Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make it his policy to increase funding for sixth form students to at least £4,760 per year; and if he will make a statement.

We are investing an extra £400 million in 16 to 19 education next year to ensure we are building the skills that our country needs. We will increase the base rate of funding by 4.7%, from £4,000 to £4,188 for the academic year 2020/21. Over and above the base rate rise, this extra spending also includes new resources for high value and high cost courses and funding to support those on level 3 programmes to continue to study English and maths where needed. This is the biggest injection of new money into 16 to 19 education in a single year since 2010, with funding increasing faster for 16 to 19 than in 5 to 16 schooling and will mean a significant increase in the average level of funding per student. We will continue to look at the needs of 16 to 19 education in future Spending Reviews.