Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, under what circumstances his Department will request the return of funding allocated to local authorities that dispose of or change the use of buildings or assets funded wholly or partly through Sure Start capital grants.

Where local authorities dispose of or change the use of buildings or other assets funded wholly or partly through Sure Start capital grants, they must repay the money through the claw-back process. The Department for Education has a thorough set of monitoring arrangements in place regarding clawback rules. Further information on the clawback process is set out in the ‘Sure Start, Early Years and Childcare Capital Guidance’ at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/273740/capital_guidance.pdf.

I refer the hon. Member for Norwich South to the answer given by my hon. Friend, former Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Childcare and Education, Sam Gyimah, on 29 February 2016 to Question 28207.