Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made on trends in the level of school financial reserves between 1 March 2020 and 31 December 2021, for (a) primary schools, (b) secondary schools; and (i) academies, (ii) all other forms of school governance.

The department trust schools to manage their own budgets. The majority of schools are operating with a cumulative surplus, with only a small percentage having a deficit. The latest published figures show that the percentage of both academy trusts and local authority maintained schools in surplus or breaking even increased compared to the previous reporting year.

Local authority maintained schools report their finances on a financial year basis, and the latest available data is from the end of March 2021 (covering the 2020/21 financial year). Academy trusts report their finances on an academic year basis, and the latest available data is from the end of August 2020 (covering the 2019/20 academic year).

At the end of 2020/21 financial year 92% of local authority maintained schools were in cumulative surplus or breaking even, compared to 88% the previous year. Of primary maintained schools, 93% were in surplus or breaking even, compared to 90% the previous year. Of secondary maintained schools, 81% were in surplus or breaking even, compared to 73% the previous year.

It is important to note that a large majority of secondary schools are academies. At the end of the 2019/20 academic year 96% of academy trusts were in surplus or breaking even, compared to 94% the previous year. Academy trusts may contain both primary and secondary provision, so there is no breakdown between primaries and secondaries in relation to academies.

The latest published figures show 2,604 academy trusts and 11,600 maintained schools in cumulative surplus or breaking even, compared to 112 academy trusts and 1,055 maintained schools in deficit, with an overall cumulative surplus of £5.4 billion, compared to a cumulative deficit of £280 million.