Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Treasury's press release entitled Six-figure taxpayer-funded public sector exit payments to end published on 10 April 2019, how many exit payments of more than £100,000 were made by (a) academy trusts and (b) your Department for its agencies and public bodies for which it is responsible in 2016-17; and what the total cost to the public purse was of exit payments made by academy trusts in that period.

​The were 2 exit payments over £100,000 made by academy trusts in the year ended 31 August 2017.

There were no payments over £100,000 made by the department and its agencies in the year ended 31 March 2017.

There were 17 payments over £100,000 made by the one of the department’s public bodies in the year ended 31 March 2017. These were due to a restructure exercise that was undertaken.

The total cost of exit packages made by academy trusts in the year ended 31 August 2017 was £63.7 million.