Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to Autumn Statement 2022 and the announcement of an additional £2.3 billion of funding for education in 2023 and 2024, whether that funding will be (a) ringfenced for specific uses or (b) available for schools to distribute in line with their priorities.

Overall core schools funding, including funding for both mainstream and high needs schools, will increase by £2.3 billion in both 2023/24 and 2024/25. After adjusting budgets down to take account of the removal of the compensation for employer costs of the Health and Social Care Levy, this brings the core schools budget to a total of £58.8 billion in 2024/25. This is £2 billion greater than published in the 2021 Spending Review.

The Department will set out plans for the allocation of the additional funding announced at the 2022 Autumn Statement shortly. Additional funding will be available to both Local Authority maintained schools and academies, and to Local Authorities, from April 2023.