§ Mr. WebbTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will set out the basis on which the allocations to individual local authorities contained in his statement of 29 January were calculated, including a list of the variables which were taken into account. [148343]
§ Ms Estelle Morris[holding answer 2 February 2001): In overall terms, Education Standard Spending and special and specific grants for education were planned to increase by almost £ 1.9 billion or over 8 per cent. before this additional allocation: that is around £ 150 per pupil in real terms. However, some authorities faced lower increases because of particular pressures: that is why my right hon. Friend announced an extra £ 52 million in special grant.
This funding was allocated as follows (a) authorities that had not been allocated funding from the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund were allocated £ 100,000 each; (b) those authorities that faced the greatest pressure as a result of the transfer of Adult Education funding to the Learning and Skills Council were allocated funding to meet that pressure; and (c) the remaining funding was allocated by comparing the pressures on authorities—from pay, prices, the transfer of Adult Education funding and increased contributions to the Standards Fund—with 580W their increase in Education SSA plus the funding at (a) and (b) above and taking account of allocations from the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund.
This extra grant takes the increase in funding for education to over £1.9 billion for 2001–02.