Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much Continuity of Education Allowance has been claimed in each of the last five years; and if he will provide a breakdown of the ranks that have claimed that allowance.

The aim of Continuity of Education Allowance (CEA) is to assist Service personnel to achieve continuity of education for their children that would otherwise be denied in the state-maintained day school sector due to the mobility of their family because of consecutive assignments both in the UK and overseas. CEA is available to all Service personnel, irrespective of rank, subject to them satisfying the qualifying criteria.

Service personnel may select from a wide variety of schools across the UK from within the independent and state-maintained sectors. To qualify for the purposes of CEA, a school must: offer full boarding facilities; be registered with the appropriate UK education department; be subject to Ofsted inspection and, in the case of independent schools, be a member of an organisation affiliated to the Independent Schools Council or the Scottish Council for Independent Schools. Each claimant is required to contribute at least 10 per cent of the fees at independent schools.

During the last five Financial Years (FY, 2015-16 to 2019-20) the cost of CEA to Defence was as follows:

The number of Service personnel who claimed CEA during the last five FYs, by rank, was as follows:

Note: a key to NATO Rank Codes and UK equivalencies can be found in the attached document.