Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of whether the budget allocations to (a) local authority maintained schools and (b) schools receiving funding from the Education Funding Agency for 2015-16 and are projected to receive in 2016 and 2017 will be sufficient to fund (i) increases to employer's contributions to teachers' and support staff's pensions, (ii) increases in teachers' and support staff's salaries and (iii) other costs.

The Government is committed to protecting the schools budget, and will ensure that the funding schools receive increases as pupil numbers increase. On current pupil number forecasts, there will be a real-terms increase in the schools budget in this parliament. We will look carefully at the impact of changes in schools’ costs when making plans for education spending in 2016-17 and onwards, and will continue to provide information and guidance to help schools improve their efficiency and manage their finances.