To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will make a statement on the breakdown of funding for pay and pensions out of the total amount provided for education in the recent local government settlement. [114941]

[holding answer 21 May 2002]: The overall increase of £2.7 billion in the local government finance settlement does not provide funding specifically for pay, pensions or any other pressure. It is for local education authorities and schools to decide how to manage their budgets within the total available. However, we estimate that the cost of the increase in employer's contributions to teachers' pensions amounts to some £640 million and that the costs of teaching and non-teaching education staff represent an increase of some £820 million. Overall, the increase in total funding is about £250 million more than all the pressures including the pensions pay pressures described schools and authorities face in 2003–04.