Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the total (a) capital and (b) revenue expenditure has been to date on free schools opened in districts which did not have a forecast need for extra school places.

Every free school has been opened in response to either the need to provide extra school places, the need to provide parents with greater choice or the need to provide more high quality school places. Almost three quarters of free schools have opened in areas with a forecast need for more places and 94 per cent of free schools approved since January 2014 plan to open in areas with a need for more school places.

To date, the total (a) published capital costs of the schools that have opened in response to parental demand or a need for high quality school places is around £50 million and (b) the revenue expenditure for these schools is approximately £76 million.