Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Stuart Anderson and Steve Barclay

Tuesday 24th March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Stuart Anderson (Wolverhampton South West) (Con)]

9. What recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Education on school funding.

[The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Steve Barclay)]

I regularly discuss school funding with the Secretary of State for Education. At the spending round, the Government committed to a £7.1 billion cash increase in the funding for schools in England by 2022-23.

[Stuart Anderson]

I understand that there are immediate pressing issues for the Department, but after this will my right hon. Friend arrange to meet me and the Education Secretary to discuss the funding of a secondary school in Wolverhampton?

[Steve Barclay]

I would be very happy to give that commitment to my hon. Friend. He will be aware of the significant allocation to capital funding that was set out by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor in the Budget, and obviously part of the discussion at the comprehensive spending round will be the allocation of that budget.

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[Stuart Anderson (Wolverhampton South West) (Con)]

I want to follow on from my right hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Bournemouth East (Mr Ellwood) and talk about our great armed forces. I expressed my delight at the budget of £10 million identified for veterans’ mental health. Will the Chancellor confirm that that will remain a priority, as the problem does not go away?

[Steve Barclay]

I am happy to give that assurance. I know my hon. Friend is a champion—rightly so—of our armed forces and speaks with great experience and authority on that. He will be aware of a number of measures that my right hon. Friend the Chancellor has announced. That is one of them, and we stand by it.