Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what comparative assessment her Department has made of the proportion of the schools budget that has been spent on staffing costs in (a) 2010 and (b) 2017.

Spending on staff as a proportion of the total schools’ budgets has decreased from 77% in 2011/12 to 74% in 2015/16 for academies and from 77% in 2009-10 to 73% 2016-17 for local authority maintained schools.

In July 2017 we announced an additional £1.3 billion of funding for schools and high needs across 2018-19 and 2019-20, in addition to the schools budget as set out in the 2015 Spending Review. This means funding per pupil for schools and high needs will be maintained in real terms for the next two years.