Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of increasing the level of the Service Pupil Premium to match the Pupil Premium.

Service families make extraordinary sacrifices for our country. The department continues to support Service children in a range of ways, principally through the Service Pupil Premium, targeted funding that state schools in England are allocated so that they can provide pastoral and academic support, tailored to the specific needs of Service pupils to mitigate disruptions from frequent school moves and parental deployments.

The government keeps the Service Pupil Premium under regular review to ensure it is meeting the intended objectives and providing value for money. We will continue to monitor how funding streams support children’s outcomes and consider future funding decisions as part of the normal budget and spending review processes.

It should also be noted that schools which experience major changes in their pupil cohort from year to year, including those serving Armed Forces communities, attract additional funding through the “mobility factor” in the schools national funding formula. In the 2026/27 financial year, schools will attract £985 for eligible primary pupils and £1,415 for eligible secondary pupils, above a threshold of 6% of the schools’ pupil numbers, where more than 6% of the school’s pupil numbers are classified as mobile.