Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much his Department has spent from the public purse on the purchase and development of land and buildings for academies and free schools to date.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Government has committed to invest more than £23 billion in the school estate between 2016-17 and 2020-21. This includes a combination of formula and bid-based allocations to schools, local authorities and academy trusts and centrally delivered programmes.
The Government’s free school programme was introduced in 2010 and is currently the only programme responsible for both purchasing and developing land and buildings for schools. As of 1 March 2018, there are 391 open free schools, 35 studio schools and 49 university technical colleges (UTCs), which will provide over 256,000 places when at capacity.
The Department’s total capital costs for free schools, UTCs and studio schools in each financial year since the inception of the programme, are provided in the table below.
Financial year | Total Free Schools Capital Costs1 |
2010-11 | £1m |
2011-12 | £50m |
2012-13 | £275m |
2013-14 | £704m |
2014-15 | £761m |
2015-16 | £931m |
2016-17 | £965m |
2017-18 | TBC2 |
1 Rounded to the nearest £1 million.
2 This figure will be available in July of this year once the department lays the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s annual accounts before Parliament.
A detailed assessment of the capital budget required for each free school project is carried out both before site purchases and again before construction contracts are signed. All variations to the capital budget are reviewed and approved through an established and audited capital approval process and significant variations are escalated to Ministers, the Education and Skills Funding Agency Accounting Officer and, if required, HM Treasury.
Capital funding for individual free schools, UTCs and studio schools, where costs have been finalised and are no longer commercially sensitive, are published on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/capital-funding-for-open-free-schools.
Data publications for our other main capital funding programmes can be found at the following links:
Schools Condition Allocations and Devolved Formula Capital: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/capital-allocations.
The Priority Schools Building Programme: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/priority-school-building-programme-psbp.
Basic Need:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/basic-need-allocations.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the cost to his Department has been of the (a) sale of student loan book and (b) servicing of student loan debt.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The advisory and transaction costs were circa £16 million from 2013/14 to the closing of the first sale in December 2017. The costs of servicing the sold loans are being charged to investors on a cost recovery basis, uprated annually in line with the retail price index.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of allowing schools to admit children from one religion on integration and social cohesion.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
All schools must promote integration and social cohesion whatever their character and ethos. The Department is currently consulting on proposals to remove the 50% cap on faith admissions in new faith free schools. We have proposed additional measures to promote inclusivity and community cohesion, alongside existing requirements to promote fundamental British values, which will apply to all new faith free schools. These are aimed at ensuring all pupils can play an active role in our society and are prepared for life in modern Britain. The consultation document is available at: https://consult.education.gov.uk/school-frameworks/schools-that-work-for-everyone
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it the Government's policy to ensure that schools are open to pupils from a range of different religious and non-religious backgrounds.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
We want all parents to have a real choice about which school their children attend irrespective of their background. It is also important that all schools: promote inclusivity; enhance understanding of other faiths and those with no faith; promote community cohesion; and prepare children and young people for life in modern Britain. Regardless of whether or not they have a religious character, schools should enable pupils of all faith and of no-faith to play a full part in the life of the school.
We are currently consulting on proposals to enable more high quality providers of schools, including faith schools, to establish new schools which, alongside our investment in the free schools programme, will improve choice for all.
The consultation document is available at: https://consult.education.gov.uk/school-frameworks/schools-that-work-for-everyone