Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the cost of reception baseline assessment in academic year 2016-17.

In the 2016/17 academic year, the expenditure to date on the optional reception baseline has been £745,000 and we anticipate claims amounting to a further £125,000 by the end of the year. The Department has provided funding to cover the basic cost of approved baselines for maintained schools, academies, and free schools in the academic years 2015/16 and 2016/17. Further details on whether the optional baseline will be available for schools to use in the 2017/18 academic year will be provided in due course.