Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much was spent by his Department on private school fees for children of staff who are based (a) in the UK and (b) overseas in 2016-17.

During financial year (FY) 2016-17, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) spent £103.4 million on Continuity of Education Allowance (CEA) for the children of Service personnel; this equates to £87.1 million for Service personnel assigned to the UK and £16.3 million for Service personnel assigned overseas. The earlier than usual processing of CEA claims for summer term 2017 has caused £23 million of expenditure to be accounted for in the last accounting period of FY 2016-17 rather than, as in previous years, the first accounting period of FY 2017-18. This accounting practice does not detract from the progress made since 2010 in reducing spend on this allowance.

The MOD also pays Boarding School Allowance and Day School Allowance towards schooling costs for the children of civilian employees who are posted overseas, with a small amount paid to officers who have returned to the UK but have continuing entitlement. In FY 2016-17 this amounted to £0.457 million, with £0.053 million paid to staff based in the UK and £0.404 million paid to staff based overseas.