Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the Local Authorities (Capital Finance and Accounting) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2020, whether his Department plans on extending the provision in that Instrument beyond 31 March 2023.

In 2020, the Government put in place a statutory accounting override that allows local authorities to hold any deficits on their school budgets separately, in accounting terms, from their wider finances. This protects those affected authorities from risks to their financial sustainability or ability to deliver services. The Government is considering carefully the future of the override and will communicate its decision in due course.