Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the number of schools who have submitted claims for reimbursement for exceptional costs associated with covid-19 for the period from March to July 2020.

The first opportunity for schools to submit a claim to be reimbursed for specific exceptional costs closed on 21 July. 14,075 schools had submitted a claim by time the claims window closed.

Schools are eligible to claim for costs incurred between March and July in respect of: increased premises related costs associated with keeping schools open over the Easter and summer half term holidays; support for free school meals for eligible children who are not in school, where schools are not using the national voucher scheme; and additional cleaning costs required due to confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases, over and above the cost of existing cleaning arrangements. Schools can claim up to a maximum amount that will depend on its size, and will be no more than £75,000 per school.

A further claims window will be available later this year, to cover any further eligible expenditure that schools have not yet claimed for.