Oral Answers to Questions

Ed Davey Excerpts
Monday 11th December 2017

(6 years, 10 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Anne Milton Portrait The Minister for Apprenticeships and Skills (Anne Milton)
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I would be delighted to meet my hon. Friend, and I praise the work that he has done on apprenticeships. It was a delight to see him at WorldSkills UK in Birmingham. I also praise the work that he is doing on the year of engineering.

Ed Davey Portrait Sir Edward Davey (Kingston and Surbiton) (LD)
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The Secretary of State might not be aware of this yet, but on 4 December I wrote to her to ask for an urgent meeting to discuss the funding of high needs in Kingston. Kingston’s high needs budget is set to be overspent this year by £6.5 million, or 35%—the worst in London. Will she meet me as soon as possible to discuss this?

Robert Goodwill Portrait Mr Goodwill
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We are providing high needs funding of £5.84 billion to local authorities this year—next year’s figure rises to £5.97 billion—to help them to support children and young people with special educational needs. Earlier this year, we gave local authorities £23 million to support a strategic review of their special needs provision. We have allocated £215 million of capital funding to enable local authorities to create more places for those with special educational needs and disabilities. I would be happy to meet the right hon. Gentleman to discuss this issue.