Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate of whether there will be an underspend in the Multiply programme budget for the 2022-23 financial year; and whether any underspend could be carried forward into the 2023-24 financial year.

The department has launched Multiply to boost funding for adult numeracy, helping people build their confidence in using numeracy at work or in everyday life and gain a maths qualification.

Up to £270 million is available to local authorities in England across the three years of the programme. Multiply is provided as a Section 31 ringfenced grant, given the programme’s primary objective is to improve functional adult numeracy.

The prospectus for Multiply has set out a menu of interventions for local areas to draw down from. Each local authority in England has submitted an investment plan, which outlines their annual predicted spend. Payments in Year 1, the 2022/23 financial year, have been made on that basis.

The department will monitor delivery against these investment plans, including facilitating peer support across local areas and sharing intelligence on what is successful. It is important that local interventions deliver value for money. As the Multiply prospectus sets out, any underspends will be recovered by the department. Further information on how underspends will be managed is set out in our technical guidance available to all local areas.

HM Treasury rules stipulate that the department cannot carry underspends between financial years. This also applies to the wider programme.