§ Lord Topeasked Her Majesty's Government:
What plans they have to include the overall level of school balances for an individual LEA within any future grant settlement or standard spending assessment for that authority;
In view of the statements of the Chancellor of the Exchequer that there will be no changes to the spending allocations for education, whether they anticipate changing the current legislation (the Education Act 1988) to allow themselves to use the balances held by individual schools to help fund the reduction in class sizes for five, six and seven-year-olds; and
Whether they foresee any occasion where they would be prepared to use the balances currently held by individual schools to support LEA education budgets.
§ Baroness BlackstoneWe have no immediate plans on these issues, but we shall review all aspects of the department's spending priorities, including school funding methodologies, as part of the arrangements announced on 11 June by my right honourable friend the Chief Secretary to the Treasury.