Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what was the total (a) value and (b) number of grants and funding awarded via competitive bidding processes by her Department in each of the last four years; and how many competitive bidding applications have been received by her Department in each of the last four years.

The Department uses a competitive application process for general grants by default, wherever possible and appropriate. This is to encourage innovation, reduce reliance on incumbent organisations, drive value for money, and maximise outcomes. Competition for grant funding can be via a challenge fund, where organisations compete for a portion of the available funding, in line with application guidance, or via a more traditional competition where organisations compete against each other through the submission of a delivery proposal for a single award of funding. The value and volume of competed general grant schemes for the Department is available for the 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21 financial years at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-grants-data-and-statistics. Data relating to the 2021/22 financial year will be published in March 2023.