Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 1 December 2017 to Question 114844, what the average waiting time was to reach a settlement for those risk protection arrangement scheme claims.

As at 31 October 2017, the average time between reporting a claim and its formal closure was 155.7 days. However, in all risk protection arrangement (RPA) cases, funds are immediately made available as and when required at the point of the claim being accepted and opened, and remain open to ensure the claim has been fully settled.

In practice, many payments/invoices are paid direct on request to the relevant parties and contractors via the RPA claims handler as instructed via the loss adjusting process, so the academy trust is not left out of pocket.