Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the cost to 16-19 education providers of delivering resits in GCSE (a) English and (b) maths in each financial year since 2014-15.

Securing good standards of literacy and numeracy increases individual productivity, improves employment opportunities, and supports economic growth.

From September 2013, all 16-19 year old students have been required to follow a study programme which since August 2014 has included a requirement, as a condition of funding, to continue the study of mathematics and English if the student does not already hold a GCSE grade 4 or above. Students with prior attainment of grade 3 enrol on GCSE courses; all other students may enrol on a range of courses to help them make progress in these subjects, including GCSEs or Functional Skills.

The Department for Education has not made estimates of the costs to providers of delivering specific examinations. Rather, 16-19 education providers are funded for the overall study programmes that students take. These programmes include the provision of mathematics and English, where required. In 2015, we made a commitment to maintaining the 16-19 base rate at current levels until 2020.

In addition to regular study programme funding of which mathematics and English provision is a part, in November 2017 we agreed to invest a further £40 million to help education providers improve basic mathematics teaching over the next five years.