Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the announcement in the 2016 Budget that HM Treasury would provide up to £285 million to enable a quarter of secondary schools to extend the school day, (a) how much and (b) to which schools was this funding allocated.

The longer school day programme announced in the 2016 Budget did not proceed as planned. Instead, my right hon. Friend, the former Secretary of State for Education, announced in February 2017 a new £415 million healthy pupils capital programme, and in October 2017 a £22 million essential life skills programme to fund extra-curricular activities in Opportunity Areas.

On 28 March 2022, the Department announced as part of the Schools White Paper that all mainstream, state-funded schools should deliver a minimum school week of 32.5 hours by September 2023 at the latest, which is the current average, for all state-funded, mainstream schools.