To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much his Department plans to spend per school pupil in each local education authority in the East of England in 2008-09; and how much was spent in each academic year since 1997-98. (232625)

The revenue funding figures per pupil aged three to 19 for each local authority in the East of England for years 1997-98 to 2005-06 are as follows. These figures are in real terms.

The revenue per pupil figures shown in the following table are taken from the dedicated schools grant (DSG) which was introduced in April 2006. They are not comparable with those for the years 1997-98 to 2005-06 because the introduction of the DSG in 2006-07 fundamentally changed how local authorities are funded.

The 1997-98 to 2005-06 figures are based on education formula spending (EFS) which formed the education part of the local government finance settlement, plus various grants. This was an assessment of what local authorities needed to fund education rather than what they spent. The DSG is based largely on an authority’s previous spending. In addition, the DSG has a different coverage to EFS. EFS comprised a schools block and an LEA block (to cover LEA central functions) whereas DSG only covers the school block. LEA block items are still funded through DCLG’s local government finance settlement but education items cannot be separately identified. Consequently, there is a break in the Department’s time series as the two sets of data are not comparable.

To provide a comparison for 2006-07 DSG, the Department have isolated the schools block equivalent funding in 2005-06; as described, this does not represent the totality of ‘education’ funding in that year.

The figures as follows are for all funded pupils aged three to 19.