefit-to-cost ratio of £1.26:£1.00, and a total benefit of £15.972 billion.
The Office for Budget Responsibility also estimated that 60,000 additional parents will enter work, and 1.5 million will increase their working hours by 2027/28 as a result of the policy.
As expected of all Major Projects that form part of the Government Major Projects Portfolio, we will continue to provide regular data to the Infrastructure and Projects Authority on the progress of programme delivery. Now the programme is in live delivery, we will continue to monitor how these estimated benefits develop throughout the programme lifecycle and at the appropriate points provide an update on our position, reflecting the latest delivery data.