Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many new primary schools have included a nursery since June 2017; and what estimate he has made of the cost of the public purse of that policy.

38 primary free schools have opened since June 2017. 21 of these have nursery provisions and a further 3 have plans for nursery provisions. In addition to this, 4 voluntary-aided primary schools have opened during this time, one of which includes nursery provisions.

The cost of a nursery in a free school is integrated into the total cost of the project. It is not possible to separate out the costs of the nursery alone, as they will generally share facilities and services with the school itself.

For the purposes of forecasting, the department now estimates the average additional build cost per pupil of including a nursery within a primary free school as around £12,500 excluding VAT. The difference to the figure provided in response to question 182803 attributable to inflation. For actual projects, costs will depend on a variety of local circumstances including site specifications and pupil numbers.

Local authorities are also responsible for approving proposals for new voluntary-aided schools, including where proposals include nursery provisions. Local authorities and proposers have been responsible for meeting the associated capital costs of these schools, with proposers expected to cover up to 10% of this amount.