Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much and what proportion of (a) primary and (b) secondary schools' expenditure was on staff in each of the last three years.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

Overall core revenue funding for schools totals almost £61.6 billion for the 2024/25 financial year. At the Autumn Budget 2024, the government announced an additional £2.3 billion for mainstream schools and young people with high needs for the 2025/26 financial year, compared to 2024/25. This means that overall core school funding will total almost £63.9 billion in 2025/26. Each school has autonomy to allocate their budgets, including for their staff, to best meet the needs of their pupils to ensure they have the best opportunities in life.

The latest three years of published data for schools’ spending relates to the 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23 financial years. Our estimates in the table below for the proportions of expenditure for teachers and support staff have been compiled by combining published expenditure data sets from academies, which budget by academic year, and local authority maintained schools, which budget by financial year. We have not included cash expenditure data as combining financial and academic year data on school expenditure for different types of schools is less robust for estimating expenditure amounts than it is for estimating proportions. The pattern of expenditure in both 2020/21 and 2021/22 was affected by COVID-19.

Further data on schools’ expenditure in the years following the 2022/23 financial year will be published in due course.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the predicted cost of children looked after is in 2024-25; and what proportion of this is allocated to unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.

Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

In 2023/24, local authority gross expenditure on children's and young people's services was £14.8 billion. Over half of that expenditure was on services for children looked after, which is a total of £8.1 billion (54.9%).

Expenditure under the last administration on asylum seeker services for children, within local authority children’s services, increased by 29.7% to £341.7 million in 2023/24. This accounted for 4.2% of the total spend on looked after children.

The asylum seeker services for children spending line is unlikely to capture all expenditure on unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC). This spending line will only capture expenditure related to UASC that has not been recorded in other spending lines. For example, if a UASC is fostered then the associated expenditure will be captured in the ‘fostering services’ spend line by local authorities. These other lines are not disaggregated in the data collection so the department is unable to determine what proportion of fostering spend is spent on UASC.

The relevant data can be accessed here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/la-and-school-expenditure and data guidance and a breakdown of spending categories is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/section-251-2023-to-2024/section-251-financial-data-collection-2023-to-2024-guidance-for-local-authorities-compiling-their-outturn-statement.

In 2024/25, local authorities have planned expenditure on children looked after in gross terms to be £7.8 billion, of which £268.4 million is planned to be spent on asylum seeker services for children. The relevant data can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/planned-la-and-school-expenditure.

Local authorities typically underbudget, so budgets are generally a poor indicator of actual spend, but they are currently the only published data available for 2024/25. For example, local authorities spent £1.5 billion, 23%, more than budgeted for in 2023/24 on looked after children. Gross planned spend on looked after children for 2023/24 was £6.6 billion and the actual spend on looked after children in 2023/24 was £8.1 billion. The relevant data can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/planned-la-and-school-expenditure/2023-24#dataBlock-b3207b9e-46a0-4a1e-8e8a-7bfa46e2241b-tables and here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/la-and-school-expenditure#explore-data-and-files.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much the Government spent on children looked after in 2023-24; and what proportion of this was on unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.

Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

In 2023/24, local authority gross expenditure on children's and young people's services was £14.8 billion. Over half of that expenditure was on services for children looked after, which is a total of £8.1 billion (54.9%).

Expenditure under the last administration on asylum seeker services for children, within local authority children’s services, increased by 29.7% to £341.7 million in 2023/24. This accounted for 4.2% of the total spend on looked after children.

The asylum seeker services for children spending line is unlikely to capture all expenditure on unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC). This spending line will only capture expenditure related to UASC that has not been recorded in other spending lines. For example, if a UASC is fostered then the associated expenditure will be captured in the ‘fostering services’ spend line by local authorities. These other lines are not disaggregated in the data collection so the department is unable to determine what proportion of fostering spend is spent on UASC.

The relevant data can be accessed here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/la-and-school-expenditure and data guidance and a breakdown of spending categories is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/section-251-2023-to-2024/section-251-financial-data-collection-2023-to-2024-guidance-for-local-authorities-compiling-their-outturn-statement.

In 2024/25, local authorities have planned expenditure on children looked after in gross terms to be £7.8 billion, of which £268.4 million is planned to be spent on asylum seeker services for children. The relevant data can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/planned-la-and-school-expenditure.

Local authorities typically underbudget, so budgets are generally a poor indicator of actual spend, but they are currently the only published data available for 2024/25. For example, local authorities spent £1.5 billion, 23%, more than budgeted for in 2023/24 on looked after children. Gross planned spend on looked after children for 2023/24 was £6.6 billion and the actual spend on looked after children in 2023/24 was £8.1 billion. The relevant data can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/planned-la-and-school-expenditure/2023-24#dataBlock-b3207b9e-46a0-4a1e-8e8a-7bfa46e2241b-tables and here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/la-and-school-expenditure#explore-data-and-files.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how private schools who were not previously VAT-registered but did produce taxable supplies that were under the registration threshold will be treated under the new VAT guidance.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

A private school, or any other business, making taxable supplies under the threshold has no requirement to register for VAT. Once the value of taxable supplies made exceeds the VAT registration threshold, which currently stands at £90,000, they must register for VAT.

On 1 January 2025 supplies of education by private schools become subject to VAT at the standard rate of 20%. These fees must be included with the value of all other taxable supplies in calculating taxable turnover.

If the taxable turnover of a private school now exceeds the threshold, either due to supplies of education alone or a mix of education with other taxable supplies, they must register for VAT. This requirement extends to any person over the threshold and to taxable supplies of any nature.

The change in legislation and new guidance applies only to supplies of education by a private school and does not affect other taxable supplies.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an estimate of the number of people that (a) applied for asylum, (b) were granted asylum and (c) were granted other forms of leave to stay in each year between 1995 and 2001.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Office publishes data on asylum claims and initial decisions in the ‘Asylum applications, initial decisions and resettlement detailed datasets’ as part of the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Pre-2002 data on asylum claims and initial decisions for main applicants and dependants is published in tables as_01 and as_02 in volume 1 of the Asylum data tables.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the comments of the Chief Secretary to the Treasury on Newsnight on 29 July 2024, what the evidential basis is for the claim that the Government Communication Service spent hundreds of millions of pounds on filming content for Conservative ministers’ social media channels.

Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury

The government has taken decisive action to reduce wasteful spend, In Fixing the Foundations, the Chancellor identified £100m of savings from non-essential spending on government communications across 2024-25 and 2025-26.

Cabinet Office provided estimates of comms spending during the Public Spending Audit, announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in July 2024. Estimates were based on internal Government Communication Service data on campaigns planned by Departments and arm's length bodies at the time of commissioning. These indicate that UK Government was expected to spend £449m on communications campaigns during 24/25. This includes communications considered operationally critical, for example, required to fulfil a statutory duty, life-saving, or required for the efficient functioning of a public service. At Autumn Budget 2024, the Chancellor announced that the Government Communications Service is expecting to save £50m in 2024-25 and £85 million from reducing unnecessary communications spend in 2025-26 – exceeding the £100 million target set out in July.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many and what proportion of people (a) renting privately and (b) in the social rented sector were (i) born in the UK and (ii) not born in the UK in each region of England in each year since 1997.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Department does not hold the required information.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for what reason the publication of new VAT guidance in October 2024 was following the Budget.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

Since 1 January 2025, all education services and vocational training provided by private schools in the UK for a charge have been subject to VAT at the standard rate of 20 per cent.

Since the announcement of this policy, HMRC has taken action to support private schools through the change.

On 10 October 2024, HMRC published bespoke guidance for private schools, which can be found here: Registering for VAT and Charging and Reclaiming VAT. HMRC published initial guidance ahead of the Budget to maximise the amount of time private schools had to prepare for this policy taking effect. This guidance was updated on 30 October 2024 to reflect the final policy design. Details of guidance updates are available on GOV.UK.

As with all guidance, HMRC is keeping the guidance for private schools under review. HMRC continues to engage with private schools and the organisations that represent them.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether independent schools under the new interpretation of VAT entities following the Autumn Budget 2024 are their own class of business.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

Taxpayers who are required to register for VAT can usually do so online.

The ‘Business activity’ section of the VAT registration form requires a full description of all the taxpayer’s business activities, including the type of goods and/or services that they supply. HMRC guidance is for private schools to enter ‘Private Education Provider’ in this section.

When registering for VAT, taxpayers are also required to provide Standard Industry Classification (SIC) codes that best describe their business activities. These will depend on their individual circumstances.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the new VAT legislation for private schools led to HMRC amending or redefining the scope of input tax recovery for business who made exempt supplies prior to registration.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

VAT incurred prior to registration is not input tax. However, HMRC has discretion under the provisions of Regulation 111 of the VAT Regulations 1995 (SI 1995/2518) to allow such VAT to be treated as input tax, subject to the normal rules. There was therefore no need to amend or redefine the scope of input tax recovery following the introduction of VAT on private school fees.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the compatibility of changes to VAT legislation with the principal of fiscal neutrality.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

Fiscal neutrality is a key feature of the VAT system, and helps to ensure market distortions are minimised by equalising the tax treatment of supplies which are identical or sufficiently similar from the point of view of the consumer.

When changing VAT legislation the Government considers issues of fiscal neutrality as part of the policy making process.

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