Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will list for each multi-academy trust that has had deficit funding approved (a) the amount of funding approved, (b) whether it is linked to a financial turnaround plan, (c) the period it covers, (d) the date on which it was approved by the Education and Skills Funding Agency or the Department and (e) the amount that is recoverable and non-recoverable in each case.

Academy trusts have primary responsibility for their own financial affairs and where the Education and Skills Funding Agency intervene, we work with each trust to put in place a recovery process that underpins education provision with strong financial management and oversight. This can include the provision of deficit funding, issuing a financial notice to improve or, in the most serious cases, termination of the Funding Agreement.

Where we have provided deficit funding as part of this process, this information is reflected in trusts’ accounts. Attached is a document setting out deficit funding information for the most recent year available, financial year 2017-18. The department records deficit funding by the academy that funding is associated with and this is also reflected in the attached document.

As of March 2018, the total number of academies for which deficit funding was agreed in financial year 2017-18, reflects less than 1% of all open academies, and less than 0.2% of the total funding allocated to academies for the 2017-18 academic year.