Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure schools in rural Suffolk receive an allocation of funding based on need.

In the previous Parliament we allocated an extra £10.5 million to Suffolk for its schools, in the biggest step forward in fairer funding in a decade. We are protecting the schools budget in this Parliament, so that it rises with pupil numbers. We have already ensured that the extra funding for under-funded areas from 2015-16, including the £10.5 million for Suffolk, will be included in budgets for 2016-17. We are committed to going further in ensuring funding for schools in Suffolk is allocated according to need and will bring forward plans after the Spending Review.