Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the requirement for primary school places in Warrington in the next five years.

The Department for Education collects information from local authorities on the number of school places in state-funded primary and secondary schools and local authorities’ own pupil forecasts as part of the annual School Capacity Collection. The most recent data available relates to the position at May 2013, with primary forecasts through to 2017/18, and is published online at:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-capacity-academic-year-2012-to-2013

The Department has estimated that Warrington local authority needs 270 additional primary places to meet demand in 2015/16. Warrington local authority has reported that there are 980 new places planned for delivery between 2013/14 and 2015/16. This information, along with technical notes, is published in the Local Authority Basic Need Scorecards which is published online at:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/primary-school-places-local-authority-basic-need-scorecards

The Department provides capital funding to local authorities in line with the estimated level of need in each local authority. Warrington has been allocated a total of £6 million for the period 2011-2015 and a further £8.6 million for 2015-2017 to help create the additional school places that will be needed by September 2017.