Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that national price bands for independent school placements distinguish between profiteering and the legitimate costs of high-cost provision, including provision delivered by non-profit specialist schools.

The government will develop a national cost framework for specialist provision packages, and we expect local authorities to commission provision based on that framework, whether that is within a specialist base in a mainstream school, or a special school, including those in the independent sector.

We will undertake a period of evidence gathering and stakeholder engagement to ensure that the framework is appropriately supporting high quality provision whilst tackling excessive prices and profit making.