Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) school places and (b) schools will be created by the Priority School Building Programme by September (i) 2016, (ii) 2017 and (iii) 2018.

The Priority School Building Programme (PSBP) will address the condition needs of 537 schools.

PSBP1 is a centrally managed programme set up to address the needs of the schools in the worst condition across the country. Through the programme, 260 schools will be rebuilt or have their condition needs met by the Education Funding Agency (EFA).

25 PSBP1 schools have now opened providing rebuilt or refurbished buildings for 11,216 school places. PSBP is primarily a rebuild and refurbishment programme and has not been designed to provide additional school places.

The construction timescales for each school are dependent on a number of factors, including, for example, ground conditions and planning permission.

In May 2014 the Government announced a further £2 billion for the second phase of the programme, PSBP2. A list of the 277 schools to benefit from this second phase was published on 9 February 2015.