Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether it is her Department's policy to provide additional funding to Local Education Authorities for secondary schools if (a) free schools and (b) other new schools open in that area during a financial year.

The department does not provide any additional funding to local authorities in the financial year that a new secondary school is established.

We do provide funding to academy trusts to cover essential expenditure to establish a new school before it opens. New schools receive funding for a limited number of years after the school opens to cover the start-up costs associated with running a new school which cannot be met from core funding. Details of these grants can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/487778/Free_Schools_application_process_-_background_information_and_glossary.pdf

Where a local authority opens a new school (to meet basic need in that area), the local authority is responsible for providing the site for the new school and meeting associated capital and start-up costs, which it is expected to do from its Dedicated Schools Grant allocation and its basic need capital allocation.