Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what payments her Department has provided to Luton Girl's Academy or people associated with its application to achieve free school status since 2013; on what dates such payments were made; and on what dates the school or such individuals repaid payments to her Department.

Proposer groups whose applications are approved into the pre-opening stage of the free school process receive a fixed rate project development grant to cover essential expenditure to establish a new school.

Total pre-opening revenue costs for free schools that opened or were withdrawn before opening, are published on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/revenue-expenditure-for-free-schools.

The Department plans to publish updated expenditure for free schools that were open or withdrawn in 2015, which will include Luton Girls’ Academy, by end March 2016. Any unspent funding is returned to the Department by the trust.