Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to provide additional funding to increase the number of school places in Fylde before January 2025, in the context of the introduction of VAT on independent school fees.

The department has already set out funding allocations for all schools in the current year. The removal for the school fees exemption to VAT does not change those allocations.

The government has also set out that it expects the number of additional pupils joining the state-funded sector to be low, around 35,000 pupils UK-wide, which is less than 0.5% of the state-funded pupil population, over several years.

The impact on individual schools and local authorities will vary and interact with other pressures. The department works with local authorities to help them fulfil their duty to secure school places. Deciding whether to move a child part-way through the school year in January 2025 is a matter for parents. Requirements for state-funded places for children that would have attended a private school will be addressed in each local authority through normal processes.