HC Deb 17 July 2000 vol 354 c87W
Mr. Boswell

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what resources his Department(a) has allocated and (b) plans to allocate to develop language and educational provision in preparation for the launch and national roll-out of the pilot project for neo-natal hearing screening. [130104]

Jacqui Smith

There has been a £1.1 billion increase in education through Standard Spending Assessment (SSAs) in 2000–01. Through this, money is made available to all local education authorities (LEAs). It is for LEAs to determine how to make best use of this money and decide which services they make resources available for.

In addition in 2000–01, we have made the following increases in funding available to schools and LEAs: £500 million extra in grant to the standards fund; £50 million to support school budgets; £14 million in extra support for Excellence in Cities; and £290 million directly for schools in the March Budget. Taken together these amount to an increase in funding per pupil of £180 in real terms.