To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) how much funding the Government have allocated to reducing class sizes in (a) Essex and (b) Castle Point in each year since 1997; (279331)

Local authorities are responsible for the distribution of funding (including funding provided through the dedicated schools grant (DSG)) to schools in their area. Each local authority in consultation with their Schools Forum can choose to include a factor in their funding formula to direct resources to schools with infant classes to enable them to meet the class size duty. The Department does not collect information on how much funding was allocated to recruiting teachers for Essex and Castle Point schools. In 2008-09 the final DSG amount for Essex local authority was £755 million. The 2009-10 final DSG amount for Essex is yet to be published.