Schools: National Funding Formula

Debate between Justine Greening and Antoinette Sandbach

Thursday 14th September 2017 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

We will be publishing a lot of data following this statement; the hon. Gentleman will have more than enough to look at. The point of introducing a funding formula is to make sure that schools that have been underfunded can start to catch up and to provide stability for better-funded schools. That is precisely what we are doing, and I am proud that we are able to achieve it.

[Antoinette Sandbach (Eddisbury) (Con)]

I thank the Secretary of State and the Minister with responsibility for schools for sending officials to Cheshire to understand some of the problems faced by my schools, which were some of the worst funded in the country and are members of the f40. Will the Secretary of State praise the work of Edward Timpson, my former colleague, who worked incredibly hard to ensure that deprivation funding is reflected in the formula, and who fought valiantly on behalf of his constituents in Crewe and Nantwich?

[Justine Greening]

I will pay tribute to Edward Timpson. He was a fantastic Minister and is much missed in the House.

We work extremely hard, as a Department and as a group of Ministers, to listen to the very different views of colleagues in trying to achieve a national formula that works for very different schools and communities across the country. We have taken a big step in launching the formula today, and I am grateful for the contributions of all Members.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Justine Greening and Antoinette Sandbach

Monday 11th September 2017 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

I recognise the points that the hon. Gentleman makes. I was committed to making sure that we protected the funding for children with additional needs under this formula, and that is what I hope we will be able to do. It is, indeed, particularly important for communities such as his own.

[Antoinette Sandbach (Eddisbury) (Con)]

I very much welcomed the Secretary of State’s announcement before the recess of the £4,800 floor for secondary pupils. When might we expect the announcement in respect of primary school funding?

[Justine Greening]

The final part of the process is to set out the Government’s response to the second stage of the consultation. We will do that very shortly. It will include a number of further final steps in relation to the formula, including for primary schools. I will set that out at the time.

Schools Update

Debate between Justine Greening and Antoinette Sandbach

Monday 17th July 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I know that the House will want to be well informed. The moment of interruption would ordinarily be expected to be 10 pm on a Monday, but it is not certain to be at 10. It could be a bit earlier and it could be a bit later. The point that colleagues need to have lodged in their little grey cells is that the statement will come at the moment of interruption. Keep an eye on the annunciator—always a very good piece of advice to proffer to new Members.

[Antoinette Sandbach (Eddisbury) (Con)]

Parents and pupils in my constituency will be delighted with the minimum funding of secondary school education, which will represent a substantial increase in secondary school funding. However, I would be grateful if the Secretary of State outlined the minimum level of funding for primary school pupils, which was not addressed in her statement.

[Justine Greening]

My hon. Friend is right. We will set out more of those details in September. Today, we are setting out the fact that we recognise that there is an issue of minimum funding levels in secondary education, and we would expect that to be reflected in primary education.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Justine Greening and Antoinette Sandbach

Wednesday 4th May 2016 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

I assure my hon. Friend that we will continue to be a leader in global aid transparency. Taxpayers can already see on the web the Department’s projects in every country. Indeed, last month the Department was again rated as “very good” in Publish What You Fund’s aid transparency index.

[Antoinette Sandbach (Eddisbury) (Con)]

14. Somalia was recently judged to be the most corrupt country in the world by the independent watchdog Transparency International, yet in 2014 it received £124 million in aid. Does the Secretary of State believe that the entirety of that sum went towards helping the country’s poorest and most needy?

[Justine Greening]

I do. In fact, DFID has a series of controls to manage the inherent risks not just in Somalia but in many of the other countries where we work. We make extensive use of third-party monitoring so we can verify independently that every pound is spent effectively.

Syria: Madaya

Debate between Justine Greening and Antoinette Sandbach

Monday 11th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

I mentioned some of the challenges of using different routes, other than those on the ground—as I said, Damascus is literally 40 km from the town of Madaya. The issue is not about whether there is sustenance and humanitarian supplies in the area—it is there—but about ensuring that we get it from the centre of Damascus to those people who are starving. That is why this situation is so utterly atrocious and should be condemned. Food is within the proximity of the people who need it, and it is being prevented from getting there routinely. UN agencies made seven requests last year to get into Madaya, and only one was permitted by the regime.

The money I mentioned is part of how we fund aid convoys such as the one seen today. We fund UN agencies such as the World Food Programme, and the Syrian Arab Red Cross is also part of the convoy that has been organised. We work with the International Committee of the Red Cross on its operations, and the Syria conference in London in February is important because it will give us a chance to discuss some of these important issues and press for better adherence to international humanitarian law. It will also mean that we can replenish the kind of funding that those organisations need to keep going.

[Antoinette Sandbach (Eddisbury) (Con)]

I welcome the Secretary of State’s condemnation of those who are refusing to let the convoys through. What action is her Department taking to ensure that there is proper documentation, so that the International Criminal Court can step in and send a clear signal that those who breach international law in this way will be prosecuted?

[Justine Greening]

My hon. Friend raises an important point, and one challenge of these besieged areas is that it is hard to find out what is going on inside them. It is therefore hard for us to understand exactly what the humanitarian needs are. As she says, that makes following up these atrocities all the harder. However, whether for this kind of atrocity or for some of the sexual violence that we see in such conflicts, there is increasing recognition across the international community that such crimes should be tracked, monitored and logged. Those are precisely the discussions that we had with the UN and agencies on the ground, so that when we finally get some kind of peaceful resolution in Syria, these atrocities will not simply be swept under the carpet—they will be dealt with.