Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Department for Education

Oral Answers to Questions

Henry Smith Excerpts
Monday 6th November 2017

(6 years, 5 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Lord Johnson of Marylebone Portrait The Minister for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation (Joseph Johnson)
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That letter was sent not by the Government, but by an MP acting in an individual capacity. The Government have made it clear that they fully support academic freedom and have recently entrenched that further in law through the Higher Education and Research Act 2017.

Henry Smith Portrait Henry Smith (Crawley) (Con)
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Under the new national funding formula, West Sussex schools are set to have a funding increase of 10.7%. However, the county has been historically one of the lowest funded. Are there any other measures that can be brought forward to ensure that that historical underfunding is righted?

Justine Greening Portrait Justine Greening
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As my hon. Friend says, the national funding formula aims to address the inequity that has been baked into our funding system for many, many years. That sits alongside the pupil premium investment and the work that increasingly takes place in our schools to make sure that they operate in a way that maximises the educational impact that they get for every single pound. That means a focus on efficiency.