HC Deb 11 March 2003 vol 401 cc165-6W
Mr. Andrew Turner

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps he took, in establishing formula spending share, to ensure that compensation for sparsity in the education formula did not benefit urban authorities with a large number of small primary schools; what proportion of the aggregate national education FSS allocation was distributed on the basis of sparsity; and if he will list the authorities which benefited from the education sparsity factor.[101547]

Mr. Miliband

The issue of sparsity was addressed in three papers to the Education Formula Strategy Group. Sparsely populated authorities face higher costs as they have higher proportions of small schools than non-sparse authorities. The education formula uses sparsity as the funding factor, rather than the actual number of small schools so that authorities are compensated for the need they have, rather than the way they choose to organise their provision. Therefore urban authorities with a large number of small primary schools will not benefit from this factor. 1.8 per cent. (£440 million) of Education Formula Spending for 2003–04 was distributed on the basis of sparsity. The authorities that benefit are listed in order of decreasing sparsity:

  • Isles of Scilly
  • Herefordshire
  • North Yorkshire
  • Rutland
  • Shropshire
  • Lincolnshire
  • Devon
  • Wiltshire
  • Cumbria
  • Norfolk
  • East Riding of Yorkshire
  • Cornwall
  • Northumberland
  • Somerset
  • Cambridgeshire
  • Dorset
  • Suffolk
  • North Lincolnshire
  • Oxfordshire
  • Gloucestershire
  • West Berkshire
  • Isle of Wight Council
  • Warwickshire
  • Bedfordshire
  • Northamptonshire
  • Buckinghamshire
  • East Sussex
  • Derbyshire
  • Leicestershire
  • Durham
  • Doncaster
  • Cheshire
  • Staffordshire

  • Hampshire
  • Essex
  • Worcestershire
  • Nottinghamshire
  • North Somerset
  • Kent
  • South Gloucestershire
  • West Sussex
  • Lancashire
  • Windsor and Maidenhead
  • The Wrekin
  • Darlington
  • Milton Keynes
  • Bath and North East
  • Somerset
  • Peterborough
  • Wokingham
  • Redcar and Cleveland
  • Calderdale
  • Hertfordshire
  • North East Lincolnshire
  • Kirklees
  • Surrey
  • Swindon
  • York
  • Solihull
  • Rotherham
  • Stockton-on-Tees
  • Medway
  • Knowsley
  • Barnsley
  • Hartlepool
  • Thurrock
  • Blackburn
  • Leeds
  • Bradford
  • Oldham
  • Wakefield
  • Bracknell Forest
  • St. Helens
  • Sheffield
  • Gateshead
  • City of London
  • Halton
  • Warrington
  • Bromley

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