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Schools

Volume 472: debated on Wednesday 20 February 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what estimate he has made of the number of pupils attending schools which had been built within the previous five years in each of the last 10 years. (186468)

The Department does not hold information on the number of pupils attending schools which had been built within the previous five years in the last 10 years.

In 2007, the Department collected information from local education authorities on the outputs of schools capital investment in the previous 10 years. The information they supplied showed that since 1997, there had been 1,100 new and replacement schools built.

Central Government capital support for investment in schools has increased from under £700 million in 1996-97 to £6.4 billion in 2007-08 and will rise further to £8.2 billion by 2010-11. Over this period, increasing numbers of pupils have benefited from being in schools with new buildings.

To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what estimate he has made of how far on average (a) primary and (b) secondary school pupils travel to get to school in (i) Cornwall, (ii) the South West and (iii) England. (186501)

The information requested is given in the following table:

Average straight line distance1 in miles from pupil residence to school2 attended

Primary

Secondary3

Cornwall local authority

1.07

2.41

South West Government office region

0.91

2.18

England

0.78

1.84

1 Distance is the average straight line distance from pupil residence to the school attended, based on pupil and school postcode. 2 Maintained schools—pupils aged 5 to 15. 3 Secondary includes CTC and Academies. Source: School Census 2007.

A table giving this information for all local authorities in England will be placed in the House of Commons Library.

To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many (a) new schools opened and (b) schools closed in the (i) maintained and (ii) independent sector in each year since 1995; and how many schools there were open in each year. (186958)

We cannot provide the information requested because it would require us to manipulate large volumes of data which could only be undertaken at a disproportionate cost.