HC Deb 23 June 2003 vol 407 cc551-2W
Mr. Willis

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how much revenue funding will be allocated to support implementation of the National Agreement on Raising Standards and Tackling Workload in(a) 2003–04, (b) 2004–05 and (c) 2005–06; [120395]

(2) how much each (a) secondary school and (b) primary school in the country will receive as a result of extra revenue funding to support implementation of the National Agreement on Raising Standards and Tackling Workload in (i) 2003–04, (ii) 2004–05 and (iii) 2005–06; [120396]

(3) how the extra revenue funding for supporting implementation of the National Agreement on Raising Standards and Tackling Workload will be distributed to schools; [120397]

(4) what support will be given to those schools with a deficit budget in their implementation of the National Agreement on Raising Standards and Tackling Workload. [120398]

Mr. Miliband

The agreement is about making better use of the existing £25 billion which is spent each year on schools as well as deploying extra resources cost effectively. The overall increase in funding for schools and local education authorities is £2.7 billion in 2003–04. Our plans allow for a further increase of £1.4 billion between this year and 2004–05 and a subsequent increase of £2.1 billion in 2005–06. The amounts available to individual primary and secondary schools up and down the country to support the agreement will inevitably vary according to a number of factors, including pupil numbers, teachers' pay and the way in which school budgets are determined. For 2004–05, we are working with representatives of schools and local education authorities (which will consider the position of schools with licensed deficit budgets) to ensure that every school receives a reasonable per pupil settlement.