Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many of her Department's employees are working on the free school programme; and what the annual cost of such work is.

Of the total number of employees in the Department of Education, the equivalent of 95.24 full-time free schools group staff assess free school applications, work with successful applicants as they prepare to open their free schools and support the schools once opened. In 2014-15, the cost of the free schools group was £6.15 million.