Oral Answers to Questions

Laurence Robertson Excerpts

Wednesday 18th January 2012 Commons Chamber

The Prime Minister was asked—

[Mr Laurence Robertson (Tewkesbury) (Con)]

Q1. If he will list his official engagements for Wednesday 18 January.

[The Prime Minister (Mr David Cameron)]

This morning I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others and, in addition to my duties in this House, I shall have further such meetings later today.

[Mr Robertson]

The Prime Minister will be aware of the very strong uptake of academy status by schools in Gloucestershire, but is he aware of the enormous difference in funding that puts those schools at the bottom of the league table in terms of LACSEG—local authority central spend equivalent grant—funding? I welcome the Government’s move towards a national funding formula but, in the meantime, will he look at the serious situation of those schools in Gloucestershire?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is quite right. We need to sort out this problem even before looking at a national funding formula. We inherited the funding formula that he describes, and I believe it is flawed, which is why we are reforming it. The Secretary of State for Education has met academy heads in my hon. Friend’s constituency and will happily discuss with him how we can deal with this problem. The growing evidence is that academy schools are not just good for the pupils who go to them, but by raising standards in those areas, they are actually raising standards of all schools at the same time.