Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information his Department holds on how many local authorities have overspent on special education needs and disability budgets in each year since 2014.

The Department for Education collects information on local authority spending through the section 251 returns, which for 2018 to 2019 can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/section-251-2018-to-2019.

The department does not specifically collect information on where local authorities have overspent their high needs budgets. In 2018 to 2019, local authorities are obliged to pass at least 99.5% of their schools’ block funding, within the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), on to local schools; and since 2017 to 2018, have been obliged to pass at least 93% (95% in 2018 to 2019) of funding for three and four-year olds to early years providers. Otherwise, local authorities are free to allocate their DSG, and in any one year may build up or draw down DSG reserves.