§ Mr. DuncanTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will estimate the total available funding for the financial year 1997–98 for all of Rutland's primary schools if they all chose grant-maintained status. [16842]
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§ Mr. Robin SquireI cannot make such an estimate. Any GM primary school in Rutland in 1997–98 would receive as annual maintenance grant an amount determined by reference to the local education authority's local management of schools—LMS—scheme, with additional money to reflect its additional responsibilities. The precise amounts also depend on the overall budget decisions which the authority makes.
In addition, GM schools receive special purpose grants and capital grant. Responsibility for determining the amounts of these grants paid to individual schools rests with the Funding Agency for Schools.
§ Mr. DuncanTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment (1) how much was spent, and how much is available under the SSA to be spent for each of the primary schools in Rutland for (i) 1994–95, (ii) 1995–96, (iii) 1996–97 and (iv) 1997–98; [16838]
(2) what was the standard spending assessment for education spending on primary schools in Rutland; what was the total actual spending on Rutland's primary schools for (i) 1994–95, (ii) 1995–96 and (iii) 1996–97; and how much is available under the SSA for 1997–98; [16839]
(3) what research her Department has conducted into the formula for the education SSA for primary schools in the newly unitary Rutland compared with the pattern of actual spending there in each of the three previous years; what factors have been taken into account for sparsity and special needs; and if she will make a statement. [16840]
§ Mr. SquireThe information is not available in the form in which it has been requested. Neither the total of Leicestershire county council's spending on primary schools nor the education component of the authority's standard spending assessment for the financial years in question can be accurately broken down to the level of individual primary schools in Rutland, primarily due to difficulties in apportioning central spending in support of these schools. I shall write to the hon. Member.
For 1997–98, the new unitary authority for Rutland is free to decide whether to increase funding for primary schools within the overall increase in its budget requirement permitted by the provisional capping rules. There is no allowance within the education standard spending assessment that is comparable with spending on primary schools.
The calculation of education standard spending assessments for Rutland and other authorities is based on an objective formula largely driven by pupil numbers. The cost adjustments for sparsity and additional education needs are defined in the "Local Government Finance Report (England) 1997–98", a copy of which has been placed in the Library. The formula is, and will continue to be, specifically designed not to reflect actual levels of local authority spending on particular areas and all the factors in the formula are independent of the decisions taken by individual authorities. The formula is kept under annual review, in consultation with the local authority associations.