Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much public funding the Education Funding Agency expects to (a) successfully claw back and (b) fail to claw back from free schools which have failed to attract the number of students initially planned for the current academic year.

The free school programme is responsive to local needs and free schools are initially funded on pupil estimates. For all schools funded on estimates the Education Funding Agency (EFA) carries out an annual pupil number adjustment to bring allocations back into line with the actual numbers reported through the schools census. Some free schools will receive either increases or reductions as a result of those pupil number adjustments. The Department works closely with schools each year to review estimates and to help minimise the likelihood of significant adjustments.

For the current academic year, 2016 to 2017, the EFA is in the process of calculating pupil number adjustments based on the October 2016 schools census. All schools will be notified of any increases or reductions to their allocations by Spring 2017. The EFA plans to make recoveries in respect of any and all negative adjustments, which will mostly take place over the course of the following academic year, 2017 to 2018. The EFA is currently in the process of making recoveries relating to 2015 to 2016.

The table below sets out for all relevant academic years up to and including 2015 to 2016, details of the total pupil number adjustment recovery calculated for free schools, the number of schools affected, the value of recoveries written-off, and the amount remaining to be recovered.