Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to page 16 of The Annual Report of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills 2017/18, HC 1707, published on 4 December 2018, what steps he plans to take to close the gap between per pupil funding in secondary schools and further education institutions.

We are actively exploring the funding and resilience of further education and will be assessing how far existing and forecast funding and regulatory structures enable high quality provision. This work will align closely with the Post-18 Funding Review in particular, to ensure a coherent vision for further and higher education.

As with other areas of departmental spending, further education funding from 2020 onwards will be considered as part of the next Spending Review.