Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Baroness Burt of Solihull and David Laws

Monday 24th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[Lorely Burt (Solihull) (LD)]

9. What steps he has taken to implement fair school funding for Solihull.

[The Minister for Schools (Mr David Laws)]

Past school funding levels have been very unfair to some parts of our country, and we have announced that we will significantly boost funding in 2015-16 by more than one third of a billion pounds for the 60 least fairly funded local authorities.

[Lorely Burt]

The formula funding protection for Solihull sixth-form college, as with all sixth-form colleges, runs out in 2015-16. What advice would my hon. Friend give to the principal and governors in developing their strategic plans?

[Mr Laws]

My hon. Friend will know that funding after 2015-16 will be determined in the next spending round, and we cannot make precise commitments now about funding in that period. We have been considering the options for funding large programmes such as those containing five or more A-levels, the international baccalaureate, and large vocational programmes, and we plan to announce how those will be treated after 2015-16 in the near future.