Business of the House

Andrew Selous Excerpts

Thursday 20th July 2023 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt]

I said last week that the nation is not just STEM-powered—the hon. Lady is a great champion for that. It is also STEAM-powered. The arts and cultural and creative industries are incredibly important to this economy. She will know that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Department for Culture, Media and Sport and her predecessors have done a huge amount of work to ensure that the whole of the UK gets its fair share of funding to support these sectors and that the enjoyment of their products is accessible to all.

I am sure the hon. Lady has raised those specific projects with the Secretary of State. If she has not had an opportunity to do that, I am happy to do so on her behalf. She will soon be able to get a clear map of all the funding that has gone into her local area over many years, and having seen a draft of the map, I think it is considerable.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

Although it is welcome to see school budgets increasing again, can we look at the situation whereby schools in my constituency and central Bedfordshire get a lot less per pupil than those just over the border in Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire? We are amending the police funding formula to make it fairer. Can we please look at the same issue for school funding? It really is not fair to differentiate in that way.

[Penny Mordaunt]

My hon. Friend raises a very important matter and he is absolutely right. We are increasing per pupil funding. We have introduced additional support for special educational needs, and we have been doing a lot of work in the capital programme to restore school buildings and enable new schools to be established. However, given that we are going into recess, I will write on his behalf to the Secretary of State for Education and the Chancellor to ensure that they consider this matter.