Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Andrew Bridgen and David Laws

Monday 24th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Laws]

Local authorities are allowed to build schools. We have allocated £37 million to the hon. Gentleman’s local authority to do precisely that.

[Andrew Bridgen (North West Leicestershire) (Con)]

Does my right hon. Friend agree that it is quite right to give local authorities the freedom to decide how to allocate this extra funding for places based on local need and local knowledge?

[Mr Laws]

I entirely agree with my hon. Friend. Local authorities do have that knowledge of local need, and they have the money from us to address this issue.

School Funding

Debate between Andrew Bridgen and David Laws

Thursday 13th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Bridgen (North West Leicestershire) (Con)]

For many years, schools in my county of Leicestershire have bumped along the very bottom of the education funding league tables, in stark contrast to schools in Leicester, which get £700 per year per pupil more than the county. I commend the excellent work of the f40 group, ably championed by my hon. Friend the Member for Worcester (Mr Walker). Teachers, parents and pupils across Leicestershire will welcome this statement, but will my right hon. Friend assure the House that this is the beginning of a movement towards fair funding, not the end of it?

[Mr Laws]

I welcome my hon. Friend’s comments. As I made clear, this is the first major step towards fair funding, not the last one that we believe is necessary. He will be pleased to know that the proposals that we are issuing for consultation take per-pupil funding in Leicestershire from £3,995 up to £4,197—an increase of over 5%.

Al-Madinah Free School

Debate between Andrew Bridgen and David Laws

Thursday 17th October 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Laws]

I can assure my hon. Friend that we are not impressed or distracted by the gymnastics we have seen over the last week or by the desperate attempt by the shadow Education Secretary to resolve his differences with his own Schools Minister, who has a totally different view about free schools. We will remain focused on improving this school—and, indeed, all schools across the country that need improvement.

[Andrew Bridgen (North West Leicestershire) (Con)]

Does my right hon. Friend agree that this urgent question demonstrates the Opposition’s political dogma on education? They are using one failing free school to criticise all free schools. Given that the comprehensive school that I attended is now sadly in special measures, does he not think it is telling that the Labour party is not asking questions—

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Andrew Bridgen and David Laws

Monday 29th October 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Laws]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for her kind comments, and I am keen to work across the House where we can on some of the issues to which the previous Labour Government showed considerable commitment. This Government, however, are trying to put in place a simpler funding system, not only for the baseline funding, but by giving schools through the pupil premium a large amount of additional finance— £2.5 billion by the end of this Parliament—so that schools can prioritise in each setting the mechanism and the intervention that best serves their pupils. Schools will, through the pupil premium, have the moneys for precisely the types of reading recovery that the hon. Lady mentioned.

[Andrew Bridgen (North West Leicestershire) (Con)]

My constituency is not getting the full benefit of the pupil premium because many parents are far too proud to access free school meals for their children on account of the stigma attached. What can my right. hon. Friend do to address this problem?

[Mr Laws]

That is an important point. Research from the Department will be published shortly, which will highlight the massive differences in the take-up of free school meals right across England. In some parts of England there is essentially 100% take-up, while in other parts almost a third of pupils do not take up free school meals. The Government will look at this and work with local authorities and schools to get those figures up.