Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the additional energy costs that educational establishments are facing this winter; and what additional funding his Department is planning to make available to educational establishments to cover any potential additional costs.

The department recognises that educational establishments may be facing pressures this winter, including where energy prices have increased. Educational establishments, including schools, higher and further education institutions, are autonomous institutions. They are therefore responsible for estimating and meeting their own energy costs.

Schools have the flexibility to make their own decisions on how to prioritise their spending to invest in a range of resources that will best support their staff and pupils. The 2021 Spending Review secured an additional £4.7 billion in the core school budget by the 2024-25 financial year compared to previous plans. This means the core schools budget will see a real terms per pupil increase in each of the next three years

The £4.7 billion investment includes a further £1.6 billion in the 2022-23 financial year, on top of the year on year increase already announced as part of the 2019 spending round. This additional funding will help the school sector respond to the pressures the department knows they are facing, for example on energy costs and Health and Social Care Levy from April 2022. We will make announcements on the breakdown of the 2023-24 and 2024-25 core school budget in due course, as well as the distribution of the additional £1.6 billion of funding confirmed for 2022-23.

At the 2021 Spending Review the department announced an investment of £3.8 billion more in further education and skills over the Parliament as a whole, to ensure people can access high-quality training and education that leads to good jobs, addresses skills gaps, boosts productivity and supports levelling up. This includes an extra £1.6 billion per year for 16-19 education in financial year 2024-25 compared with 2021-22. This will fully fund the additional students the department anticipates in the system, pay for the increasing take-up of T Levels, maintain funding per student in real terms, and enable increased time in education for all 16 to 19 year olds. We will set out details of how this additional funding will be allocated in due course.