Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of potential impact of reductions in local authority budgets on transport for students with special educational needs and disability (a) nationally and (b) in York.

Local authorities must provide transport for children of compulsory school age who attend their nearest school and cannot walk there because of distance, route safety, or special educational needs and disabilities.

The majority of central government funding for home to school transport is made available to local authorities through the local government finance settlement from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. This funding is not ring-fenced. It is for local authorities to decide how they spend the total amount of funding available to them, through this and other sources.

During the next spending review period, authorities will receive an extra £1.6 billion a year to maintain vital services such as this.