HC Deb 18 May 2004 vol 421 cc928-9W
Mr. Borrow

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much public funding was spent per pupil in South Ribble in each of the last seven years. [171655]

Mr. Miliband

The information requested is submitted to the Department according to local education authority areas rather than districts within an area. South Ribble is a district of Lancashire Local Education Authority. The information for Lancashire LEA is as follows:

2. The outturn 2002–03 tables captured the data in a fundamentally different way to the previous years. Categories were aligned with the Consistent Financial Reporting framework and the spending by LEAs was no longer split by school sector. Consequently the unit costs per pupil in 2002–03 are not strictly comparable with earlier years as they include an apportionment of LEA expenditure based on pupil numbers. 2002–03 data is subject to change by the LEA. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10.

3. Net current expenditure (NCE) includes expenditure within schools and also that incurred centrally by the LEA.

4. The NCE per pupil figures for pre-primary and primary relate the net current expenditure (after recharges) in the pre-primary sector and maintained primary schools to the total number of financial year pupils who are educated in the maintained nursery and primary schools sector.

5. The NCE per pupil figures for secondary relate the net current expenditure (after recharges) in maintained secondary schools to the total number of financial year pupils who are educated in the maintained special schools sector.

6. The NCE per pupil figures for special schools relate the net current expenditure (after recharges) in maintained special schools to the total number of financial year pupils who are educated in the maintained special schools sector.

7. Pupil data are drawn from the Annual Schools Census adjusted to be on a financial year basis.