Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to page 128 of her Department's Annual Report and Accounts 2013-14, HC 745, what the reasons are for the £466.7 million expenditure listed under other expenditure.

Academies provide the Department with an annual return which reports their expenditure in various categories, such as staff salaries, utilities or catering. Some expenditure is incurred that is difficult to categorise, and is therefore collated as ‘other expenditure’. Examples include some insurance costs, and PFI charges.

For the 2013-14 Department for Education Group Annual Report and Accounts, this ‘other expenditure’ was £466.7 million.

We are working to improve our sector reporting to reduce this figure and improve transparency. It should be noted that this year we reduced our reliance on the ‘other expenditure’ classification from £783.2m in 12-13 to £466.7m in 13-14, despite the significant increase in the number of academies.