Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on the funding allocation for the academic year 2021-22 of a reduction in numbers in academic year 2020-21; and if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of using data from a longer timeframe to determine funding allocations.

Funding for both schools and providers of 16-19 education is based on student numbers from the previous academic year. Therefore, where an institution has significantly higher or lower numbers of young people enrolled than in the previous year, this will impact on their funding allocation in the following year. This system of lagged funding is well established and understood because it allows institutions to receive clear allocations each year based on data about students and the courses they study and to make plans with confidence. For providers of 16-19 education, the Department considers business cases from individual institutions where their allocation has been significantly affected by exceptional circumstances. Local authorities also have flexibility, within the funding they are allocated in the dedicated schools grant, to set aside funding to create a small fund to support good or outstanding schools with falling pupil numbers, where local planning data shows that the surplus places will be needed within the next three financial years.