Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to table A5 of the Spending Round 2019, for what reason the CDEL allocation for the Department for Education has declined to £5 billion for 2019-20, compared to £5.1 billion in Budget 2018 for the same financial year.

The Department for Education transferred £130 million of CDEL funding to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Growth in 2019-20. This funding is made available for skills capital funding through the Local Growth Fund, which is devolved to Local Enterprise Partnerships to spend on their capital priorities.

The Budget 2018 document reflects the Department for Education’s CDEL allocation for 2019-20 prior to this transfer taking place. Table 3.11 of the Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses 2019, published in July 2019, takes into account this transfer. The Spending Round 2019 document reflects the Department for Education’s current CDEL allocation for 2019-20.